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Completely Clearing a Cisco Switch...The Easy Way!

Clearing out a Cisco switch configuration is always a
pain because VLANs are kept in a seperate file from the startup-config
(NVRAM). There's two ways to clear a switch back to the factory defaults
- the easy way and the REALLY easy way:

The easy way
-

Switch# write erase
Switch# delete flash:vlan.dat
Switch# reload

The REALLY easy way -

Hold the "mode" button on the front of the switch for 10 seconds. The
lights will blink then go solid - the switch completely wipes all
configuration and then reboots. Obviously, this method only works on
stackable switches as the chassis based switches do not have mode
buttons.

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Umm, is it me or is this not

Umm, is it me or is this not a terribly great feature. I know physical security is part of maintaining a secure environment, but this kind of kicks that higher up the requirements chain.
Any know of a way of disabling this 'feature'?

In my experience this does

In my experience this does not wipe the switch at all, it just renames the configfiles and reboots.
"no setup express" disables the button.



Dr. Radut | blog