Forgot ‘ambari’ password?

Working with multiple clusters at the same time can sometimes mean too many passwords to make note of! While for the major cluster(s), I prefer syncing with AD/LDAP, it may not be possible (worthwhile) to do so for every cluster you manage.

For security reasons, one must always change from the default ambari/ambari credentials. However, what to do in case you forgot the password for a (ambari – local) user?

1. Log on to ambari server host shell

   ssh ambari-server01.domainname.com

2. Stop ambari server

   sudo ambari-server stop

3. Check for the following details in /etc/ambari-server/conf/ambari.properties

   server.jdbc.rca.url=jdbc:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/ambaridb
   server.jdbc.rca.user.name=ambari
   server.jdbc.rca.user.passwd=/etc/ambari-server/conf/password.dat

4. If your ambari database is psql  or mysql:
5. Connect to the database

   psql -U ambari-server ambari

   or

   mysql -h <mysqldbhost> -P 3306 -u ambari -p

6. Enter password ****
   (this password is stored in /etc/ambari-server/conf/password.dat)
7. In psql:

   update ambaridb.users set user_password='538916f8943ec225d97a9a86a2c6ec0818c1cd400e09e03b660fdaaec4af29ddbb6f2b1033b81b00' where user_name='admin'

   In mysql:

   mysql> select * from users;
   +---------+--------------+---------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------------------------------+
   | user_id | principal_id | create_time | ldap_user | user_type | user_name | user_password | active | active_widget_layouts |
   +---------+--------------+---------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------------------------------+
   | 1 | 1 | 2018-02-17 00:00:00 | 0 | LOCAL | admin | 1b445eb2cfdeb0519f68d95b7732f07136c692711c855798594a9ea2aa5c3aa17629820734a697a0 | 1 | [{"id":"6"},{"id":"7"},{"id":"8"}] |
   +---------+--------------+---------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------------------------------+
   1 row in set (0.00 sec)
   mysql> update ambaridb.users set user_password='538916f8943ec225d97a9a86a2c6ec0818c1cd400e09e03b660fdaaec4af29ddbb6f2b1033b81b00' where user_name='admin';

   Note: The new password is ‘Hex-encoded string for ambari‘

8. Quit the connection to database.
9. Restart ambari-server

   sudo ambari-server restart

10. On your browser, you may proceed to ambari-server01.domainname.com:8080 and sign in with ‘admin/admin‘ credentials.