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May 16, 2007
Completely Clearing a Cisco Switch...The Easy Way!
Clearing out a Cisco switch configuration is always a pain because VLANs are kept in a seperate file from the startup-config (NVRAM). There's two ways to clear a switch back to the factory defaults - the easy way and the REALLY easy way:
The easy way -
Switch# write erase
Switch# delete flash:vlan.dat
Switch# reload
The REALLY easy way -
Hold the "mode" button on the front of the switch for 10 seconds. The lights will blink then go solid - the switch completely wipes all configuration and then reboots. Obviously, this method only works on stackable switches as the chassis based switches do not have mode buttons.
Posted by JC at May 16, 2007 2:29 PM
Comments
Umm, is it me or is this not a terribly great feature. I know physical security is part of maintaining a secure environment, but this kind of kicks that higher up the requirements chain.
Any know of a way of disabling this 'feature'?
Posted by: Scared at May 20, 2007 7:21 PM
In my experience this does not wipe the switch at all, it just renames the configfiles and reboots.
"no setup express" disables the button.
Posted by: ior at May 25, 2007 3:08 PM