ASA 5505 Resetting to Factory when it Reboots

[Jake Pratt]

I have an ASA 5505 that is resetting to factory defaults every time it reboots.  I write to memory every time, but as soon as the power is disconnected, or I reload it, it boots back up as "ciscoasa" with the factory defaults.  Does anyone know what would cause this?

Thanks

[Jouni Forss · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I wonder if your ASAs Config Register value has been set so that it boots ignoring the Startup Configuration.

Can you check the output of "show version" command and copy/paste the line starting with "Configuration register is ..." here.

- Jouni

[Jouni Forss]

As a reference, usually the ASA is set to 0x1 so you should be seeing this if that was set

Configuration register is 0x1

- Jouni

[Jake Pratt]

Thanks for your help.  It would have taken me a long time before I looked at the configure register.  Mine was set to 0x41.  So I changed it, using:

config-register 0x1

After that, I reloaded the ASA, and it saved the config like normal.  Thanks again for your help, and fast response!  You saved me potentially a couple hours of troubleshooting and rebuilding my ASA.  Rebuilding it twice was enough for me.