The basics of Cisco administration

1. Cisco operating modes

User mode (User EXEC): basic access, limited to observation.

Privileged mode (Privileged EXEC): access to configuration and diagnostic commands.

To access: enable or en

Global configuration mode: modification of the system configuration.

To access: configure terminal or conf t

 

2. Basic configuration commands

hostname <name>	Set hostname
line console 0 password <password> login	Enables console authentication.
no ip domaine lookup	Disables DNS lookup, avoids delays when a command error occurs.
enable password <password>	Password for privileged access
enable secret <password>	Password for privileged access, encrypted and therefore more secure.

 

3. Backing up and restoring the configuration

copy running-config startup-config	Saves the configuration to NVRAM memory (upon reboot)
write memory or wr	Saves the configuration to NVRAM memory (upon reboot)
show running-config	Current configuration
show startup-config	Configuration upon reboot
show version	OS version and system information
show interfaces	Network interface status

 

4. Backup/Restore with a TFTP server

The device will ask you for the server's IP address and the file name.

copy running-config tftp:	Backup to a TFTP server
copy tftp: running-config	Restoring from a TFTP server