Network device command line interfaces

Phil Regnauld regnauld at nsrc.org
Thu Nov 24 04:53:51 UTC 2011


Jonathon Exley (Jonathon.Exley) writes:
> However vendors of low cost routers/switches/muxes

	Hi Jonathon, have you ever tried to work with a Catalyst Express 500 ?
	A good example of a fully functional IOS device, where the vendor went
	out of their way to disable Telnet/SSH, and force one to run CLI
	commands via the a Web UI.  You can do everything, but even "vty 0 x"
	and "transport input telnet" won't give access.

> seem to take a stab in the dark and produce some really nasty stuff.

	Cisco isn't exactly low cost, but the point here is exactly that:
	take away CLI and tools that make automation easier, so that customers
	will feel compelled to buy the more expensive stuff if they want
	the fancy stuff (which, in this case, is actually LESS fancy).

	It's not incompetence, it's called crippleware, and it's a business
	model :)

> Maybe the vendors need some sort
> of best practices guide for what manageability features their kit
> needs to support to make them acceptable to the market. Does anyone
> know if there is anything along these lines?	

	Yes, don't buy the cheap stuff :)

	Phil




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