This document describes how to boot Catalyst 9000 Series switches out of the bootloader prompt (rommon) and how to recover a password.

There are no specific requirements for this document.

The information in this document is based on these software and hardware versions:

Note: Consult the appropriate configuration guide for the commands that are used in order to enable these features on other Cisco platforms.

The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment. All of the devices used in this document started with a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, ensure that you understand the potential impact of any command.

In some instances, a Catalyst 9000 switch boots in rommon, a bootloader prompt that becomes available either when the switch cannot load a full Cisco IOS庐 software image, or when you have manually interrupted the normal boot process to perform actions like password recovery.

The switch: prompt indicates that the device is in rommon / bootloader mode. The bootloader provides a limited set of actions to administer the device. To see the list of available actions, issue the ? command at the switch: prompt.

Three options exist:

This section describes steps to take when you have complete, bootable files already present in the flash file system of the switch which has booted to the bootloader / rommon prompt. If the switch does not have files stored internally, or if you are unsure about the state of those files, use Option 2 or Option 3 instead of this option.

Step 1. Run the dir flash: command.

Step 2. Identify one of two file types to boot the switch. The two types are:

A bootable binary image file (denoted by a.binfile extension) for Catalyst 9000 Series Switches. This file can be seen as: cat9k_iosxe_.SPA.bin

Note: Catalyst 9200 Series switches do not use the same universal image as current 9300, 9400, 9500, and 9600 Series switches. A Catalyst 9200 Series switch binary image has a similar file name convention to: cat9k_lite_iosxe...SPA.bin

A bootable configuration (.conf) file that specifies packages that were previously extracted from a relevant bundle file. To boot this file type, you must also have specific package (pkg) files in flash.

Note: This guide does not cover the operational differences between these two boot methods, known as bundle mode and install mode. In a switch stack, boot modes must match across stack members. For applicable platforms, a stackwise virtual pair must run in install mode. Run the command show version from the exec prompt to determine the current boot mode of an operational switch stack.

Example of a .bin file which can be used to boot the switch into bundle mode:

Example of a .conf file with packages in flash. (The next step describes how to verify that these are the correct packages.)