As an Appliance Administrator, you can use the Factory Reset feature to reset a SPP Appliance to recover from major problems or to clear the data and configuration settings on the appliance.

Factory reset is not an option for virtual appliances. You will need to redeploy the appliance.

Caution: Care should be taken when performing a factory reset against a physical appliance, because this operation removes all data and audit history, returning it to its original state when it first came from the factory. Performing a factory reset will NOT reset the BMC/IPMI interface or the IP address. However, the BMC/IPMI interface will need to be reenabled after the reset has completed (for more information, see Lights Out Management (BMC)). The appliance must go through configuration again as if it had just come from the factory. For more information, see Setting up Safeguard for Privileged Passwords for the first time.

In addition, performing a factory reset may change the default SSL certificate and default SSH host key.

The appliance resets to the current Long Term Support (LTS) version. For example, if the appliance is running version 6.6 (feature release) or 6.0.6 LTS (maintenance Long Term Support release) and then factory reset, the appliance will reset down to 6.0 LTS and you will have to patch up to your desired version. For more information, see Long Term Support (LTS) and Feature Releases.

Factory reset on a clustered appliance

Performing a factory reset on a clustered hardware appliance will not automatically remove the appliance from a cluster. The recommended best practice is to unjoin an appliance from the cluster before performing a factory reset on the appliance. After the unjoin and factory reset, the appliance must be configured again. For more information, see Setting up Safeguard for Privileged Passwords for the first time.

To perform a factory reset from the web client

  1. Go to Factory Reset on hardware (not virtual machine):
    • Navigate to Appliance Management > Appliance > Factory Reset.
  2. Click Factory Reset.

  3. In the Factory Reset confirmation dialog, enter the words Factory Reset and click Factory Reset.

    The appliance will go into Maintenance mode to revert the appliance. If the appliance was in a cluster, you may need to unjoin the factory reset appliance. The factory reset appliance must be configured again. For more information, see Setting up Safeguard for Privileged Passwords for the first time. In addition, when you log in to the appliance, you will be prompted to add your SPP licenses.

You can also perform a factory reset from the Recovery Kiosk or Support Kiosk. For more information, see Performing a factory reset.