How to retrieve a password from a Cisco Catalyst 2970 (Switch)?!

I basically agree with Heem14, about the password reser on the cisco page... I did it on some routers and it worked just fine. However I think you loose the config that way (not sure... it's been quite a while since I last did it)

if you are really lucky (and the old sysadmin was a little lazy not deactevating it) then the cisco switch is trying to fetch his config over tftp at system startup. You could give hiim over tftp a config file that consists only of the password, which may override the oe that is stored on the system.

Unfortunately, Heem14 and neteducation may be making the error of assuming that all Cisco "password recovery" procedures work the same.  But, for the 2970, the ability to recover the running config will depend on what the previous sys admin did, according to some comments from the Cisco website:
"The default switch configuration allows an end user with physical access to the switch to recover from a lost password by interrupting the boot process while the switch is powering up and then entering a new password. The password recovery disable feature allows the system administrator to protect access to the switch password by disabling part of this functionality and allowing the user to interrupt the boot process only by agreeing to set the system back to the default configuration. With password recovery disabled, the user can still interrupt the boot process and change the password, but the configuration file (config.text) and the VLAN database file (vlan.dat) are deleted."

See
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps5206/products_command_reference_chapter09186a00802b58fd.html
HTH
CajunBill

Excellent comments guys! Thank you very much.

Here is what I am going to do, I am going to take the backup 2970 I have next to me, run some test on it and see how it reacts, if all goes well, AND hopefully the previous sys admin didn’t disable the password recovery feature. I will head to our data center and reset the register on the production switch.

Stay tuned friends, and thank you again for you prompt response.

WT.

Quick question! Do you guys know what the default unpreviliaged password is in the 2970?
I am trying to access it using the configmaker and I am stuck on the unprivileged password. I don’t think it was ever set.

Thanks,
WT.

Have you already tried using this as a password:
cisco

I found the Password Recovery procedure on the Cisco website: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/474/
And was able to successfully reset it, with out losing the data.

Many thanks for all your help,
WT.

Wait up guys!!! Weird phenomena – I cannot ping the switch anymore, and it happened after I reset the password. I used to be able to ping its IP 209.xxx.xxx.222 but not anymore. Ping from it doesn’t work as well. Here is the config file:

Using 2507 out of 524288 bytes
!
version 12.1
no service pad
service timestamps debug uptime
service timestamps log uptime
service password-encryption
!
hostname xxxxxxxxxx
!
enable secret 5 xxxxxxxxxx
enable password 7 xxxxxxxxxxxx
!
ip subnet-zero
!
!
errdisable recovery cause gbic-invalid
spanning-tree mode pvst
no spanning-tree optimize bpdu transmission
spanning-tree extend system-id
!
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/2
 no ip address
 duplex full
 speed 100
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/3
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/4
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/5
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/6
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/7
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/8
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/9
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/10
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/11
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/12
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/13
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/14
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/15
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/16
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/17
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/18
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/19
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/20
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/21
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/22
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/23
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/24
 no ip address
 no mdix auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/25
 no ip address
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/26
 no ip address
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/27
 no ip address
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/28
 no ip address
!
interface Vlan1
 ip address 209.xxx.xxx.222 255.255.255.0
 no ip route-cache
 shutdown
!
ip default-gateway 209.xxx.xxx.1
ip http server
snmp-server community xxxx RO
snmp-server community xxxx RW
snmp-server community xxxx RW
snmp-server manager
snmp ifmib ifalias long
!
line con 0
 exec-timeout 0 0
line vty 0 4
 password 7 xxxxxxxx
 login
line vty 5 15
password 7 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 login
!
end



Also, would you care to explain to two vty entry’s? The 0 and 5, why two?

Cheers,
WT.

WT,
the VLAN1 interface is in "shutdown".
To fix that, get into config mode and remove the shutdown.
Then you should be able to ping the device, and ping from it.

About the vty entrys - the first one is for vty 0 through vty 4, and the second is for vty 5 through vty 15
It looks like there are different passwords for the two groups.
CajunBill