Resetting the default administrator (nsroot) password

September 24, 2019

Contributed by: S

The nsroot account provides complete access to all features of the appliance. Therefore, to preserve security, the nsroot account should be used only when necessary, and only individuals whose duties require full access should know the password for the nsroot account. Frequently changing the nsroot password is advisable. If you lose the password, you can reset it to the default and then change it.

To reset your nsroot password, you can log onto your appliance and change the password. However, if you do not remember the password that you have set, then you must reboot appliance to single user mode, mount the file system in read/write mode and remove the Citrix ADC user nsroot entry from the ns.conf file. As a final step, reboot and log onto your appliance with the default password and set a new password.

To reset the nsroot password

Connect a computer to the console port of the NetScaler and log on.

Note

You cannot log on by using SSH to perform this procedure; you must connect directly to the appliance.
Reboot the NetScaler.
Press CTRL+C when the following message appears:

Press [Ctrl-C] for command prompt, or any other key to boot immediately.

Booting [kernel] in # seconds.
Run the following command to start the NetScaler in a single user mode:

boot -s

Note If boot -s does not work, then try reboot -- -s and appliance will reboot in single user mode.

After the appliance boots, it displays the following message:

Enter full path name of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh:
Press ENTER key to display the # prompt, and type the following commands to mount the file systems:
1. Run the following command to check the disk consistency:
  
  fsck /dev/ad0s1a
  
  Note:
  
  Your flash drive will have a specific device name depending on your NetScaler; hence, you have to replace ad0s1a in the preceding command with the appropriate device name.
2. Run the following command to display the mounted partitions:
  
  df
  
  If the flash partition is not listed, you need to mount it manually.
3. Run the following command to mount the flash drive:
  
  mount/dev/ad0s1a /flash
Run the following command to change to the nsconfig directory:

cd/flash/nsconfig
Run the following commands to rewrite the ns.conf file and remove the set of system commands defaulting to the nsroot user:
1. Run the following command to create a new configuration file that does not have commands defaulting to the nsroot user:
  
  grep –v “set system user nsroot” ns.conf \> new.conf
2. Run the following command to make a backup of the existing configuration file:
  
  mv ns.conf old.ns.conf
3. Run the following command to rename the new.conf file to ns.conf:
  
  mv new.conf ns.conf
Run the following command to reboot the NetScaler:

reboot
Log on using the default nsroot user credentials.
Run the following command to reset the nsroot user password:

set system user nsroot <New_Password>

Note:

To use the “?” character in a password string, precede this character with the “\” character.

For example, yourexamplepasswd\? is set for the nsroot account after you perform the following operation:

> set system user nsroot yourexamplepasswd\?

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Resetting the default administrator (nsroot) password

September 24, 2019

Contributed by: S

Resetting the default administrator (nsroot) password

To reset the nsroot password

Resetting the default administrator (nsroot) password

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