Basic Device Management

This chapter describes how to configure, manage, and verify the basic setting on your Cisco NX-OS device.

Information About Basic Device Management

This section provides information about basic device management.

Device Hostname

You can change the device hostname displayed in the command prompt from the default (switch) to another character string. When you give the device a unique hostname, you can easily identify the device from the command-line interface (CLI) prompt.

Message-of-the-Day Banner

The message-of-the-day (MOTD) banner displays before the user login prompt on the device. This message can contain any information that you want to display for users of the device.

Device Clock

If you do not synchronize your device with a valid outside timing mechanism, such as an NTP clock source, you can manually set the clock time when your device boots.

Clock Manager

The Cisco Nexus chassis may contain clocks of different types that may need to be synchronized. These clocks are a part of various components (such as the supervisor, LC processors, or line cards) and each may be using a different protocol.

The clock manager provides a way to synchronize these different clocks.

Time Zone and Summer Time (Daylight Saving Time)

You can configure the time zone and summer time (daylight saving time) setting for your device. These values offset the clock time from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC is International Atomic Time (TAI) with leap seconds added periodically to compensate for the Earth's slowing rotation. UTC was formerly called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

User Sessions

You can display the active user session on your device. You can also send messages to the user sessions. For more information about managing user sessions and accounts, see the Cisco Nexus security configuration guide for your device.

Guidelines and Limitations for Basic Device Management

The following are guidelines and limitations for basic device management:

  • The show tech-support libsdk command and the show tech-support mtc-usd command are not supported. Instead use the show tech-support module 1 command. (NX-OS 7.0(3)I7(2) and later releases.)

Changing the Device Hostname

You can change the device hostname displayed in the command prompt from the default (switch) to another character string.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. configure terminal
  2. { hostname | switchname} name
  3. exit
  4. (Optional) copy running-config startup-config

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

configure terminal

Example:

switch# configure terminal
switch(config)#

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 2

{ hostname | switchname} name

Example:

Using the hostname command: 

switch(config)# hostname Engineering1
Engineering1(config)#

Using the switchname command: 

Engineering1(config)# switchname Engineering2
Engineering2(config)#

Changes the device hostname. The name argument is alphanumeric, case sensitive, and has a maximum length of 63 characters. The default name is switch.

Note 

The switchname command performs the same function as the hostname command.

Step 3

exit

Example:

Engineering2(config)# exit
Engineering2#

Exits global configuration mode.

Step 4

(Optional) copy running-config startup-config

Example:

Engineering2# copy running-config startup-config
 (Optional)

Copies the running configuration to the startup configuration.

Configuring the MOTD Banner

You can configure the MOTD to display before the login prompt on the terminal when a user logs in. The MOTD banner has the following characteristics:

  • Maximum of 80 characters per line

  • Maximum of 40 lines

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. configure terminal
  2. banner motd delimiting-character message delimiting-character
  3. exit
  4. (Optional) show banner motd
  5. (Optional) copy running-config startup-config

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

configure terminal

Example:

switch# configure terminal
switch(config)#

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 2

banner motd delimiting-character message delimiting-character

Example:

switch(config)# banner motd #Welcome to the Switch#
switch(config)#

Configures the MOTD banner. Do not use the delimiting-character in the message text.

Note 

Do not use " or % as a delimiting character.

Step 3

exit

Example:

switch(config)# exit
switch#

Exits global configuration mode.

Step 4

(Optional) show banner motd

Example:

switch# show banner motd
 (Optional)

Displays the configured MOTD banner.

Step 5

(Optional) copy running-config startup-config

Example:

switch# copy running-config startup-config
 (Optional)

Copies the running configuration to the startup configuration.

Configuring the Time Zone

You can configure the time zone to offset the device clock time from UTC.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. configure terminal
  2. clock timezone zone-name offset-hours offset-minutes
  3. exit
  4. (Optional) show clock
  5. (Optional) copy running-config startup-config

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

configure terminal

Example:

switch# configure terminal
switch(config)#

Enters global configuration mode.
Step 2

clock timezone zone-name offset-hours offset-minutes

Example:

switch(config)# clock timezone EST -5 0

Configures the time zone. The zone-name argument is a 3-character string for the time zone acronym (for example, PST or EST). The offset-hours argument is the offset from the UTC and the range is from –23 to 23 hours. The range for the offset-minutes argument is from 0 to 59 minutes.

Step 3

exit

Example:

switch(config)# exit
switch#

Exits global configuration mode.
Step 4

(Optional) show clock

Example:

switch# show clock
 (Optional)

Displays the time and time zone.
Step 5

(Optional) copy running-config startup-config

Example:

switch# copy running-config startup-config
 (Optional)

Copies the running configuration to the startup configuration.

Configuring Summer Time (Daylight Saving Time)

You can configure when summer time, or daylight saving time, is in effect for the device and the offset in minutes.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. configure terminal
  2. clock summer-time zone-name start-week start-day start-month start-time end-week end-day end-month end-time offset-minutes
  3. exit
  4. (Optional) show clock detail
  5. (Optional) copy running-config startup-config

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

configure terminal

Example:

switch# configure terminal
switch(config)#

Enters global configuration mode.
Step 2

clock summer-time zone-name start-week start-day start-month start-time end-week end-day end-month end-time offset-minutes

Example:

switch(config)# clock summer-time PDT 
1 Sunday March 02:00 1 Sunday 
November 02:00 60

Configures summer time or daylight saving time.

The zone-name argument is a three character string for the time zone acronym (for example, PST and EST).

The values for the start-day and end-day arguments are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday .

The values for the start-month and end-month arguments are January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December .

The value for the start-time and end-time arguments are in the format hh:mm .

The range for the offset-minutes argument is from 0 to 1440 minutes.

Step 3

exit

Example:

switch(config)# exit
switch#

Exits global configuration mode.
Step 4

(Optional) show clock detail

Example:

switch(config)# show clock detail
 (Optional)

Displays the configured MOTD banner.
Step 5

(Optional) copy running-config startup-config

Example:

switch# copy running-config startup-config
 (Optional)

Copies the running configuration to the startup configuration.

Manually Setting the Device Clock

You can set the clock manually if your device cannot access a remote time source.

Before you begin

Configure the time zone.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. clock set time day month year
  2. (Optional) show clock

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

clock set time day month year

Example:

switch# clock set 15:00:00 30 May 2008
Fri May 30 15:14:00 PDT 2008

Configures the device clock.

The format for the time argument is hh:mm:ss .

The range for the day argument is from 1 to 31.

The values for the month argument are January , February , March , April , May , June , July , August , September , October , November , and December .

The range for the year argument is from 2000 to 2030.

Step 2

(Optional) show clock

Example:

switch(config)# show clock
 (Optional)

Displays the current clock value.

Setting the Clock Manager

You can configure the clock manager to synchronize all the clocks of the components in the Cisco Nexus chassis.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. clock protocol protocol vdc vdc-num
  2. (Optional) show run clock_manager

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

clock protocol protocol vdc vdc-num

Example:

# clock protocol ptp vdc 2

Configures the clock manager.

The values for the protocol argument are ptp , ntp , and none .

The following describes the values:

  • ptp —Synchronizes clocks with Precision Time Protocol (PTP) as described by IEEE 1588.

  • ntp — Synchronizes clocks with Network Time Protocol (NTP).

  • none —Use clock set to set supervisor clocks.

    Note 

    When none is used, the clock in the specified VDC must be configured.

    Note 

    Once the protocol is configured, the clock in the specified VDC must use that protocol.

    For example, if the clock protocol ptp vdc 2 command is entered, then PTP should be configured in VDC 2.

The range for the vdc argument is 1 to 8.

Step 2

(Optional) show run clock_manager

Example:

#show run clock_manager
 (Optional)

Displays the configuration of the clock manager.

Managing Users

You can display information about users logged into the device and send messages to those users.

Displaying Information about the User Sessions

You can display information about the user session on the device.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. show users

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

show users

Example:

switch# show users

Displays the user sessions.

Sending a Message to Users

You can send a message to active users currently using the device CLI.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. (Optional) show users
  2. send [session line] message-text

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

(Optional) show users

Example:

switch# show users
 (Optional)

Displays the active user sessions.
Step 2

send [session line] message-text

Example:

switch# send Reloading the device is 10 minutes!

Sends a message to all active users or to a specific user. The message can be up to 80 alphanumeric characters and is case sensitive.

Verifying the Device Configuration

To verify the configuration, use one of the following commands:

Command

Purpose

show running-config

Displays the running configuration.

show startup-config

Displays the startup configuration.

For detailed information about the fields in the output from these commands, see the Cisco Nexus command reference for your device.

Default Settings for Basic Device Parameters

This table lists the default settings for basic device parameters.

Table 1. Default Basic Device Parameters

Parameters

Default

MOTD banner text

User Access Verification

Clock time zone

UTC

Additional References for Basic Device Management

Related Topic

Document Title

Cisco NX-OS Licensing

Cisco NX-OS Licensing Guide

Command Reference

Cisco Nexus 3548 Switch NX-OS Fundamentals Command Reference