I was handed a lovely new laptop by work, but it didn't have a pause/break key. I needed to perform password recovery on a router we'd have for too long and thus I though I was stuck for a minute.
But you can initiate a break sequence by doing the following:
- Obviously connect to the router via the console port
- Open a hyperterminal/terminal session (I use Putty.exe) and set the connection to use serial and a speed of 1200.
- Power off the router and back on again, whilst pressing the keyboard every second, for 10-15 seconds. You will just see a load of crap on the screen, but thats not a problem.
- Close the terminal session (do not power cycle the router or anything) and open a new one with the correct baud speed of 9600. You may have to press enter, but it'll put you at the Rommon prompt.
Unbenown to me, you can warm reload Cisco routers and cut down the boot time. I read this on Jermey Gaddis' blog from the states. The guy knows his stuff, but on with the learning...
Have a go:
Conf t
warm-reboot
end
Yes thats it. You can configure other variables such as allowing the router to warm reboot a few times and when at a certain limit perform a cold restart etc, but the basic command is above. I'm sure you know how to use the tab and question marks on your keyboard by now...
To then reload the router/switch from the prompt type 'reload warm'.
Obviously there are pro's and con's to this command. The boot time is reduced, but you need a bit of room in RAM in order to buffer the command.
The router simply saves the state in RAM and boots from that, rather than all the copying/decompressing the IOS image from flash each time. I suppose if your IOS is corrupt (er... not sure how many times/if ever I've heard of this) in your running-config, then a cold restart will load a fresh IOS image back on. But.. lets be realistic, we want quicker booting routers, so this should be a staple command.
