Recovering From Lost Or Forgotten Passwords On Catalyst 2955 Switches - Cisco Catalyst 2950 Software Configuration Manual

Using Recovery Procedures
Note
You must now reconfigure the switch. If the system administrator has the backup switch and VLAN
Step 10
configuration files available, you should use those.

Recovering from Lost or Forgotten Passwords on Catalyst 2955 Switches

The Catalyst 2955 switch boot loader uses break-key detection to stop the automatic boot sequence for
the password recovery purpose.
The break key character is different for each operating system.
Note
On a SUN work station running UNIX, Ctrl-C is the break key.
On a PC running Windows 2000, Ctrl-Break is the break key.
Cisco TAC has tabulated break keys for most common operating systems and an alternative break key
sequence for those terminal emulators that do not support the break keys. See
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/701/61.html#how-to for that list.
Follow these steps if you have forgotten or lost the switch password.
Step 1 Connect a terminal or PC with terminal emulation software to the console port. For more information,
see the switch hardware installation guide.
Note
Set the line speed on the emulation software to 9600 baud.
Step 2
Connect the power cord to the switch, and apply power to the switch.
Step 3
After the switch performs POST, the switch begins the autoboot process. The boot loader prompts the
user for a break key character during the boot-up sequence, as shown in this example:
***** The system will autoboot in 15 seconds *****
Send a break key to prevent autobooting.
When the boot loader prompts you, enter the break key.
Step 4
This example shows the messages that appear on the console after the user enters a break key:
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 system software:
Catalyst 2950 and Catalyst 2955 Switch Software Configuration Guide
31-8
This procedure is likely to leave your switch VLAN interface in a shutdown state. You can see
which interface is in this state by entering the show running-config privileged EXEC command.
To re-enable the interface, enter the interface vlan vlan-id global configuration command, and
specify the VLAN ID of the shutdown interface. With the switch in interface configuration
mode, enter the no shutdown command.
You can configure your switch for Telnet by following the procedure in the
section on page 2-9.
Chapter 31 Troubleshooting
"Accessing the CLI"
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