The command “hmc chsyspwd” can be used to set the HMC access password or the eBMC password for a managed system:

hmc chsyspwd [-v] <hmc> <ms>|<IP>|<tttt-mmm*sssssss> [<access_password>]

The command can be used in two situations:

1. 1. For a new managed system that is to be connected to an HMC and is in the “Pending Authentication” state.
   2. Or for a managed system that has already been connected but the password has not yet been stored on the HMC, has been lost due to a software error, or the password has been changed via ASMI. In these cases, the managed system is in the “Failed Authentication” state..

The command is not intended to change a valid password. The command “ms chsyspwd” should be used for this.

If the HMC access password or eBMC password has not yet been set (e.g. new managed system), the managed system is displayed in the “Pending Authentication” state when the “hmc lssysconn” command is used. The system is then displayed in the form tttt-mmm-sssssss (MTMS for non-eBMC systems) or 0000-BMC-ip_no_dots (eBMC systems). To initially set the password with “hmc chsyspwd“, the managed system can be specified either via the IP address or MTMS:

$ hmc chsyspwd hmc01 0000-BMC*101272553
Enter the new password: PASSWORD
Retype the new password: PASSWORD
Shared connection to hmc01 closed.
state of system connection is 'No Connection' waiting vor 'Connected' (17 trials remaining)
state of system connection is 'No Connection' waiting vor 'Connected' (16 trials remaining)
state of system connection is 'No Connection' waiting vor 'Connected' (15 trials remaining)
state of system connection is 'No Connection' waiting vor 'Connected' (14 trials remaining)
state of system connection is 'No Connection' waiting vor 'Connected' (13 trials remaining)
state of system connection is 'No Connection' waiting vor 'Connected' (12 trials remaining)
   Server-9105-22A-89C1AC2(89C1AC2) - 'Power Off'
$

The password is set interactively and the command waits until the status of the connection to the managed system changes to “Connected“. The managed system is then automatically registered by the LPAR tool, displaying the name, serial number and status of the managed system.

Note: It is possible to specify the password as an additional argument on the command line, but we advise against it. Firstly, the password will then appear in plain text in various logs, and secondly, some special characters will not be supported correctly because they have a special meaning for the shell. In the worst case, the password will then be set to an unknown value.