Password Recovery for the Catalyst 2900XL, 3500XL, 2950, and 3550 Series Switches Contents

Introduction Step-by-Step Procedure

Introduction
This document describes the password recovery procedure for the Cisco Catalyst 2900XL, 3500XL, 2950, and 3550 series switches.

Step-by-Step Procedure
1. Attach a terminal or PC with terminal emulation (for example, Hyper Terminal) to the console port of the switch. Use the following terminal settings: Bits per second (baud): 9600 Data bits: 8 Parity: None Stop bits: 1 Flow Control: Xon/Xoff 2. Unplug the power cable. 3. Hold down the mode button located on the left side of the front panel, while reconnecting the power cable to the switch. For 2900/3500XL and 3550 Series switches: release the mode button after the LED above Port 1x goes out. Note: LED position may vary slightly depending on the model. Catalyst 3524XL

For 2950 Series switches: release the mode button after the STAT LED goes out. Note: LED position may vary slightly depending on the model. Catalyst 2950-24

The following instructions appear:

The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash filesystem. The following commands will initialize the flash filesystem, and finish loading the operating system software: flash_init load_helper boot switch: !--- This output is from a 3500XL switch. Output from a 2900XL, 2950 or 3550 will vary slightly.

4. Issue the flash_init command.

5. switch: flash_init

6. Initializing Flash... 7. flashfs[0]: 143 files, 4 directories 8. flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories 9. flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 3612672 10. flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 2729472 11. flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 883200 12. flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 86 seconds 13. ....done Initializing Flash. 14. Boot Sector Filesystem (bs:) installed, fsid: 3 15. Parameter Block Filesystem (pb:) installed, fsid: 4 16. switch: 17. 18. !--- This output is from a 2900XL switch. Output from a 3500XL, 3550 or 2950 will vary slightly. 19.

20. Issue the load_helper command.

21. switch: load_helper switch:

22. Issue the dir flash: command.

23. 24. 25. !--- Make sure to type a colon ":" after the dir flash.

The switch file system is displayed:

switch: dir flash: Directory of flash:/ 2 -rwx 1803357 <date> 5.WC7.bin

c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-

!--- This is the current version of software. 4 -rwx 1131 <date> config.text

!--- This is the configuration file. 5 -rwx 109 <date> info 6 -rwx 389 <date> env_vars 7 drwx 640 <date> html 18 -rwx 109 <date> info.ver 403968 bytes available (3208704 bytes used) switch: !--- This output is from a 3500XL switch. Output from a 2900XL, 2950 or 3550 will vary slightly.

26. Type rename flash:config.text flash:config.old to rename the configuration file.

27. 28. 29. 30. switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.old switch: !--- The config.text file contains the password definition.

31.

32. Issue the boot command to boot the system.

33. switch: boot 34. Loading "flash:c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.1205.WC7.bin"...############################### 35. ############################################################## ################## 36. ############################################################## ######## 37. File "flash:c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC7.bin" uncompressed and installed, entry po 38. int: 0x3000 39. executing... 40. 41. !--- Output truncated. 42. !--- This output is from a 3500XL switch. Output from a 2900XL, 2950 or 3550 will vary slightly. 43.

44. Enter "n" at the prompt to start the Setup program.

45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 62. 63. --- System Configuration Dialog --At any point you may enter a question mark '?' for help. Use ctrl-c to abort configuration dialog at any prompt. Default settings are in square brackets '[]'. Continue with configuration dialog? [yes/no]: n !--- Type "n" for no. Press RETURN to get started. !--- press Return or Enter. Switch> !--- The Switch> prompt is displayed.

61. At the switch prompt type en to enter enable mode.

Switch>en Switch#

64. Type rename flash:config.old flash:config.text to rename the configuration file with its original name.
65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. Switch#rename flash:config.old flash:config.text Destination filename [config.text] !--- Press Return or Enter. Switch# Switch#copy flash:config.text system:running-config Destination filename [running-config]? !--- Press Return or Enter. 1131 bytes copied in 0.760 secs

71. Copy the configuration file into memory:

78.

Switch#

The configuration file is now reloaded. 79. Change the password:

80. Switch#configure terminal 81. Switch(config)#no enable secret 82. 83. !--- This step is necessary if the switch had an enable secret password. 84. 85. Switch(config)#enable password Cisco 86. Switch#(config)#^Z 87. 88. !--- Control/Z. 89.

90. Write the running configuration to the configuration file with the write memory command:
91. Switch#write memory 92. Building configuration... 93. [OK] Switch#

Page last updated on: 01/26/2009 22:55:29 All contents are Copyright 19922009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.