2025/3/6 18:49 Data Domain: How to Boot DD3300 into Single User Mode to reset Sysadmin/Security Password | Dell US
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Data Domain: How to Boot DD3300 into Single User Mode to reset Sysadmin/Security
Password Audience Level: Partners
Summary: Procedure to boot DD3300 into single user mode to reset sysadmin/security user password
Detailed Article
Instructions
Always begin with the starting point KB for password resets:
Data Domain: starting point for resetting passwords for all DDs/DDVE/DDMC
This will require downtime to reboot into single user mode.
Boot DD3300 into single user mode:
You'll want to know the DDOS version installed for later in the procedure, if it is unknown, use the partition with the newest DDOS version.
Connect to serial output on the DD: Connecting to the Data Domain System with a Serial Cable
Or remotely use Serial over LAN (SOL): Data Domain: How to access DDOS console through iDRAC on a DD3300 system
Reboot
You'll see "Booting from Hard drive C:" appear in the serial/SOL window and then it will take anywhere from 10 - 20 minutes until you see
the boot progress.
On the iDRAC virtual console, you will see ESXi booting up:
Once esxi has booted up, you'll see this screen in iDRAC virtual console:
kA5f1000000H0cMCAS_2_5
After we see that screen appear, it should be about 5 - 10 minutes until the next step begins.
You will eventually see the "Press any key to continue." appear in serial/SOL window, start pressing the TAB key repeatedly until the GRUB menu displays and
doesn't say it will automatically boot anymore.. For example you'll see:
dd3300 single user mode.png
Press p then enter grub password which is either ddrc0s (the 5th character is a zero) or ddv3c0s (the 6th character is a zero) it depends on the version
Once the password is accepted press 'a' to append to the kernel boot string or 'e' to edit the boot line
Add goto-bash as in example below after vm_role=DDVE:
3300 password SUM2.png
Now press enter or b or F10 depending on DDOS version to allow the system to boot to a minimal BASH shell (i.e. single user mode)
Run the following commands:
For DDOS 6.2 and earlier.
# modprobe pvscsi
# modprobe sg
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2025/3/6 18:49 Data Domain: How to Boot DD3300 into Single User Mode to reset Sysadmin/Security Password | Dell US
For DDOS 7.0 and later:
# modprobe vmw_pvscsi
# modprobe sg
Start UDEV, so that disk devices are properly named:
# udevstart
And finally start device mapper:
# /etc/rc.d/rc.dmsetup
You will need to figure out which dm device the system is booting from and which slices on this device are being used
Determine which dm device is sda, this will be used later to find the correct root partition:
# ls -d /sys/block/dm-*/slaves/sda
e.g. /sys/block/dm-6/slaves/sda
In example, dm-6 is the sda partition
Determine whether the system is booting from root-p1 or root-p2 :
# cat /proc/cmdline
ro root=/dev/root-p1 verbose console=ttyS0,115200 vm_role=DDVE goto-bash
If the appliance is booting from root-p1 then the device is:
/dev/[dm device for sda]p5
e.g. /dev/dm-6p5
If the appliance is booting from root-p2 then the device is:
/dev/[dm device for sda]p9
e.g. /dev/dm-6p9
If needed for other troubleshooting, use the following devices for /ddr/ and such:
If booting from root-p1:
/ddr/: /dev/[dm device for sda]p6
If booting from root-p2:
/ddr/: /dev/[dm device for sda]p10
For either:
/ddr/var: /dev/[dm device for sda]p7
/ddr/var/core: /dev/[dm device for sda]p8
You will only require the the root device to be mounted for the password reset:
# mount [device] /sysroot
From the previous example, we determined it boots from root-p1 and that sda is dm-6 so the mount command should be:
# mount /dev/dm-6p5 /sysroot
You may confirm that the mounted partition is correct by making sure the output of this command matches the current DDOS version:
Note: If you don't know the current DDOS version, pick the partition with the newest DDOS version.
# cat /sysroot/vers/release
If it is incorrect, you can use this command and then mount the other partition:
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2025/3/6 18:49 Data Domain: How to Boot DD3300 into Single User Mode to reset Sysadmin/Security Password | Dell US
# umount /sysroot
Make a backup copy of the shadow file as follows:
# cp /sysroot/etc/shadow /sysroot/etc/shadow.[DATE] where DATE is today's date as YYYYMMDD
Now edit the shadow file to remove the password hash:
# vi /sysroot/etc/shadow
Note: For help with vi editor: Basic vi Commands (colostate.edu)
For Example:
From:
sysadmin:$1$lghqNW/E$q2YluDd0oKVbhdi51vQ9w/:16163:0:99999:7:::
To:
sysadmin::16163:0:99999:7:::
You can verify that the passwd file is updated with:
# cat /sysroot/etc/shadow
On completion, you need to make sure to properly unmount any mounted operating system partitions before rebooting the DD3300, as to avoid any risks of
filesystem corruption in OS partitions due to FS buffers not being flushed to disk.
# umount /sysroot/
# sync; sync; sync
# reboot
After the DD is properly rebooted, log in as sysadmin (it won't ask for a password) and set a new password for the user (you must use serial/SOL connection for
this):
sysadmin@DD01# user change password
Affected Products
Data Domain, DD3300 Appliance
Article Properties
Article Number: 000021960
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 10 Jan 2025
Version: 9
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