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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 

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