It happens that the admin account of a Nutanix cluster is locked due to too many authentication failures and that you can no longer connect to it.

Most of the time, this is the result of changing the password of the admin account on the cluster if it is used on other systems such as Nutanix Move or HYCU for example.

Here’s how to reset the password for the “admin” account of a cluster

Remove the “admin” account from routines

To begin with, if you do not want the problem to recur, you must remove the “admin” account from the cluster from the elements that can cause this. This could be backup software, a Nutanix brick (Move for example), possibly a monitoring tool.

It is important not to use the “admin” account of a cluster to connect a tool to the cluster.

Reset “admin” password

Connect by SSH to a CVM of the Nutanix cluster on which the account is locked with the “root” account.

Then enter the following command:

passwd admin

Enter the new password twice, the password is reset.

Unlock the “admin” account

To unlock the “admin” account, enter the following command:

allssh sudo faillock --user admin --reset

The “admin” account is now unlocked.