Can't factory reset Switch

[kdogdevs]

Recently, the company I work for closed down a data center, and I ended up with a bunch of equipment, one of which is a C9300L-48P-4X-A - CISCO CATALYST 9300L 48P POE+ switch. It has some configuration on it, and I just want it to be a dumb switch where I plug it into my router, and bam, I have 47 more ports of POE+. A few restrictions: I don't really want to buy a serial cable. Other than that, I'm really lost; I have never really interacted with Cisco's stuff at all, so explain it to me like I know nothing about Cisco because I don't.

[balaji.bandi · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately i believe you need Console cable all you need to reset the device as per below guide :

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst9300/software/release/16-6/configuration_guide/sys_mgmt/b_166_sys_mgmt_9300_cg/b_166_sys_mgmt_9300_cg_chapter_01100.html#task_nzq_q4z_n1b

but if you have SSH access - you can delete the startup and running config from flash may also do the work, but when it reload, it has no config, so you need console to check (if that works - delete and reload will erase all the config).

you can also do other method if you have SSH access to device :

How to Perform Factory Reset

Procedure

	Command or Action	Purpose
Step 1	enable Example: Device> enable	Enables privileged EXEC mode. Enter your password if prompted.
Step 2	factory-reset { all | config | boot-vars} Example: Device# factory-reset all	Use the command with all options enabled. No system configuration is required to use the factory reset command. Erases all the content from the NVRAM, all the Cisco IOS images, including the current boot image, boot variables, startup and running configuration data, and user data. Use the option config to reset the start-up configurations. Use the option boot-vars to reset the user added boot variables. After the Factory Reset process is successfully completed, the device reboots and stops at ROMMON mode.