Troubleshoot CIMC Password Recovery for ENCS Platforms

Introduction

This document describes a step-by-step guide on how to recover the CIMC credentials for ENCS 54XX platforms that have CIMC capability.

Prerequisites

Requirements

Cisco recommends that you have knowledge of these topics:

• This document applies to ENCS devices that have CIMC capability.
• The process can vary on other platforms such as uCPE Catalyst 8300 and CSP modules which also have CIMC capabilities.
• You must have physical device access or availability to manage remotely the power source of the affected device.
• In order to perform a CIMC password recovery, you must have CIMC console connection from the device. SSH or Telnet connection to the device cannot be used for this process.

Note: A terminal server can be used for console connection. However, direct console connection is recommended.

Components Used

The information in this document is based on these software and hardware versions:

• Hardware: ENCS5412/K9
• CIMC Firmware Version: 3.2(14.19)

The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment. All of the devices used in this document started with a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, ensure that you understand the potential impact of any command.

Background Information

These steps can be used to recover the CIMC access by resetting the CIMC credentials to their default values.
The main purpose of this password recovery process is to delete the EMMC partition that has CIMC configuration to clear the unknown credentials.

Warning: When you format the EMMC partition, the contents of the EMMC card, such as the Baseboard Management Controller configuration, ISO file, and password, are cleared. Make a backup of the VM hosted over CIMC before continuing with the password recovery steps.

CIMC Password Recovery Steps

Step 1. Reboot the device. You are required to reload the device from the power source or disconnect it from the power source as you do not have access to the device.

Step 2. While the device is booting, a message is displayed to stop the autoboot process. Type *** to stop it.

Note: Please check where the (*) character is on your keyboard before beginning with this process. This step has a limited time of 10 seconds to be executed.

CHIMP v1.3
Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. (c) 2011, 2012

Attempting cisco_chimp_boot with FLAT_MMU algo
Divisor: 0x00000008
Checking if we are already running from PLL
Already running from PLL
Image 1 validation in progress
Image 1 validation COMPLETE

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jun 4 2024 - 16:03:59)
U-Boot code: 87F00000 -> 87F21AAC BSS: -> 87F26164
IRQ Stack: 87e9ff7c
FIQ Stack: 87e9ef7c
RAM Configuration:
Bank #0: 80800000 256 MB
Found SPI Chip Numonyx N28Q128 
Flash: 16 MB
Using default environment

Net: Phy Id dd1 not matching dev_num is 0
Phy Id ffff not matching dev_num is 1
pilot_eth0, pilot_eth1
Enable port 80 capture.
Type *** to stop autoboot:

Step 3. When the autoboot is avoided, the device prompts the ucse-cimc terminal. Type boot current recovery to boot up into recovery mode.
Step 4. Once you boot on recovery mode, the device asks for default credentials to get into recovery mode.

Note: The CIMC default credentials are: admin as the username and password as the password. The recovery-shell command line parser is very primitive and cannot parse the arrow key, backspace or most of the special characters. Please type the exact command.

starting pid 1146, tty '': '/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100'

CISCO-IMC login: admin
Password: password
login[1146]: root login on 'ttyS0'
recovery-shell# 

Step 5. On recovery shell prompt, type emmc format p3 to format the p3 partition on the EMMC card that has the CIMC configuration.

recovery-shell# emmc format p3
Formatting partition 3
done

Step 6. Once the format process is done, type reboot to get back to boot up CIMC normally. Once CIMC has booted up, log in with the default credentials and continue with the steps to create a new password.

recovery-shell# reboot
Restarting system.


CHIMP v1.3
Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. (c) 2011, 2012

Attempting cisco_chimp_boot with FLAT_MMU algo
Divisor: 0x00000008
Checking if we are already running from PLL
Already running from PLL
Image 1 validation in progress
Image 1 validation COMPLETE

<output omitted>

Successfully reset boot order to factory defaults
BMC-LAST-SCRIPT [SUCCESS]
OP:[ on ] OP-CCODE:[ Success ]
OP:[ fp_lock ] OP-CCODE:[ Success ]
ls: /mnt/datastore/*gold*: No such file or directory
starting pid 4670, tty '': '/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100'
ENCS5412-FGL223781BV login: admin
Password: password
****************WARNING!***************** 
Default credentials were used for login. 
Administrator password needs to be 
changed for security purposes. 
*****************************************
Enter current password: password
Please change the password... 
Enter new password: <<type your new password>>
Re-enter new password: <<re-enter your new password>>
Updating password...
Password updated successfully. 
ENCS5412-FGL223781BV#