The appliance comes with a CD that can be used to reimage the system. This reformats the hard disks and reinstalls the Excelerator system. After reimaging an appliance, you must either reinitialize it as described in the Getting Started guide or use a previously created AUTOLOAD.NAS file to restore your configuration settings.
WARNING:
Reimaging the system removes all the settings you have configured, including passwords, network addresses, and all cache services.
In most cases, you can automatically restore the settings if you have prepared an AUTOLOAD file on a floppy disk. See System-Generated Configuration Files and Import/Export Tab.
You should also prepare an alternatively named backup configuration file as a precaution. For further details, see Backing Up the Appliance Configuration.
Complete the following steps to reimage and restore an appliance using an AUTOLOAD.NAS file:
Locate the appliance system CD.
IMPORTANT: If the system CD is in the appliance, remove the CD, shut down the appliance, recycle the appliance's power switch, and allow the appliance to restart.
If the appliance configuration has not been previously saved, insert a formatted, blank floppy disk into the appliance's floppy diskette drive.
If you have previously saved the appliance configuration, skip to Step 6.
If you have access to the appliance through the browser-based management tool, click System > Import/Export; otherwise, skip to Step 4.
If the floppy disk contains an AUTOLOAD file, skip to Step 5.
If you need to create an AUTOLOAD file on the floppy disk, type autoload in the Export Configuration File to Floppy field > click Export To > skip to Step 5.
If you do not have appliance access through the browser-based management tool, establish a Telnet or null-modem session with the appliance. (You can also use an attached keyboard and monitor if your appliance has the required connections.)
At the appliance command line, enter the following:
export autoload floppy
An AUTOLOAD.NAS file is created on the floppy disk.
Remove the floppy disk from the appliance.
Open the appliance CD tray and insert the appliance system CD.
Turn the appliance's power switch off, wait a few seconds, and then turn the appliance back on.
The CD automatically launches and the appliance reinitializes.
After the initialization process starts, insert the configuration diskette with the AUTOLOAD.NAS file into the appliance.
After all disk activity ceases and the system prompt appears, remove the appliance system CD and the floppy disk.
Shut down the appliance, recycle the appliance power switch, and wait for the system prompt to appear or for the start-up beep sequence to sound.
The appliance should now be restored to its previous operating configuration.