Created on
04-29-2019
02:57 AM
Edited on
09-21-2025
10:12 PM
By
Anthony_E
Description
This article describes how to recover access to FortiManager/FortiAnalyzer VM when the admin password is lost and no configuration backup is available.
Scope
FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager.
Solution
This article is for VMs without snapshots. If using VM snapshots, it may risk data loss and corruption of service.
Any action taken upon the information in this article is strictly at personal risk.
VM-based FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer.
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESX/ESXi) and VMware vSphere Client.
[jdvorak@chyost:~] vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/data2/FortiManager-VM/fmg2.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/data2/FortiManager-VM/fmg2-convert.vmdk
Destination disk format: VMFS zeroedthick
Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/data2/FortiManager-VM/fmg2.vmdk'...
Clone: 100% done
Rename the converted file 'fmg2-convert.vmdk' to the original fmg disk 'fmg.vmdk' as follows:
[jdvorak@chyost:/vmfs/volumes/547d0cf2-3d7fec60-aee2-00215a0dc088/FortiManager-VM] mv fmg2-convert.vmdk fmg.vmdk
This will replace the original disk, and it may be powered on the unit and reconfigure the System Settings (as described at the end of the article), and reapply the VM license.
After rebooting the VM, in some cases, the customer will get an error ' There is no Operating System'.
If the issue occurs, redeploy the new instance and follow the same settings as the original instance.
For the hard disk, storing the log data, the original instance needs to be copied to the new instance.
Do not delete the original instance event the new instance has been added.
Note:
If using migrate option, before running exec migrate consider the following points:
If workflow mode was in use on the original unit, workflow mode should be enabled on the new unit PRIOR to running exec migrate.
If this order is followed, workflow sessions are preserved.
Also, if multiple ADOMs were previously in use, enable ADOMs first.
Related articles:
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