Error "passwd: Unknown user name 'root'." is shown when attempting to change root password

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

Unable to change root password - seeing error messages similar to the following:

# passwd 
passwd: Can not identify you!
# passwd root
passwd: Unknown user name 'root'.
# whoami
whoami: cannot find name for user ID 0

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Using NIS Authentication

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