Reset HP iLO Password via ipmitool

April 20, 2021

Need to reset a user's password for HP's Integrated Lights Out management controller?  Here's how to do so with ipmitool!

For this example, we'll be using ipmitool v1.8.15 on ESXi 6.5.0 on an HP ProLiant DL360 G7.  This should, however, work with any installation of ipmitool, on any OS or hardware.

  1. First, SSH to the host or open a console.
  2. Second, we'll list the active users. Note the ID of the user who you wish to update the password of. The channel for this iLO port is 2. You may need to change that value. 
    ipmitool user list 2
  3. As you can see from the output, if we want to reset the password for the root account, we'll note the ID of 2. 
    ID  Name	     Callin  Link Auth	IPMI Msg   Channel Priv Limit
    1   Administrator    true    false      true       ADMINISTRATOR
    2   root             true    false      true       ADMINISTRATOR
    3   (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    4   (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    5   (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    6   (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    7   (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    8   (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    9   (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    10  (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    11  (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
    12  (Empty User)     true    false      false      NO ACCESS
  4. Last, we'll update the password of the given user. It will interactively ask you to provide the new password twice. 
    ipmitool user set password USER_ID 
  5. That's it! Easy!

©2024 Tyler Wright