catalyst 3550 switch password recovery without losing running configuration

[chialun]

dear sir,

Anyone have exprience to recover lost password at catalyst 3550 switch? We hope to recover the switch password without losing the running configurations . The hardware box is live.

Please advise. thank you very much. Your effort shall be highly appreciated.

[royalblues]

check out the link

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps646/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a00801f0a57.html#1021182

HTH, rate if it does

Narayan

[chialun]

hi royalblues,

thank you very much for your replies, however i have only 1 hours downtime. Is it sufficient? Furthermore , i hope after perform the password recovery, the running configurtions won't be lost. Any idea?

Please advise.

[royalblues]

It should not take more time and if you follow the steps correctly, you should not lose your config.

Anyway it always better to take the backup of your configurations and the VLAN database

HTH

Narayan

[chialun]

hi narayan,

How i want to backup the configurations and the VLAN database since now i forgotten the password and can't access the switch?

thanks.

[amit-singh]

Hi Friend,

If you follow the document properly given by Narayan, there will not be any problem. For the configuration point step number 8 is very important. Make sure that you follow the document properly and you will be good to go. I guess 1 hr will be sufficient.

Just to be on safer side, one you are don with STEP 8 take the backup of you config.

HTH,

-amit singh

[chialun]

Hi amit singh and all,

thank you for your advise, however based on the document, I just worry my case is "procedure with password recovery disabled " , that's means i'll lose all the existing configurations.

please advise. thank you very much.

[smothuku]

Hi ,

Yes , you are correct..If password recovery mechanism is disabled in switch then you will lose all the config..

To recover the password follow the steps mentioned in document..

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps628/products_password_recovery09186a0080094184.shtml

Thanks,

satish

[chialun]

hi satish,

How the password recovery mechanism can be disabled? if disabled , how to enable it?

thanks.

please advise.

[smothuku]

Hi ,

Password recovery is disabled using the follwing command.

3550(config)#no service password-recovery

3550(config)#end

3550#write memory

This would disable the normal password recovery procedure, and if someone tries to do it,the following message would be display:

The password-recovery mechanism has been triggered, but is currently disabled. Access to the boot loader prompt through the password-recovery mechanism is disallowed at

this point. However, if you agree to let the system be reset back to the default system

configuration, access to the boot loader prompt can still be allowed.

If you want to enable password recovery then use ""service password-recovery"" command in global config.

Hope it helps you.

Thanks,

satish

[chialun]

Hi Satish,

Thank you very much for all the thoughts and helps. Now we know how's the password recovery mechanism works. However,right now is the catalyst 3550 switch already in password recovery disabled and we forgotten the password. We don't want to lost the existing running configurations.

any idea. Please advise.

thanks.

[chialun]

Hi all,

FRom the questions above, i believe this is more towards cracking the cisco ios ?

thanks.

please advise.