How to Recover a Lost Network Administrator Password on Nexus 5000 Switch

Summary: This article explains how to recover a lost network administrator password on Nexus 5000 switch.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Instructions

Facts:
Cisco Nexus 5000 switch

Procedure:
You can recover the network administrator password using one of two methods:
  • From the CLI with a username that has network-admin privileges
  • By power cycling the switch

Method 1: Using the CLI with Network-Admin Privileges
If you can log in to the switch with a username that has network-admin privileges, follow these steps:
  1. Verify that your username has network-admin privileges.
switch# show user-account
user:admin
this user account has no expiry date
roles:network-admin

user:dbgusr
this user account has no expiry date
roles:network-admin network-operator
  1. Assign a new network administrator password if your username has network-admin privileges.
switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# username admin password <new password>
switch(config)# exit
switch#
  1. Save the configuration.
switch# copy running-config startup-config



Method 2: Power Cycling the Switch.
If you cannot start a session on the switch that has network-admin privileges, you must recover the network administrator password by power cycling the switch.

This procedure disrupts all traffic on the switch!

You cannot recover the administrator password from a Telnet or SSH session. You must have access to the local console connection.

To recover the network administrator password by power cycling the switch, follow these steps:

  1. Establish a terminal session on the console port of the supervisor module.
  2. Power cycle the switch.
  3. Press the Ctrl-B key sequence from the console port session when the switch begins the Cisco NX-OS software boot sequence to enter the boot prompt mode.
Ctrl-B 
switch(boot)#
  1. Reset the network administrator password.
switch(boot)# configure terminal
switch(boot-config)# admin-password <new password>
switch(boot-config)# exit
switch(boot)#
  1. Display the "bootflash:" contents to locate the Cisco NX-OS software image file.
switch(boot)# dir bootflash:
  1. Load the Cisco NX-OS system software image. In the following example, the system image filename is nx-os.bin:
switch(boot)# load bootflash:nx-os.bin
  1. Log in to the switch using the new administrator password.
switch login: admin
Password: <new password>
  1. Reset the new password to ensure that it is also the SNMP password.
switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# username admin password <new password>
switch(config)# exit
switch#
  1. Save the configuration.
switch# copy running-config startup-config

Additional Information

Related Article:
Cisco article: Nexus 5000 CLI Configuration Guide This hyperlink is taking you to a website outside of Dell Technologies..

Affected Products

Networking, Switches
Article Properties
Article Number: 000206877
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 22 Dec 2022
Version:  3
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