Basic commands

1.                  Modes in CLI

There are three modes in the switch, namely normal/unprivileged, privileged and configuration modes. There are some commands or settings that can alter the switch’s role in the network and hence can only be accessed by the user with privileged access. The configuration mode is used to configure the switch’s different features and parameters. When one logins to the switch, the default mode is the Normal mode.

 

·         To go into privileged mode type in the following command:

Switch>enable

Switch#

If password is set, it will ask for password.

 

·         To go into configuration mode type in the following command:

Switch#configure terminal

 

·         To configure the enable password execute the following commands:

Switch>enable

Switch#configure terminal

Switch(config)#enable password <password(user defined)>

Switch(config)#exit

Switch#write

Building configuration…

[OK]

So the next time one goes into privileged mode one will be asked for the password.

 

·         To go back from privileged mode to normal mode disable command is used

Switch#disable

Switch>

 

2.                  Changing hostname and password

To change the name of the hostname or password type the following commands in the configuration mode:

Switch(config)#hostname <user_defined_name>

Switch(config)#password <user_defined>

Switch(config)#exit

Switch#write

 

The write command is used to save the configuration made.

 

3.                  To see the present version details of the switch the ‘show version’ command is used.

Switch#show version

 

 

4.                  Terminal Length <Value>

There are some long outputs for certain commands. To specify the number of lines to appear on the screen one can use the ‘terminal length <value>’ command:

 

This command is used to display the corresponding mac address table information. This command is executed in the normal/privileged mode

username <username> password <password> {normal | privilege}

The above syntax is used to create new users or edit the present user.

no username

The no username command is used to delete and existing user or all.