RIBCL: Reset Administrator Password on iLO
Last night I got locked out of my Compaq DL360's iLO. I searched the web to find how to reset the Administrator password and read that, for the most part, I'd have to be at the console. Bah! My servers are in San Jose and I'm up here in San Francisco, I didn't want to make a trip just to reset my passwords. I continued to look around the web for a solution and found that I could reset the Administrator password (or even add another user with admin privs) using Compaq's Remote Insight Board Command Language. Apparently, if you are processing RIBCL commands through your given operating sytem so long as you have the rights to login to the server. I logged in as my Windows Domain Admin and performed the following steps (Linux users, you can download the RPM for HPONCFG):
1. I installed SNMP because it was a preprequesite for HP Insight Management Agents.
2. I dowloaded and installed the HP Insight Management Agents.
3. I then downloaded HP Lights-Out Online Configuration Utility.
4. I ran into NTVDM errors trying to run the file so I just used WinRAR to extract the contents into C:\hp\ilo. I also extracted the zip file contained within the initial archive.
5. I then downloaded the HP Lights-Out XML Scripting Sample for Windows (Linux users can download the files in tgz format here or here.) extracted it and found the file I was looking for --
<ribcl VERSION="2.0">
<login USER_LOGIN="Administrator" PASSWORD="boguspassword">
<user_INFO MODE="write">
<mod_USER USER_LOGIN="Administrator">
<password value="newpass"/>
</mod_USER>
</user_INFO>
</login>
</ribcl>6. Using notepad, I opened up the sample file and modified it slightly. Initially, I just removed the LOGIN and ran the file but HPONCFG gave me a syntax error. I then added it back and gave the Administrator a bogus password. Apparently, the LOGIN line is required for syntax reasons but it is not actually processed.
7. Next, I opened a command line and changed directories to C:\hp\ilo and typed the following:
HPONCFG.exe /f Administrator_reset_pw.xml /l log.txt > output.txt8. I opened up Firefox, navigated to my iLO machine and viola! I was able to login as Administrator.
If changing Administrator's password seems too scary, you can also add another user with administrator privileges. You can then login as that user and change the Administrator password via the web console. Use the following code, suited to your liking:
<ribcl version="2.0">
<login USER_LOGIN="Administrator" PASSWORD="boguspass">
<user_INFO MODE="write" >
<add_USER
USER_NAME="Chrissy"
USER_LOGIN="Chrissy"
PASSWORD="mynewpass">
<reset_SERVER_PRIV value = "Y" />
<admin_PRIV value = "Y" />
</add_USER>
</user_INFO>
</login>
</ribcl>Here's a zip of just hponcfg.exe, add_user.xml, and Administrator_reset_pwd.xml. Since it's an exe with no apparent supporting files, y ou may be able to just use that.
I see quite a few people have hit this page..if you found it useful, please let me know! If not, drop me a note and I'll see how I can help.



May 23rd, 2006 - 22:03
PERFECT! I lost the iLO password on our test server and your tutorial worked perfectly. I was logged in and working in just a matter of minutes. Thank you and have a great evening!
May 26th, 2006 - 18:55
Wonderful!
Thank you. It worked perfect.
June 6th, 2006 - 03:15
Found your link & followed the process exactly as well, and I too was successful. Took over many HP servers w/ILO configured, but had no documentation from previous person on passwords. Now I can make the changes AND document them as well. Thanks so much for posting this!!!
June 8th, 2006 - 09:11
Many thanks for this information.
Am in a very similar situation to Steve in the post above.
This has saved me many hours of work !
June 8th, 2006 - 11:32
Nice guide. It helped alot
June 8th, 2006 - 16:08
Great! Glad I could help (And glad HP provides this capability!)
June 9th, 2006 - 01:45
Thanks for your blog.
Worked perfectly.
June 9th, 2006 - 13:05
Gratulation
this guide works perfectly for ux and ms
THX!!
June 20th, 2006 - 16:37
Thank you, thank you!
June 22nd, 2006 - 00:22
I’m contracting were there has been a lot of turn over and could not access any servers via iLO.
That made for too many trips to the office nights and weekends.
Your steps worked like a lucky charm! Now I can do server updates remotely from home.
Thanks…u-R-a-rock*!!!!
June 27th, 2006 - 20:21
Chrissy – that was awesome! Thanks for the help!
July 6th, 2006 - 12:44
HPONCFG utility giving error while using special characters(>,
July 18th, 2006 - 17:14
Worked a treat after I realised above script had to be edited if Riloe version was not 2 “DOH”
Thanks
July 18th, 2006 - 18:40
This is great for a 32-Bit but do you know if there is a solution for x64 ??
Thanks,
Mike
July 25th, 2006 - 19:55
I love you!! This is exactly what I was looking for!!!
July 27th, 2006 - 12:28
Yes this works good for 32 bit Windows but will not work on 64 bit. DOH!
July 27th, 2006 - 17:57
Jim and Mike, I’ll email you both with a follow-up but what if you used CPQLOCFG.EXE (direct links) on a 32-bit machine and connected remotely to your 64-bit machines?
July 31st, 2006 - 13:50
Excellent,
This worked a treat
August 10th, 2006 - 21:51
I was hoping this would work but I keep getting the following in output.txt:
No RILOE II board found.
Firmware Revision = 1.820000 Device type = ILO Driver name = cpqci
Script succeeded
Will it support older hardware?
Thanks
August 14th, 2006 - 07:13
I am trying to put this XML file to ILO via VBS. It fails with the error that is listed below the script. Anyone know what I am missing? I tried adding to the front of the XML string but got the same error.
Set oXMLHTTP = CreateObject(“MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP”)
Set oXMLDOM = CreateObject(“MSXML2.DOMDocument”)
sXML = “”
oXMLDOM.LoadXML sXML
oXMLHTTP.Open “POST”, “https://”,False,”Administrator”,”Password”
oXMLHTTP.setOption 2, 13056
oXMLHTTP.Send oXMLDOM.XML
WScript.echo oXMLHTTP.responseText
Remote Insight
Request Error
HTTP/1.1 405 Method Not Allowed
August 14th, 2006 - 07:22
Looks like the sXML didn’t populate with the script. Let’s try again:
sXML = “”
August 14th, 2006 - 07:23
well it didn’t work…
sXML is suppose to equal the following. I replaced all the ” with “”
August 14th, 2006 - 07:24
sXML equals Administrator_reset_pw.xml from the original post. All the ” have been replaced with “”
August 17th, 2006 - 07:39
Wow! Thanks it work and got me out of a jam.
September 6th, 2006 - 09:54
I tried your solution both ways (administrator and add user) and whenever I run the command, I get a “memory refrenced at (bla bla bla) could not be written.”
I tried to upgrade the support pack but have not yet rebooted the server due to office hours. Any idea if this is the reason for the error?
September 6th, 2006 - 16:15
Your hot and smart!! Thanks for the help, it worked. I have over a dozen server to set this information from. Now I dont have to spend all that time afterhours shutting these things down and going into CMOS.
Thanks
September 7th, 2006 - 02:19
Great
very useful and well written article.
Many thanks, I will offer a coffee to you.
Ciao
Fabrizio
September 7th, 2006 - 02:35
Can I give you a suggestion?
Add to your article the way to get ILO ip address
HPONCFG /w config.txt
If you have many servers (like me) it is useful.
Ciao
Fabrizio
October 10th, 2006 - 07:23
I am getting the following error. I am just not sure which software to use for whatever version I have. BL20p G2
No RILOE II board found.
ERROR: The current firmware version (1.20) is not supported by HPONCFG.
Version 1.41 or greater is required.
Thanks
October 23rd, 2006 - 00:11
Thank you!
I inherited some servers and nobody could remember what the password on the RILOE had been changed to. After using this I’ve been able to not only reset the passwords, but create the necessary accounts we needed.
November 14th, 2006 - 11:47
Thank you!
Worked like a champ!
November 16th, 2006 - 09:51
it works fine
tu es la meilleure
i love you
November 16th, 2006 - 12:10
Worked so perfectly and documented so clearly made a puzzle become a straightforward one…
Thanks!
November 27th, 2006 - 03:31
Hey, thanks for the info.
Looking at the commanets, I guess this is a quite popular issue/scenario lol…
November 28th, 2006 - 06:34
5 Stars!!!!
You’re the BEST.
RESPECT!!!!!!
November 28th, 2006 - 09:01
Chrissy,
You have just saved me masses of time. Thanks for this!
December 6th, 2006 - 05:48
Great and environmental friendly !!
Thanks
December 19th, 2006 - 17:05
This solved my problem – You are awesome
December 21st, 2006 - 07:21
Great site, usefull information that help me a lot, and save some time.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks.
January 3rd, 2007 - 03:41
Thanks! Saved my day:-)
January 6th, 2007 - 11:59
This is the error I get. Any ideas as to what it means and how to fix/get around it?
C:\temp\HP iLO pw reset utility>HPONCFG.EXE /f CFTCXO_admin_pw_reset.xml /w log3
.txt
No RILOE II board found.
Firmware Revision = 1.620000 Device type = ILO Driver name = cpqci
RILOE-II/iLO configuration successfully written to file “log3.txt”
any help will be appreciated, Thanks.
January 6th, 2007 - 12:02
…oh, and here’s the XML file I’ve been using.
January 6th, 2007 - 12:36
Apparently it didn’t like what I copied and pasted. basically it’s the same as the one you’ve posted above.
January 11th, 2007 - 08:30
You are THE BEST!!!
January 25th, 2007 - 05:32
If the host operating system is NetWare6.5 and the iLo password is lost am I hosed?
January 28th, 2007 - 19:55
Hey Trouble, I don’t know poo about Netware..but if it runs any sort of virtualization software, you can install linux or windows on top, run the hponcfg and reset it that way
this thread has a solution too… good luck!
Oaktree, glad i could help
February 2nd, 2007 - 19:13
This was EXTREMELY useful. Thank you VERY much! I really was not able to bring the server offline to resolve this issue so I was ecstatic when this worked! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH.
Devin
February 11th, 2007 - 23:18
Chrissy,
Thanks for explaining it straightforwardly! I’ve been pouring over the documentation trying to get it to work. For others, note that there’s an 8 character minimum on the password.
I owe you a brewski.
February 21st, 2007 - 10:42
i know it warns you but easy to overlook. but username as well as password are case sensetive, and i belive the default username is “Administrator” with a capital “a”.
it threw me for a while.
another thing is default folder is not c:\hp as the other agents, but in “prog files\hp”.
February 28th, 2007 - 21:18
Is there a solution for SCO Unixware v7.1.3?
Thanks
March 3rd, 2007 - 08:11
Hi Chrissy,
This info helped me fast track access to an ilo. In this day and age – one does not have to know anything! Just how to find stuff when they need it.
Thanks,
March 5th, 2007 - 21:09
Chrissy,
Thanks so much for sharing. This was exactly what I was looking for and it worked perfectly!
March 26th, 2007 - 20:02
Awesome! Got 30+ servers with unknown ILO configs that we are attempting to roll out, and this is going to make things a LOT easier.
Merci beaucoup, from a fellow Coonass.
March 30th, 2007 - 21:34
Thanks Chrissi!
Your .xml is a lot cleaner than what comes with the tool. Worked like a charm and my thanks to you for that.
April 5th, 2007 - 02:00
Thank you, worked well for me…
April 7th, 2007 - 09:43
Hi, i tried everything. and it’s kind of hard to understand. i downloaded everything but i cant open up files and its very confusing. please help me. i cant do anything without my administrator account. is there another way to do it? please help me.please
April 10th, 2007 - 08:19
Hi Chrissy and other iLO maniacs out there,
You could add the following line before your hponcfg config:
hponcfg /reset
This would simply reset the iLO to factory settings, including the Administrator’s password located on the asset tag of the server.
More scripts to use HPONCFG on: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/25058.html
Cheers
April 12th, 2007 - 08:47
This seems to work for iLO and RILOE II boards. Is there a viable way to reset passwords on RILOE I boards?
April 18th, 2007 - 00:04
Hi Chrissy,
it worked great and saved me a lot of time.
TNX!!
May 5th, 2007 - 22:39
Thanks Chrissy!
That worked PERFECTLY on the first try.
Saved me a trip from Millbrae to SF!
Lonnie
May 9th, 2007 - 02:13
Hi Chrissy,
thanks for that bit of info, it worked perfectly. i had the same issue as “marc louis”, but other than that it was fine.
i can now relax a little for the rest of the day..
Thanks Again
Damien
May 10th, 2007 - 08:28
Hi,
In my case one server gave the error message:
——
HPONCFG RILOE-II/iLO setup and configuration utility
Version 1.2 (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 2005
ERROR: Unable to establish communication with iLO/RILOE-II.
——
The other problem with the server is that it has no cable support so we cannot pull it out to open the cover and reset the iLO switch.
After a good time thinking I was wondering if the error message was due to the fact that I was running HPONCFG in a MetaFrame session.
Afterwards on the same server I tried it through a RDP-session and even than I got the same error.
At last I ran the same command from the console directly and it worked fine.
Thanks for pointing me at this tools – it works great.
June 7th, 2007 - 22:16
Wow this saved me alot of time. Thanks a million Chrissy.
June 20th, 2007 - 00:45
Chrissy thanks. Is there a way to do this remotely if you do not know the orginal password? Using CPQLOCFG.EXE you can do this remotely but you have to know the password or have another account to log on with.
June 20th, 2007 - 16:26
THANKYOU. This saved me a day of headaches.
June 26th, 2007 - 00:36
Thanks alot. It saved me a fortune
June 27th, 2007 - 18:04
Many thanks for this one! Made my day (night)…
June 28th, 2007 - 01:28
incase you get a random “script failed” error, try adding a user instead. You’re probably trying to reset the password for an account that doesnt exist. Remember, both login and pw are case sensitive!
Other errors can probably be solved by updating the ilo firmware or drivers with the vc agent
July 12th, 2007 - 09:35
Thank you very much! Changing the Administrator password was indeed a bit too scary for me, especially because this particular server is 2,000 miles away, so I opted for adding a new user with administrative privileges and I was able to log into the iLO console in less than a minute.
Thanks again!
July 13th, 2007 - 07:30
Chrissy,
You rock! When you come to New York, the lunch is on me
Keep up the good work.
Mark
July 19th, 2007 - 19:42
I found this article very interesting and ussefull.
Thanks a lot.
July 22nd, 2007 - 20:33
Great scripts and tutorial.
Thanx a lot!
July 27th, 2007 - 05:59
Love ya. This script is a life saver. Was able to terminal services into all of my servers and reset many unknown iLO passwords.
iLOs are a lifesaver when it comes to the patch of the month from Microsoft.
August 1st, 2007 - 19:24
I was amazed how easy this was!
I definitely thought I was doomed, with no physical access to the server. Adding a new user worked like a charm!
Just a quick note, the links to hp.com does not go to the latest version, and does not work in x64 Windows, just search for windows x64 and you’ll get the right one.
August 1st, 2007 - 23:47
You’re a godsend!! Thanks for posting this. Admins that don’t share suck, especially if they leave and don’t share critical passwords like iLO accounts….
If you come to Houston, lunch is on me!!
August 2nd, 2007 - 01:36
Thanks so much … you are awesome!
August 13th, 2007 - 19:10
Worked like a charm! Thank you very much!
August 13th, 2007 - 23:48
Looks dood.
however I can not get it to work.
I have followed the instructions to a T.
I keep getting the error:
No RILOE II board found.
the server has ILO 2 with the latest firmware.
Any tips?
This will help a LOT with all the server the previous admin left without documenting the iLO passwords…
August 14th, 2007 - 20:18
Well here is an update.
The procedure seems to work flawlessly on all iLO (1) servers.
Which is great and helping cut down the load a bit.
However, on ALL iLO 2 servers I get the constant error:
ERROR :firmware flash is in progress.Please wait for a while.
If this happened just once – ok; but on all of them?? hmmmm suspicious…
The scripts and hponcfg.exe distributed by hp.com specify that ILO 2 is supported.
Does anyone have any ideas?? Still about 30 servers to go…
August 17th, 2007 - 06:21
I am receiving a very similar error to Billy’s, any suggestions:
Error:
No RILOE II Board found.
ERROR :firmware flash is in progress.Please wait for a while
August 23rd, 2007 - 13:17
Thanks a lot….
Works perfectly……
Saved me a lot of time and the best part was I could use it when the server is online….
September 4th, 2007 - 14:04
Fantastic!! Worked like a champ!! Thanks for posting this…
September 17th, 2007 - 14:02
Hi,
I ran the command mentioned above and got this in the output.txt
Firmware Revision = 1.88 Device type = iLO Driver name = CpqCiDrv
Script succeeded
But if i try to login it says unauthorized.
Please help.
This is my xml:
Thanks
sandeep
September 23rd, 2007 - 15:30
Thanks, works great! (saves me a lot of time
Grtx,
Eef
October 4th, 2007 - 21:46
Worked on CentOS 4.4 x86_64, although I had to also download and install hprsm and hpasm as well as hponcfg. These were findable through the HP website search from the linked RPM download page above.
Thanks for the heads-up.
October 8th, 2007 - 21:48
Hey Chrissy,
Thank you for your words of wisdom as I too was handed a number of blade servers without ILO password information.
I am now curious to learn what other options are available with the HP ILO scripting capability.
Cheers.
October 9th, 2007 - 15:41
Worked perfectly. Thanks!
October 15th, 2007 - 20:54
Well written solution. Thanks for the help.
October 15th, 2007 - 21:55
I’m going to combine this with psexec to get iLO configuration info from about 300 servers. The data is returned in what appears to be xml format. Any ideas on how to convert these into some semblance of a readable report?
October 16th, 2007 - 20:22
Another question…wow 3 in a row from me. Sorry. In the sample scripts provided by HP, there’s one called license.xml. But it’s designed only to SET the activation key to a value that’s provided within the script. I want to GET the activation key, but according to the RIBCL section of the command-line resource guide, the only parameter available for the LICENSE command within a RIB_INFO block are ACTIVATE and DEACTIVATE. Does anyone know of an undocumented GET-type command that will simply retrieve the current activation key from an ilo MP?
October 26th, 2007 - 10:14
If you get the error message “ERROR :firmware flash is in progress.Please wait for a while”, you need to download a later version of HPONCFG from HP.COM and install it.
October 29th, 2007 - 09:30
Thanks man! Saved me a 4 hour trip!
November 8th, 2007 - 00:34
Thanks, pal, this is still usefull as hell!
November 9th, 2007 - 06:26
Marvelous! Thank you very much for saving time!
November 15th, 2007 - 03:50
Thanks, once I’m back in I will configure them for AD integration (logon by AD group membership), if the iLO firmware is up to date it can be done without having to update your AD schema ! Then you never need to documnet control the Administrator password again, access can be granted with a group
November 16th, 2007 - 08:09
Can you use this remotely, if you can only access ILO port, not ethernet. I have a remote server where network crashed somehow, and all I can get is ILO port. Hoping I can reset this from another server remotely????
November 20th, 2007 - 20:48
Chrissy, I have one with no operating system on it. Is there a way to reset the password on this box remotely?
November 29th, 2007 - 04:52
Well written article, most helpful too. Thanks!
December 5th, 2007 - 17:11
Thanks a lot. Saved me quite a bit of travelling time.
January 5th, 2008 - 16:53
Everyone who is having the issue of No RILOE II board found.
the server has ILO 2 with the latest firmware.
install the latest support pack/firmware. this fixed a few that i had that had this issue.
January 18th, 2008 - 10:17
It works just fine! Thanks!
January 31st, 2008 - 00:18
THX from Russia!
February 24th, 2008 - 23:38
Chrissy you are just awesome…………I just took over a project and my ex project managers and engineers did not leave behind the ILO password…Now i have abt 300 odd server to manage but we cannot re-boot all the servers for re-setting and ur idea works mate
…
February 27th, 2008 - 07:38
Thank you for your great documentation on this. It worked!
February 28th, 2008 - 14:48
Awesome…just tried it and worked like a charm. Many thanks!!!!
March 5th, 2008 - 02:24
Can you disable the ILO with this tool?
Thanks.
March 6th, 2008 - 07:09
Hi,
I use the same process but seems not working.
Nothing is written in output.txt file.
March 25th, 2008 - 09:15
Thanxx! I take this in my Blog too > in German and do a Trackback.
Great Job!
April 3rd, 2008 - 14:43
Thankyou for this tip. It worked perfectly. People like yourself who provide this information to the IT world free aqainst the general trend of information for money are the real IT proffesionals. Makes us more determined to help others as well. Cheers
April 8th, 2008 - 08:37
Your howto worked wonders!!! thanks so much
April 10th, 2008 - 14:41
I am getting :
No RILOE II board found.
ERROR: No RILOE-II/iLO was found.
But when I browse via browser I can see login page. I am als able to login via telnet. with admin and admin.
Also this is brand new server which is HP DL140 G2. Could it be something other than admin / admin.
Thanks
April 21st, 2008 - 06:54
Thanks, once I realised the password needs to be above a specific length, this worked a treat!
April 22nd, 2008 - 13:58
I changed the iLO password from the logging to the machine locally but everytime i restart the server, i lose the password. Also when i add a new user i cannot use the login details when i restart the server.
Is this normal or im i missing something here?
April 23rd, 2008 - 07:41
Thanks a lot. I’ve been dropped into the HP iLO world today, and i needed something like your explanation badly in order to do some troubleshooting. Thanks for the comprehensive tutorial.
Friendly regards from Belgium,
Christophe
May 6th, 2008 - 15:26
Hello Chrissy
Fantastic article – Also had to fix ilo password but miles away from location. The tutorial was first class and I was able to reset 2 of my DL380 servers ILO admin passwords!!
The only problem is that your hyperlinks to the software has moved – but it wasn’t hard to find the updated versions from HP website.
Thanks dude – you saved me from a long trip in
Cheers
Wallis
May 22nd, 2008 - 09:05
This worked great and helped me out.
Thanks for posting the information.
May 30th, 2008 - 07:08
wrked for me, great
May 30th, 2008 - 12:39
Wow…talk about time saver! Thx.
June 12th, 2008 - 07:56
Hi,
This howto looks great.
Although I failed to use it on my server (HP Proliant DL145 G2, Centos 5.1) Also, it is a hell of a job to find the right files at the hp site. I think hp might be a little more of a helping hand than it is now… but your howto made me at least smile for a while, so thank you
B.t.w. If anyone knows how to help me further, please contact me at mijnschoen (the-known-sign) hotmail.com.
June 18th, 2008 - 05:16
This solution works. Thanks for posting this one!
June 19th, 2008 - 03:52
If you are unable to change the password please check the log.txt as it might be that the password “newpass” is too short. Also you can ignore the “No RILOE II board found” message.
June 24th, 2008 - 03:39
I got this “error message” when I’m trying to do this on a brand new DL360G5… I forgot to set password on 6 machines and I’m now 50 miles away from them
[CUT]
START_OPEN_TAG
LOGIN
USER_LOGIN
EQUALS
Administrator
PASSWORD
EQUALS
boguspass
END_TAG
CPQLOCFG: Response received from the RIB: (137):
[CUT]
I seems like this security hole is corrected in new version that’s are shipped now days.
Can anyone confirm this?
// rancor
June 24th, 2008 - 03:44
hm… I also tried on a much older mashine with ILO 1.70 from 02/11/2005 and the injection did not work with the same error message.
What is the version of the one with success?
// rancor
June 27th, 2008 - 07:27
Excellent! It worked perfectly. I created a new user, logged in and then allowed full administration.
Thanks a lot!
June 28th, 2008 - 12:59
Excellent Thanks.
Just a quick note initially got ‘Script Failed’ but this was due to password length.
Password needs to be 8 characters or longer
Regards
Phil
July 7th, 2008 - 14:49
Thanks I inherited 100+ servers with custom ILO usernames and passwords that were not documented. I was able to reset them quickly via this method.
July 24th, 2008 - 05:41
Hi,
Worked great on our DL380 G3 -server – thank you very much!
July 24th, 2008 - 06:11
Excellent
August 19th, 2008 - 00:49
Thanks! Good Soul!
August 19th, 2008 - 07:58
Thanks Chrissy,
though i had to exchange the HPONCFG.exe, with the newest version, and change the password to be longer than 8 chars, the rest worked perfectly.
Now management is a lot easier.
Have a graet time.
Robin.
August 24th, 2008 - 14:27
Incredible! Thanks so much!
September 4th, 2008 - 13:51
THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUI love you! –well, ok, that’s taking it a little far… but definitely thanks!
man, I tell ya, try finding these instructions on HP’s site!
September 4th, 2008 - 13:55
…by the way, I hope you fared well in Gustav’s wake
September 7th, 2008 - 04:51
Just what I was looking for. Worked perfectly.
September 16th, 2008 - 08:50
Hello,
When we got our servers the tickets were taken off my mistake. All my MS DC’s I was able to get working expect my Exchange Mail Server. Of course thats another one of my critical servers I need to get to. I ran your script and it worked like a charm!
Thanks so much!!!
Donna
September 16th, 2008 - 21:40
You are awesome – just saved me a 2 hour round-trip drive at 1AM. I owe you at least a beer.
October 13th, 2008 - 13:03
Hi,
You are a life saver!!! Thank you. 1 suggestion though.. can you make this link more google friendly? I found this after some time on the net
November 9th, 2008 - 23:54
Chrissy, thanks. Your post is deservedly at the top of the google results for reset ilo lost password.
BJ
November 10th, 2008 - 02:48
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much!
November 11th, 2008 - 01:21
Thanks – just used this on an integrated iLO 2 and it worked perfectly to recover from unknown Administrator password.
December 2nd, 2008 - 22:29
this is a great fix i reset 10 of my hp servers production servers with out rebooting the server. thank you
December 8th, 2008 - 12:35
Merci Beaucoup !!!!
January 20th, 2009 - 14:07
You are awesome!!! Thank you so much and thanks to the people that added the pwd length issue.. Saved me TONS of time.
February 3rd, 2009 - 19:38
Great article. Way to benefit others (including myself)!
February 17th, 2009 - 07:10
it worked for me on 3 servers (HP Dl380 G3)..Thanks..!!
February 17th, 2009 - 08:41
Thanks, this site has just made me look like a genius to my technical manager
)
February 17th, 2009 - 22:12
Thanks Heaps!
a nice cheat guide for something i could not find on HP’s site
March 26th, 2009 - 18:24
After running the script , the output.txt shows
script failed!!!
What would be the reason..
Please help!
March 30th, 2009 - 18:49
Chrissy you’re a goddess–beautiful and a geek. I knew about the utilities, but you helped me get the xml syntax right. I have a bunch of servers which I __can_not__ reboot, and now I can fix what the dspa (a=admin, you can guess the rest) did. Schweet!
April 27th, 2009 - 11:58
It worked great… Marry me..
May 2nd, 2009 - 05:58
There is a GUI available now in the new version of PSP, which does exactly the same as the command line. Except that it is very convenient and easy to use!!
May 8th, 2009 - 05:57
Worked like a charm!! Much appreciated!!
May 14th, 2009 - 15:01
Nice guide, worked perfectly!!
Q: Is there a way to recover a password instead of changing it?
May 21st, 2009 - 04:26
Hi,
Its a little of the topic, hope you’ll help me out.
i am trying to configure “HP Integrity” servers through “cpqlocfg”
but i am getting same error for all the xml scripts i have tried with,
Connecting to Server..
Negotiated cipher: 168-bit Triple DES with RSA and a SHA1 MAC
cpqlocfg.exe: ERROR: Malformed RIB response: (146):
501 Not Implemented
501 Not Implemented
The requested method is not recognized by this server.
do we need to install advanced license to use cpqlocfg on integrity servers ?
same cpqlocfg and xml scripts are working for proliant servers with advanced license .
(newbie to ilo)
please let me know where its going wrong, thanks in advance !!
June 1st, 2009 - 07:47
Fantastic, you just saved me a trip to the server room
June 5th, 2009 - 07:22
BRAVO!! Saved us multi-server outages (scheduling nightmare) on dozens of our servers with “inaccessible ILOs”. MANY MANY THANKS!!!
In gratitude, have summarized (below) most helpful responses.
Also, note this issue vanishes with cClass – assuming alternative ILO access/account-management via OA logon to each enclosure.
HP should consider broadcast of your workaround as an alert. At a minimum (if not done already) it should be linked/posted in the HP Support forum.
Tom
____________________________________________________________________
If you get a “script failed” error, try;
1) Check the log.txt. It might be that the password is too short.
2) Verify the password length is at least 8 characters.
3) Add/create a new user (instead of modifying an existing user).
If attempts to reset the password of an EXISTING ILO user fails;
1) You may be trying to reset the password for an account that does not exist.
2) Remember, both login and password are case sensitive!
3) Update the ilo firmware and/or drivers.
_____________________________________________________________________
If you get the error message “ERROR :firmware flash is in progress. Please wait for a while”, download and install a later version of HPONCFG from HP.COM.
_____________________________________________________________________
If you get “No RILOE II board found” error.
Install the latest HP PSP (aka HP support pack/firmware).
_____________________________________________________________________
HPONCFG should be executed from the target server console session -
It may, or may NOT work properly via alternatives (RDP/Terminal Services session, Citrix/Metaframe session, etc.)
_____________________________________________________________________
HPONCFG.exe is specific to the OS platform (32 vs. 64 bit)…there is a different version for x64 Windows, search for windows x64 (on hp.com).
_____________________________________________________________________
Suggestion – First reset the ILO to factory settings…then, reset the password. This ensures an account named “Administrator” exists, thus avoiding failed password reset of non-existent/renamed Administrator accounts!!
Execute the following line before attempting Administrator account password reset:
hponcfg /reset
This resets the iLO to factory settings, including the Administrator’s password to the original (asset tag of the server).
June 11th, 2009 - 04:39
Thanks Chrissy, works a treat.
June 11th, 2009 - 08:05
Thanks very much it worked perfectly !!!!
June 17th, 2009 - 09:08
Thank you very much for this solution. I initially received a “password is too short” error and had to lengthen the password to eight alpha-numeric characters with at least one capital letter.
June 28th, 2009 - 22:07
Very nice. I really appreciate for such a nice post!
July 1st, 2009 - 06:49
Thank you very much for this perfect solution. It even works with ribcl Version 2.1.
July 14th, 2009 - 04:01
Hi all,
I’ve tried to download the rpm so i can reset the pass on linux but the link above is not working.
Do you have any idea where i can find it ?
Many thanks
July 14th, 2009 - 04:31
It worked for me as well using the command
hponcfg -f
The utility i got it from Proliant Pack CD
Thanks,
Dani
October 8th, 2009 - 06:27
on one of my servers I get the following messages in my output.txt.
sm2user.dll not found
Any idea?
October 14th, 2009 - 04:49
You saved my day. Many thx!
October 22nd, 2009 - 05:28
Super info – just what i needed – thanks
)
October 29th, 2009 - 01:15
Youre my Hero! Thank you many times!
November 10th, 2009 - 18:18
The Proliant Support Pack now includes a GUI tool that can be used to do this as well as configure the rest of the iLO options:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3716247&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=3716246&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1005
November 11th, 2009 - 22:29
That’s awesome, Daniel! Thanks for the info.
November 16th, 2009 - 10:51
Chrissy – thanks for the helpful info, worked like a champ and since I have DC’s and servers all across the US this sure makes life alot easier. You rock
November 20th, 2009 - 06:26
This is very helpfull but i ahve a problem.. i have a OLD ILO and not a ILOII.. any ideas?….
December 30th, 2009 - 11:20
20 responses and none of them talking about how cute you are.
January 22nd, 2010 - 00:53
Thank you..so much..it helped me also
January 25th, 2010 - 16:55
Hi Chrissy,
I just wanted to say thanks — your post saved me from an undesired drive to my datacenter as well. Awesome!!
I also wanted to say how stoked I was to see another female in the IT industry. We are a rarity. =)
Take care and thanks again!
Natalie
January 27th, 2010 - 09:10
User addition worked from an Oracle Enterprise Linux 4U8 x86_64 box using hponcfg from the command line. Thanks !
January 28th, 2010 - 09:48
nice but i have a system but i can’t touch OS, I have no jumpers on the server to reset ilo password. The model is DL140 G3.
how can reset ilo psw?!
January 28th, 2010 - 11:10
latest proliant support pack powered down the machine halfway through install. i lold.
February 17th, 2010 - 18:22
I get an error when I run it on my HP Proliant DL 360.
It says “No ILO 2 board found”
All my servers have iLO 1 boards. Anyone know of a way to reset iLO 1 administrator passwords?
February 17th, 2010 - 18:48
BINGO the new Proliant Support Pack includes a ilo online utlity that resets ilo 1 baords too!!!
I am in, thanks guys.
March 15th, 2010 - 02:58
great help, thanks a lot!!
March 24th, 2010 - 08:11
I am getting following error. Can you help me with this?
Syntax error: Line #0: syntax error near “<" in the line: "”
Firmware Revision = 1.41 Device type = iLO Driver name = CpqCiDrv
Script failed
March 30th, 2010 - 08:24
I write a version in Chinese for RHEL4 user. For Chinese reader to follow.
http://freelamp.com/58718
April 6th, 2010 - 22:41
Thanks Mate, saved me a lot of reading.
April 9th, 2010 - 09:28
Hi
need help in RILOE reset
HPONCF doesnt work with RILOE 1…
thanks
April 22nd, 2010 - 12:17
Worked for me. Thanks a bunch.
May 13th, 2010 - 09:12
Amazingly helpfull, thanks
June 2nd, 2010 - 19:10
Fantastic hint! I just had to gather physical info for servers spread all over the country…
For those having trouble with the version of hponcfg.exe provided by Crissy and/or Brandon, there’s a good chance your server already has the HP management software installed. Just do a search for hponcfg.exe and if it shows up somewhere on the hard drive, use that instance (don’t forget to enable search in hidden folders.) Just move the xml file you need to the same directory where the exe lives and you should be good to go.
June 13th, 2010 - 10:32
Saviour of the day
Thanks!!
June 17th, 2010 - 17:48
my apple computer screen is blank with only a (?) question mark in the middle ,tried every thing what can i do to resolve this
June 23rd, 2010 - 12:07
I’ve created a utility that will allow the hponcfg utility to be ran on remote systems. You can change the passwords remotely on many systems at once. If anyone needs it let me know. dbov21@yahoo.com
July 8th, 2010 - 09:58
Very Useful……….
July 27th, 2010 - 00:45
how about changing the iLO IP address from within the Windows UI?? so that I don’t need to reboot the servers… anybody please?? thanks in advance.
August 6th, 2010 - 06:54
You’re cool :O)
October 22nd, 2010 - 10:08
Thank You for this!!
October 27th, 2010 - 12:15
Worked like a charm. I had to update the server to the latest PSP (Proliant Support Pack), installed the HPONCFG app, and then was able to get it to work. At first i couldn’t talk to the card, so i ran the latest Firmware update (using RDP to the server as its at another location) on the iLO card itself, then tried the HPONCFG. it icomplained about updating the PSP, so I did. Now everything works great. Thanks!!
November 11th, 2010 - 10:36
Thanks, works as described using equivalent hponcfg for Solaris 10 x86. Saved me a trip to the other side of London!
December 16th, 2010 - 20:28
Very Nice .. had to load a standard kernel so that hp services start, but once that is started up, the scripted worked out just fine.
March 10th, 2011 - 23:47
god job!
thx
March 22nd, 2011 - 06:30
Allright!!!
April 5th, 2011 - 13:03
Thanks a lot you have saved a the day and a lot of petrol money
April 11th, 2011 - 06:24
Does anyone know if this will work for VMware ESX 3.5?
May 5th, 2011 - 10:51
there is a server which is down and we have no iLO info
We are trying to reset the password using cpqlocfg.exe but it's not working..
Do you have any suggestions ?
May 10th, 2011 - 13:00
Do you get any errors in the log file created?
May 24th, 2011 - 12:32
Used the add_user.xml and edited it for my needs. Worked perfectly!!! Thank you very much!
June 9th, 2011 - 20:16
4m421n9!!! 571Ll w0rx l1k3 4 Ch4Mp 5 y34r2 L473R!
August 18th, 2011 - 23:42
Worked well – no porblems. Great step-by-step guide!!!
Best Wishes from New Zealand.
September 15th, 2011 - 07:49
This is just what I was looking for!!!!
September 20th, 2011 - 10:33
Hello, that's nice if you're locked on to the server. Is it able to do this remote? I search for a way to change about 200 ILO local Admin passwords from remote.
October 11th, 2011 - 08:10
I followed your instructions and hponcfg is telling me the script was successful in adding a new user, but attempts to logon as that user fail. Re-running hponcfg tells me user already exists, thus apparently confirming I was right the first time round. Can you suggest any reason why the logon fails?
January 11th, 2012 - 16:32
Nice job…this worked and saved me a lot of trouble.
August 10th, 2011 - 10:25
Hi I am new o the ilo world and have been tasked with configuring ILO on some servers I have downloaded hponcfg now how do i go about from here