Cisco IOS access levels and mode of command hierarchy
Cisco router’s and switch’s having two levels of access modes as below
1. User EXEC level
This level allows you to access only basic monitoring commands.
2. Privileged EXEC level
- This level allows you to access all router commands. Privileged EXEC level can be password protected to allow only authorized users the ability to configure or manage the router
- From privileged EXEC level, you can access all the command modes
- There are five command modes and each command mode permits you to configure different configuration components.:
1. global configuration mode
2. interface configuration mode
3. subinterface configuration mode
4. router configuration mode
5. line configuration mode
The following table is a summary of command prompts and the corresponding location within the command structure
| Router> | – User EXEC mode |
| Router# | – Privileged EXEC mode |
| Router(config)# | – global configuration mode (# sign indicates this is accessible only at privileged EXEC mode) |
| Router(config-if)# | – Interface level within configuration mode |
| Router(config-router)# | – Routing engine level within configuration mode |
| Router(config-line)# | – Line level (vty, tty, async) within configuration mode |