Password Recovery Cisco 2960 x Stack

[Bobby Mazzotti]

Hi Everyone,

I need to do a password recovery for one of my clients that has 3 2960x switches, all stacked. I was wondering if there is anything I need to know about doing one switch at a time and powering them off. If, I power one switch down to do the recovery, will that cause issues for the others in the stack? Do I need to disconnect the stack master?

This is the article I believe that I need to reseting the passwords: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/catalyst-2950-series-switches/12040-pswdrec-2900xl.html

Any gotcha's I should look out for?

Thanks!

[Leo Laohoo]

In regards to password recover, you don't need to kill the entire stack.  Nominate one of the member switches and disconnect that switch from the stack.  Follow the process from the link you've posted.  

[Bobby Mazzotti]

When I do the password recovery won't the stack master sync and update the password with its config? (IE undo all the changes I made in the recovery procedure?)

When you say nominate, do you mean select another switch in the stack to be the master?

[Leo Laohoo]

When I do the password recovery won't the stack master sync and update the password with its config?

That is correct.  That's why you disconnect/remove the switch from the stack.  You don't do password recovery on a switch still connected to the stack because it could potentially kill the network.

When you say nominate, do you mean select another switch in the stack to be the master?

No, the opposite.  

Pick any switch member in the stack.  Take it off the stack.  This member of the stack could be the switch with the least amount of wired clients.  

Remove the stacking cable completely and then perform the password recovery.

[Bobby Mazzotti]

Awesome! I'll be doing this tomorrow. I'll let you know my progress and close this discussion out when finished.

I think you have been the one to answer most, if not all of my questions in the community.

Thanks Leo!

[Leo Laohoo]

I think you have been the one to answer most, if not all of my questions in the community.

Thanks Bobby.  Glad to be able to offer some form of assistance.

[Bobby Mazzotti]

Hi Leo -

So after holding the mode button down I'm not getting the option to break the prompt.

Could this mean AAA is enabled? Switches are not stacked as I thought they might be.

CPU rev: B
Image passed digital signature verification
Board rev: 5
Testing DataBus...
Testing AddressBus...
Testing Memory from 0x00000000 to 0x1fffffff.../
Using driver version 3 for media type 1
Xmodem file system is available.
Base ethernet MAC Address: 2c:3e:cf:3f:ee:80
The password-recovery mechanism is enabled.
USB EHCI 1.00
USB EHCI 1.00
USB Console INIT
Initializing Flash...
mifs[5]: 10 files, 1 directories
mifs[5]: Total bytes     :    1806336
mifs[5]: Bytes used      :     690688
mifs[5]: Bytes available :    1115648
mifs[5]: mifs fsck took 1 seconds.
mifs[6]: 0 files, 1 directories
mifs[6]: Total bytes     :    3870720
mifs[6]: Bytes used      :       1024
mifs[6]: Bytes available :    3869696
mifs[6]: mifs fsck took 0 seconds.
mifs[7]: 5 files, 1 directories
mifs[7]: Total bytes     :     258048
mifs[7]: Bytes used      :       8192
mifs[7]: Bytes available :     249856
mifs[7]: mifs fsck took 0 seconds.
mifs[8]: 5 files, 1 directories
mifs[8]: Total bytes     :     258048
mifs[8]: Bytes used      :       8192
mifs[8]: Bytes available :     249856
mifs[8]: mifs fsck took 0 seconds.
mifs[9]: 626 files, 20 directories
mifs[9]: Total bytes     :  122185728
mifs[9]: Bytes used      :   23478272
mifs[9]: Bytes available :   98707456
mifs[9]: mifs fsck took 29 seconds.
...done Initializing Flash.

-B

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

No Bobby.  You've "missed the boat" if the prompt has gone this far.  

Power down the switch.  

Hold the Mode button down.  

Power up the switch.  

Just keep holding the mode button down until you see the ROMmon prompt.  I normally just hold down the "Mode" button for 30 seconds and release.  

[Leo Laohoo]

Alternatively, you can try something else (and hopefully the person who configured the switch doesn't know this).  

Power up the switch normally and you can console into the switch.  Ok, so you can't enter the correct username/password.  

Hold the "Mode" button for 5 seconds and then release.  Tell me what the console does next.  It should "reboot" into Cisco Express Setup mode.

[Bobby Mazzotti]

Scratch Cisco's instructions as they stated "wait until you see solid green" However, if you wait for that and release the devices started to load the image. 

One thing I noted was "load_helper" was not an option, but I proceeded with the instructions skipping this step. All is well and I now have access to the switch w/o having to rebuild the device.

Thanks again!

[Leo Laohoo]

Thanks for taking the time to rate our posts, Bobby.  :)