Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Training Tutorial:

Setup Mode On Cisco Routers

By Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933

Cisco CCNA certification exam prep involves configuring a great many protocols and routing protocols on Cisco routers, and it also involves knowing how to remove those same protocols! While you won't exactly "remove" Setup Mode on a Cisco router, you need to know how to get out of it for both your CCNA certification exam training and as part of your real-world networking knowledge!

Outside of setting up a Cisco router or switch right out of the box, working with Setup Mode isn't something you're going to do a great deal. It's very important that you know how to work with it, though, so expect to see some questions involving this topic on the Cisco CCNA exam. Let's take a look at what Setup Mode is and how to avoid it!

When a Cisco router is booted up for the first time, or is reloaded, the router will look into its Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM) for the startup configuration file. NVRAM is called "non-volatile" because its contents are not lost on a reload, so the Cisco router should find a startup file in its NVRAM unless this is the first time it's been booted. If no startup configuration file is found, the router will look to a TFTP server *if* it's been previously configured to do so. If not, the router enters Setup Mode.

The best Cisco CCNA training is hands-on, so let's take a "hands-on" look at Setup Mode. First, we'll erase the startup configuration file on this Cisco router. We'll get a warning about that, and hit <enter> to confirm the selection. The router will then tell us when the NVRAM is complete.

R1#write erase

Erasing the nvram filesystem will remove all files! Continue? [confirm]

[OK]

Erase of nvram: complete

Now we'll reload the router. The readout during the reload gives an odd message:

R1#reload

Proceed with reload? [confirm]

00:15:21: %SYS-5-RELOAD: Reload requested

System Bootstrap, Version 11.0(10c)XB1, PLATFORM SPECIFIC RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Copyright (c) 1986-1997 by cisco Systems

2500 processor with 14336 Kbytes of main memory

Notice: NVRAM invalid, possibly due to write erase.

When you first see that "NVRAM invalid" line, it's easy to think you did something wrong. You didn't - actually, the NVRAM is empty rather than invalid. The word invalid makes many Cisco CCNA exam candidates think of the word "corrupt", but nothing has corrupted.

The router's not going to find a startup configuration file in its NVRAM, because we erased it. We also didn't configure it to look to a TFTP server for a startup file, so we'll be prompted to enter Setup Mode.

--- System Configuration Dialog ---

Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog? [yes/no]:

Such an innocent little question! Would you like to dialog? Sure, I'd love to! Let's answer "y" for "yes".

--- System Configuration Dialog ---

Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog? [yes/no]: y

At any point you may enter a question mark '?' for help.

Use ctrl-c to abort configuration dialog at any prompt.

Default settings are in square brackets '[]'.

Basic management setup configures only enough connectivity for management of the system, extended setup will ask you to configure each interface on the system

Would you like to enter basic management setup? [yes/no]: y

Configuring global parameters:

Enter host name [Router]: R1

The enable secret is a password used to protect access to

privileged EXEC and configuration modes. This password, after

entered, becomes encrypted in the configuration.

Enter enable secret:

% No defaulting allowed

Enter enable secret:

Getting tired yet? Seriously, Setup Mode is a pretty clumsy method of setting up a router. As you can see, this Cisco router mode will make you configure passwords even if you don't want to. On top of that, Setup Mode will make you go through y/n questions about every interface and just about every service the router can run. (I'm not making fun of those who use Setup Mode - I admire their patience!).

After a few minutes, you're probably going to get tired of answering these questions. Performing Cisco router configuration at the command line is going to start looking pretty good! To exit Setup Mode and not save the changes, press <CTRL-C>. Once I do that, we get the following readout:

Configuration aborted, no changes made.

Press RETURN to get started!

After you hit < ENTER >, you'll be returned to the router prompt.

It's important to know about Setup Mode for the Cisco CCNA certification exam, but it's important to know for working on a production router as well - because the router will tell you about CTRL-C at the very beginning of Setup Mode, but not afterwards. Improve your CCNA exam score and keep your sanity by knowing how to enter and exit Setup Mode!

To your success,

Chris Bryant

CCIE #12933

chris@thebryantadvantage.com