• Upgrading vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 or 6.7 using the VAMI UI fails with the error:

• Changing the password from the VAMI fails with the error:

• When you run command chage -l root  you get the following output:

• This issue occurs due to the VAMI not being able to change an expired root password.
• VAMI is only capable of replacing the root password if it is not expired. Once expired you need to change the root password via CLI.

For similar issues see:

• Resetting root password in vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 / 6.7 / 7.x (2147144)
• How to reset the lost or forgotten root password in vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 U1 and later
• Unable to log in to the vCenter Server Appliance shell using root account even after password reset

The process to reset the root password from the vCenter Server Appliance via command line:

1. Connect to the vCenter Server Appliance with an SSH session and the root user credentials.
2. Use the following commands to get to the command prompt:

• shell.set --enabled true
• shell

3. Change the root password using the command passwd .
4. Verify the root account password has been changed using the following command:  chage -l root
5. In order to prevent this issue from happening again in the future, you could set the root password to never expire at the VAMI page or by running this command: chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 root
6. Reattempt the upgrade again. 

1. The Root user will be prompted for resetting the password when they try to SSH to the machine if expired or expiring.
2. You can also login to VAMI using the SSO administrator and reset the root password from there.
3. Email notification is sent earlier to prevent from having the Root password expired.
4. An alarm will be triggered in vsphere-ui to notify the user about the password expiry.

• Troubleshooting password issues with vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 and 6.7
• For root password expiration settings refer: Change the Password and Password Expiration Settings of the Root Use

• VCenter is unable to rotate the Logs based on the fact cron jobs are unable to run.
• VCenter is unable to be upgraded or patched.