Cisco Catalyst Show Commands

Not to much to say here other than this is a solid list of Cisco IOS/IOS-XE show commands that you can run to obtain information about Catalyst switches.

General System & Hardware

show version: Displays system uptime, software version, and hardware metadata.
show inventory: Lists physical entities (chassis, power supplies, SFPs) with serial numbers.
show module: Shows status and info for line cards or modules in a chassis.
show switch: Displays stack member roles (Master/Member), priority, and state.
show platform stack-manager all: Provides deep-dive diagnostics on stack management.
show stack-power detail: Displays power sharing and redundancy status in a power stack.
show power inline | ex off: Shows only ports currently providing PoE to devices.
show switch neighbors: Identifies physical stacking cable connections between members.
show switch stack-ports summary: Checks the link status and bandwidth of stacking ports.
show redundancy: Displays redundancy mode (SSO/RPR) and standby supervisor state.
show redundancy switchover history: Lists timestamps and reasons for past failovers.
show license feature: Shows active software packages (Network Advantage, Essentials, etc.).
show license udi: Displays the Unique Device Identifier (Serial/PID) for licensing.
show cdp neighbor: Lists directly connected Cisco devices.
show cdp neighbor detail: Provides IP addresses and OS versions of Cisco neighbors.
show lldp neighbor: Lists directly connected devices (vendor-neutral protocol).
show lldp neighbor detail: Provides expanded info on non-Cisco or multivendor neighbors.
show vtp status: Displays VTP mode, domain name, and revision number.
show vtp password: Displays the MD5 password used for VTP authentication.
show snmp user: Lists configured SNMP users and their security models.
show ntp association: Shows the status and sync health of NTP time servers.

Interfaces & Layer 2

show ip interface brief | ex unas: Lists IP interfaces, excluding those with no IP assigned.
show interface status: Overview of port speed, duplex, VLAN, and link state.
show interface status err-disable: Shows ports shut down by security or error policies.
show interface description: Displays the user-defined labels/comments for all ports.
show etherchannel summary: Status of Port-Channels and their member interfaces.
show lacp neighbor: Displays LACP system ID and port info from the peer device.
show interface trunk: Lists active trunking ports and allowed VLANs.
show interface counters error: Checks for CRC errors, collisions, or drops on ports.
show interface switchport: Displays Layer 2 details (VLAN, trunking encapsulation, etc.).

FHRP & Routing

show standby brief: Status of HSRP (Active/Standby/VIP).
show vrrp brief: Status of VRRP groups and Master/Backup roles.
show glbp brief: Status of GLBP (Gateway Load Balancing Protocol) members.
show vrf brief: Lists configured Virtual Routing and Forwarding instances.
show ip protocol: Displays active routing protocols and their timers/networks.
show ip eigrp neighbor: Lists established EIGRP adjacencies.
show ip ospf neighbor: Lists established OSPF adjacencies and states (Full/2-Way).
show ip route: Displays the Global Routing Table.
show ip route vrf *: Displays routing tables for all VRF instances.
show ip route summary: Provides a count of routes categorized by protocol.

Management & Troubleshooting

show monitor session all detail: Displays SPAN/Mirroring configuration and status.
show running-config: Displays the current active configuration in RAM.
show ip arp: Maps IP addresses to MAC addresses (Layer 3 to Layer 2).
show mac address-table: Maps MAC addresses to physical ports (Layer 2).
show mac address-table count: Shows the total number of learned MAC addresses.
show vlan brief: Lists all active VLANs and their assigned ports.
show spanning-tree summary: High-level view of STP states (Blocking, Forwarding).
show spanning-tree root: Identifies the Root Bridge for each VLAN.
show spanning-tree: Detailed STP statistics and port roles per VLAN.
show processes cpu history: Displays CPU utilization graphs (minutes, hours, days).
show processes cpu sorted 1min: Lists processes consuming the most CPU in the last minute.
show logging: Displays the local system log (syslog) buffer.

Pro Tip – if you wanted to see the output of any of the above commands continuously, without having to press Enter to see ‘more’, use the terminal length 0 command. Because Cisco switches default to a set number of lines per screen, any command that exceeds that length requires manual intervention (pressing Space or Enter) to continue. Using terminal length 0 removes this restriction for the current session.

This is particularly handy when you want to grab the complete output of the show running-config command and copy the terminal text to a file. If you want to take a crack at it, run the following.

terminal length 0
show running-config