Contivity 600 Password recovery 1

[VTR]

Any Idea's ?? This in in our lab so I don't care if the config is lost. I have already removed the CMOS battery. If not its back to Nortel :-(

 

[Clightner]

Physical security is always critical. Here is the procedure for recovering from a lost password.

DISKLESS RESET

This is for resetting the diskless Contivity servers (ie. 1010, 1050, 1100 & 600)

The secret to resetting/discovering the diskless version could also be applied to the diskette based versions of Contivitys. You must first know the IP address for the Contivity management entity. As described above, you could do a ping range, or you could swap the CF (compact flash) or HD from a working similar Contivity.

If you don’t have one of those, you could also use a CF reader from your laptop. Power down your Contivity, open the case & remove the CF card. Next connect the CF to your laptop (via some CF card reader) and go into the System\Config directory. The Contivity usually boots with the latest configuration file, so look for the most current time stamp. The file will be named CFGxxxxx.DAT. Using wordpad open this file and do a search for: Desc=System. The IP address just before this will be listed as: IpIntf[xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]. This should be your management IP address. Replace your CF card back into the Contivity & power it back on.

The next thing that you will need is a management login, to do this you will need 2 Contivity boxes (one of which you must have Admin rights to). On the Contivity that you have admin rights to, login as Admin and create a new user under /BASE (Profiles>User). Give the user any name you want, then scroll to the bottom of the screen and create an ADMIN user. I recommend uid:manger pw:manage (which I will be using for the rest of this document, if yours are different then please substitute). Make sure that you give this user rights to MANAGE the SWITCH & USERS with the group BASE! Go to the bottom of the screen and click on OK. Next we need to make sure that we have Telnet access. Go to Services>Available and make sure that Telnet & FTP are checked for the Private interface. Then shut down the Contivity using Admin>Shutdown with the option Power Off.

Now that you have created an account on the Contivity LDAP that has administrative privileges to /BASE you are ready to do a recovery. Remove the CF card and place into the Contivity that you want to recover. Boot up with the Contivity. Next set up a PC that has an IP address in the same subnet as the management address and plug it into the PRIVATE side of the Contivity. Open a DOS window and Telnet into the management address (ie. C:\>telnet x.x.x.x). Login as manager/manage. You should get a CES> prompt. Next type ENABLE with the password:manage to login to the privilege exec mode. Your screen prompt should now be CES#. From here type: show running-config. Aproximately 7 lines down you will see a line that starts with adminname. These are the admin/setup logins. YES they are in clear text, but remember you had to have /BASE rights to get them in the first place. So you could already do almost everything anyway.

 

[VPNSteve]

Ok, here are the problems:

This is admittedly a minor thing, but the 600 is not a diskless system and has no compact flash.

Second, this will only work (and I'm not sure it will - I haven't tried it) on early versions of code. Anything after (I think) 4_80, and the passwords are not shown in clear text when you do the show running config.

 

[HungryHouse]

One point of confusion here guys...especially for Clightner and/or those that know?
For the procedure being recommended here, I am missing something. Isn't the "show running-config" and subsequent "adminname" still from the known good known CF?
I guess I am not seeing how that is helping you recover the original Contivity and its CF. What am I missing?
Thanks very much and pardon my ignorance on this one.