VM Domain server Reset

[Samael Leviathan Draco]

Hello everyone,

we are a bit in a pickle here, our officer didn't gave us the credentials for the domain server in our workplace and it is in a VM environment (the VM is ESXI 6.0.0) our officer drowned while he was in vacation.... do you have any idea on how we can bypass or reset it? by the way its in a dell poweredge r330

[leadeater]

First shutdown the VM and back it up to a USB HDD and then unplug it, this is critically important as this is your recovery copy if your attempts to change the Active Directory Administrator password goes badly or anything else. This will mean an outage so do it over night.

 

Next follow this guide, it's pretty simple. For your situation you will need to mount the Windows Server install media ISO to the VM's virtual CD/DVD drive.

https://community.spiceworks.com/t/reset-forgotten-domain-controller-password/1011206

 

Once you have completed this and are able to login as the Administrator account for the domain you must put the original file back in the guide, this is very important to do. Next you will need to reset the DSRM password so you know it, very important to do this.

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/active-directory/reset-directory-services-restore-mode-admin-pwd

 

If you are unable to do the above then I highly recommend paying an IT services company to do it for you. It's not a complicated and long process to do the above so won't cost too much money, although since this is critically important to regain access to the Domain Administrator account paying for this to get done is worth it.

 

Just remember don do anything or let anyone do anything without an offline backup of your Domain Controller VM.

[Samael Leviathan Draco]

On 4/5/2024 at 1:14 PM, leadeater said:

First shutdown the VM and back it up to a USB HDD and then unplug it, this is critically important as this is your recovery copy if your attempts to change the Active Directory Administrator password goes badly or anything else. This will mean an outage so do it over night.

 

Next follow this guide, it's pretty simple. For your situation you will need to mount the Windows Server install media ISO to the VM's virtual CD/DVD drive.

https://community.spiceworks.com/t/reset-forgotten-domain-controller-password/1011206

 

Once you have completed this and are able to login as the Administrator account for the domain you must put the original file back in the guide, this is very important to do. Next you will need to reset the DSRM password so you know it, very important to do this.

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/active-directory/reset-directory-services-restore-mode-admin-pwd

 

If you are unable to do the above then I highly recommend paying an IT services company to do it for you. It's not a complicated and long process to do the above so won't cost too much money, although since this is critically important to regain access to the Domain Administrator account paying for this to get done is worth it.

 

Just remember don do anything or let anyone do anything without an offline backup of your Domain Controller VM.

Woah thanks for this ill try doing this...

[Samael Leviathan Draco]

well actually we cant access the domain because on the main menu of the exci vm is asking for the credential before we can access the domain server cause within that hardware there are 2 VMs there and one of it is the domain which we have a "resetter" for it.... 

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, Samael Leviathan Draco said:

well actually we cant access the domain because on the main menu of the exci vm is asking for the credential before we can access the domain server cause within that hardware there are 2 VMs there and one of it is the domain which we have a "resetter" for it.... 

Honestly contact an IT service company to come in and assist. It will probably cost you somewhere between $3k to $10k but it'll be worth it to get the issue fixed. You can point them to the above post with the information on how to do the recovery if they aren't certain on how to do it.

 

Just remember while an IT professional may have never done something like this before they have the experience to look at the information and have confidence in how to do it and resolve in problems along the way.