Ran into a customer today that didn’t have the password to their HPE MSA 2052 SAN. Did some Googling and didn’t find a whole lot. So I opened a support case with HPE and this is what they said.
Before completing the steps below, make sure to have backups of your data, just in case!
Before resting the password, try the following as they are the defaults:
- User: manage
- password: !manage
Okay, time to reset!
Before starting, shutdown all VMs / make sure all IO activity is suspended since both controllers will reboot at the same time. Complete this during a scheduled maintenance window!
1. Connect serially to one of the controllers with the USB console cable provided with your MSA.
2. Login using a terminal that supports serial connection. Putty, TeraTerm, etc. (I could only get it to work on TeraTerm)
Serial Settings:
- Port: COMX
- Speed: 115200
- Data: 8 bit
- Parity: None
- Stop Bits: 1 bit
- Flow Control: None

3. At the login prompt type : restoreusers

4. Use the controller serial number displayed on screen (00CFFxxxxx) as the password (case sensitive)
5. This will restart both the controllers
6. After 5 minutes, try accessing the controller IP remotely with the default credentials (manage/!manage)

If you get a login failed, it means your firmware is too old to support this recovery method. HPE will send new controllers as long as your have a valid support contract.
Hope it helps!