Comments on: Factory Reset Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch

By: Michael McNamara

Michael McNamara — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:42:24 +0000

Hi Gaurav,

You need to cable up to the console port, cold boot the switch, interrupt the boot process and drop into the boot monitor. From there you should be able to issue a “reset-passwd” or similar command from the boot monitor.

http://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2007/12/factory-reset-nortel-ethernet-routing-switch/

Good Luck!

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:28:50 +0000

Hi can anybody tell me how to make factory default ers 1600 if you forgot your password

By: Michael McNamara

Michael McNamara — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:36:52 +0000

You can just delete the config.cfg file from the /flash directory on the *new* standby CPU/SF… copy the boot.cfg and software from the original CPU/SF to the standby CPU/SF and then boot the standby CPU/SF. Issue a “save config standby” on the primary after you have the standby CPU/SF booted and it will copy the configuration from the primary. You need to have TFTP enabled in the boot flags.

Good Luck!

By: cmcdaniel

cmcdaniel — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:46:47 +0000

sorry – the chassis is 8610 and the CPU is 8692SF

By: cmcdaniel

cmcdaniel — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:45:22 +0000

Michael – I have a dual chassis setup we are collapsing to 1, what is the command sequence for resetting the stand-by CPU to factory defaults so I can insert it into slot 6 and run it as the standby…thx in advance!

By: justin

justin — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:36:25 +0000

All the break sequences i have tried dont seem to work, happy to lose all the config, these are quite old versions of software so dont boot like the passport 8k kit or things like the baystack switches by the look, are there any other boot sequences that they used?

By: Michael McNamara

Michael McNamara — Fri, 06 May 2011 00:45:59 +0000

You should be able to interrupt the boot process… then there should be an option in the boot loader to factory reset the configuration similar to the ERS 8600.

I don’t have any ERS 1600 series switches around anymore so I can’t really tell you exactly.

You could also delete /flash/boot.cfg and /flash/config.cfg and with the exception of the user passwords that should cover almost everything, although you would need to know the old rwa password.

Good Luck!

By: justin

justin — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:38:22 +0000

hi, used your site a few times, its saved me!! currently have a ers1612g and a 1624g that we need to factory reset, usual stuff doesn’t seem to work are we missing a trick??

By: Michael McNamara

Michael McNamara — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:10:52 +0000

Hmmm… you have a single 869xSF in the chassis?

After issuing the reset-passwd command just boot the agent code, don’t reset the switch. You can boot the agent code with this command (assuming you are using 3.5.1.0 software);

boot /flash/p80a3510.img

Good Luck!

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:23:49 +0000

I am running 3.5.1.0 (yes, I know that’s old). When I am in the boot monitor I see the command and can run it. It doesn’t tell me anything after I run it (that it was successful or failed). When I enter the reset command and the router reboots, it comes up without the default password. One attempt I entered the reset-passwd command twice and the console echoed “password reset was unsuccessful” I believe that it is not reseting the password because rwa rwa doesn’t work.