Useful Native IOS Mode Commands

One of the benefits of the Native IOS Mode is that it implements most of the Layer 2 features found in XDI/CatOS platforms such as the Catalyst 5000. Fortunately, the IOS command-line interface (CLI) has been enhanced to include much of the information previously only found under XDI/CatOS. This section briefly displays and discusses some of the more important enhancements.

Probably the most important enhancement involves the interface range command. Without this feature, it would be necessary to individually configure hundreds of ports in a fully populated switch. Fortunately, this feature allows you to configure multiple interfaces at the same time as shown in Example 18-24.

Example 18-24 Configuring EIGRP as a Routing Protocol

   NativeMode(config)# interface range 5/1-5, 6/1-24, 7/1-48   NativeMode(config-if)# switchport mode access   NativeMode(config-if)# switchport access vlan 2   NativeMode(config-if)# end   NativeMode# 

This assigns 77 ports to VLAN 2 in one step, a huge time saver! In short, Example 18-24 is equivalent to the set vlan 2 5/1-5,6/1-24,7/1-48 command on XDI/CatOS-based Catalysts. Notice that interface range commands do not directly appear in the configuration. Instead, the results of Example 18-24 will appear in the output of show running-config on each of the separate 77 interfaces it references.

Tip

Be sure to use the interface range command when configuring Native IOS Mode devices.

Users accustomed to the show port and show trunk XDI/CatOS commands will find familiar ground in the enhancements to the show interface syntax. For example, the XDI/CatOS command show trunk has been ported to the show interface trunk command as shown in Example 18-25.

Example 18-25 The show interface trunk Command

   NativeMode# show interfaces trunk   Port      Mode         Encapsulation  Status        Native vlan   Fa5/6     on           802.1q         trunking      1   Port      Vlans allowed on trunk   Fa5/6     1-1005   Port      Vlans allowed and active in management domain   Fa5/6     1-1005   Port      Vlans in Spanning Tree forwarding state and not pruned   Fa5/6     none   NativeMode# 

Many of the show port XDI/CatOS commands have also been ported. For example, Example 18-26 displays information on counters with the show interface counters command.

Example 18-26 The show interface counters Command

   NativeMode# show interfaces counters module 1   Port          InOctets   InUcastPkts   InMcastPkts   InBcastPkts   Gi1/1          1093847        284764          5739          8576   Gi1/2                0             0             0             0   Port         OutOctets  OutUcastPkts  OutMcastPkts  OutBcastPkts   Gi1/1           876643        198578          4657          7765   Gi1/2                0             0             0             0   NativeMode# 

Notice that Example 18-26 uses the module module-number argument to filter the output to only show information for module 1. This option exists on most of the new switching-oriented show interface commands.

Tip

Also use the powerful Output Modifier feature introduced in IOS 12.0. Simply terminate any show command with a pipe symbol (|) and specify a pattern to match (regular expressions are supported!). There are options to include and exclude lines (including an option to output all text found after the first match). The slash (/) key can also be used to search for text.

Example 18-27 displays the output of the errors option to show interfaces counters.

Example 18-27 The show interfaces counters errors Command

   NativeMode# show interfaces counters errors module 1   Port      Align-Err    FCS-Err   Xmit-Err    Rcv-Err UnderSize   Gi1/1             0          0          0          0         0   Gi1/2             0          0          0          0         0     Port    Single-Col Multi-Col  Late-Col Excess-Col Carri-Sen     Runts    Giants   Gi1/1            0         0         0          0         0         0         0   Gi1/2            0         0         0          0         0         0         0   NativeMode# 

The show interfaces counters trunk command can be used to show the number of frames transmitted and received on trunk ports. Encapsulation errors are also included (use this information to check for ISL/802.1Q encapsulation mismatches).

The show vlan command has also been ported to the Native IOS Mode. In fact, as shown in Example 18-28, it is almost identical to the XDI/CatOS version of this command.

Example 18-28 The show vlan Command

   NativeMode# show vlan   VLAN Name                             Status    Ports   ---- -------------------------------- --------- -------------------------------   1    default                          active    Fa5/6   2    Martketing                       active    Fa5/1, Fa5/2, Fa5/3, Fa5/6   3    Engineering                      active    Fa5/5, Fa5/6   1002 fddi-default                     active    Fa5/6   1003 token-ring-default               active    Fa5/6   1004 fddinet-default                  active    Fa5/6   1005 trnet-default                    active    Fa5/6   VLAN Type  SAID       MTU   Parent RingNo BridgeNo Stp  BrdgMode Trans1 Trans2   ---- ----- ---------- ----- ------ ------ -------- ---- -------- ------ ------   1    enet  100001     1500  -      -      -        -    -        0      0   2    enet  100002     1500  -      -      -        -    -        0      0   3    enet  100003     1500  -      -      -        -    -        0      0   1002 fddi  101002     1500  -      0      -        -    -        0      0   1003 tr    101003     1500  -      0      -        -    srb      0      0   1004 fdnet 101004     1500  -      -      -        ieee -        0      0   1005 trnet 101005     1500  -      -      -        ibm  -        0      0   NativeMode#