Foundation Topics

Many Cisco Catalyst switches use the same Cisco IOS Software command-line interface (CLI) as Cisco routers. In addition to having the same look and feel, the switches and routers sometimes support the exact same configuration and show commands. Additionally, as mentioned in Chapter 8, some of the same commands and processes shown for Cisco switches work the same way for Cisco routers.

This chapter explains a wide variety of configurable items on Cisco switches. Some topics are relatively important, such as the configuration of usernames and passwords so that any remote access to a switch is secure. Some topics are relatively unimportant, but useful, such as the ability to assign a text description to an interface for documentation purposes. However, this chapter does contain the majority of the switch configuration topics for this book, with the exception of Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) configuration commands in Chapter 10.