How to Change Passwords on Key Systems

This post is going to be short and sweet, and cover something really practical: How to change passwords on key systems.

You’re going to have to do this if senior people on your team leave the company for whatever reason and you’ve shared administrative credentials on your servers (be they Windows or Linux).

Here’s the process you use to change admin credentials:

• Login to the system you’re needing to change
• Update the password to the new password value
• Before you log out of the system, login to that same system from somewhere else to verify your changes

If you don’t test your new credentials before logging out, you can lock yourself out of the system completely with an unexpected typo or character, even though you’ve probably confirmed the new password.

Nothing will put your heart in your throat more quickly than realizing you may’ve locked yourself out of a key system.

Always verify your change BEFORE you log out by testing the login from a different system.