Booting The Cisco 7500 Series Router For The First Time; Using The Enable Secret And The Enable Password - Cisco 7500 Series Configuration Manual

Booting the Cisco 7500 Series Router for the First Time

Booting the Cisco 7500 Series Router for the First Time

The router is administered using the Cisco command interpreter, called the EXEC. You must boot and
log in to the router before you can enter an EXEC command. For security purposes the EXEC has two
levels of access to commands: user EXEC mode and privileged EXEC mode.
To enter the privileged mode you must enter the enable secret password (which is optional, but must first
have been saved in memory) on systems running Cisco IOS Release 10.2(3) or later, or the enable
password on systems running Cisco IOS releases prior to Release 10.2(3) or when using the boot ROM
software. At the ROM monitor prompt, view what is in onboard Flash memory using the following
command (the Cisco IOS software image name shown is used as an example only):
rommon 1> dir bootflash:
File size
3277967 bytes (0x32048f)
rommon 2>
Also, you can view contents of the Flash memory PC Card in slot 0 or slot 1 using the following
command (the Cisco IOS software image name shown is used as an example only):
rommon 2> dir slot0:
File size
3054276 bytes (0x2e9ac4)
rommon 3>
Boot from one of the images in Flash memory using the following commands (the Cisco IOS software
image name shown is used as an example only):
rommon 3> boot slot0:rsp-jv-mz.111-8
rommon 3> boot slot1:rsp-jv-mz.111-8
rommon 3> boot bootflash:rsp-jv-mz.111-8
If you did not change the configuration register setting, the next reload will revert to the default
configuration register setting. The factory default configuration register setting for systems is 0x102; for
RSP spares the default is 0x101.

Using the Enable Secret and the Enable Password

The commands available at the user level are a subset of those available at the privileged level. Because
many privileged-level EXEC commands are used to set operating parameters, you should
password-protect these commands to prevent unauthorized use.
There are two commands you can use to do this, depending on which release of the Cisco IOS software
you have:
•
•
The enable and enable secret password functionality is available in all Cisco IOS releases for the Cisco
7500 series routers. You must enter the correct password to gain access to privileged-level commands.
When you are running from the boot ROM, the enable password might be used depending on your ROM
level.
The passwords should be different for maximum security. If you enter the same password for both during
the setup script, the system will accept it, but you will receive a warning message indicating that you
should enter a different password.
Cisco 7500 Series Installation and Configuration Guide
4-8
enable secret password (which is a very secure, encrypted password)
enable password (which is a less secure, or nonencrypted, password)
Chapter 4
Checksum File name
0x6b331e30 rsp-jv-mz.111-8
Checksum File name
0x97788495 rsp-jv-mz.111-8
Performing a Basic Configuration of the System
OL-5008-03 B0