Top Ten Cisco IOS Commands - 1) sh int

The Cisco IOS "show interface" command is an invaluable command to know. Also, it is probably one you have used before. With this command you can see the following info and more:

• IP address & mask
• Speed & duplex
• MAC address
• Status
• Errors
• Utilization
• Last clear counter time

You may know this already, but, what can be difficult is how to extract the precise data you want in a format that you can use. Here are some forms of the "sh int" command that I've found very useful:
Obviously, the basic first...

Ok, I cheated on this one. "Show ip interface brief" displays management IPs and up/down status...

Same command from a router...



 A summary of interfaces and their utilization...

The description field can be handy. If you use it when programming ports, it can come back to help you later...

Also, errors can be seen. Here you'll see I've got some collisions and a receive error...

Another variation on errors...

Trunk info...

I use this a lot when setting up a new printer or workstation...

Need to check on the status of your gbics?...

As you can see, the data that can be extracted from this root command "sh int" is only limited by your ability to understand the options and some experience with the cli.

Check this out. It is a Cisco page giving the field descriptions...

Cisco 12.2 docs "interface" command

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