I have seen this behavior too and know how to work around it, but was hoping for some clarification from Cisco or someone who knows more. The earlier reply to reload the switch doesn't work if it is already part of the startup-config. Curiously, even if there is no "ip host-routing" or "ip routing" in the config, if you issue the "no ip host-routing" command you'll actually get "ip host-routing" in your running-config! I suppose if you reload the switch at this point, you'll go back to your startup-config. Otherwise, issuing the "no ip host-routing" command will not generate an error and it will not remove "ip host-routing." The work-around I found was to issue "ip routing" and then "no ip routing." However, if you do this, you will get a "no ip route-cache" on all of the VLAN SVIs as well as the management interface. On an older switch, 3560, I just had to issue "ip route-cache" on the VLAN SVIs. On a newer switch, 9300, I had to additionally issue "ip route-cache cef."
Update:
The behavior of "no ip host-routing" seems to depend on version IOS. I tried this on a 3560 with ver:
Cisco IOS Software, C3560 Software (C3560-IPBASE-M), Version 12.2(25)SEB2, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1986-2005 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 07-Jun-05 23:34 by yenanh
and the result was "ip routing" which you can then clear with "no ip routing."
On a 3560 with newer IOS (I don't have access to it right now but I remember it was dated 2017) it fails silently as decribed above.
On a 9300 with ver:
Cisco IOS XE Software, Version 16.08.01a
Cisco IOS Software [Fuji], Catalyst L3 Switch Software (CAT9K_IOSXE), Version 16.8.1a, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2018 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 03-Apr-18 18:49 by mcpre
it also fails silently as described above.
