Network device command line interfaces

Jonathon Exley Jonathon.Exley at kordia.co.nz
Thu Nov 24 04:41:01 UTC 2011


Does anyone else despair at the CLIs produced by networking vendors?
Real routers use a CLI that is command based, like IOS, TiMOS or Junos. These interfaces work well over low bandwidth connections (unlike web interfaces), can work with config backup systems like RANCID, have a (mostly) consistent structure and good show commands.
However vendors of low cost routers/switches/muxes seem to take a stab in the dark and produce some really nasty stuff. I have a personal hate of text based menus and binary config backup files.
Doe this p*** off anyone else? The business part of the company says "This device is great! It's cheap and does everything." However the poor sap who is given the task to make it work has to wrestle with a badly designed user interface and illogical syntax.
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?


Jonathon.


This email and attachments: are confidential; may be protected by privilege and copyright; if received in error may not be used, copied, or kept; are not guaranteed to be virus-free; may not express the views of Kordia(R); do not designate an information system; and do not give rise to any liability for Kordia(R).



More information about the NANOG mailing list