This section contains Cisco technical articles covering the installation and configuration of Cisco Catalyst Access/Distribution Layer & Data Center switches. Topics covered include Cisco Catalyst switches basic configuration, VLAN configuration, VLAN Trunking, VLAN Security, Access Lists, VTP Configuration, Installation of Supervisor Engines, Cisco 4507R & 6500 Catalyst switches, EtherChannel Configuration, Spanning Tree (including Rapid Per-VLAN Spanning Tree) configuration and more.

All articles contain step-by-step instructions and diagrams, making them easy to follow. More articles will be added as we progress with this category.

We hope you enjoy the provided articles and welcome your feedback and suggestions.

Our previous article shows how to perform a password recovery on the Cisco Catalyst switches. This article will now explain how to disable or enable the Cisco password recovery service allowing network engineers and administrators to further secure their Cisco equipment.

The password recovery mechanism is enabled by default which means anyone with physical access to the switch is able to initiate the process and gain access to the switch or stack’s configuration. In some environments this might be a major security concern which is why Cisco provides the option to disable the password recovery mechanism.

In cases where the mechanism is disabled the only option available to gain access to the switch is to delete its startup configuration.

How to Disable or Enable the Password Recovery Service on Cisco Catalyst Switches

Disabling the password recovery mechanism is achieved by using the no service password-recovery command in global configuration mode as shown below: