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The ACI switch command-line interface (CLI) is iBash, which consists of the standard Bash command language interpreter shell plus a set of custom commands for ACI switches.
 Note |
To reach the iBash shell, you must login as admin, and not as root. |
Virtual Shell (VSH or vshell), the traditional Cisco NX-OS switch interface, is not a supported mode for ACI. Limited VSH
functionality is present by typing vsh in the iBash shell, but its use is not intended for normal operation. This guide does not describe VSH.
In some situations, it could be necessary to use VSH to obtain process tags for use in an iBash command. For example, in
NX-OS releases that support multiple OSPF instances, an iBash command such as show ip ospf database displays output only from the first registered OSPF process. To display output from other OSPF processes, you must include
a process tag in the command: show ip ospf <ptag> database. You can view the running processes and obtain the process tag using a VSH command, as in the following example:
(none)# vsh -c "show cli internal ctags" | grep -i ospf
4276 281 119 ospf multipodIn 2450 ready ospf-multipodInternal
4278 281 119 ospf default 2455 ready ospf-default
4277 282 128 ospfv3 default 2478 ready ospfv3-default
To display the output of the OSPF default process in this example, use the iBash command show ip ospf default database.
Bash (Bourne Again SHell) is a Unix shell or command-line interpreter supported by a variety of operating systems. You can use the Bash interface to directly access the ACI switches or you can develop Bash shell scripts to automate tasks. Bash provides a variety of command line and scripting features.
For more information about the Bash shell , see http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/bash.html.
Bash uses a forward slash (/) as a separator for interfaces, network addresses, and other settings.
For example,
Ethernet interface number 46 on switch module 1 is represented as
Eth1/46.
Bash provides tab completion for standard Linux commands and ACI switch-specific commands. When you press the Tab key at the end of a command or option abbreviation, Bash displays the command in full or the next available keyword or argument choice. Bash will also autocomplete unambiguous partial command arguments.
Note |
Bash will autocomplete partial commands without the Tab key only after you enter the first level command. For example, show int
br will be autocompleted as
show
interface brief, but
sh int
br will not be autocompleted.
|
The CLI supports the Bash shell history functions. To display the command history, you can use the Up Arrow or Down Arrow, as well as the history command.
You can reenter a command in the history by stepping through the history to recall the desired command and pressing Enter. You can also recall a command and change it before you enter it.
In addition, you can directly search for a previous command by pressing Ctrl-r and then typing part of the desired command until the command is displayed.
At any time, you can press the Esc key twice to display the options available at the current state of the command syntax. If you have not entered anything at the prompt, pressing the Esc key twice lists all available commands for the current command mode. If you have partially entered a command, pressing the Esc key twice lists all the keywords and arguments available at your current position in the command syntax.
Note |
The iBash CLI uses Esc-ESC instead of ? to avoid a conflict with the use of $? as a possible Bash prompt shortcut. |
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