How to reset the NetWorker NMC password on a Windows server

Use the following steps to reset the NetWorker Management Console Administrators password on a windows server. I provide both quick steps and details procedure for the same task.

Quick steps

  1. Create the following system variable GST_RESET_PW = 1 on the NetWorker server running NMC.
  2. Reboot
  3. Login to the NMC server with "administrator" "password"
  4. Now you can set a new password
  5. Delete the GST_RESET_PW environment variable.

Detailed steps

For local system account, create a variable called GST_RESET_PW with a value of 1:

  1. Go to Computer Management > Properties > Advanced.
  2. Create the variable under System variables and NOT Local User Account.
    1. (bottom window) or select the appropriate user from the top window for User variables.
    2. (Control Panel/User Accounts/ Left Pane)
    3. create a variable called GST_RESET_PW with a value of 1
  3. Or, from the command line logged in as the user who runs the service, enter the following:
    set GST_RESET_PW=1
  4. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
  5. Stop and Restart the GST service. At this point, the password resets. Note: For NetWorker Management Console 3.2, this change requires a reboot.
  6. Log on to the Console server as administrator, with the default password 'administrator'. The password can now be set to a secure password once again. (For details, see "Managing NetWorker Console server users" in Admin Guide.)

Delete or unset the variable created above:

  1. Go to Computer Management > Properties > Advanced.
  2. Delete the variable under System variables (bottom window) or from appropriate user from the top window for User variables.
  3. Or, from the command line, set the environment variable to null by entering the following command without giving the variable a value:
    set GST_RESET_PW=
  4. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
  5. Stop and restart the GST service. Note: For NetWorker Management Console 3.2, this change requires a reboot.
  6. Log in as administrator using the secure password.