Factory reset#

The Factory reset panel is the last panel on the Overview tab of the System page. It returns the router's Wheelhouse data to how it was installed. It acts at once: it is not a pending change.

Its first line: "Deletes every account, API token and second factor, the audit log, the traffic and host histories and saved packet captures, and returns Wheelhouse to how it was installed. The licence key is kept."

The reset is the same one wheelhouse-rescue factory-reset runs at the router's console (Locked out of the UI). This panel is the way to ask for it while you can still sign in.

What it deletes, and what it keeps#

It deletes the accounts and their passwords, every second factor and recovery code, every API token and session, the audit log, the traffic and host histories, the saved packet captures, the local backup snapshots, the UPnP mappings, the git export's settings and key, and the web interface's TLS certificate. The router comes back with a new self-signed certificate, so the browser warns about it once.

It keeps the licence key, so a reset does not cost a seat, and the record of how the router was installed. Unless you choose otherwise below, it also keeps the router's configuration and the apps' data.

Using it#

Reset to factory defaults is for administrators only; for every other role it is disabled, with the tooltip "Admin role required". Pressing it asks the router what it can do and opens the form.

Reset the router stays disabled until the host name matches and your current password is given. Cancel closes the form.

When the reset starts, the panel says "The router is being reset. In a few minutes, sign in as admin with the new password.", or "… with the initial password shown on the router's console." when no password was chosen. The page stops answering within seconds, while the web interface restarts.

What it refuses#

• An API token. A reset needs a person signed in with a password. An account that signs in only through single sign-on has no password to confirm it with.
• The wrong password or host name. Nothing starts, and the refusal is recorded.
• A router it cannot reach. An agent running on another machine cannot reset the router; the panel says so instead of showing the form.
• A second reset while one is starting.

In the audit log#

The request is recorded before the reset starts, as "Asked for a factory reset", with who asked, their address and the choices made. The reset itself writes "Reset the router to factory defaults" twice: once into the log it is about to delete, and once as the first entry of the new one. The request is sent to a syslog collector if one is set, so a copy outlives the log on the router.

What it is not#

• Not a secure erase. Files are deleted, not overwritten. A disk that leaves your hands needs a tool built for erasing it.
• Not a revocation. Anything already copied elsewhere — an audit log on a syslog collector, a backup, the deploy key on a git remote — stays there.
• Not a backup. Take one from Backup first if you may want anything back.
• Not a reset of the router's own console password. The base system's vyos and wheelhouse logins are not changed.

See also#

• Power — the panel beside it.
• Backup — what to take before a reset.
• Locked out of the UI — the same reset at the console, when nobody can sign in.