Understanding the Operating System Shell

When you log in to the operating system from a terminal, a shell prompt is displayed.

At the prompt, input the commands you want to execute on the switch. After the switch processes and executes a command, the results are displayed on your terminal.

The shell supports ANSI, VT100, and XTERM terminal emulation and adjusts to the correct terminal type and window size. In addition, the shell supports UNIX-style page view for page-by-page command output capability.

By default, up to eight active shell sessions can access the switch concurrently; however, you can change the number of simultaneous, active shell sessions supported by the switch. You can configure up to 16 active shell sessions. Configurable shell sessions include both Telnet and SSH connections (not console CLI connections). If only eight active shell sessions can access the switch, a combination of eight Telnet and SSH connections can access the switch even though Telnet and SSH each support eight connections. For example, if you have six Telnet sessions and two SSH sessions, no one else can access the switch until a connection is terminated or you access the switch through the console.

If you configure a new limit, only new incoming shell sessions are affected. If you decrease the limit and the current number of sessions already exceeds the new maximum, the switch refuses only new incoming connections until the number of shell session drops below the new limit. Already connected shell sessions are not disconnected as a result of decreasing the limit.

Configure the number of shell sessions accepted by the switch, use the following command:

configure cli max-sessions

For more information about the line-editing keys that you can use with the ExtremXOS shell, see Line-Editing Keys.