A method is disclosed for reverting to a recovery configuration in response to device faults. A change to the configuration is received. The change may be in the form of configuration instructions that comprise input from a user identifying changes to be made to the configuration information reflecting the configuration of cards or interface devices in the device. A user, an IT administrator or the like can provide configuration instructions. The device may change its current configuration to a new configuration based upon the configuration instructions. If a loss of connectivity resulting from the configuration change is detected, the device will recover from the loss of connectivity by reverting to a recovery configuration.