Reset a user password - AWS Directory Service

Reset a user password

Users must adhere to password policies as defined in the directory. Sometimes this can get the best of users, including the directory admin, and they forget their password. When this happens, you can quickly reset the user's password using AWS Directory Service if the user resides in either a Simple AD or AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory.

You must be signed in as a user with the necessary permissions to reset passwords. For more information about permissions, see Overview of managing access permissions to your AWS Directory Service resources.

You can reset the password for any user in your directory with the following exceptions:

  • For Simple AD, you cannot reset the password for any user that is a member of either the Domain Admins or Enterprise Admins group except for the Administrator user.

  • For AWS Managed Microsoft AD, you cannot reset the password for any user that is in an OU other than the OU that is based off of the NetBIOS name you typed when you created your directory. For example, you cannot reset the password for a user in the AWS Reserved OU. For more information about the OU structure for an AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory, see What gets created.

You can use any of the following methods to reset a user's password.

Method 1: To reset a user password (AWS Management Console)

  1. In the AWS Directory Service console navigation pane, under Active Directory, choose Directories, and then select the directory in the list where you want to reset a user's password.

  2. On the Directory details page, choose Actions, and then choose Reset user password.

  3. In the Reset user password dialog, in Username type the user name of the user whose password needs to change.

  4. Type a password in New password and Confirm password, and then choose Reset password.

Method 2: To reset a user password (Windows PowerShell)

  1. Open Windows PowerShell.

  2. Type the following command and replace the user name "jane_doe", the Directory ID, and password "P@ssw0rd" with your AD Directory ID and desired credentials. See Reset-DSUserPassword Cmdlet for more information.

Reset-DSUserPassword -UserName jane_doe -DirectoryId d-1234567890 -NewPassword P@ssw0rd
Method 3: To reset a user password (AWS CLI)

  1. To install the AWS CLI, see Install or update the latest version of the AWS CLI.

  2. Open the AWS CLI.

  3. Type the following command and replace the Directory ID, user name "jane_doe", and password "P@ssw0rd" with your AD Directory ID and desired credentials. See reset-user-password in the AWS CLI Command Reference for more information.

aws ds reset-user-password --directory-id d-1234567890 --user-name jane_doe
        --new-password P@ssw0rd