What to do when you have a locked ESXI account ( webpage of ESXI host ) .

Use ILO to logon to the server,

The password will not be locked out when you logon to the cli on the host.

• ALT+F1 = Switches to the console.
• ALT+F2 = Switches to the DCUI.
• ALT+F11 = Returns to the banner screen.
• ALT+F12 = Displays the VMkernel log on the console.

Start the command prompt, and type the following.

# pam_tally2 --user root --reset

And the ESXI webpage will work again.

Change the username root for the locked username.