Change root password via VNC in the Customer Portal

If you did not configure a password via User data and no longer have access to your SSH private key, you can reset the password from GRUB.

1. Open the VM console via VNC and reboot the VM using the Ctrl+Alt+Delete button in the top-right corner. After clicking it, left-click inside the console window to ensure it has focus.
2. Immediately after the reboot starts, press Esc repeatedly until the GRUB menu appears.
   
3. Select Advanced options.
4. In the recovery menu, choose Root.

5. At the root shell, run the following command to set a new password for the required user:

   passwd <username>
   

6. If you receive a mount-related error, remount the root filesystem as read-write:

   mount -o remount,rw /
   

7. Reboot the VM and sign in using the new password.

Alternatively, you can recover access by creating a snapshot of the affected VM, creating a new VM from that snapshot, and configuring new authentication methods, such as additional SSH keys or allowing password authentication.