C8300 IOS missing whilst password recovery disabled

[Ben-T-Dickens]

So this is a tricky one.

One of my engineers has managed to remove the IOS files from a C8300 while configuring, they made the classic mistake of walking away and then coming back to the work half way through a step.

They copied across the new IOS file that our customer wants upgraded to, and then deleted the old one after setting in config to boot to the new IOS file. And after walking away and coming back, then deleted that new IOS file from Flash. And then applied a config, and restarted.

So the config uses

Config-Register 0x2102

no service password-recovery

So you can see where this is going. Switch cannot load the configured IOS, or any IOS, because its not there, as he deleted it.

Switch also cannot get into Rommon or factory reset itself, because it has no IOS available to recover itself from.

Is there any way round this or has he essentially bricked the switch properly?

[balaji.bandi]

check below guide :

Recovering a Device with the No Service Password-Recovery Feature Enabled

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/cloud_edge/c8300/software_config/cat8300swcfg-xe-17-book/isr9000swcfg-xe-16-12-book_chapter_0111.html#id_109773

[Ben-T-Dickens]

Thanks, we already tried that and it doesn't work - problem is because the guy has deleted all the IOS files BEFORE applying the config, then saving and reloading, it is unable to load any IOS to recover from.

So you get this:

PASSWORD RECOVERY IS DISABLED.

Do you want to reset the router to the factory default 
configuration and proceed [y/n] ? y

***And then, after hitting Y***

Unable to locate IOS:C8300 etc etc.bin

[balaji.bandi]

Connect console and post complete boot logs

you can still get in to ROMMON - using USB you can boot from USB image.

[Ben-T-Dickens]

log below:

Checking for PCIe device presence...done
System integrity status: 0x610
Rom image verified correctly

System Bootstrap, Version 17.6(6r), RELEASE SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1994-2022 by cisco Systems, Inc.

Current image running: Boot ROM1

Last reset cause: LocalSoft
C8300-1N1S-6T platform with 8388608 Kbytes of main memory

PASSWORD RECOVERY FUNCTIONALITY IS DISABLED

........
autoboot: boot failed, restarting...

Resetting .......

Initializing Hardware ...

Checking for PCIe device presence...done
System integrity status: 0x610
Rom image verified correctly

System Bootstrap, Version 17.6(6r), RELEASE SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1994-2022 by cisco Systems, Inc.

Current image running: Boot ROM1

Last reset cause: LocalSoft
C8300-1N1S-6T platform with 8388608 Kbytes of main memory

PASSWORD RECOVERY FUNCTIONALITY IS DISABLED

.....

PASSWORD RECOVERY IS DISABLED.
Do you want to reset the router to the factory default
configuration and proceed y/n [n]: y

Router rebooting with factory default configuration.
unable to open flash:c8000be-universalk9.17.09.05a.SPA.bin (14)

........
autoboot: boot failed, restarting...

Resetting .......

Initializing Hardware ...

Checking for PCIe device presence...done
System integrity status: 0x610
Rom image verified correctly

System Bootstrap, Version 17.6(6r), RELEASE SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1994-2022 by cisco Systems, Inc.

Current image running: Boot ROM1

Last reset cause: LocalSoft
C8300-1N1S-6T platform with 8388608 Kbytes of main memory

PASSWORD RECOVERY FUNCTIONALITY IS DISABLED

......

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

tough one. Can you boot from USB ?

[balaji.bandi]

not got in to this situation.

how about issue another break key option as soon as you see below message :

unable to open flash:c8000be-universalk9.17.09.05a.SPA.bin (14)

then that should drop you ROMMON>

if not raise TAC case for replacement.

[Ben-T-Dickens]

No, we can't get it to do that. The applied Config has 0x2102 - Ignores break so you can't *break* to get to Rommon and boot from USB.

Default behaviour is to throw up an IOS error because its trying to load an IOS that has been configured for, that isn't there. Stuck in a loop with it.