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January 25, 2007

Show Interface Description

Where on earth have I been?!? I'm teaching a CCNA class this week and one of my students showed me the command show interface description. Until now, I thought the only way to see the description of an interface was to do a "show run" or "show interface" command. This command is SWEET! Talk about a quick way to see your connections.

Here's a sample from the Cat. 3500 I use at home:


CAT_3550#show interface description
Interface                      Status         Protocol Description
Vl1                            up             up       
Vl50                           up             up       
Vl100                          up             up       SERVER VLAN
Vl200                          up             up       LAN CLIENT VLAN
Vl300                          up             up       WIRELESS CLIENT VLAN
Vl400                          up             up       EXIT VLAN
Vl600                          up             up       VOICE VLAN
Fa0/1                          up             up       CONNECTION TO QWEST ISP
Fa0/2                          down           down     CONNECTION TO 2801 OUTSIDE INTERFACE
Fa0/3                          up             up       VONAGE LINKSYS ROUTER
Fa0/4                          up             up       NETGEAR WPA-PSK WIRELESS
Fa0/5                          down           down     CONNECTION TO 2801 INSIDE INTERFACE

Posted by JC at January 25, 2007 4:12 PM

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Comments

You should try sh interface status:

Port Name Status Vlan Duplex Speed Type

Gi1/1 [sfmdf2] connected trunk full 1000 1000BaseSX

Gi1/2 [usb310b] connected trunk full 1000 1000BaseSX

Gi1/3 [usb310d] connected trunk full 1000 1000BaseSX

Gi1/4 [usb310e] connected trunk full 1000 1000BaseSX

Posted by: Jonathan Y at February 13, 2007 6:37 AM

Jonathan,

Why would he use sh interface status, when he needs the interface description? Are the names in brackets the description names?

I, myself, use this ALOT! Mostly, because a tech would say they are having network problems with a system, and I would use the description to find out which interface to monitor a session for packet tracing. Very useful in full wiring closets, where there are LOTS of cables.

Especially, 'sh interface desc | incl server1' which will return the interface where server1 is in the description.

Posted by: Aaron P at February 23, 2007 6:37 AM

Hi,

Show ip interface brief is also a great command!

A.

Posted by: Andrew Mason at March 1, 2007 11:11 AM

Exactly right, `show int status' gives you the interface description in the second column.

`description' is nice but I personally prefer the `status'.

Posted by: Laurent G at March 8, 2007 5:25 PM

it scares me you are teaching CCNA courses and you're only just working this out.

Posted by: matt at March 18, 2007 7:11 PM

Hey - with a trillion commands in the IOS, who has time to learn them all? :)

Posted by: JC at March 20, 2007 6:54 AM

Found this the other day. Only somewhat related but,,,

sh int | i (is up | rate)

gives you this

FastEthernet0/15 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
FastEthernet0/19 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
FastEthernet0/21 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
FastEthernet0/23 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 1000 bits/sec, 1 packets/sec
FastEthernet0/24 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 1000 bits/sec, 1 packets/sec

Kind of handy to see at a glance every ports usage..

Posted by: tkroeker at October 17, 2007 3:53 PM

One I found from Google a while back that I find very handy is
show interfaces | inc CRC
gives a nice view of all interfaces and any errors

0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
37 input errors, 37 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
1 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored

Posted by: thinguy at April 13, 2008 5:54 PM

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