i meant the "shellaccess developer" command.

Hi.

Thank you for your question.

First, on the USB stick unlock method: your instinct is correct. That process is explicitly not guaranteed to work on platforms that use EHV, which includes the SCv3000, SCv3020, SC5020, SC5020F, SC7020, and SC7020F. It was primarily designed for older SC-series hardware like the SC8000, SC4020, and SC2020. Some community members have reported partial success on the SCv3020, so if you want to give it one more honest attempt, a few details matter. The USB device needs a partition table with one partition formatted MSDOS/FAT32, since some drives ship without a usable partition. The username in the unlock file is hardcoded into SCOS as Admin with an uppercase A, not admin, and there must be no stray spaces or extra characters in the file. People have also found that smaller or older drives often work where larger ones fail, so avoid 64 GB drives and try a couple of different sticks. If the unlock does take, you log into System Manager with the account specified on the drive, and the password field cannot be blank but any text you type is ignored.

On the SafeMode interface you reached over the mini-USB cable, that is a lower-level diagnostic console. The mc user passrst command you mentioned is a real SafeMode command, and the usernames worth trying as the argument are Admin with a capital A, admin, and root, exactly as you suspected. The catch is that the exact syntax and whether it is fully exposed in SafeMode without at least one working credential varies by firmware version, and public documentation on the SCv3020's SafeMode command set is thin. The developer mode not being recognized is consistent with it being restricted or renamed on this platform. Since you already have SafeMode access, this is your most direct path that does not involve opening the chassis, so it is worth spending more time experimenting with those three user IDs before going further.

If that does not get you anywhere, the hardware-level approach that community members have reported working on the SCv3020 specifically is removing the BIOS coin-cell battery from the controllers to clear the stored Admin credentials back to default. This means removing the controller cards from the chassis, locating the small CMOS battery, removing it for several minutes so the capacitors fully discharge, then reseating it and powering back up. If you have a dual-controller unit, do both, and if you can, do one at a time. After that you should be able to reach the CLI over the console cable and use ifconfig to set DHCP so the unit reappears on your network. Bear in mind this is community-confirmed rather than an officially documented Dell procedure, so go slowly and carefully.

One important warning that comes up repeatedly: do not delete or wipe the onboard flash card that holds the OS install, because sourcing a replacement image for an out-of-support unit is extremely difficult and expensive. Once you regain access by any of the above methods, the proper way to wipe and start fresh is the Reset Controller to Factory Default option in the Dell Storage Manager Client, which applies factory defaults and erases all data on the controller and drives. Since you have nothing to save, that is exactly what you want. This procedure is documented in the Dell Storage Manager 2018 Administrator's Guide under Reset a Controller to Factory Default, and you will need the Storage Manager Client installed and working credentials to run it.

So in short, keep working the SafeMode mc user passrst route first with Admin, admin, and root, since you already have that access. If that fails, the BIOS battery removal is the next best community-confirmed step to get you back to a default Admin login, after which the Storage Manager Client factory reset gives you the clean slate you are after. Reimaging the controller OS would be the last resort, and the hard part there is finding the firmware for an out-of-support box.

Since a couple of these steps are community-sourced rather than officially blessed, and bricking is a real if small risk, I would encourage you to read through the relevant Dell community threads and the Administrator's Guide directly before committing to the hardware route. Good luck with it.

Let us know if there is anything else we can assist you with.

Thanks,

Josh

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thank you so much for providing such a detailed answer! i will follow your advice and report back if and when i have (hopefully positive) results!

ok i tried several usb sticks on both controllers, sadly no luck :( iguess i have to go with the bios battery method.