Michael McNamara

The Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 by default has six user accounts each with different levels of access. The "super-user" account is the rwa account and has access to the entire switch.

Default User ID: rwa
Default Password: rwa

Default User ID: rw
Default Password: rw

Default User ID: l3
Default Password: l3

Default User ID: l2
Default Password: l2

Default User ID: l1
Default Password: l1

Default User ID: ro
Default Password: ro

With the release of Nortel's Application Switch Blade for the ERS 8600 there are actually six additional access levels. If you the network administrator of an ERS 8600 is probably best to reset the passwords and/or disable the various access-levels that you are not using. You can accomplish this with the following commands. To change the passwords use the following commands;

ERS-8600:5# config cli password rwa rwa
ERS-8600:5# config cli password rw rw
ERS-8600:5# config cli password l3 l3
ERS-8600:5# config cli password l2 l2
ERS-8600:5# config cli password l1 l1
ERS-8600:5# config cli password ro ro

In software release v4.x and higher the passwords will automatically be synced across both CPUs if there is more than one in the switch. In previous releases you would need to issue the commands above on both CPUs.

You can also disable the different access-levels with the following commands;

ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level rw disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level l3 disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level l2 disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level l1 disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level l4admin disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level slbadmin disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level oper disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level l4oper disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level slboper disable
ERS-8600:5# config cli password access-level ssladmin disable

And don't forget to save your configuration and boot configuration with the following commands;

ERS-8600:5# save config
ERS-8600:5# save bootconfig

You should always change the default passwords in order to secure the network.

Cheers!