Change HP ILO User password using PowerShell

In this post, I will take you through a PowerShell script that helps in setting up the password for HP Integrated Lights-Out (ILO) console.

All these years, I was under kind of wrong impression that HP ILO can be managed via web console and a few utilities given by HP. Today I realized that it can also be managed using other protocols like SSH and Telnet. The moment I learned about it, I started thinking how can I leverage this and automation HP ILO user account change process.

After a bit of Googling, I came across a nice document from HP that gives all you need for managing HP ILO via SSH, telnet, web, and other HP utilities. You can download a copy of “HP iLO2 Scripting and Command line Guide” from HP website (click here).

I authored below quick script after going through the document. The script replies on a utility called plink(click here to download) which you should download and place in System path to make this script work. Using plink.exe, the script creates a SSH connection to HP ILO IP/Name. This utilities takes username and password required for the ILO connection and then changes the password of the account your specified to the key you want.

Code:

[cmdletbinding()]            
param(            
 [string]$ILOHostName,            
 [string]$ILOLoginUser,            
 [string]$ILOLoginUserpwd,            
 [String]$ILOUser,            
 [String]$ILOUserpwd,            
 [string]$PlinkPath            
)            

$ILOcmd = [String]::Format('{0} {1}@{2} -pw "{3}" "set /map1/accounts1/{4} password={5}" 2>&1',            
         $PlinkPath,            
         $ILOLoginUser,            
         $ILOHostName,            
         $ILOLoginUserpwd,            
         $ILOUser,            
         $ILOUserpwd)            

try {            
 [array]$Output = Invoke-Expression $ILOcmd -ErrorAction Stop            
 if($Output.Count -lt 2) {            
  Write-Host "Failed to set ILO password. `nLastExitCode : $LASTEXITCODE`nResult : $Output"            
  exit(1)            
 }            

} catch {            
 Write-Host "Failed to set ILO password. `nLastExitCode : $LASTEXITCODE`nResult : $Output"            
 exit(1)            
}            

if($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0 -and $Output[1].Split("=")[1] -eq 0) {            
 Write-Host "Password set successfully. `nLastExitCode : $LASTEXITCODE`nResult : $Output"            
} else {            
 Write-Host "Failed to set password. `nLastExitCode : $LASTEXITCODE`nResult : $Output"            
}

Usage:

In the below example, I am creating SSH connection to HP ILO of host1 with a user name called Administrator and setting password for user account myilouser1. Please note that you need to pass ILO name or IP address of target host to ILOHostName parameter.

.\Set-ILOUserPassword.ps1 -ILOHostName host1ILO -ILOLoginUser administrator -ILOLoginUserpwd mypass -ILOUser myilouser1 -ILOUserpwd user1pwd -PlinkPath c:\temp\plink.exe

This is a simple script I have written to demonstrate that HP ILO password can be set easily using PowerShell. I request you to test the script properly in test/lab environment before trying in production. You can use this script by modifying a bit to create users, delete users etc. Please refer to the aforementioned HP documentation for examples on how to do variety of actions using SSH connection.

Hope this helps.