ServerBuddies Support Blog

How can I change/repair my Admin account if the password in Plesk?

First try to restart Parallels Plesk Panel:

Check that the /etc/psa/.psa.shadow file has valid permissions. The right permissions would be

In case you have any other permission, you should change it using the following command:

Check that Mysql server is running and working properly using the “ps ax | grep mysql” command. For example:

To check that Mysql server is running fine, try to access to the mysql console. For example:

In the newest versions of Parallels Plesk Panel, the password can be restored using the “ch_admin_passwd” utility.

To change the password, use a command like the following one:

Load MySQL with ’skip-grant-tables’ option, adding skip-grant-tables to the [mysqld] section of /etc/my.cnf file

Restart MySQL with the following command prompt:

Add the new password to the /etc/psa/.psa.shadow file.

Repair the password using the following command prompt:

Delete skip-grant-tables option from /etc/my.cnf

Restart MySQL.

Reference: http://parallels.com/

How to check privileges for an mysql account.

To check the privileges for an account, use SHOW GRANTS:

Methods of Disabling the Root Account.

Changing the root shell.

To prevent users from logging in directly as root, the system administrator can set the root ac-count’s shell to /sbin/nologin in the /etc/passwd file.

Edit the /etc/passwd file and change the shell from /bin/bash to /sbin/nologin.

The following programs are prevented from ac-cessing the root account:

Programs that do not re-quire a shell, such as FTP clients, mail clients, and many setuid programs. The following programs are not prevented from accessing the root ac-count:

Disabling root ac-cess via any con-sole device (tty).

An empty /etc/securetty file prevents root login on any devices attached to the computer.

Disabling root SSH Login.

Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, and set the PermitRootLo-gin parameter to no.

to

Use PAM to limit root access to services.

Edit the file for the target service in the /etc/pam.d/ directory. Make sure the pam_listfile.so is re-quired for authentication.

Account Creation Failed

While creating an account via WHM, you may get an error stating that, cannot create new user.

You can check the cPanel logs for the error.

Sometimes, you may get the following error.

vipw lockfile (/etc/ptmp) is present!

This means that the “useradd” is locked. You will not be able to add new users unless you remove the following file.

You can also confirm it by executing the useradd command in the konsole. You will receive an error message stating the above.

Check if this file is present.