- Products
- Learn
- Local User Groups
- Partners
- More
Access Control and Threat Prevention Best Practices
5 November @ 5pm CET / 11am ET
Firewall Uptime, Reimagined
How AIOps Simplifies Operations and Prevents Outages
Overlap in Security Validation
Help us to understand your needs better
CheckMates Go:
Spark Management Portal and More!
Hello my friends,
Whats the recommended way to do a factory reset to get to the initial setup wizard on a Security Management Server on R81.10?
Thanks!
There is a way:
- take a fresh installed SMS (same version) after initial setup
- do a migrate_server export
- on the victim, do a migrate_server import
This will delete everything including the currently installed license...
Hey brother,
You can also use below method too, or just from web UI:
To restore the appliance through the CLI:
set fcd revert <image_name>
For example: set fcd revert Gaia_R80.10
A reverting to factory defaults message is shown.
Server123> set fcd revert Gaia_R80.10Warning! This command will erase all the current configuration on this appliance and will revert it to the selected image.Are you sure you want to continue such action? (Yes/No) [No]YES
Reverting to factory defaults Gaia_R80.10Server123>Broadcast message from admin (Wed May 10 16:59:23 2017):
The system is going down for reboot NOW!INIT: Sending processes the TERM signal
For example: set fcd revert Gaia_R77.30
A reverting to factory defaults message is shown.
Server123> set fcd revert Gaia_R77.30reverting to factory defaults Gaia_R77.30Server123>Broadcast message from admin (Sun Oct 11 12:26:28 2015):
The system is going down for reboot NOW!INIT: Sending processes the TERM signal
To restore factory defaults with the WebUI:
In the Check Point Appliance WebUI, click Device > System Operations. The System Operations pane opens.
In the Appliance section, click Factory Defaults.
In the pop-up window that opens, click OK.
While factory defaults are restored, the Power LED blinks blue to show progress.
This takes some minutes. When this completes, the appliance reboots automatically.
First of all, if you need to keep your rules, objects and so on, DO NOT DO THIS. Both of these methods will wipe out everything you currently have on the system.
I would just reinstall the OS. If it's a VM or open server, you can feed it the ISO image of the version you want.
For an appliance, you should get the ISO image of the version and feed that to ISOmorphic to make a USB installation drive. You then boot the appliance from that, and it overwrites whatever is installed. ISOmorphic can work for open servers, but some don't like to boot from USB for whatever reason.
Hello Bob,
Yes I'm aware that this would erase everything that is the purpose. I just want to know a recommended way or different ways that there's no need to reinstall the OS.
Thanks
There is a way:
- take a fresh installed SMS (same version) after initial setup
- do a migrate_server export
- on the victim, do a migrate_server import
This will delete everything including the currently installed license...
Awesome this shall do the job many thanks for the tip!
But that won't take you back to the initial setup wizard (for example, to let you turn it into a secondary management, or to let you enable Provider-1). That requires that the initial setup wizard already be complete.
The only guaranteed way to get back to the initial setup wizard is to reinstall the OS.
I will also try this method:
rm -i /etc/.wizard_accepted
rm -i /etc/.wizard_started
I think that this will not delete the database, credentials and license.
In my suggestion, this is done under initial setup in step 1 8) as you have to install the SMS at least somewhere. You do not save the reinstall time and FTW, but at least you do not need to all do this at the customers - importing an empty database should be very quick...
Sure, but that’s not the question which was asked. The question was how you go from a SmartCenter back to the initial setup wizard. A migrate import won’t help, because that can only be done after the initial setup wizard is complete.
if you need to get back to the initial setup wizard to change an option selected in it, you have to reinstall the OS. The end.
Depending on why you’re trying to do this, it might require full reinstall as I mentioned, or you might be able to get away with restoring a snapshot or with using Blink. The full reinstallation methods I mentioned work regardless of other circumstances.
Yes, true !
Hey brother,
You can also use below method too, or just from web UI:
To restore the appliance through the CLI:
set fcd revert <image_name>
For example: set fcd revert Gaia_R80.10
A reverting to factory defaults message is shown.
Server123> set fcd revert Gaia_R80.10Warning! This command will erase all the current configuration on this appliance and will revert it to the selected image.Are you sure you want to continue such action? (Yes/No) [No]YES
Reverting to factory defaults Gaia_R80.10Server123>Broadcast message from admin (Wed May 10 16:59:23 2017):
The system is going down for reboot NOW!INIT: Sending processes the TERM signal
For example: set fcd revert Gaia_R77.30
A reverting to factory defaults message is shown.
Server123> set fcd revert Gaia_R77.30reverting to factory defaults Gaia_R77.30Server123>Broadcast message from admin (Sun Oct 11 12:26:28 2015):
The system is going down for reboot NOW!INIT: Sending processes the TERM signal
To restore factory defaults with the WebUI:
In the Check Point Appliance WebUI, click Device > System Operations. The System Operations pane opens.
In the Appliance section, click Factory Defaults.
In the pop-up window that opens, click OK.
While factory defaults are restored, the Power LED blinks blue to show progress.
This takes some minutes. When this completes, the appliance reboots automatically.
@the_rockHey brother thank you for sharing with us that information, the other mentioned methods are valid and would work however this seems to be more specific of what I'm looking for!!! You Rock!
Any time my friend! Thats whay my nickname is the rock ; - ). No, Im just kidding, thats not why...its because I like Dwayne Johnson, so I stole that from him : - )
Dwayne Johnson has joined this thread : - )
No offense brother, but if I were Dwayne Johnson, I would NOT be responding to any of the posts here, just saying : - )
Yeah i know Im just kidding but you never known what the rock is cooking maybe he change in the future from wrestler/actor a security administrator lol
hahahah...mark my words...if that EVER happened, I would be happy to transfer you 1000$ and treat you to a dinner in restaurant of your choice :-).
Hi, 
Will this remove the licenses too?
I believe so.
Hello guys,
Just wanted to inform that since its a SMS in VM there's no preinstall so not and available option to do a factory reset, only this seems to be available in appliances not VMS, thank you all for the help! The only way at the moment is to fresh install...
 
					
				
				
			
		
Leaderboard
Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol.
| User | Count | 
|---|---|
| 24 | |
| 11 | |
| 7 | |
| 7 | |
| 6 | |
| 4 | |
| 3 | |
| 3 | |
| 3 | |
| 2 | 
Wed 05 Nov 2025 @ 11:00 AM (EST)
TechTalk: Access Control and Threat Prevention Best PracticesThu 06 Nov 2025 @ 10:00 AM (CET)
CheckMates Live BeLux: Get to Know Veriti – What It Is, What It Does, and Why It MattersTue 11 Nov 2025 @ 05:00 PM (CET)
Hacking LLM Applications: latest research and insights from our LLM pen testing projects - AMERTue 11 Nov 2025 @ 10:00 AM (CST)
Hacking LLM Applications: latest research and insights from our LLM pen testing projects - EMEAAbout CheckMates
Learn Check Point
Advanced Learning
YOU DESERVE THE BEST SECURITY