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DEMO: Saving Settings

Saving a Cisco switch configuration requires copying the running config to the startup config, ensuring all changes persist through a reload. Two commands accomplish this: the explicit copy running-config startup-config and the shorthand write memory.

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About this video

On a Cisco switch, any configuration changes made during a session are held in the running configuration, which is active but volatile. If the device is reloaded without saving, all those changes are lost. To preserve them, the running config must be copied to the startup config, the file the switch reads during the boot process. The copy command handles this by specifying a source and destination, with the syntax copy running-config startup-config committing the current state of the device to non-volatile storage. The IOS help system, accessed by appending a question mark to a partial command, displays available source locations and valid destinations at each step, making it straightforward to construct the correct command even when unsure of the exact syntax. Once confirmed, the switch overwrites the existing startup config with the current running config, and the device will retain those settings across reloads. The shorthand command write memory achieves the same result more quickly and is a common alternative used in production environments. Saving after every meaningful change is a recommended habit that prevents configuration loss from unexpected restarts or power interruptions.

What you'll learn

What's covered

Saving Cisco Switch Configuration

Aligned to

Cisco CCNA
2.8 Describe network device management access
Cisco CCST Networking
5.5 Run basic show commands on a Cisco network device

Key terms

Switch
A network device that connects devices within a LAN and forwards traffic based on MAC addresses.
Running Configuration
The active configuration file stored in RAM that reflects all current settings on a Cisco device; changes are lost on restart if not saved.
Startup Configuration
A saved configuration file stored in NVRAM that is loaded into RAM during the boot process to configure the device's settings and parameters.
Command Line Interface
CLI
A text-based interface where users interact with an operating system or application by typing commands; it offers precise control and scriptability compared to graphical interfaces.

Topics

Cisco Ios Network Switches Cli Commands Running Configuration Startup Configuration Networking

Transcript

Saving with the copy Command

At this point in time I made a lot of changes on my switch. I want to make sure I capture all those changes, and so I need to save it out. I recommend save often — every time you make a change, save. In fact, a little later on I'll show you the method that I do anytime I make a change on devices, but for now let's just talk about how we save our files.

There's the copy command. If I type in copy on my switch, and then I'll give it the question mark, these are all the different devices I can copy from, and I can copy specific files. One of the things that shows up in here is my running config, so my active configuration on this device.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to type in running config, and then I'll do another question mark, and then it lists the same locations here, and I want to go to the startup config. The copy command goes from one location to another: I'm copying from the running config and I'm copying to the startup config, so the running config is going to replace the startup config, and the startup config now will have all the current settings on it.

So I do startup-config, I hit enter, and it's going to say, are you sure? This is going to overwrite this startup config. I'm going to say yes, I'm sure, and now it is writing over that. That took a little bit of time, and now it's done. Now I've saved the configuration, so if I were to reload this switch, then I would end up with all of the same settings and everything that there currently is, because I've got it saved now.

The write memory Command

The other thing that I can type in here to save — I can do write memory. This is the actual direct command to actually save your configuration. So, building configurations, and then it says OK, so it's now saved that running config to the startup config.

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