Extreme Networks

Recovering from a Lost or Forgotten Password

The default configuration for the switch allows an end user with physical access to the switch to recover from a lost password by interrupting the boot process during power-on and by entering a new password. These recovery procedures require that you have physical access to the switch.

________________________________________

Note On theseswitches, a system administrator can disable some of the functionality of this feature by allowing an end user to reset a password only by agreeing to return to the default configuration. If you are an end user trying to reset a password when password recovery has been disabled, a status message shows this during the recovery process.
________________________________________

These sectionsdescribes how to recover a forgotten or lost switch password:

• Procedure with Password Recovery Enabled

• Procedure with Password Recovery Disabled

You enable or disable password recovery by using the service password-recovery global configuration command. Follow the steps in this procedure if you have forgotten or lost the switch password.
________________________________________Step 1 Connect a terminal or PC with terminal-emulation software to the switch console port.

tep 2 Set the line speed on the emulation software to 9600 baud.

Step 3 Power off the switch. Reconnect the power cord to the switch and, within 15 seconds, press the Mode button while the System LED is still flashing green. Continue pressing the Mode button until the System LED turns brieflyamber and then solid green; then release the Mode button.

Several lines of information about the software appear with instructions, informing you if the password recovery procedure has been disabled or not.



• If you see a message that begins with this:

The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash file system. The
following commands will initialize the flashfile system

proceed to the "Procedure with Password Recovery Enabled" section, and follow the steps.

• If you see a message that begins with this:

The password-recovery mechanism has been triggered, but is currently disabled.

proceed to the "Procedure with Password Recovery Disabled" section, and follow the steps.

Step 4 After recovering the password, reload the switch:Switch> reload
Proceed with reload? [confirm] y


________________________________________

Procedure with Password Recovery Enabled

If the password-recovery mechanism is enabled, this message appears:

The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash file system. The following
commands will initialize the flash file system, and finish loading the operating systemsoftware:
flash_init
load_helper
boot

________________________________________

Step 1 Initialize the flash file system:

switch: flash_init
Step 2 If you had set the console port speed to anything other than 9600, it has been reset to that particular speed. Change the emulation software line speed to match that of the switch console port.

Step 3 Load any helper files:swtch: load_helper
Step 4 Display the contents of flash memory:

switch: dir flash:
The switch file system appears:

Directory of flash:
13 drwx 192 Mar 01 1993 22:30:48 c2960-lanbase-mz.122-25.FX
11 -rwx 5825 Mar 01 1993 22:31:59 config.text
18 -rwx 720 Mar 01 1993 02:21:30 vlan.dat
16128000 bytes total (10003456 bytes free)
Step 5 Renamethe configuration file to config.text.old.

This file contains the password definition.

switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.text.old
Step 6

Boot the system:

switch: boot
You are prompted to start the setup program. Enter N at the prompt:

Continue with the configuration dialog? [yes/no]: N
Step 7 At the switch prompt, enter privileged EXEC mode:

Switch> enable...