Need some advice

[gregorykoelling]

I bought a Cisco Catalyst switch from a hamfest (amateur radio swap meet) and am trying to get it working.  I am a retired software engineer and am just looking to get this working.  I can connect to it through a serial conection and can run some initial commands.  All the research says I should be able to hook an ethernet cable to it and configure it through a web interface.  Does not happen.  Is there firmware I can load into it and get a default configuration?

[Mark Elsen]

  - @gregorykoelling                      What is the switch model ?

  M.

[gregorykoelling]

Here is a copy of the boot sequence I recorded.  Hopefully the information you reqested is in there.  If not, then let me know how I can get it.

[gregorykoelling]

Catalyst 3650

[Torbjørn]

Hello @gregorykoelling, welcome to the community!

Exciting stuff! I have always wanted to go to a HAM meet, but there are unfortunately none near me. 
You will either need a micro/mini USB to connect to a USB serial port on the switch(marked with blue), or you will need a USB serial adapter to connect to the RJ45 serial port. If you are buying a serial adapter I can recommend looking for a "FTDI" based one.

[gregorykoelling]

Some more information about my setup.  I am a Raspberry Pi user and am trying to use on to connect to my switch.  I have an USB cable connected between my Raspberry Pi and my switch.  It shows up as a Cisco device on my Rapberry Pi running Raspberry PI OS.  Are there Linux applicatioons that will allow me to control the switch?

[Aref Alsouqi]

Before you can manage the switch via UI you need to enable HTTP services and have a privileged account for login. Also, you need to know the IP address of the switch management port or the SVI that you will be using for management.

Here is the list of commands that would be needed:

ip http secure-server
ip http authentication local
username < YOUR USERNAME > privilege 15 secret < YOUR PASSWORD >

For the IP address you can configure the dedicated management interface or an SVI:

interface < THE DEDICATED MANAGEMENT INTERFACE >
   ip add < IP ADDRESS > < SUBNET MASK >
or
interface vlan XXX
   ip address < IP ADDRESS > < SUBNET MASK >

And then save with the command wr.

After that you need to set an IP on your laptop from within the same subnet as management and same subnet mask. Finally you can open a browser and type the switch IP address "https://< THE SWITCH IP ADDRESS >".

If you are going to use an SVI for management please make sure that the switch port where your laptop will be connected is configured in the same VLAN as the SVI.

Take a look at this link for reference please:

Manage Catalyst 9000 Switches Using the Web UI - Cisco

[gregorykoelling]

OK.  Not sure how I can do that  First off, there does not appear to be a web interface or I don't know how to get it started.  When I hook up an ethernet cable to a port on the switch I d not get an ip address or anything.  It is like the web interface is not running.  

How can I run commands?  

[gregorykoelling]

It would appear the switch is not taking any commands.  I can watch events happening as it boots up but nothing happens when I enter commands.  The USB-Serial Adapter gives me  red light like maybe the switch is not accepting commands.  Any ideas?

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@gregorykoelling wrote:
USB-Serial Adapter gives me  red light like maybe the switch is not accepting commands

---

Why use a USB-to-Serial adaptor when the front of the 3650 is a USB mini-Type B port used for console? 

Any USB mini will do.  

[Aref Alsouqi]

Mmm, not sure, maybe you can try to factory reset the switch and see if that helps?

https://www.router-switch.com/faq/cisco-catalyst-3650-default-username-password-guide.html

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Did you notice @Mark Elsen request for the specific model?

Possibly you've misread support for web configuration support, because its support is very, very variable, especially dependent on the age of a particular Catalyst switch series, and the particular IOS installed upon it.

I see your OP is tagged with Catalyst 3000.  A really old 35xx might have no web support at all or a very limited version.

As others have already noted, to even to use web access often requires it to be initially configured, using a command line interface.

BTW, some of Cisco's SMB routers and switches support web configuration access, from the start, but even some of those require using their command line to fully use their capabilities.

It's worthwhile to learn Cisco's command line.

Unknown how well you understand networking, but I suggest you sign up to obtain a copy of Cisco's Packet Tracer, and take Cisco's (I believe free) introductory courses on using PT.  It's a great, basic, learning tool, and, laugh, not as noisy.

[gregorykoelling]

I sent Mark a trace of the boot sequence I recorded.  Hopefully it has the information he needs.  

I am a novice at networking but would like to know more.  I will look for a copy of Cisco's Packet Tracer and check out the Cisco training.  Thank you.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

I sent Mark a trace of the boot sequence I recorded.

Ah, just looking at it.   Do you see the final line?  That's the command line prompt for non admin access.  If you can enter text, you should be able to configure the switch.  The initial key command, you'll want to enter, is (w/o quotes) "enable" (or just abbreviated to "en" - command line will accept a keyword abbreviation as long as there are enough letters to uniquely distinguish it from other keywords - also there are other command line features to make its usage much less tedious - in someways, the command line is much better than a web interface) as shown in @Mark Elsen recent post.  The last character of the command line prompt should change to indicate you're now in admin mode.

What Mark further shows, may or may not work, as there are other network dependencies for the correct configuration, even for a single interface.

What the switch will first need is a VLAN 1 interface with a "good" host IP address/mask, Mark shows how to manually configure an IPv4 address; however you may need to change the IP and/or mask.  Possibly your switch might even support using an DHCP address, although that's unusual on a network device.

The boot log showed SVI 1 already up.  If true, what Mark showed for enabling the interface is redundant.

Mark also shows configuring a default gateway.  As a 3650 is a L3 switch, the need for a default gateway may, eventually, may not be needed.  In the meantime, 1) it's not needed to communicate with other hosts on the same network, and 2) you need a gateway to correctly support the subnet.  I.e., initially, first get same subnet telnet, SSH, HTTP(S) working.

BTW, on net switch access will require further switch configuration to support.

Also BTW, as it appears you have a 3650, it's modern enough, it may support a fairly useful (optional) web interface.  That said, you really should become well acquainted with the command line.  The only feature of a web interface, that's really often much better, is graphing results.

Another BTW, a 3650 switch is a device provided in Packet Tracer, available if you sign up at Cisco's Network Academy.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Attached is a PT zipped file which has a 3650 and a PC host, both configures so that the PC can access the 3650 via a console cable or via telnet.

The PC was configured with an IP of 192.168.1.100/24

The switch was configured with

!much as Mark showed . . .
enable
conf t
int vlan 1
ip address 192.168.1.10 255.255.255.0
no shut
line vty 0 4
!this vty config not suitable, as it disables security, for normal use
no login
priv level 15
end

With the above, the PC client can ping and telnet to the switch.

PT doesn't appear to support HTTP on the switch.  (PT often doesn't provide many features found on the real device.)