Password Recovery On Ios Devices: Procedure 2 - Cisco Catalyst 2000 Configuration Handbook

Password Recovery on IOS Devices: Procedure 2

Password recovery procedure 2 covers the 6000 series switch. If you have lost or forgot-
ten your passwords, or if you want to bypass the configuration file, you can use this
recovery process.
To recover from a lost password, you must stop the boot process of the route processor
and then direct the switch to not use the configuration file. When the switch loads with-
out a file, you have no passwords and can enter into privileged mode. From there you can
copy the configuration file into active memory and then change and save the passwords.
To complete the recovery process, follow these steps:
Attach a device to the console of the switch and power cycle the device.
1.
Watch the console output. When you see the message "%OIR-6-CONSOLE:
2.
Changing console ownership to route processor," initiate the break sequence from
your terminal emulator (typically Ctrl-Break).
You should see a rommon1> prompt. At this prompt, type confreg 0x2142 to tell
3.
the switch to ignore the current configuration.
Now type reset at the rommon2> prompt to reset the switch and restart to boot
4.
process.
Answer no to the question about entering setup.
5.
Press Enter to gain access to the Router> prompt and enter the command enable to
6.
access privileged mode.
At the Router# prompt, copy the startup configuration into the running configura-
7.
tion with the command copy startup-config running-config.
Enter global configuration mode with the command configure terminal.
8.
Change the line and secret passwords as covered previously in this section.
9.
10. Reset the configuration register with the command config-register 0x2102.
11. Exit setup mode with the command end.
12. Save the configuration with the command copy running-config startup-config.
Feature Example
This example shows a typical password-recovery procedure 2 for switches:
%OIR-6-CONSOLE: Changing console ownership to route processor
issue break
rommon>confreg 0x2142
rommon>reset
! switch output omitted
Continue with the configuration dialog? [yes/no] : N
Router>enable
Router# copy startup-config running-config
Router# configure terminal
Router(config)# enable secret newpassword
Chapter 3: Supervisor Engine Configuration 33