Now it is time to speak about how we can reset the MikroTik RouterOS. Reset means that you wipe all configuration on the router to do a new one. On MikroTik, there are 2 ways to do the reset:

• Soft reset: in case you have access to the router (for example via Winbox)
• Hardware reset: in case you cannot access to the router

I will show you both ways in this topic. Let’s start directly with the LAB.

LAB: Resetting the MikroTik RouterOS

We are still in the same LAB scenario. I do have access to the MikroTik router. Before I start playing with the reset, I have already done a backup of the configuration because I need to restore it after this LAB is finished because I need it for the upcoming chapters.

To do reset of the router from Winbox, you should go to:

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As you can see, you have 4 options to choose between them. Let’s speak about each one:

• Keep User Configuration: when you check this one and reset the router, then all configuration on the router will be removed except the users on the router which will stay. That means the admin account and any other account that I have created on the router will stay.

• CAPS Mode: if you check this one and you set the router, then the router will reset and will enable the CAPS Mode to be able to connect to a CAPsMAN. This is outside the scope of this course so we will not try it.

• No Default Configuration: if you check this one and reset the router, then all configuration on the router will be wiped including the ones for the users. Then you will have a router with no configuration.

• Do Not Backup: If you check this one, then the router will not do any back before the reset. Normally, every time you do a reset, then the router will do a backup file of the old configuration and keep it in the file list. If you do not want that, then you can check it then the router will not do any backup prior of the reset.

So now we understand them, let’s try them. I will start with Keep User configuration. As you see, the router has those users available:

Let’s reset the router with Keep User Configuration checked.

The router will restart so it is reset.

Let’s check now if the router has not NAT anymore (so we know it has been reset) and check if the users are still there:

I do not have any NAT rules anymore.

What about the users, are they still there?

Indeed, they are still there ????

I will try to reset it now with No Default Configuration and check if the users will be deleted. Let’s do it:

Now the router has been rebooted and back online. Let me check if the users are still there:

There are gone, and actually I had to login using the default MikroTik account which is admin with no password.

Let’s see if the router has any configuration on it (I will use the export command):

You can see, the router has no any configuration on it.

Now, the last option we have is Do not Backup. As I have already explained, when you do a reset of the configuration, the router will save an auto backup file inside the file list then do the reset. This way, you can use that auto backup to restore the old configuration if you want.

By checking Do not Backup, you are telling the router to not do any backup prior the reset. Not sure why you should do that, but this option is available for you.

As we have already done reset, then the file for the auto reset has been created inside the file list:

I will delete this file and say to reset the router without backup and see if this file will appear again.

The auto backup file has been deleted. Let me reset with Do Not Backup checked:

The router has been rebooted. I will log in to see if the auto backup file has been created:

No, it is not there, and the router has been successfully reset ????

One more thing that you can do from the soft reset is to use the Run After Reset option. There you can put the backup file that you want to run after the router do the reset. This way, the router will be reset, and you will have the configuration that it is saved on the backup file:

That’s all about the soft reset options that we have on the MikroTik router.

The last thing that I want to show is about the hard reset. Say that you do not have access to the router via Winbox (so you lost the password). You can do a hard reset to reset the router completely. To do that you need to:

• Take the power cable out of the router
• Press with a pin on the reset button (see picture below showing the reset button)
• Put the power cable back while keep pressing on the reset button until the led will start flashing then release the button

This way, the reset will be reset to factory reset

This is all what I wanted to show you in this LAB.

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