johnm Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Folks, I hoping someone can help me. I have a server that i bought from the liquidator for my old company. Its running VMWare ESXi 4.1 and i have the root password. What i need to do is get at the files inside. Can anyone tell me how I'm supposed to do that? The old remote host ad domain has long since disappeared so I'm guessing i have to put this onto a network and set up some sort of access that way but i have no clue as to how to do it. I have looked at a number of VMware videos on youtube but nothing tells me how to do this. If i can't get in then the server is useless to me and will be scrapped which seems a shame not to mention a waste of good hardware. Any pointers would be appreciated. thanks john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmwills Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 What kind of files are these? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnm Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 This was the server that we all accessed form our LAN and where we stored all the office docs, spreadsheets etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmwills Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 What type of platform? File Server? If so, if you only used two factor authentication (username & password) those credentials would be cached on the server. Just fire them up, or is it you can't get into the Admin Site of EXSi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnm Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 I assume it was a windows platform and yes this was a file server. Just fire them up, or is it you can't get into the Admin Site of EXSi? How do i just fire them up? i can switch thebox on and get through the boot up to a screen like this. i have the root password. but where do i go from here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schoondoggy Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Do you have the server connected to your network? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnm Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 (edited) no and i don't have an y cat5 cable to connect it to my home router. assuming i get some cable would you mind walking me through the next steps. I assume I'd have to change the network settings on the server? assuming i get a network access which i'd need hand holding to do, but assuming i get that far jmwillis suggested in his reply that i would have two stage authentication, i assume this is a windows level security. I can't remember any of the user names or passwords so would it be possible to get past this? I had a password issue on my laptop and the only way to resolve that was to use Hirenboot cd and remove the password for the administrator. would i have to do something similar here? thanks Edited March 16, 2016 by johnm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schoondoggy Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Technically, the files you are looking for are not in ESXi, they are on a VM that is running on ESXi. The ESXi server need to be on a network, then from another computer on the same network you need to download the management tools from VMware, they are free. You run the ESXi management tools on the computer to connect and manage the ESXi server. You will need the admin password to get into ESXi. You will see the VM's that are hosted on the ESXi server. You will need to see if they are running, if not you will need to start them. Then from the computer you will need to remote into the server or servers that are running to find your files. Do you know what servers are hosted on the ESXi server? Do you have passwords for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnm Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 assuming i get some cable would you mind walking me through the next steps. I assume I'd have to change the network settings on the server? assuming i get a network access which i'd need hand holding to do, but assuming i get that far jmwillis suggested in his reply that i would have two stage authentication, i assume this is a windows level security. I can't remember any of the user names or passwords so would it be possible to get past this? I had a password issue on my laptop and the only way to resolve that was to use Hirenboot cd and remove the password for the administrator. would i have to do something similar here? thanks assuming i get some cable would you mind walking me through the next steps. I assume I'd have to change the network settings on the server? assuming i get a network access which i'd need hand holding to do, but assuming i get that far jmwillis suggested in his reply that i would have two stage authentication, i assume this is a windows level security. I can't remember any of the user names or passwords so would it be possible to get past this? I had a password issue on my laptop and the only way to resolve that was to use Hirenboot cd and remove the password for the administrator. would i have to do something similar here? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmwills Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 You will need to get into the Console (VSphere) that would be available at that IP Address! Download the VSphere Console and install in on a machine on the same LAN. And yes, you must have at least a local connection for this. No other way to get at the VM's and spin them up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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