Michael McNamara

There can be times when you need to factory reset a switch. This process can be accomplished through the CLI but if you've lost the switch password you'll need to follow a special process. This process should work for any of the Ethernet Switches (450, 460, 470) and the Ethernet Routing Switches 2500 Series, 4500 Series, 5500 (5510, 5520, 5530) Series. There is a different process to recover lost passwords on the Ethernet Routing Switch 1600 and 8600.

Follow these steps:

1. Connect to the console port of the switch (9600,8,N,1)
   
2. Reboot the switch.
3. When the first line of the diagnostics tests is displayed, press CTRL-C. The system then displays a menu.
4. Select option "i" to factory default the switch.
5. Select option "a" to run the agent code.

Upon boot up, the switch will be in a factory default configuration.

Cheers!

If for whatever reason you've lost the Web UI or "admin" password your only recourse is to factory default the wireless switch.

To access the switch using a password recovery username and password:
1. Connect a terminal (or PC running terminal emulation software) to the serial port on the front of the switch. The switch login screen displays. Use the following CLI command for normal login process:

WS5100
login: cli

2. Enter a password recovery username of "restore" and password recovery password of "restoreDefaultPassword".

User Access Verification
Username: restore
Password: restoreDefaultPasword
WARNING: This will wipe out the configuration (except license key) and user data under "flash:/" and reboot the device
Do you want to continue? (y/n):y

3. Press Y to delete the current configuration and reset with factory defaults.

Once the switch has complete it's reboot you should be able to login with the default userID or "admin" and the default password of "symbol". If you had previously backed up the configuration of the switch you could restore your old configuration.