Service-password update

On a Windows target, PassMan can do more than change the sign-in password of an account: with the same operation, it can also update the password of a service that runs under that account.

For this you need a dedicated service account: the target in PassMan must have an administrator account that can be made a service account (S).

An account can be made an S account only if PowerShell remoting is enabled on the target first (see Enabling PowerShell remoting). You can do this from any administrator account of the target. You do not configure it per account, because the settings of the target system change. If it is not set up correctly, marking the account as S gives the NotInSync status.

Updating a service password

First, make one of the administrator accounts a service account: select Service Account in the account's edit dialog. If the remote machine is set up correctly, the operation is allowed, and the account list shows the S mark in the first column.
Then open the target's settings (edit view), and make sure that Change password of services too is selected.
Then change the password in the way described in Reset Credentials, and enter the new password.

The operation changes the sign-in password of the account, and if a service runs under the account, its password is updated to the same value. After the update, the service keeps running, and restarting it does not fail because of the password.

To check this, sign in to the remote machine (for example, with 1-Click), and in the Services app, see whether a process runs under the account. If the service still runs after you stop and start it, its password was updated without problems.

If the change was not successful, the service keeps running, but after a manual stop and start (or a restart of the target), it does not start by itself. When you start it manually, you get an error message.

The service password is updated not only when the S account changes, but also when the credentials of any other account of the target are changed, if:

the target is set to change the passwords of services too, and
one of the target's administrator accounts is an S (service) account, and its status is in sync.