HP Password Recovery Procedure explained for the E3500yl

Hello hello and a quick tip from my time at CompetenCSolutions on recovering a HP E3500yl-24G-PoE+ J9310A

E3500yl-24G-PoE+ J9310A

Find yourself staring at one of these in a switching closet with no idea how to recover or get logged in then here is a step by step on turning the unknown little beast into a tame puppy.

First a word about how you should be able to login. On the Provision line of switches there is local-user operator and then you can escalate to super-user manager privileges. These are the default usernames used (although you can pick whatever you want) when a password is protecting user-mode (read only) versus full fledged super-user-mode you get by logging in as manager. These can be set by an administrator who has manager privileges using the commands below:

Should this fail to give you access you will see this...

You do still have options before blowing out the config with a factory reset. The first trick is to use a paperclip to press the clear button indicated below in the double red circles is the button on the right inside the circle. You have to use a pen/paper clip because it is recessed into the front of the switch so press it for at least a second and console (and web) access should be cleared. 

Although you cant see it since you are locked out of console access there are front-panel-security settings at work here:

In this particular configuration above you can see that the Clear Password option is enabled. This "means that pressing the Clear button erases the local usernames and passwords 

configured on the switch (and thus removes local password 

protection from the switch)" -bizsupport HP document linked here

Reset-on-clear shown disabled above means that there is no automatic reboot upon pressing the clear button and whoever holds the paper clip would have to press reset to power-cycle after releasing the clear button. Take care NOT to hold the reset button then hold the clear button (20-30 seconds) then release the clear then release the reset. What does that do? Factory reset....not good however it does remove passwords.

Factory Reset enabled means the factory reset procedure just described is enabled. Disabling means restoring with just physical access is not possible.

Password Recovery refers to the one time password login available from HP support based on giving them your switch mac address. 

CAUTION - DEEP DIVE SECTION

So what happens if all four are disabled AND you forget the password? Believe it or not you are still in luck. The switch can be recovered and without doing a factory reset! What is required is a console connection (or terminal server to console connection) and a way to power cycle the device since the command reload is unavailable. Here are the steps below....

reboot the device

select "0" on reboot to enter the Monitor ROM Console profile in the first 30 seconds

ll "L""L" to list directory contents

cd cfa0/

ll

cat mgrinfo.txt

rm mgrinfo.txt

boot

Comments? Suggestions? Found a better way? Let me know below...