IP Addresses and Services Configuration Guide for Cisco 8000 Series Routers, IOS XR Releases

Unified CEF error counters

Updated: August 12, 2026

Want to summarize with AI?

Explains how a unified command consolidates FIB error counters for rapid forwarding diagnostics. Covers benefits, debugging guidance, supported hardware, and location-specific or systemwide views.

Unified Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) error counters are a diagnostic view that

centralizes diverse FIB error counters into a single, unified view
exposes error conditions that affect FIB operations, and
reduces the number of commands needed for an initial forwarding assessment.

Table 1. Feature History Table
Feature Name	Release Information	Feature Description
Unified CEF error counters	Release 25.4.1	Introduced in this release on: Fixed Systems (8200 [ASIC: Q100, Q200, P100], 8700 [ASIC: P100, K100], 8010 [ASIC: A100]); Centralized Systems (8600 [ASIC:Q200]) ; Modular Systems (8800 [LC ASIC: Q100, Q200, P100]) Having a unified view of CEF operational health streamlines the evaluation of the FIB operations. Earlier, error counters were scattered across various CLI commands, making it difficult to monitor FIB health and pinpoint network forwarding issues. With this enhancement, all relevant metrics are consolidated into a single command, allowing you to quickly detect and resolve potential problems while greatly reducing troubleshooting time. This feature introduces these changes: CLI: show cef global error Yang DM: `Cisco-IOS-XR-fib-common-oper.yang` (see GitHub, YANG Data Models Navigator)

Benefits of unified CEF error counters

Use the unified counters for an initial assessment of FIB errors.

Unified CEF error counters provide these benefits:

Simplified troubleshooting: Consolidate multiple counters in one view.
Improved visibility: Present a quick view of FIB process errors.
Improved efficiency: Reduce the commands needed to gather diagnostic information.

Recommendation for unified CEF error counter usage

Use show cef global error for debugging, not for health monitoring.

Some reported errors are temporary or noncritical. Treating every counter as a health alert can create unnecessary alerts and noise.

Use show healthcheck metric for health monitoring.

View unified CEF error counters

Inspect consolidated CEF and FIB error counters during debugging.

Procedure

Select the required location scope.

Display counters for one location.

Router# show cef global error total location 0/RP0/CPU0

Display counters for all locations.

Router# show cef global error total location all

Review the unified counter summary.

Example:

FIB Objects in OOR state: 6
FIB Objects with Platform errors: 5
GRID IDs in OOR: 0
FIB Next Hops with No Adjacency: 2
CEF (Prefixes/Labels) Unresolved: 2
MPLS Local-Label Conflicts: 0
Encap-ID Conflicts: 1
LDI/NHG/ECMP-FEC DROP: 0
FIB Has Objects in Unsuccessful Retry: Yes

The output summarizes FIB resource, platform, adjacency, resolution, label, encapsulation, and retry errors for the selected locations.

Need help?

Open a support case

(Requires a Cisco Service Contract)

The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.