Dell PowerConnect 3024/48/5012 Password Reset

Posted by joelgibby on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 · View Comments 

Found this on the Dell Forums:

For the 3024/3048/5012 products:

1. Connect to the switch via the console port and manually reboot the switch
2. As soon as power is applied, press and hold the ESC key
3. At the command prompt, type “EmergencyPasswordReset” (case-sensitive without the quotation marks)
4. At the confirm (Y/N) prompt, type X
5. If done properly, you will receive a message stating that the password has been disabled
6. Type G and hit enter to reboot the switch

The switch will reboot with the password disabled.

This saved us in a pinch. Just goes to show that Physical Security is still the first and most important security.

Filed under Dell, Network Administration, System Administration · Tagged with

About joelgibby
Joel Gibby lives near Portland Oregon and writes about a wide range of technology topics including social media, educational technology, web development, security and networking.

  • adit

    i was waiting so long, but the display is doing nothing

    why? Please

  • Ken

    Great… Worked perfectly on 5 donated units with passwords still on them. A real lifesaver Thanks !

  • http://www.atlanticmetro.net James

    Gooo Dell. Who know that answering X to a Y or N question would work.

    Stupid

  • kharmin

    October 2009 — this is still valid for an old 3024 we found sitting around from the previous tech team. Thanks!

  • Stephen

    I have just bought a used dell power connect 3024 switch but I can’t do anything because I don’t know the IP address. I would like to get to the setup. Please help if you can. Thanks

  • BGG72

    I had the same issue – solution: buy a null modem cable (I got one at ebay for $3.24 incl. shipping). Setup a hyperterminal session (9600, 8, N, 1 – flow control:none) and proceed as described above.
    Note: All entries are case sensitive, so make sure you type EXACTLY as described above.

  • Jon

    I was getting the “Boot from flash or net?” prompt when I followed the instructions, instead of the command line as suggested above. My mistake was hitting escape *after* I applied power to the switch – you have to be very quick to catch it! It’s far easier to hold down escape in hyperterminal (or teraterm!) *before* you apply power and keep it down until you get the correct prompt.
    That problem aside, these instructions are invaluable and allowed me to reset a switch I got from ebay in the absence of any useful advice from the seller. Thanks!

  • http://joelgibby.net Joel

    Thanks for the update, Jon. It looks like I need to start posting again! Enjoy your new (to you) switch!

  • http://shirker.blog.com/2010/03/22/emergencypasswordreset/ EmergencyPasswordReset | Shirkers blog

    [...] shirker2006 Dell and Cisco Dell PowerConnect 3024/48/5012 Password Reset [...]

  • Stuart

    Make sure you're set to 9600-n-8-1, with VT100 terminal emulation.
    And that's an X up there in step 4 even if your brains telling you its a Y.

  • Anon

    your shit doesn’t work

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