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Password recovery on WLC 2100 series

andy_4578
Level 1
Level 1

I think i may already know the answer to this, but as a last ditch attempt, does anybody know if there is a way to recover a WLC password?

We have a few WLC 2100 series controllers with quite complex configurations, SSID's spread accross large number of vlans and access-lists governing traffic etc, but since a network outage last week its become apparent we need to take backups of all our equipment and we cant access the WLC's.

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Tiago Antunes
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi Andy,

This has been an issue on the WLC old codes, but recently has been resolved...

On previous versions, to recover the password you would need to reset the WLC to factory defaults...

You may want to take a look into thid DDTS CSCsg48089:

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit/search/getBugDetails.do?method=fetchBugDetails&bugId=CSCsg48089.

There was a possible workaround..but you need to have several things working already to be able to uses it.

However, in newer versions this has been resolved and now you can follow the procedure:

If you forget your password in WLC version 5.1 and later, you can use the CLI from the controller's serial console in order to configure a new user name and password. Complete these steps in order to configure a new user name and password.

1.       After the controller boots up, enter Restore-Password at the user prompt.

Note: For security reasons, the text that you enter does not appear on the controller console.

2.       At the Enter User Name prompt, enter a new user name.

3.       At the Enter Password prompt, enter a new password.

4.       At the Re-enter Password prompt, re-enter the new password.

The controller validates and stores your entries in the database.

5.       When the User prompt reappears, enter your new username.

6.       When the Password prompt appears, enter your new password.

The controller logs you in with your new username and password.

HTH,

Tiago

--

If  this helps you and/or answers your question please mark the question as  "answered" and/or rate it, so other users can easily find it.

View solution in original post

1 Reply 1

Tiago Antunes
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi Andy,

This has been an issue on the WLC old codes, but recently has been resolved...

On previous versions, to recover the password you would need to reset the WLC to factory defaults...

You may want to take a look into thid DDTS CSCsg48089:

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit/search/getBugDetails.do?method=fetchBugDetails&bugId=CSCsg48089.

There was a possible workaround..but you need to have several things working already to be able to uses it.

However, in newer versions this has been resolved and now you can follow the procedure:

If you forget your password in WLC version 5.1 and later, you can use the CLI from the controller's serial console in order to configure a new user name and password. Complete these steps in order to configure a new user name and password.

1.       After the controller boots up, enter Restore-Password at the user prompt.

Note: For security reasons, the text that you enter does not appear on the controller console.

2.       At the Enter User Name prompt, enter a new user name.

3.       At the Enter Password prompt, enter a new password.

4.       At the Re-enter Password prompt, re-enter the new password.

The controller validates and stores your entries in the database.

5.       When the User prompt reappears, enter your new username.

6.       When the Password prompt appears, enter your new password.

The controller logs you in with your new username and password.

HTH,

Tiago

--

If  this helps you and/or answers your question please mark the question as  "answered" and/or rate it, so other users can easily find it.

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