System Recovery

Even though OSDx tries, for the most part, to warn about configurations that could leave the system unresponsive or “bricked”, recovering the system from one of these unwanted states may prove necessary at some point. This article describes three staggered ways of recovering a “broken” system.

Some of these methods may be accessed via CLI or the Boot menu.

Boot menu

OSDx has a bootloader menu that allows users to restore the default configuration, re-apply factory settings, boot into any image previously installed, and reset the device using tftp. The OSDx Boot Menu is only accessible through a serial connection. See Accessing the CLI for more information.

Depending on the device, the bootloader menu may look different. In proprietary arm64 and armhf devices the boot menu will look like this:

../../_images/boot_menu_uboot.png — *OSDx Boot Menu in proprietary arm64 and armhf devices*

Meanwhile, on standard amd64/x86 systems the boot menu will look like this:

../../_images/boot_menu_grub.png — *OSDx Boot Menu in standard amd64/x86 systems*

In both cases, the Up or Down arrow keys on the keyboard may be used to select the desired menu entry and the Enter key to confirm the selection.

1. Default configuration

The first method to restore the system is simply to return it to a configuration that works, such as the default configuration.

Before restoring the default configuration, you may want to save your current configuration.

Example:

admin@osdx$ show running | file running://old-config
Command's output saved under "old-config"
Filesize: 372.000 B

The default configuration can be restored from the CLI or the boot menu.

CLI

From the CLI, run the load factory-config configuration command followed by commit.

Example:

admin@osdx# load factory-config
admin@osdx# commit
admin@osdx# save

Finally, reboot the system.

Boot menu

Important

This method will have no effect on OSDx versions older than v3.9.1.2. If the (default config) boot menu entry shows an older version, change the default boot image to OSDx version v3.9.1.2 or a newer one using the image boot operational command. See image boot command for more information.

Reboot the system, navigate over to the Run OSDx (vX.X.X.X) (default) (default config) or OSDx (vX.X.X.X) (default config) option in the boot menu and press Enter. OSDx will automatically boot and restore the default configuration. If the issues persist, proceed to the next section Factory reset.

2. Factory reset

Factory resetting a device returns it to its original state, both in terms of version and configuration.

Warning

This will erase all files and the current image configuration.

The factory reset can be performed from the CLI or the boot menu.

CLI

The factory-reset command allows you to factory reset the device from the OSDx CLI.

Example:

admin@osdx$ factory-reset
This will destroy all data in the current image and restore factory settings.
Continue? (Yes/No) [No]: yes
Removing current data
Rebooting...

If you have physical access to the device, in some devices you can also trigger a factory reset by pressing the reset button until a LED, usually marked as SYS, starts blinking.

Boot menu

Important

This method will have no effect on OSDx versions older than v3.9.1.2. If the (FACTORY RESET) boot menu entry shows an older version, change the default boot image to OSDx version v3.9.1.2 or a newer one using the image boot operational command. See image boot command for more information.

Reboot the system, navigate over to the Run OSDx (vX.X.X.X) (default) (FACTORY RESET) or OSDx (vX.X.X.X) (FACTORY RESET) option in the boot menu and press Enter. OSDx will automatically boot and restore the device to its original state.

3. Software recovery

If none of the above methods were successful in recovering the device, a different OSDx version may need to be installed through the bootloader.

Warning

This will erase all files, configurations, and images on the device.

To install OSDx on SDE devices, refer to the Bare metal installation guide. For other devices, continue reading.

Danger

This procedure could leave your device unusable, be extremely careful!

In order to reset the device, you will need to set up a tftp server at IP address 192.168.3.1, with the OSDx image file available at 192.168.3.1/<model>/os.img. where <model> is the device model (e.g., RS420).

Reboot the device

During the boot sequence, you will see the following menu:

Here, you may press the up or down arrow keys on your keyboard to increase the timeout before the device automatically boots.

Reset the device

Navigate over to the Reset OSDx device using tftp option and press the Enter key. The image will start downloading from the tftp server and will be installed on the device:

../../_images/tftp_reset.png — *TFTP reset start*

If successful, you should see the following output after a couple of minutes:

../../_images/tftp_finish.png — *TFTP reset end*

The device should then boot into the installed image and be operational.