How to Reset Forgotten VMware Esxi 5 Esxi 6 and mor Root Password

Ubuntu Live CD download
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

GParted

hypervisor/system image is located on the first 250 MB partition (/dev/sda5) which contains the state.tgz file.

close GParted and open the Terminal

sudo -s
mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
cd /mnt
ls

cp state.tgz /tmp
cd /tmp
tar xzf state.tgz
ls

tar xzf local.tgz
ls
Go to the /etc directory and you can gain access to the shadow file which contains the password hash of ESXi root account.
cd /etc
ls

Run the vi shadow command to open the shadow file in the vi editor.

Once you have removed the password hash, press ESC to return to the command mode. Type in :wq and press Enter. This will save your changes and exit

cd
tar czf local.tgz etc
tar czf state.tgz local.tgz
cp state.tgz /mnt/
umount /mnt

type reboot then remove the live CD and wait for ESXi server to restart. After a while, you’ll get the following screen where you can configure the system by pressing F2.

the password field blank and you can log into the root account