Change or Reset the DSRM Administrator Password

If you can log on domain controller using the domain administrator account, you can use the NT Directory Services utility (Ntdsutil.exe) to change the DSRM administrator password. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Log on to the domain controller using an account with administrative rights.
2. Go to Start | Run, type cmd, and press [Enter].
3. At the command prompt, type cd %SystemRoot%\System32,and press [Enter].
4. Type ntdsutil, and press [Enter].
5. Type set dsrm password, and press [Enter].
6. At the DSRM command prompt, you can reset the password for either the server on which you’re working or for another server. For the former, type reset password on server null, and enter the new password when prompted. (No characters will appear when you type the password.)
   To reset the password for another server, type reset password on server <servername> (where <servername> is the DNS name for the server in question), and enter the new password when prompted. (No characters will appear when you type the password.)
7. At the DSRM command prompt, type q to exit.
8. At the Ntdsutil command prompt, type q to exit the utility and return to the command prompt.

Couldn’t Login to Domain Controller?

If you can’t log into domain controller, the trick mentioned above doesn’t work any more! Fortunately there is a professional Windows password cracking utility – Reset Windows Password, which allows you to reset DSRM password easily. Just follow these steps:

1. You need an alternative computer with internet access to download the Reset Windows Password utility.
2. Unzip the download file, you’ll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file.
3. Burn the ISO image file to a CD or USB thumb drive using the ISO2Disc tool.
4. Insert your newly burned CD/USB drive into the domain controller and turn on the computer. Get into the BIOS and change the boot order to set the computer to boot from CD/USB.
5. Once you’ve gotten it to boot from the CD/USB, the computer will load the system inside the CD/USB drive and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.

   

6. Click on the Reset Local Admin/User Password option, you’ll see the Windows SAM database and local user accounts.
7. Choose the local administrator account and click on the Reset Password button.
8. It will remove your forgotten DSRM administrator password immediately.

The DSRM administrator password is a tremendously powerful password, and you should change it at regular intervals, along with all of your other administrative account passwords.

Resetting DSRM password is possible on Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain controller using NTDSUTIL command.

Follow below simple steps to reset DSRM passoword:

1. Open the command prompt in administrative mode.
2. Type NTDSUTIL and hit enter
3. Type SET DSRM PASSWORD and hit enter
4. Type RESET PASSWORD ON SERVER NULL and hit enter
5. Now you type the password that you wish to configure and hit enter
6. Retype the password and again hit enter
7. Type QUIT and exit NTDSUTIL

Here NULL denotes the server that you are logged in. If you want reset DSRM password on a remote computer, type the computer name instead of NULL.

If you forgot DSRM password or domain administrator password, you can always reset the password using Reset Windows Password – A professional password recovery software which enables you to create a Windows password reset disk and reset lost local administrator, domain administrator and DSRM passwords easily.