Panorama Virtual Appliance on Azure – Admin Password Recovery (No SSH Key)

[JuanMAbellan]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for guidance on how to recover admin access to a Panorama virtual appliance deployed on Microsoft Azure where the admin password has been lost.

**Environment:**
- Panorama Virtual Appliance on Microsoft Azure
- Authentication configured with username/password only (no SSH key pair was configured at deployment time)
- No other admin accounts available to access CLI.
- Configuration must be preserved — factory reset is lat option.

Thank you

[M.Pahlavanzadeh]

Unfortunately, with the conditions you listed, there is no clean supported “password recovery” button for Panorama on Azure that preserves the running config in place.

Your best options are to find an existing API key/backup/credential, snapshot the disks, involve Palo Alto TAC, and recover or restore the Panorama configuration rather than trying to reset the password directly.
If you have a valid XML API key, this may be the best non-GUI/non-CLI recovery path. PANvXML API supports configuration access and uses API keys tied to administrative accounts/roles.
https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/ngfw/api/getting-started