26 thoughts on “Reset the HP iLO Administrator password with hponcfg on ESXi”

1. amit kumar February 27, 2017 at 09:35

   Thanks !!it worked

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2. Robert Strohl February 27, 2017 at 20:29

   Did not work for me. My server is running Windows Server 2012 R2 Core (no GUI). Do you have any recommendations for how to reset ILO password on Server Core?

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   1. Patrick Terlisten Post authorFebruary 27, 2017 at 20:47

      Hi Robert,

      the HP Lights-Out Online Configuration Utility is also available for windows. You csn install it from the latest Support Pack for ProLiant.

      Regards
      Patricl

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3. anon March 9, 2017 at 08:05

   Cheers dude!

   Worked perfectly :)

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4. Anders June 9, 2017 at 11:05

   Works like a charm, thank you!

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5. Daz September 9, 2017 at 08:51

   Oh Man you saved my day! Works like a charm! Thank you

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6. Achille September 29, 2017 at 14:34

   Thanks mate, saved me a trip to my client server
   Greets

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7. George Parker October 24, 2017 at 07:57

   Thanks, this worked for me too :)

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8. Vivek November 10, 2017 at 17:02

   Hi

   If i change the Administrator password of ILO with above method whether license key of ilo will get disappear ( deactivate)

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9. Achille January 9, 2018 at 15:04

   Thank you
   We changed the motherboard of one of our server and the licence key was lost.
   We used your technique to get the serial key from another server on the same cluster

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10. Ahmed January 25, 2018 at 18:50

    I’m trying this, and it says “Please wait while the firmware is reset.” Hmm. It finishes with ‘Script succeeded’, but still can’t log in with ‘password’.
    I had copied your text into a text editor, saved it as pwreset.xml, and dropped it in the same folder as hponcfg. Any thoughts?

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    1. Patrick Terlisten Post authorJanuary 26, 2018 at 10:40

       Please try to change the password in the XML. What server and ILO version do you use?

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11. Mark February 23, 2018 at 17:49

    I get a syntax error

    “. –>
    Script failed

    What would the xml file look like for hponcfg version 4.0-12?

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    1. Patrick Terlisten Post authorFebruary 23, 2018 at 19:57

       Hi Mark,

       I will have a look at this error if I have a chance to test it with hponcfg 4.0.

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12. Jack Daniel February 26, 2018 at 22:13

    Hi, Thanks for the helpful post. While trying this, I am getting error as below:
    ERROR: Could not open input file pwreset.xml
    Error processing the XML file : pwreset.xml
    Any idea what could be wrong? I have edited the pwreset.xml file and used to change a custom local account(instead of Administrator).

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    1. Dave C July 10, 2018 at 16:28

       Exactly the same for me

       ERROR: Could not open input file pwreset.xml
       Error processing the XML file : pwreset.xml

       my XML looks as follows

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       1. Patrick Terlisten Post authorJuly 12, 2018 at 13:57

          ILO2, 3, 4 or 5?

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          1. Justin September 4, 2018 at 10:04

             You need to cd into /opt/hp/tools
             Otherwise it cannot find the pwreset.xml

             Can you edit this in the topic Patrick?

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             1. Patrick Terlisten Post authorSeptember 5, 2018 at 09:25

                Thanks for your comment. I’ve added this information.
          2. Asif January 16, 2019 at 22:15

             Getting the same error. Firmware Revision = 2.06 Device type = iLO 2

             Any advice?

             Thanks

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             1. Patrick Terlisten Post authorJanuary 18, 2019 at 11:23

                Unfortunately not. Sorry :(
13. Ed Rusi March 5, 2018 at 16:58

    It worked perfectly. It saved me from rebooting an ESXI host.

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14. Man October 21, 2018 at 00:18

    I got below error when I try to run this. Please help
    #hponcfg -f pwreset.xml
    HP Lights-Out Online Configuration utility
    Version 5.1.0 Date 08/08/2017 (c) 2005,2017 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
    Firmware Revision = 2.55 Device type = iLO 4 Driver name = hpilo

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15. David Brown November 10, 2018 at 11:44

    Um… OMG! I’ve been looking for this solution for years! Thank you for posting it.

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16. Ehsan December 16, 2018 at 07:01

    Thanks Dude. it was very Helpful

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17. mandeep April 19, 2019 at 17:16

    I got the same message ..the folder is

    /opt/tools/hponcfg instead of /opt/hp…..

    [[email protected]:~] /opt/tools/hponcfg -f pwreset.xml
    Lights-Out Online Configuration utility for ESXi Version 5.3-0.0 (c) Copyright 2011-2018 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
    Firmware Revision = 2.20 Device type = iLO 4 Driver name = ilo
    ERROR: Could not open input file pwreset.xml

    but I used Administrator this time and I recall my password .. my bad I was using other usernames …

    try using -i instead of -f ..there are other switch parameters.

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