Restoring the Kerio Control Box NG series default configuration using a USB flash drive

Kerio Technologies provides a set of tools for solutions for situations in which it is not possible to connect to Kerio Control on a network and administer it through the Kerio Control Administration web interface.

These tools are designed to run from a USB flash drive.

You need a flash drive with the capacity of at least 1 GB to run the tools. For restoring the default configuration, 256 MB suffice.

We recommend to use this method to update Kerio Control Box and Kerio Control Software ApplianceA special operating system designed to run on a computer.. In this article, Kerio Control refers to Kerio Control Box or Kerio Control Software Appliance.

If you have any issues after using the tools, for example, if Kerio Control fails to work even after you perform a complete system recovery, please contact our technical support.

Restoring the default configuration

Recovering to factory settings includes removal of all configuration data including activation and the statistics database.

This USB tool is designed for a single use. An operation does not repeat if you restart with the flash drive still in the USB port. Once you perform the operation unplug the flash drive.

1. Insert the flash drive into a USB port on your computer (256 MB and more).
2. Make sure that only one partition with the FAT16 or FAT32 (VFAT) file system is created on the flash drive. The USB disk must not be formatted by the NTFS, ext2, ext3, or ext4 file systems.
3. Download and save the kerio-control-factory-reset file to the flash drive.
4. Switch off Kerio Control.
5. Plug the USB flash drive into a USB port of your Kerio Control box.
6. Switch on the Kerio Control box for resetting the configuration.
7. Reboot the Kerio Control box manually.
8. For additional instructions, continue with the Installing Kerio Control article.

Running a complete system recovery

During the complete system recovery, all configuration data, including activation and the statistics database, is completely rewritten. This means that you must reactivate and reconfigure the device afterwards.

Preparing a flash drive for a complete system recovery

For a complete system recovery, you must save the installation disk image directly to the physical device.

Microsoft Windows

1. Insert the flash drive into a USB port on your computer (1 GB and more).

2. Download and unpack Image Writer (it does not require installation).
3. Download the kerio-control-rescue file.
4. In Image Writer, find the file, select your flash drive and click Write.
5. Eject the flash drive securely and remove it from your computer.

Linux

1. Insert the flash drive into a USB port on your computer (1 GB and more).

2. Download the kerio-control-rescue file.
3. Run the terminal (console) in the super-user mode (for example, using the su or sudo -s command depending on your Linux distribution).
4. Use the command fdisk -l to detect the USB flash drive name (for example, /dev/sdx).
5. Save the kerio-control-rescue file to the flash drive using the following command: dd if=rescue.img of=/dev/sdx bs=1M and replace rescue.img with the real file name and /dev/sdx with the actual device name. You must type the physical device (for example, /dev/sdx), not a partition (for example, /dev/sdx1).
6. Use the sync command to ensure all disk operations finish.
7. Eject the USB drive safely and remove it from the USB port.

Mac OS X

1. Insert the flash drive into a USB port on your computer (1 GB and more).

2. Download the kerio-control-rescue file.
3. Run the terminal: Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
4. Use the sudo diskutil list command to detect the USB flash drive name (for example, /dev/diskX).

5. Use the sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX command to unmount the flash drive.
6. Save the kerio-control-rescue file to the USB flash drive using the following command: sudo dd if=rescue.img of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m and replace rescue.img with the real file name and /dev/diskX with the actual device name.
7. Eject the flash drive securely and remove it from your computer.

Kerio Control Box system recovery

1. Switch off Kerio Control.
2. Plug the USB flash drive into a USB port of your Kerio Control Box.
3. Switch on Kerio Control. Wait for applying the kerio-control-rescue script.
4. Kerio Control turns off after the recovery finishes.
5. Switch on Kerio Control.
6. For additional instructions, continue with the Installing Kerio Control article.

Recovering the USB flash drive for further use

The recovery file creates partitions on the USB flash drive. To reuse the USB drive for other purposes, you need to remove all disk partitions, create new partitions, and reformat the disk for your file system.

Microsoft Window

1. Click Start and in the Search field type cmd.exe to open the Command Prompt window.
2. In the command line, type diskpart. You may need to confirm that you have administration rights.
3. Type list disk to display the list of drives and look up the number of the physical USB drive.
4. Type select disk X (replace X with the number of the corresponding disk).
5. Type clean to remove all partitions.
6. Create a new disk partition by typing the following commands in the order listed:

create partition primary 
select partition 1
format fs=fat32 label="USB Flash" quick 
exit 

Linux

Use the graphical tool GParted or the command fdisk.

Mac OS X

Use the system tool Disk Utility: Application > Utilities > Disk Utility.

Formatting a USB flash drive with MBR

1. Click Start and in the Search field type cmd.exe to open the Command Prompt window.
2. In the command line, type diskpart. You may need to confirm that you have administration rights.
3. Type list disk to display the list of drives and look up the number of the physical USB drive.
4. Type select disk X (replace X with the number of the corresponding disk).
5. Type clean to remove all partitions.
6. Create a new disk partition by typing the following commands in the order listed:

create partition primary 
select partition 1 
format fs=fat32 label="USB Flash" quick 
exit 

Related articles

Recovering your Kerio Control Box NG series password using a USB flash drive

Updating Kerio Control Box NG series using a USB flash drive