TOC

  1. General Snippets
  2. Cisco Troubleshooting Command Cheat Sheet
    1. 1. Interface and Physical Layer
    2. 2. Layer 2 Troubleshooting
    3. 3. IP Connectivity
    4. 4. BGP Troubleshooting
    5. 5. IPsec / VPN Troubleshooting
    6. 6. Routing Protocols (General)
    7. 7. Tunnel and GRE Troubleshooting
    8. 8. CPU, Memory, and Process Monitoring
    9. 9. Logging and Debugging
    10. 10. Miscellaneous
    11. Notes
  3. General notes
    1. Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing (EIGRP)
    2. Virtual Routing & Forwarding
    3. Generic Routing Encapsulation(GRE)

General Snippets



title: Cisco Troubleshooting Command Cheat Sheet nav_order: 1 has_children: false parent: Network Troubleshooting —

Cisco Troubleshooting Command Cheat Sheet

1. Interface and Physical Layer

  • Show interface status and protocol:
    show interfaces status
  • Detailed interface statistics:
    show interfaces [interface]
  • Check interface errors:
    show interfaces [interface] | include error
  • Show interface description:
    show interfaces description
  • Display operational speed/duplex:
    show controllers [interface]
  • Verify interface transceiver info (SFP):
    show hw-module interface [interface] transceiver
  • Reset interface:
    shutdown / no shutdown
  • Clear interface counters:
    clear counters [interface]

2. Layer 2 Troubleshooting

  • Display VLAN information:
    show vlan brief
  • Display spanning-tree status:
    show spanning-tree
  • Show port security status:
    show port-security interface [interface]
  • Check MAC address table:
    show mac address-table
  • Display trunk links:
    show interfaces trunk
  • Show LLDP neighbors:
    show lldp neighbors
    show lldp neighbors detail
  • Show CDP neighbors:
    show cdp neighbors
    show cdp neighbors detail
  • Verify STP root bridge:
    show spanning-tree root

3. IP Connectivity

  • Show IP interface summary:
    show ip interface brief
  • Detailed IP interface info:
    show ip interface [interface]
  • Ping with specific parameters:
    ping [destination] source [interface/IP] repeat 10
  • Traceroute to destination:
    traceroute [destination]
  • Display ARP table:
    show ip arp
  • Clear ARP cache:
    clear arp-cache
  • Show routing table:
    show ip route
  • Show IP routing protocol summary:
    show ip protocols

4. BGP Troubleshooting

  • Show BGP summary:
    show ip bgp summary
  • Show BGP neighbors:
    show ip bgp neighbors
  • Show BGP advertised routes:
    show ip bgp neighbors [neighbor IP] advertised-routes
  • Show BGP received routes:
    show ip bgp neighbors [neighbor IP] received-routes
  • Show specific BGP route:
    show ip bgp [prefix]
  • Check BGP routing table for prefix:
    show ip route [prefix]
  • Clear BGP sessions (use with caution):
    clear ip bgp *
  • Debug BGP events:
    debug ip bgp events
  • Debug BGP updates:
    debug ip bgp updates
  • View BGP flap dampening info:
    show ip bgp dampening

5. IPsec / VPN Troubleshooting

  • Show crypto ISAKMP SA (IKE Phase 1):
    show crypto isakmp sa
  • Show crypto IPsec SA (Phase 2):
    show crypto ipsec sa
  • Show crypto map configuration:
    show crypto map
  • Show crypto session details:
    show crypto session detail
  • Debug IKE negotiation:
    debug crypto isakmp
  • Debug IPsec negotiations:
    debug crypto ipsec
  • Show VPN peer status:
    show crypto session
  • Verify NAT exemption ACLs:
    show access-lists
  • Check tunnel interface status:
    show interfaces tunnel [number]
  • Reset IKE/IPsec SAs:
    clear crypto sa / clear crypto isakmp sa

6. Routing Protocols (General)

  • Show routing protocol summary:
    show ip protocols
  • Show EIGRP neighbors:
    show ip eigrp neighbors
  • Show OSPF neighbors:
    show ip ospf neighbor
  • Show OSPF interfaces:
    show ip ospf interface
  • Show OSPF database:
    show ip ospf database
  • Display route redistribution:
    show run | include redistribute

7. Tunnel and GRE Troubleshooting

  • Show tunnel interface:
    show interfaces tunnel [number]
  • Check tunnel source/destination:
    show run interface tunnel [number]
  • Check tunnel status:
    show ip interface brief | include Tunnel
  • Ping using tunnel source:
    ping [destination] source [tunnel interface]
  • Debug tunnel encapsulation:
    debug tunnel
  • Check routing over tunnel:
    show ip route | include [tunnel network]

8. CPU, Memory, and Process Monitoring

  • Show CPU utilization:
    show processes cpu sorted
  • Show memory usage:
    show processes memory sorted
  • Show platform hardware resources:
    show platform resources
  • Show process usage per feature:
    show processes cpu history

9. Logging and Debugging

  • View system log messages:
    show logging
  • Set terminal logging:
    terminal monitor
  • Disable terminal logging:
    terminal no monitor
  • Show debug status:
    show debug
  • Disable all debugging:
    undebug all / no debug all
  • Save running config logs:
    copy running-config startup-config
  • Display clock for log correlation:
    show clock

10. Miscellaneous

  • Show version and uptime:
    show version
  • Show configuration changes:
    show archive config differences
  • Show running configuration:
    show running-config
  • Show startup configuration:
    show startup-config
  • Save configuration:
    copy running-config startup-config
  • Show inventory:
    show inventory
  • Show license information:
    show license

Notes

  • Always confirm before using clear or debug commands in production.
  • Use output filters to refine results:
    • | include
    • | exclude
    • | section
  • Disable paging for long outputs:
    terminal length 0

General notes


Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing (EIGRP)

  • allows router to share routes with other routers within AS’es (autonomous systems)

Virtual Routing & Forwarding

  • used to facilitate mpls

  • VRF-lite is VRF without MPLS

  • used by service providers to allow one device to carry traffic from multiple customers

  • Allows you to split physical router into multiple virtual routers , “vlans for routers”

  • Separate routing tables for each instance

  • TCP / IP layer 3 interfaces can be configured to use VRF

  • interfaces and routes are configured to a specified VRF

  • cannot be applied to layer 2 interfaces

  • traffic in one VRF cannot be forwarded out of an interface in another VRF without VRF leaking

  • Router intefaces , SVI’s and routed ports on multilayered switches can be configured in a VRF

Generic Routing Encapsulation(GRE)

  • Layer 2 adjacency between two routers separated by cloud
  • IPSec implements encryption , GRE does not implement encryption by default
  • Encapsulation in GRE packets , both multicast or unicast
  • Pipe GRE packets into IPSec tunnel
  • GRE tunnels creates a virtual link and as a consequence , lowers the hop count