Onyx (MLNX-OS) BIOS Password Reset

Onyx (MLNX-OS) BIOS Password Reset

Recently I’ve been playing with some Nvidia/Mellanox switches specifically the SN2410. An issue that I ran into was that I didn’t have the BIOS password.

All of the documentation says that the default BIOS password is admin. That password did not work on my switch.

You can absolutely use the switch even without the BIOS password, however it may limit some of your options in the future specifically recovery options if needed.

The documentation that I found says that if the default password doesn’t work you need to contact Mellanox/Nvidia support. The issue with that is I’m playing with this switch in my home lab so I don’t exactly have a support contract to contact support.

I took the switch apart and there doesn’t appear to be a CMOS battery to pull to clear the BIOS either. There might be a jumper for it but it wasn’t obvious which one it might be and I didn’t want to risk breaking it.

Inside the SN2410 switch

In the end I ended up figuring out a way to reset the BIOS password back to default.

Here’s how to do it.

The Process

That license gives you access to restricted system functionality such as shell access to the OS that runs the switch.

Running that BIOS update default script will reset the BIOS on your switch to default.

Once the switch has booted the second time you can press Ctrl+B to enter BIOS and the password for the BIOS will be admin.

If needed the console settings are

That’s all there is to it.

Here’s what the BIOS options look like.

Main BIOS Options

Main BIOS screen

Advanced BIOS Options

Advanced BIOS screen

Chipset BIOS Options

Chipset BIOS screen

Security BIOS Options

Security BIOS screen

Save & Exit BIOS Options

Save & Exit BIOS screen

Event Logs BIOS Options

Event Logs BIOS screen
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