Quick tip: Reset the password of an Azure Virtual Machine

In my Azure test tenant, I forgot the password of an Azure Windows Domain Controller VM. In Azure, there is a Reset Password option available in the VM options.

The password reset update failed. The password reset option uses a VM Access extension. When digging into the activity log I found the following error:

VMAccess Extension does not support Domain Controller

So I went to another approach using the following steps:

Prerequisites:

• Ensure the VM status is running
• Create a new password
  • Portal - between 12 - 123 characters
  • PowerShell - between 8 - 123 characters
    • CLI - between 12 - 123
    • Have lower characters
    • Have upper characters
    • Have a digit
    • Have a special character (Regex match [\W_])

Using the Azure portal

• • Log in to the Azure portal
    • Navigate to the Virtual Machine that you want to reset the password for.
    • Select the Virtual Machine
    • Select Run Command
    • Select RunPowerShellScript
    • In the “Run Command Script” window enter:

net user <username> <password>

Using Cloud Shell

• Log in to the Azure portal
• In the Azure Portal open Cloud Shell
• Select Bash
• In the following command change: and

az vm run-command invoke --command-id RunPowerShellScript --name <vm> -g <resource group the VM belongs too> --scripts "net user <username> <password>"

 Using the RunPowerShellScript is a lifesaver when you forgot the password of a Windows Domain Controller VM in Azure. This procedure works also for regular Windows VMs.