So, you are adding a new server to the farm and you can’t remember that new SharePoint 2010 addition called the Farm Passphrase? No problem! You can use PowerShell to reset / change that forgotten farm passphrase. Note that I said reset and not retrieve. There is currently no option to retrieve the existing farm passphrase.
- Must be a member of the SharePoint_Shell_Access database role on the SharePoint Configuration database. Check Get-SPShellAdmin and Add-SPShellAdmin.
- Open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell (Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell)
-
Enter this at the PowerShell prompt:
- $passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force
- $passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force
- Input the new passphrase and hit Enter
-
Enter this at the PowerShell prompt:
- Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase -Confirm
- Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase -Confirm
- You will be asked to confirm the passphrase by re-entering it
- Re-enter the passphrase and hit Enter
- You will be asked if you are sure that you want to perform this action, type Y (for Yes) and hit Enter
- Your farm passphrase has now been reset!
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Very useful. If you want to avoid the confirmation dialog (for scripts etc) use -Confirm:$false for the swich parameter
i remember the passphrase but not sure, i mean there can some uuper case & lower case difference. is there any way that i can that what i remember is correct without adding any new server in farm?
Pingback: Reset the Farm Passphrase in SharePoint 2010 « Murat ATALAY
Thank you for explaining this option. Helped me a lot!
oh my gosh thanks so much for the info almost blow the SPfarm…
You are very welcome! I’m glad that you found the post helpful for you.
What should I do? I got the following error msg?
Set-SPPassPhrase : Cannot access the local farm. Verify that the local farm is
properly configured, currently available, and that you have the appropriate per
missions to access the database before trying again.
Sounds like the account you are using doesnt have PowerShell permission against SharePoint 2010. Login and use the Farm Account or do a search for Add-SPShellAdmin and use that to grant the account proper permissions to use PowerShell against your SP2010 DBs
Hi, thank you very much. It’s very help me.
Hi, The resoution given by you helped me in forcefully resetting the PassPhrase but now configuration wizard is giving an error ” Cannot connect to Configuration Manager
“Reason: There was an error encrypting or decrypting credentials. Either a credential update is currently being performed, or you must update the farm account credentials on this server before you can perform this task. Techinal Support Details: System.InvalidOperationException: There was an error encrypting or decrypting credentials. Either a credential update is currently being performed, or you must update the farm account credentials on this server before you can perform this task.”
As my central admin is completely down so unable to understand what need to be done now.
Also not sure that the is the old passphrase stored somewhere in the DB server as wel which is restricting me and giving this error?
I also reffered to the post “http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointadmin/thread/46d8667f-c0f6-4f8c-8c65-a6d4cd398e02/”
which tells us to resolve my issue but that is also not working for me
any help would be great……