How to Set Hostname, MOTD Banner and Router DNS Lookup on Cisco Router
How to Set Hostname, MOTD Banner and Router DNS Lookup on Cisco Router
The operating system present in all Cisco routers and switches is Internetwork Operating system (IOS). Internetwork Operating System (IOS) has a Command Line Interface (CLI). Command Line Interface indicates that users interact with the operating system using commands. The Command Line Interface is very simple to use.
All the commands in Cisco IOS are not case sensitive. That means the commands can be given in small letters or capital letters or a mixture of both.
But the passwords are case sensitive. One best advantage of Command Line Interface (CLI) is the command completion. IOS completes the command after every unique set of letters in the command just by hitting “TAB”.
Hostname configuration:
All the configurations are done in global configuration mode. Hostname helps administrator to identify the router using a name instead of an IP address. The set of commands to assign a hostname to the router are as follows:
CISCO-ROUTER> en (short form of enable)
CISCO-ROUTER# conf t (configure terminal short form)
CISCO-ROUTER(config)# hostname management-router
management-router(config)# end
management-router#
MOTD banner:
Message of the Day (MOTD) banner displays a message to the users whenever they logged into a router using console, auxiliary or telnet sessions
CISCO-ROUTER> ENABLE
CISCO-ROUTER#CONF T
CISCO-ROUTER (CONFIG)# BANNER MOTD #WELCOME TO THE CISCO ROUTER#
CISCO-ROUTER(CONFIG)# END
“#” in the command indicates beginning and ending of the message characters (delimiting character)
Router DNS lookup:
A network administrator may tend to forget IP addresses when there are many routers that he has to monitor. Remembering names is much easier than remembering IP addresses.
We can configure a router as Domain Name Server (DNS) to convert hostname to IP address. This enables administrator to communicate with a router through its IP address.
CISCO-ROUTER> en
CISCO-ROUTER# conf t
CISCO-ROUTER(config)# ip name-server 21.32.43.64 (give the IP address of router, which act as DNS)
CISCO-ROUTER(CONFIG)# END
Turning of automatic name resolution:
By default, any router tries to resolve any word that is not a command with the help of DNS server through broadcast IP address 255.255.255.255. This is a time-consuming process. This can be manually turned off using commands as shown below
CISCO-ROUTER> en
CISCO-ROUTER# conf t
CISCO-ROUTER(config)# no ip domain-lookup
CISCO-ROUTER(CONFIG)# END
Configuring inactive time-out:
The routers console can be set to log off if administrator does not give or interact with router for specific time. This can be configured using following commands
CISCO-ROUTER> en
CISCO-ROUTER# conf t
CISCO-ROUTER(config)# line console 0
enters into line console mode.
CISCO-ROUTER(CONFIG-LINE)# EXEC-TIMEOUT 10 0
10 says number of minutes and 0 says number of seconds router must wait without logging off.
Read more
- How to Set Cisco Router Passwords, Setup Enable, Secret, Auxiliary, Console and Telnet Password
- Cisco Router Show Commands Cheat Sheet
- Short cut keys in Command Line Interface of IOS of Cisco Router and Switch
- Interface Naming Convention of Cisco Router