Drupal7 : PDOException: SQLSTATE[28000] [1045] Access denied

For some reason, your script to create the drupal7 database does not put the same password in the settings.php file and the MySQL database.

Here's how I fixed this:

1) Webmin -> Text Editor -> open file /var/www/drupal7/sites/default/settings.php

2) Find section like this:

$databases = array (
  'default' =>
  array (
    'default' =>
    array (
      'database' => 'drupal7',
      'username' => 'drupal7',
      'password' => '9d69c5yter76a85034f4e272b289db',
      'host' => 'localhost',
      'port' => '',
      'driver' => 'mysql',
      'prefix' => '',
    ),

3) Copy password shown above, go to Webmin -> MySQL Database Server -> User Permissions

4) Selected user "drupal7" and edit to change password to one shown above

Solved.

That's right, if settings.php and the mysql password were out of sync then Drupal should never work. Something's up with that specific deployment that probably doesn't have a lot to do with the generic integration.

But there is obviously something not quite right in your deployment... This should not be an issue (i.e. the script should work as intended). The fact that it doesn't would raise some concerns for me. I have personally used the Drupal7 appliance numerous times on numerous hardware (as VBox, KVM and OVZ VMs) and haven't ever encountered this issue... First thing I'd do is check the image for corruption (ideally use gpg key to check integrity, however on Windows using the hashes are probably easier).

I just downloaded this to double (triple) check that there is nothing wrong with this appliance and I can confirm that it works as expected. I tested both the OVZ container on my Proxmox server, then installed to VirtualBox on a Win host for good measure... Both worked as expected. Drupal7 works fine OOTB and I can log in with admin account and password that I set on first boot.

Also considering that you 2 guys are the only ones to report this issue despite the fact that this appliance has been downloaded tens of thousands of times it seems unlikely that there is anything fundamentally wrong with it.

My guess is a bad download (minor corruption). Did you check the integrity of your download? (Don't just download again - actually check the integrity of the download; downloading again proves nothing...)