5 The Cisco IOS CLI
This chapter covers
- The interfaces used to configure network devices
- How to connect to the CLI of a Cisco device via the console port
- Navigating between modes of the Cisco IOS command hierarchy
- Viewing and saving a device’s configuration files
- Password-protecting a Cisco IOS device
This chapter is a break from the networking theory of the previous chapter; it’s time to get hands-on with Cisco routers and switches. Understanding the theory of networking is absolutely essential, but networking is also a skill that must be practiced, and that means configuring network devices.
In the CCNA exam topics list you will find a few different verbs such as explain X, describe Y, and identify Z, indicating that Cisco expects you to have a theoretical understanding of the listed concepts and how they work. However, there are also many exam topics that state configure X or configure and verify Y. For these topics, in addition to having a theoretical understanding of their concepts, you must be able to configure them on Cisco network devices and verify their operations.
As an introduction to making configuration changes to a Cisco device and saving those changes, in this chapter we will touch on exam topic 5.3: Configure device access control using local passwords. However, this chapter is not specifically aimed at one of the CCNA exam topics, but rather lays a necessary foundation for all of the exam topics that require you to configure and verify various protocols.