3750 Switch Password Recovery

While having a class of CCNP-SWITCH, i had to perform some labs using layer-3 switch, i used cisco-3750 for the lab, i found that two of the switches are password protected as we purchased that few days before so i had to recvoer the password. Connect the PC to the console port of the switch and if switch is power on, unplug the power and again plug power and press the mode button (it depends on series to series for how long you have to press mode button untill the light turn to green then release it, in 3750 you may required to press for around 15-seconds).

The switch should then give you this prompt

switch:

To initialize the flash file system, run the command

switch: flash_init

The switch will now print few messages about the flash memeory, now the next command will be the helper command.

switch: load_helper

Now we have to list the contents of our flash memory using folowing command.switch:

swith: dir flash:

This will display you the output somewhat like this as show below
The switch file system appears:

Directory of flash:
13 drwx 192 Mar 01 1993 22:30:48 c3750-ipservices-mz-122-25.SEB
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)

Now rename the configuration file to be used later on.

switch: rename flash:config.text flash:oldconfig.text

To further boot the switch run the boot command, this will start the boot you are used to.

switch: boot

When the switch is booted up, you will realize that the configuration is lost But you are enabled on the switch now and we can recover our old configuration as we kept that in flash with different name.

To recover the old configuration:

Switch# rename flash:oldconfig.text flash:config.text

And now to replace the running configuration with the backup

Switch# copy flash:config.text running-config
Destination filename [running-config]?

Press enter, and you will have your old switch configuration back and you are enabled but remember to change your password now.

I hope this will be informative for you.

Cheers :)

Configuration of Cisco Catalyst Express-500 Switch

In this document i will brielfy explain about the initial configuration / pocedure of Cisco Catalyst Express-500 series switches. The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment in my own office where i am working as i was asked to check this switch and try for all the configurations like VLAN, Ether-channel, Inter-Vlan Routing etc.

Now lets look at the steps to access the switch, Follow the steps in the same order as given to complete the configuration :)

1. Make sure to unplug all device from switch if connected

2. Power the switch

3. Wait for the SETUP LED to blink green

4. Press Setup, A switch port LED begins to blink green

5. When a switch port LED blinks green, connect your PC to that port (normally FastEthernet 0/1)

The LAN adapter of this PC (attached to the switch) must be configured to get the IP address via DHCP. The LEDs on the PC and the switchport blink green while the switch configures the connection (this takes around one minute)

6. Open a web browser, access your switch through IP and it should display the GUI, if not display then follow the followinf steps

a. Issue the ipconfig command in order to view the dynamic address allocation.



The switch configures its management address as the Default Gateway for the LAN adapter card of the PC.

Note: For Cisco IOS Software FY series releases, the management IP address is 10.0.0.1. For Cisco IOS Software SEG series releases, the IP address is 169.254.0.1: "Source is cisco.com for this note"

b. From the browser, go to the mentioned IP address. For example, http://10.0.0.1

7. Enter the Network Settings and Optional Settings (if required). Click Submit in order to save changes and finish the basic configuration.



8. Enter the configured User Name and Password in order to continue the configuration of the switch.



9. Then it will ask you for configuration of smart port, so just click on "no thanks"

10. In last it will display a prompt "Restart the switch with its current settings" and "Reset the switch to its factory default, and then restart the switch", so select the first option "Restart the switch with its current settings" and press "submit".

11. Close the web browser and reconfigure the LAN adapter with an IP address within the same subnet of the new management address of the switch.

12. When the switch restart, open a web browser and go to http://CE-500_Management_IP_Address, For example, http://172.16.100.100

I hope it will be informative for you :)