Have a backup plan before power off your routers, especially for old ones

Entrance of the Taoyuangu Trail (DSCN0349),
originally uploaded by Li-Ji.

Even Cisco routers are reliable enough to run non-stop for several years, it does not guarantee it to power on normally after simply one power off.


A friend told me his such embarrassing story. The router was a Cisco 3600. Luckily enough, he had a spare 3600 gear in warehouse. After several hours of down time for him to bring back the spare, the network was finally restored.

Watch out, especially when your models are already out of services and you do not have any working spares in hand.

This lesson also applies to any network devices or servers!