Unable to add hosts to cluster

[hypnoticautopsy]

I'm at wits end with this..

It started when I had to change my management network from non-routable IP's to my private IPs.  I kept getting errors with the host not excepting the new IP.  I resolved that issue, but now when I try to add the hosts back into my cluster, I'm getting an error:

" A general system error occurred: passwd: Critical error -immediate abort.  bla bla bla Error Stack: "Failed to configure the VIM account on the host, Failed to set the password. It is possible that your password does not meet the complexity criteria set by the system."

This is ESXi 5.5u3, I've tried the following:

Remove the vpxa account, restarted hosts -- same error

Restart vpxa services -- same error

Restart vCenter - same error

vi etc/pam.d/passwd:  N0,N1,N2,N3,N4  -- same error

vi etc/pam.d/passwd:  N0=-1,N1=-1,N2=-1,N3=-1,N4=-1  -- same error

Checked the system-auth, not sure what its supposed to look like, but both hosts match

For the life of me, I cannot figure this one out, and Google has basically the same steps I just listed, I don't really want to blow away the configuration and reinstall, but it's looking like it's going to come down to that.. unless someone here knows where else that password complexity or criteria for the system is configured..

 

 

[hypnoticautopsy]

Fixed the issue myself... thanks!!

Steps taken:

Removed the vpxa account --  I really do not believe this had any affect on the issue

Restated services -- Didn't really do anything as far as what I experienced

After going home and looking at my esxi hosts, pam.d files and comparing the differences, I just on a hunch deleted all after /$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so, then re-entered the information as it was on my host at home.

SSH into hosts:

cd\ etc

cd\ pam.d

vi passwd

My hosts had  /$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so retry=3 min=disabled, disabled, disabled, disabled, 7,7

My hosts at work had  /$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so retry=N N0,N1,N2,N3,N4

I edited the line to reflect the required 14 character password, and set the retry to N, so it looked like this

/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so retry=N min=disabled, disabled, disabled, disabled, disabled, 14

:wq

exit

Restarted the services, actually I rebooted the hosts, then added them back into vCenter without issue

[ntenbargeEW]

A year later and I had this same problem with the Cisco custom ISO for ESXi 6.0 Update 1. Thank you very much!