Disable Websphere security. Unable to login to WAS Admin Console

In the event that you are locked out of the Websphere Administrative Console for whatever reason, there is a command that you could run to disable Websphere security so that you can fix the problem from within. when we execute the script "initialize-security.bat" (prior to 7.x releases) or "init-ws-security.bat" (7.x release), it sometimes corrupts the Websphere Admin Console login. This script is only needed if you are using embedded directory security.

Solution

1. Open up a Command Prompt as an administrator (right-click -> Run as administrator)

2. Navigate to you Websphere server bin directory: ie C:/Program Files/IBM/Websphere/profile2/profiles/AppSrv01/bin

3. Execute the following command:
wsadmin -conntype NONE -c securityoff

Note: Be sure to type in the above command instead of copy/pasting it into the command prompt. Interestingly enough, we have seen incorrect behavior when you copy the string instead of typing it out. It should NOT prompt you for entering your credentials after running the command as we specified the connection type to Websphere to be NONE, as opposed to a regular SOAP connection.

4. You should get feedback saying security has been disabled. Next, restart the Websphere service.

5. Access the WAS admin console. Now you should be able to log in without entering your password.

6. Eventually, you will have to re-enable Websphere's security because our distributed products' deploy script checks to make sure Websphere security is enabled. Deploy will fail if Websphere security is not enabled. To prevent the "initialize-security.bat" from locking you out again, you might want to consider configuring Websphere's embedded security manually by following the "Console Deploy" guide. Follow the section on "Configure Security" only. The deploy script will take care of the rest (creation of queues, bus, data sources, etc).

7. To enable security, from the WebSphere server bin directory type a command

wsadmin -conntype NONE

at the wsadmin appears issue command

securityon myadminuserid myadminpassword

8. Restart the WebSphere service