root login failure

[KINGSLEY_1]

HI Bosses!

My root accout and any other account is not working on my hp-ux 11.31. I mean nobody can login in to this system.

Kindly help.

Thanks

[Patrick Wallek]

What kind of errors are you getting?

How are you trying to log in (SSH, telnet)?

[KINGSLEY_1]

Hi Pat!

I use telnet for the connection. Initially when i logged in it tells "wait for the connection" but these days it tells me login incorrect

king

Thanks

[Matti_Kurkela]

"wait for the connection" is not a normal message. Perhaps there is some kind of proxy between you and the server you're connecting to?

Anyway, if the root password does not work, you'll need to try logging in as root from the system console (either the local console, or possibly a iLO/MP remote console). There is a special exception that allows root to log in from the console even if the root password is expired. If that does not work either, you'll need to crash the system and boot it to single user mode: that will allow you to change the root password without knowing the old one, but will require console access. 

If the password protection for single user mode has been activated, you may need to use a HP-UX installation media to boot into a recovery shell to change the lost root password. If the firmware boot security has been activated, you will need physical access to the server to regain access to firmware boot menus. The exact procedure will depend on server model (main difference is PA-RISC vs. Itanium, but different models may have minor differences too).

[KINGSLEY_1]

Hi MK!

As i mentioned in the first mail, it is not only root who cannot login. All other users can not log in.

Thank you.

king 

[Matti_Kurkela]

Well, once you can log in as root, you can start checking the system logs and troubleshooting the other users' login problems the normal way.

But still I wonder about the apparently non-default "wait for connection" message you told about.

Once I had to implement a system where an external consultant logged into a particular server, and then his login script in that server included a command like "exec rlogin another-server", so the consultant would be automatically logged on to another server. As soon as the consultant logged out from that server, the session on the first server would automatically end too. (The consultant's connection had to be passed through a network segment that was not externally accessible, but the consultant was not allowed to have access to other systems on that segment. It was a temporary solution until a properly restricted VPN connection could be set up.)

The "wait for connection" message might imply that something similar is going on. In such a setup, if there is a problem in the proxy/gateway server, it might cause login problems for everyone.