(no subject)
Jan. 28th, 2014 12:05 pm
Jan. 28th, 2014
Fucking Cisco
Jan. 28th, 2014 05:08 pmAh, the joys of needing to speak Ciscoese after a long time away. No, wait, not joy. The other thing.
Ciscoese, you see, is the special magic language of Cisco, and it bears no resemblance to other, similar things.... by design. Cisco have invented new terminology where old terminology existed, use common phrases in distinctly idiosyncratic ways, and actively obfuscate common concepts and commands JUST BECAUSE.
My two favourites from today: In order to bring up an interface that is shut down administratively, the command is "no shutdown". Because "no" means EITHER "do the opposite of the next command" or "restore a setting to the default" indistinguishably except for context, and "shutdown" means "turn off an interface", not "shut down".
And the command to restart a Cisco device is not "restart" or "reboot" or even "shutdown" with a flag. It doesn't know those first two and you're just going to turn off a NIC with the last one. No, you use "reload" - you know, a command that to NORMAL people would mean something like "discard my changes and load the saved ones". Which, in their marginal defense, IS something it does, but then it also reboots. Oh yes, did I fail to mention that? Yeah. If you make changes that require a reboot, save, then reboot, it will immediately discard those changes. Then reboot. Because you missed a critical step there: after SAVING your changes into the configuration file (which caused them to go live, so the device was now working according to any non-reboot-requiring changes you made), you neglected to write those changes into the OTHER configuration file, the one that loads on boot, so that after the device reboots it would load them.[1]
This annoys the fuck out of me.
[1]: (In their defense, there are actually some pretty good reasons for "apply changes immediately, but revert them on a reboot if they're not confirmed after going live" on NETWORKING HARDWARE, but their LANGUAGE for doing it is obtuse and counterproductive, using common concepts in abnormal ways that mean the opposite of what those words and concepts mean everywhere else.)[2]
[2]: (Although I've learned a neat new trick: When working on a remote ASA, immediately after logging in to make a config change schedule a revert-and-reboot "reload" for 30 minutes in the future. Then make your change and whack "save". Run your tests. If your change is working and good, write it to the boot config and cancel your reload. If your change is bad, particularly if you've just fat-fingered yourself into a config that you *can't* fix remotely? Stop. Wait 30 minutes. When the ASA comes back up without your changes, reconnect, and schedule a revert-and-reboot for 30 minutes in the future...)
Ciscoese, you see, is the special magic language of Cisco, and it bears no resemblance to other, similar things.... by design. Cisco have invented new terminology where old terminology existed, use common phrases in distinctly idiosyncratic ways, and actively obfuscate common concepts and commands JUST BECAUSE.
My two favourites from today: In order to bring up an interface that is shut down administratively, the command is "no shutdown". Because "no" means EITHER "do the opposite of the next command" or "restore a setting to the default" indistinguishably except for context, and "shutdown" means "turn off an interface", not "shut down".
And the command to restart a Cisco device is not "restart" or "reboot" or even "shutdown" with a flag. It doesn't know those first two and you're just going to turn off a NIC with the last one. No, you use "reload" - you know, a command that to NORMAL people would mean something like "discard my changes and load the saved ones". Which, in their marginal defense, IS something it does, but then it also reboots. Oh yes, did I fail to mention that? Yeah. If you make changes that require a reboot, save, then reboot, it will immediately discard those changes. Then reboot. Because you missed a critical step there: after SAVING your changes into the configuration file (which caused them to go live, so the device was now working according to any non-reboot-requiring changes you made), you neglected to write those changes into the OTHER configuration file, the one that loads on boot, so that after the device reboots it would load them.[1]
This annoys the fuck out of me.
[1]: (In their defense, there are actually some pretty good reasons for "apply changes immediately, but revert them on a reboot if they're not confirmed after going live" on NETWORKING HARDWARE, but their LANGUAGE for doing it is obtuse and counterproductive, using common concepts in abnormal ways that mean the opposite of what those words and concepts mean everywhere else.)[2]
[2]: (Although I've learned a neat new trick: When working on a remote ASA, immediately after logging in to make a config change schedule a revert-and-reboot "reload" for 30 minutes in the future. Then make your change and whack "save". Run your tests. If your change is working and good, write it to the boot config and cancel your reload. If your change is bad, particularly if you've just fat-fingered yourself into a config that you *can't* fix remotely? Stop. Wait 30 minutes. When the ASA comes back up without your changes, reconnect, and schedule a revert-and-reboot for 30 minutes in the future...)