Enhanced Show interfaces commands in a Cisco Routers & Cisco Catalyst Switches.

Enhanced Show interfaces commands in a Cisco Routers & Cisco Catalyst Switches.

I was amazed to see many options available with “show interfaces commands which are undocumented, most of these commands are available in IOS release 12.2(44) (may be available with earlier versions, if so do comment).

Some of the undocumented commands are as follows
1) Show interfaces description displays interfaces names, Line and Line protocol status and interface description. Extremely useful to know the status of interfaces which are up or down.
2) Show interfaces counters protocol status displays the L3 protocols active on each interface.
3) Show interfaces summary displays the state of various interface queues and related drop counters in a good tabular format.
4) Show interfaces accounting displays per-protocol in/out counters.

Here are few sample outputs:

Sample Output from Cisco 3745 Router
MBGF-DAC-3745R01#sho interfaces description
Interface                      Status         Protocol Description
Fa0/0                           up             up       WAN connection THru. Bayanat
Fa0/1                            up             up       Connected to LAN
Tu0                                up             up      
MBGF-DAC-3745R01#

Sample output for Cisco 3560 Switch
MBGF-DAC-3560-AS02#sho interfaces description
Interface               Status         Protocol       Description
Vl1                               up             up      
Vl50                            up             up      
Gi0/1                          up             up      
Gi0/2                          up             up      
Gi0/3                          up             up      
Gi0/4                          up             up      
Gi0/5                          up             up      
Gi0/6                          up             up      
Gi0/7                          down           down    
…… 
Gi0/25                         up             up                con2 Khalid
Gi0/26                         down           down    
Gi0/27                         down           down    
Gi0/40                         up             up             CON2-DCAP-50
Gi0/41                         up             up      
Gi0/42                         up             up      
Gi0/43                         up             up  

Gi0/52                         up             up      
MBGF-DAC-3560-AS02#
MBGF-DAC-3745R01#show interfaces counters protocol status
Protocols allocated:
 FastEthernet0/0: Other, IP, DEC MOP, ARP, CDP
 FastEthernet0/1: Other, IP
 Tunnel 0:        Other, IP
 
MBGF-DAC-3560-AS02#sho interfaces counters protocol status
Protocols allocated:
 Vlan1: Other, IP, ARP
 Vlan50: Other, IP, ARP
 GigabitEthernet0/1: Other, IP, Spanning Tree, CDP
 GigabitEthernet0/2: Other, IP, Spanning Tree, CDP
 GigabitEthernet0/3: Other, IP, Spanning Tree, CDP
 GigabitEthernet0/4: Other, IP, Spanning Tree, CDP
 GigabitEthernet0/5: Other, IP, Spanning Tree, CDP
 GigabitEthernet0/6: Other, IP, Spanning Tree, CDP
Allocation failures: 0
MBGF-DAC-3560-AS02#
MBGF-DAC-3745R01#sho interfaces summary

 *: interface is up
 IHQ: pkts in input hold queue     IQD: pkts dropped from input queue
 OHQ: pkts in output hold queue    OQD: pkts dropped from output queue
 RXBS: rx rate (bits/sec)          RXPS: rx rate (pkts/sec)
 TXBS: tx rate (bits/sec)          TXPS: tx rate (pkts/sec)
 TRTL: throttle count

  Interface                    IHQ   IQD  OHQ   OQD  RXBS RXPS  TXBS TXPS TRTL
————————————————————————
* FastEthernet0/0          0     0    0     0 10803000  1233 1511000  873    0
* FastEthernet0/1          0     0    0     0 1379000  876 10614000  1237    0
* Tunnel0                         0     0    0     0 10664000  1233 1414000  873    0
NOTE:No separate counters are maintained for subinterfaces
     Hence Details of subinterface are not shown
MBGF-DAC-3745R01#

MBGF-DAC-3560-AS02#sho interfaces summary

 *: interface is up
 IHQ: pkts in input hold queue     IQD: pkts dropped from input queue
 OHQ: pkts in output hold queue    OQD: pkts dropped from output queue
 RXBS: rx rate (bits/sec)          RXPS: rx rate (pkts/sec)
 TXBS: tx rate (bits/sec)          TXPS: tx rate (pkts/sec)
 TRTL: throttle count

  Interface               IHQ   IQD  OHQ   OQD  RXBS RXPS  TXBS TXPS TRTL
————————————————————————-
* Vlan1                                0     0    0     0     0    0     0    0    0
* Vlan50                             0     0    0     0  1000    2  1000    2    0
* GigabitEthernet0/1       0     0    0 54684     0    0  2000    3    0
* GigabitEthernet0/2       0     0    0 54675     0    0  3000    3    0
* GigabitEthernet0/3       0     0    0 54675     0    0  2000    3    0
* GigabitEthernet0/4       0     0    0 54688     0    0  2000    3    0
* GigabitEthernet0/5       0     0    0 54664     0    0  2000    3    0
* GigabitEthernet0/6       0     0    0 54663     0    0  2000    3    0
………
  GigabitEthernet0/46      0     0    0   274     0    0     0    0    0
* GigabitEthernet0/47      0     0    0  5036     0    0  2000    3    0
* GigabitEthernet0/48      0     0    0 16702     0    0  3000    3    0
* GigabitEthernet0/49      0     0    0     0 10000   18     0    0    0
 * GigabitEthernet0/52      3     0    0     0 389000  208 1652000  223    0
MBGF-DAC-3560-AS02#

MBGF-DAC-3745R01#show interfaces accounting
FastEthernet0/0 WAN connection THru. Bayanat
                Protocol    Pkts In   Chars In   Pkts Out  Chars Out
                   Other          0          0      78271    4696260
                      IP  228129752  604147266  238404086 3496449051
                 DEC MOP          0          0       1304     100408
                     ARP      61201    3672060        230      13800
FastEthernet0/1 Connected to LAN
                Protocol    Pkts In   Chars In   Pkts Out  Chars Out
                   Other      13048    5206152      78271    4696260
                      IP  239500045 3032167184  230865599 2990242469
                 DEC MOP          0          0       1304     100408
                     ARP      97797    5867820      75355    4521300
Tunnel0
                Protocol    Pkts In   Chars In   Pkts Out  Chars Out
                      IP  228294310 1722638248  238403420  156253505
MBGF-DAC-3745R01#