Cisco ISR 1101 not keeping startup configuration between reloads

[Mathias Peter IT]

Please excuse what might me an off-topic post to this board. I have not found an appropriate board for my issue, and in here I assume most people with generic Cisco IOS and hardware experiences to be present.

I got a Cisco ISR 1101 running

17.03.05

to set up. In the months before, I've set up many

1111's 

without issue but this one leaves me puzzled.

Configuring the device works as expected. I'm doing a wr as usual. After a power-cycle, or a reload, the device boots without startup config.

At boot time, I get this message:

Router IOS Configuration has been cleared

************************************************************************************************************
Erasing Nvram will not clear license trust code.
************************************************************************************************************
No startup-config, starting autoinstall/pnp/ztp...

Autoinstall will terminate if any input is detected on console

Note: Configuration register is

0x2102

and the device is not just ignoring the

startup-config

at boot time, but apparently it's erasing it! At least that's how I understand the console output from above.

Router# show startup-config 
startup-config is not present

In addition, this precise string "Router IOS Configuration has been cleared" is not to be found by Google anywhere!

Has anyone seen this behavior before? Has someone a hint what would trigger such a behavior?

Thanks!

[balaji.bandi]

17.3.5

is good stable version, not that we encounter this issue.

Can you post

show version and dir flash

complete output

[M02@rt37]

Hello @Mathias Peter IT,

Double-check if there's an active

PnP or ZTP

configuration that could be causing this behavior.

Thanks.

[Mathias Peter IT · Accepted solution]

I've found and solved the

culprit

myself. It was a hardware issue.

Thanks @balaji.bandi to force me to boot the box again to collect the requested information!

Usually I don't watch devices boot, but this time it was most helpful! I got an initial message - still at boot ROM level - about the reset key being pressed. Unfortunately, I was unable to copy-paste that message before pulling the USB connection. When you steal the

/dev/tty

device node (by removing e. g. the USBserial device) from

gnu

screen it just closes. Sorry! (I'm using a Mac at work.)

I used a paperclip to see if the button was stuck. I could neither observe a tactile, or audible click from the button. So I assumed it was either stuck or defective. Thus I disassembled the device, just to recognize the button works flawlessly.

I pushed the button after each reassembly step to make sure it's not stuck (again). No further message about a pressed reset-button. And the startup-config is now retained between reloads.

[balaji.bandi]

Glad all working as expected, thank you for the input and solution.

[M02@rt37]

Great!! Happy for you!