Use a switch’s terminal
Show commands and the full terminal on a switch’s page: what is refused, what is held at Enter, and what the colors on a command line mean.
GuideReviewed against the application source on October 19, 2026
What it is
I need to ask this switch something now. Open terminal on a switch’s page opens a terminal full screen over the page. Show commands sends show commands only. The Full terminal sends every key to the switch, so its own prompts, paging and line editing work, and Cenovel holds Enter before a risky line goes out.
The terminal is off until a District Administrator turns on Terminal on the switch page in Settings › System › Features; the full terminal also needs Full terminal on the switch page.
Show commands
Type a command and press Enter. Each command and its output is a block you can copy, filter, collapse or add to a guide. Changes, restarts, erases, hops to another device, ping and traceroute are refused and never sent; the line says so before you press Enter, and the block is marked Not sent.
What the full terminal holds at Enter
| The line | What Cenovel asks |
|---|---|
| A restart, an erase or a stack change, typed in full or shortened (reload, wr er, req sys reb) | Type the switch’s name to send it. |
| Configuration mode on IOS-XE, or a commit on Junos | Send it, with the switch’s own undo offered: the revert timer or commit confirmed. |
| A save: write memory, wr or copy run start on IOS-XE, save on Switch Engine and Fabric Engine, save to a file in Junos configuration mode | Confirm the save. |
| A port turned off, configuration removed, a clear or a debug, a change on Switch Engine, a hop to another device | Confirm it. |
| A line Cenovel can’t read (no prompt it knows in front of it) | Check it, then send it or not. |
Choose Don’t send and the line never reaches the switch; its block is marked Not sent.
Colors as you type
The terminal colors each command line as you type it, and every past command line: the command in green, its keywords in blue, interfaces in cyan, VLANs and other numbers in purple, IP and MAC addresses in pink, quoted text in yellow, pipes and filters in lavender. A word Cenovel doesn’t know stays plain; a color never says a command is valid on the switch.
A line Cenovel will hold or refuse shows its command word in orange, or in red on a red box for a restart, an erase or a stack change, before you press Enter, and the line under the full terminal says what Enter will do. These come from the same rules that hold Enter, so a line in those colors is always one that is held, and a held line is always shown that way first.
In the full terminal the colors are drawn over the switch’s own echo on your screen only. What is sent to the switch and what is recorded are the same with the colors on or off, and a password the switch asks for is never colored.
To turn the colors off, choose More › Turn off input colors in the terminal. It applies to every terminal in this browser until you turn them back on; what Enter will do is still said in words.
Device logs on the same look
Collected device logs use the terminal’s look. Only each message’s severity is colored: emergencies to errors in red, warnings in orange, notices and below muted. A search match stays highlighted on top.
The demo has a switch with both terminals; its switch is a stand-in that answers like one.
Open a switch in the demoSee also: Work with a switch or stack · Collect device logs · What Cenovel may change on a device
Describes the release being prepared for deployment. Check the behavior on your installed release.