There can be times when you need to factory reset a switch. This process can be accomplished through the CLI but if you’ve lost the switch password you’ll need to follow a special process. This process should work for any of the Ethernet Switches (450, 460, 470) and the Ethernet Routing Switches 2500 Series, 4500 Series, 5500 (5510, 5520, 5530) Series. There is a different process to recover lost passwords on the Ethernet Routing Switch 1600 and 8600. Please note that by factory resetting the switch you will loose all configuration settings. It will be as if it just arrived from the “factory”.
Follow these steps:
- Connect to the console port of the switch (9600,8,N,1)
- Reboot the switch.
- When the first line of the diagnostics tests is displayed, press CTRL-C. The system then displays a menu.
- Select option “i” to factory default the switch.
- Select option “a” to run the agent code.
Upon boot up, the switch will be in a factory default configuration.
Cheers!