Skip to main content
  • Place orders quickly and easily
  • View orders and track your shipping status
  • Enjoy members-only rewards and discounts
  • Create and access a list of your products
Some article numbers may have changed. If this isn't what you're looking for, try searching all articles. Search articles

NetWorker: How To Change the Password History Count for NetWorker Accounts

Summary: This article provides an overview of the NetWorker authentication PasswordHistoryCount and how to reset it.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.

Instructions

When attempting to reuse a password for a NetWorker account, you may receive the following error:
The password that you specified for user user_name was recently used, provide a different password
The default Password History Count is 8; however you can change this to a lesser value, including 0. The PasswordHistoryCount is stored in the NetWorker server's authentication (authc) service. Usually the NetWorker authentication server is the same host as the NetWorker server.

If there is more than one NetWorker Server managed by a single NetWorker Management Console (NMC) server, identify the NetWorker authc server that is used by the management console. On the NMC server, check the gstd.conf file for the authsvc_hostname.
  • Windows: C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\Management\GST\etc\gstd.conf
  • Linux: /opt/lgtonmc/etc/gstd.conf
[root@nmcserver ~]# cat /opt/lgtonmc/etc/gstd.conf | grep hostname
    string authsvc_hostname = "nwserver-a1.emclab.local";

To disable the history count, run the following commands on your NetWorker authc server:

authc_config -u Administrator -e add-option -D option-name=PasswordHistoryCount -D option-value=0

The "Administrator" account being specified is the default NetWorker Administrator account. You are prompted for the password for this account after entering the command.

Example:

[root@nwserver-a1 ~]# authc_config -u Administrator -e add-option -D option-name=PasswordHistoryCount -D option-value=0
Enter password:
Option PasswordHistoryCount is created successfully.

[root@nwserver-a1 ~]# authc_config -u Administrator -e find-all-options
Enter password:
The query returns 1 records.
Option Id Name
1         PasswordHistoryCount

[root@nwserver-a1 ~]# authc_config -u Administrator -e find-option -D option-id=1
Enter password:
Option Id: 1
Name     : PasswordHistoryCount
Value    : 0

Once the password history is disabled, you can update the password for that user from the NMC using the previously used password.

Additional Information

Affected Products

NetWorker

Products

NetWorker, NetWorker Management Console
Article Properties
Article Number: 000009697
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 02 Oct 2023
Version:  6
Find answers to your questions from other Dell users
Support Services
Check if your device is covered by Support Services.