IBM Support

Disabling WebSphere administrative security when admin console is not accessible

Troubleshooting


Problem

WebSphere administrative security needs to be disabled and the admin console is not accessible.

Symptom

Admin Console is not accessible because Security credentials are not correct.

Cause

This can be caused by several reasons, for example... server will not start with security enabled, forgot administrative password, etc...

Environment

This is Platform independent. All operating systems and all versions are concerned.

Diagnosing The Problem

You are not able to access the Admin Console, or stop a server, or synchronize a Node with the Dmgr.

Resolving The Problem

WARNING: Please use this as the last resort and make sure the server is not in the middle of processing any transactions.

To disable security, please perform the following steps via wsadmin on Windows or Linux:
  1. <WAS_INSTALL_DIR>/bin/> wsadmin.bat|.sh -conntype NONE -lang jython
  2. wsadmin> securityoff()
  3. wsadmin> exit
  4. Restart the servers.
  5. Enable the security from administrative console.
  6. Once the needed corrections are made, you can re-enable security in the admin console and then restart WebSphere.

NOTE: To restart the servers, you will first need to manually kill the Java process since security is still enabled in the currently running process.
NOTE: You should change the protocol (https to http) and port to the unprotected port, look in serverindex.xml for WC_adminhost, if you do not know the unprotected port, when trying to access the WebSphere Application Server administrative console

[{"Product":{"code":"SSEQTP","label":"WebSphere Application Server"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Security","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF012","label":"IBM i"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"9.0;8.5.5;8.5;8.0;7.0","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB45","label":"Automation"}},{"Product":{"code":"SSEQTP","label":"WebSphere Application Server"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"System Management\/Repository","Platform":[{"code":"","label":""}],"Version":"","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB45","label":"Automation"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
01 August 2023

UID

swg21405302