First Published: December 4, 2018

Last Updated: August 9, 2023

Emergency Recovery Installation

The following procedure supports the Cisco ESS3300 and the Cisco IE3x00.


Note
There is different terminology used when referring to the reset button depending on the product. The IE3x00 switches call this the Express Setup switch. Other products may refer to this as the Factory Default Switch. In either case, the functionality is the same.

If the other recovery methods fail, the switch has a trap door method that you can use in order to recover the system. You must have a terminal that is connected to port Gi1/3 of the switch that runs a TFTP server. Download a valid image file from CCO and store it in the root of the TFTP server.

It is likely that the switch is stuck at the switch : prompt. However, if you are in a boot loop, you can use the Express Setup switch on the front of the switch in order to break the cycle: hold the button for approximately 5 seconds, and the switch breaks the cycle and stops at the switch : prompt.

Complete these steps in order to perform an emergency recovery:

Procedure

Step 1

Boot the emergency install image.

switch: boot emgy0:<image-name>.SPA.bin
Booting golden bootloader...
Initializing disk drivers...
Initializing file systems...
************************************************************
* Rom Monitor for ESS3300 *
* Copyright (c) 2017-2018 by Cisco Systems, Inc. *
* All rights reserved. *
************************************************************
 
* Version: 1.1.1
* Compiled: Sun 01-Jul-18 22:17 [RELEASE SOFTWARE]
* Boot Partition: qspi-golden-bootloader
* Reset Reason: Soft Reset
 
Loading "emgy0:ess3x00-universalk9.16.09.01.SPA.bin" to memory...
Verifying image "emgy0:ess3x00-universalk9.16.09.01.SPA.bin"...
Image passed digital signature verification
Checking for Bootloader upgrade...
Bootloader upgrade not required
SUP PL (profile: 1) configuration done successfully
<…>
Press RETURN to get started!
 
Switch>

Step 2

Configure an IP address on the switch. Additional details on IP configuration can be found here. 

switch(config-if)# ip address <ip-address> <subnet-mask>

Step 3

Ping the terminal that contains the TFTP server in order to test the connectivity:

switch> ping 192.0.2.1
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echoes to 192.0.2.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/2/4 m

Step 4

Copy the image via tftp

switch> copy tftp: //location/directory/bundle_name flash:
 
<…>

Step 5

Restart the system