Password recovery is a fairly frequently used procedure for administrators and engineers. Even though we usually stack our passwords in some word, excel or text file, it's very easy to forget to update them when changes occur. The end result is you find yourself locked out of the device, wondering what on earth could be the password.
Accessing a Cisco router requires certain privileges. Depending on the router's configuration, you might be required to firstly log into the router and then enter the popular 'enable' password to elevate your access to privileged mode, from where you can issue configuration commands.
This article will show you how you can gain full administrator access to a Cisco router, bypassing all security passwords. The password recovery process, however, can be rendered useless if the administrator has previously configured the router not to allow this process to take place. In this case, the router will warn the user and, if he proceeds, all configuration will be erased, so there will be nothing to recover!
Example Scenario
Consider we have a Cisco router (2610 for our example - this procedure is the same for all routers) and we are unable to access it due to a lost password. Console and VTY (telnet) sessions ask for a password which we do not have:
R1 con0 is now available
Press RETURN to get started.
User Access Verification
Password: *****
Password: ********
Password: ***
% Bad passwords
Password: ********
Password: ***
% Bad passwords
Even if we were able to successfully log into the router, but couldn't provide the router with the correct 'enable' password, we would still need to perform a password recovery procedure.
To initiate the password recovery procedure, connect the rollover cable to the console port, then power the router off and back on. As soon as you receive a prompt showing the boot process, hit Ctrl-Break:
System Bootstrap, Version 11.3(2)XA4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1999 by cisco Systems, Inc.
TAC:Home:SW:IOS:Specials for info
PC = 0xfff0a530, Vector = 0x500, SP = 0x680127c8
C2600 platform with 65536 Kbytes of main memory
program load complete, entry point: 0x80008000, size: 0xf54134
PC = 0xfff0a530, Vector = 0x500, SP = 0x83fffe68
<ctrl + Break>
PC = 0xfff0a530, Vector = 0x500, SP = 0x83fffe68
<ctrl + Break>
monitor: command "boot" aborted due to user interrupt
rommon 1 >
rommon 1 >
You'll immediately see the 'rommon' prompt, indicating we are in 'rom monitor' mode. This is a mini-IOS that allows you to perform very specific tasks in order to recover your router.
Now, to skip our password-protected configuration, we instruct the router to by-pass the configuration located in NVRAM during bootup, and reset the router:
rommon 1 > confreg 0x2142
You must reset or power cycle for new config to take effect
rommon 2 > reset
rommon 2 > reset
The router will now reset and start its normal bootup process, however, the current configuration will be ignored. When the bootup is complete, you will be prompted to 'enter the initial configuration dialog', answer 'no':
System Bootstrap, Version 11.3(2)XA4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1999 by cisco Systems, Inc.
TAC:Home:SW:IOS:Specials for info
C2600 platform with 65536 Kbytes of main memory
Copyright (c) 1999 by cisco Systems, Inc.
TAC:Home:SW:IOS:Specials for info
C2600 platform with 65536 Kbytes of main memory
program load complete, entry point: 0x80008000, size: 0xf54134
Self decompressing the image : ##
Self decompressing the image : ##
<output omitted>
--- System Configuration Dialog ---
--- System Configuration Dialog ---
Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog? [yes/no]: no
Press RETURN to get started!
Next step is to enter 'Privileged Mode' and load the router's configuration from nvram. Then reset the 'enable' or 'secret' password. To be sure, we're showing how to reset both, but we'll only need to use the 'secret' password. In addition, we are going to reset the console port's password:
Router>
Router> enable
Router# copy startup-config running-config
Destination filename [startup-config]? (hit enter)
Building configuration...
[OK]
Router# configure terminal
Router(config)# enable password cisco
Router(config)# enable secret enter
Router(config)# line console 0
Router(config-line)# password hello
Router(config)# username admin password enternow
Router> enable
Router# copy startup-config running-config
Destination filename [startup-config]? (hit enter)
Building configuration...
[OK]
Router# configure terminal
Router(config)# enable password cisco
Router(config)# enable secret enter
Router(config)# line console 0
Router(config-line)# password hello
Router(config)# username admin password enternow
If you use the 'login local' command you'll need to reset the user account of the password you have lost (in our example, it's 'admin').
Lastly, we need to change the 'configuration register' so the router will load the newly modified configuration next time it reboots, save our settings and reboot the router:
Router(config)# config-register 0x2102
Router(config)# exit
Router# copy running-config startup-config
Destination filename [startup-config]? (hit enter)
Building configuration...
[OK]
Router# reload
Router(config)# exit
Router# copy running-config startup-config
Destination filename [startup-config]? (hit enter)
Building configuration...
[OK]
Router# reload
The router will now reload and use the new configuration that contains the newly set passwords.
When the router reboots, log in and check your configuration. If you find any interfaces in the 'shutdown' state, you'll need to use the 'no shutdown' command to bring them back up. Again, don't forget to save your configuration!
Article Summary
We've shown you how to recover lost passwords and gain control of a Cisco router. Of course there are mechanisms, which can be enabled, that will not allow you to perform the password recovery procedure. In this case, any attempt to recover the passwords or configuration will result in the erasure of the device's configuration!
If you have found the article useful, we would really appreciate you sharing it with others by using the provided services on the top left corner of this article. Sharing our articles takes only a minute of your time and helps blogger.com reach more people through such services.
The DNS protocol is used to resolve FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names) to IP addresses around the world. This allows us to successfully find and connect to Internet websites and services no matter where they are. Its usefulness, however, doesn't stop there: local company and private networks also rely on DNS to operate efficiently and correctly.
In many cases, where a local DNS server is not available, we are forced to either use our ISP's DNS servers or some public DNS server, however, this can sometimes prove troublesome. Today, small low-end routers have the ability to integrate DNS functionality, making life easier, but so do Cisco routers - they simply have to be setup and you're done.
This article will show you how to configure your Cisco router to provide DNS services to your network, and make all clients use it as a DNS server. Our easy to follow step-by-step process ensures you'll understand the process and have it running within minutes.
Example Scenario
Consider the following network diagram. This is our example network, we'd like to enable the DNS Service so our workstations can properly resolve Internet domains but also local network names.
First step is to enable the DNS service on the router.
R1# configure terminal
R1(config)# ip dns server
R1(config)# ip dns server
Next, we need to configure the router with a public name-server, this will force the router to perform recursive DNS lookups, in other words, for every request it receives from our workstations the router will try to find the answer by asking as many DNS servers it needs, and finally return with an answer.
R1(config)# ip name-server 4.2.2.5
R1(config)# ip name-server 4.2.2.6
R1(config)# ip name-server 4.2.2.6
The Cisco IOS will allow you to enter up to 6 different name servers (essentially DNS servers). Usually you would use your ISP's DNS server to ensure you have quick responses, then place a few free public DNS servers such as the ones above. This will ensure that you'll get a DNS response from either your ISP or public DNS servers.
Next step is to configure your DNS server with the host names of your local network, this way when Alan's PC trys to ping or connect to Wayne, the router will successfully resolve its netbios name to the appropriate IP address.
R1(config)# ip host alan 192.168.1.10
R1(config)# ip host john 192.168.1.11
R1(config)# ip host wayne 192.168.1.12
R1(config)# ip host john 192.168.1.11
R1(config)# ip host wayne 192.168.1.12
If you now try to ping 'wayne' directly from your router's CLI prompt, you should receive an answer:
R1# ping wayne
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.1.12, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/4 ms
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.1.12, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/4 ms
At this point, you can configure your workstations to use your router's IP address as the primary DNS server.
Article Summary
We've covered how a Cisco router can be used as a basic DNS server to enable network clients to perform DNS queries for the local network and Internet.
Future articles in DNS will cover more advanced configurations, including full domain resource records, DNS load balancing and more.
If you have found the article useful, we would really appreciate you sharing it with others by using the provided services on the top left corner of this article. Sharing our articles takes only a minute of your time and helps blogger.com reach more people through such services.
Overview
Windows Server Backup is a built-in component of Windows Server 2008 R2 that consists of a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, command-line tools, and Windows PowerShell cmdlets. Windows Server Backup, like its predecessor - Ntbackup (on Windows Server 2000/2003), provides a complete solution for your day-to-day backup and recovery needs.
When compared to Windows Server 2008 RTM, in Windows Server 2008 R2 there are new features that expand what you can back up, where you can store backups, and how you can perform recoveries.
Note: One thing to keep in mind is that you cannot recover backups with Windows Server Backup that were created in earlier versions of Windows with Ntbackup. However, a read-only version of Ntbackup is freely available if you want to recover data from backups created using Ntbackup, and can be installed to recover files on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7:
Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=4220
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=4220
What You Can Backup with Windows Server Backup
You can use Windows Server Backup to back up a full server (all volumes), a selected list of volumes, the system state, or specific files or folders—and to create a backup that you can use for bare metal recovery.
Note: In Windows Server 2008 RTM, you were very limited in what you could choose to backup, with the only choices being volumes or the entire server. Luckily, this was changed in R2.
After performing a backup, and if need arises, you can recover volumes, folders, files, certain applications, and the system state. And, in case of disasters like hard disk failures, you can even perform a bare metal recovery.
You can use Windows Server Backup to create and manage backups for the local computer or a remote computer (even for Server Core installations), and you can schedule backups to run automatically.
Installing Windows Server Backup
When you add the Windows Server Backup Features and subordinate items, you also install the following tools:
- Windows Server Backup Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in
- Wbadmin command-line tool
- Windows PowerShell cmdlets for Windows Server Backup
To install Windows Server Backup you can use one of 3 methods:
- Using Server Manager
- Using Servermanagercmd.exe
- Using PowerShell (See why every admin needs to learn PowerShell)
We'll take a look at each of the installation methods in more detail below.
To install Windows Server Backup, log on to the computer by using the local Administrator account or another account with Administrator privileges. To perform backups or recoveries by using Windows Server Backup, you must be a member of the Administrators or Backup Operators groups.
1. Installing Windows Server Backup Using Server Manager
Probably the easiest for this specific role. I would use this method.
1. Open the Server Manager and wait for it to load.
2. Click on "Features" and wait for it to load.
3. Click "Add Features".
4. In the "Add Features Wizard" page, scroll down and click to select "Windows Server Backup features". If you also want to get the PowerShell command samples, manually select "Command Line Tools". You do not need this addition if you plan to use the GUI or the WBADMIN command line tool. Click "Next".
5. In the "Confirm Installation Selections" page click "Install".
8. Once finished, there is no need to reboot the server.
2. Installing Windows Server Backup Using Servermanagercmd.exe
Using the servermanagercmd.exe command is easy, however this command will be deprecated in future versions of Windows, so don't get used to it too much...
1. Open a Command Prompt window with elevated permissions (right-click CMD and select "Run as Administrator").
2. Type:
servermanagercmd -i Backup-Features
Note: Servermanagercmd.exe is not case sensitive.
3. Installing Windows Server Backup Using PowerShell
In Windows Server 2008 R2, PowerShell is installed by default. However, in order to install roles with it, you need to import the Server Manager module.
1. Open a PowerShell window with elevated permissions (right-click PowerShell and select "Run as Administrator").
2. Type:
Import-Module servermanager
3. Once imported, type:
Add-WindowsFeature Backup-Features
Note: The Add-WindowsFeature command is not case sensitive.
Get the full Microsoft article:
Windows Server Backup Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee849849(WS.10).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee849849(WS.10).aspx
