ADVANCED CONCEPTS
UNDERSTANDING MODES AND SUB-MODES
The CLI implements a number of modes that control the available command set. The modes are further
influenced by the privilege level of the user; some modes or commands are only accessible to
administrators while others require no privileges beyond log in.
There are three major modes, Exec, Privileged Exec and Config. Under Config are a number of sub-
modes. The sub-modes allow configuration of specific VLANs, Ethernet interfaces, etc.
Lowest-privileged mode; used for basic system monitoring. Generally does not
allow modifications to the system.
Command: disable
Prompt: hostname>
Privileged mode; allows configuration and other modifications to the system.
Command: enable
Prompt: hostname#
Global configuration mode
Command: configure terminal
Prompt: hostname(config)#
Sub-mode for configuring active VLANs
Command: vlan
vlan_id_list
Prompt: hostname(config-vlan)#
Sub-mode for configuring VLAN interfaces
Command: interface vlan
vlan_id_list
Prompt: hostname(config-if-vlan)#
Sub-mode for configuring Ethernet interfaces
Command: interface
type switch_num/port_num
Prompt: hostname(config-if)#
Sub-mode for configuring terminal lines
Command: line { con | vty }
line_num
Prompt: hostname(config-line)#
Sub-mode for configuring IP Multicast profiles
Command: ipmc profile
profile_name
Prompt: hostname(config-ipmc-profile)#
Sub-mode for configuring SNMP server host entries
Command: snmp-server host
host_name
Prompt: hostname(config-snmps-host)#
Sub-mode for configuring Spanning Tree Protocol aggregation
Command: spanning-tree aggregation
Prompt: hostname(config-stp-aggr)#
Sub-mode for configuring DHCP client pools
Command: ip dhcp pool
pool_name
Prompt: hostname(config-dhcp-pool)#
Sub-mode for configuring RFC2544 profiles
Command: rfc2544 profile
profile_name
Prompt: hostname(config-rfc2544-profile)#