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When you first power on a 5524, connected via the serial console, you are offered a setup wizard where you can enter the management IP/Net/Gateway and enter the admin password. HOWEVER, if you dont do this in 60 seconds, the wizard dissapears, and there seems to be no way to run it again - even if you reboot the box.

No commands work in the CLI, it just gives you this prompt:

>

If you type say enable, or login, it gives:

>login
Unknown parameter
May be one from the following list:
debug             help

So no commands seem to work.

The CLI reference guide does not seem to have any way to run the wizard, or to set the management port or admin passwords.

So by not responding in 60 secons after boot, the unit is bricked.

Any ideas?

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  • 1
    Did you type help?
    – ewwhite
    Jun 13, 2012 at 11:44
  • What version of firmware is on your 5524? Jun 13, 2012 at 13:08

3 Answers 3

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I found the solution. If you brick your device by not hitting "Y" in 60 seconds, then poke and hold down the reset orifice for about 30 seconds. When it comes back up, you get a second chance to hit "Y" in 60 seconds and set the management IPs. However, the console is still bricked, giveing a ">" prompt intead of a "console>" prompt. Was just about to send the device back to dell, when found the answer. If the unit is not master, even though it should be, you get a dead ">" command. If you pull out all the HDMI interconnects, to make the box the master, you get the "console>" prompt, and can then enter commands.

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  • 1
    You didn't mention that this switch was a stack member. Update your initial question with this info.
    – ewwhite
    Jun 13, 2012 at 14:36
1

I ran into this. if the switch is part of a stack (in my case unit 3) you don't console into unit 3 as it is in slave mode. You console into unit 1 and issue commands for the 3rd unit i.e. gi3/o/23

you only get the two prompts debug and help as it can only get its config from the stack. Think of it as a read only DC. Thats why resetting the switch works as you are setting it back to unit id 1 and removing it from the stack

0

To sum it up: OP's "weird" console behaviour is perfectly normal for a stack member, who is in a slave config.

  1. If you want to keep your stack - remember that the stack acts as one "big" switch and can only be configured through its master-switch (use SSH/Serial/GUI of the master for configuration)
  2. If you want to use the switch as standalone (e.g. happened to buy a used switch which was not excluded from a stack before removal), press ESC or Enter when prompted during boot. Choose option 5 and set the stack ID to 1 (or 0 for auto). Consider deleting the startup-config by choosing option 2 in the boot menu (enter config as the file you want to delete)

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