HOW TO: Access and capture output from the Command Line Interface (CLI) of a Digi network-connected product using Telnet or SSH

Why Telnet to the Command Line Interface (CLI)?

1. While the Web User Interface (WebUI) of Digi network products is a convenient configuration interface, it typically only covers the most common options. The CLI on the other hand allows access to ALL configuration options, not just the common ones.
2. The CLI offers troubleshooting options which the WebUI may not. "set trace" and "ping" are two very useful CLI commands for example.
3. Digi Tech Support personnel occasionally ask a customer to Telnet to the Command Line Interface (CLI) of their network-connected Digi product in order to gather information for purposes of troubleshooting. If you are asked to do so by Digi Technical Support, ensure you capture the output of the commands you've been asked to run, so Digi Technical Support can review the response to your CLI commands. In order to do this, you'll need to know the IP address of your Digi product.

What if I don't know the IP address of my Digi product?

In order to telnet to the CLI, you'll first need to know what IP address your Digi product is currently using. One way of doing this is to run "discovery" for Digi products connected to your Local Area Network (LAN). You can use the Digi Device Discovery Tool for Windows to "discover" your Digi product. If you have trouble discovering your Gateway with the Device Discovery Tool (i.e. you see "No Devices Found" in the Device Discovery Window when you run it), see this article for troubleshooting tips on why your Digi product might not be showing up.

Where can I get Telnet from?

Unix and Linux systems: Typically have Telnet built into the operating system, so you should be able to Telnet right from your commandline. Use the "script" command as seen in the example below in order to capture the output of the session. When session is over, use ctrl-d to end the capture and create file "typescript" in the directory where the command was run. Here is an example session:

# script
Script started, file is typescript
# telnet HOSTNAME
.. here follows your complete session
# quit [telnet]
# exit [shell]
Script done, file is typescript
 

Windows systems: Windows operating systems up until/including Windows XP have a Telnet client available from the cmd prompt. For Windows Vista, Windows 2008, and Windows 7, go to Control Panel --- Programs and Features --- Turn Windows Features On or Off, then check the box next to Telnet Client. Click "OK", and once Windows finishes the installation you should be able to Telnet from the Windows cmd prompt just like in earlier releases of the Operating System.

Use the -f [path/filename] switch with your Windows cmd prompt Telnet command to capture the output of your session to the path and filename you list after -f.

Here is an example of how the Windows commandline syntax might look to capture the telnet session output to a Digi Gateway at IP address 192.168.1.100, to a file on the root of your C drive called "digilog.txt":

C:\>telnet -f C:\digilog.txt 192.168.1.100

3rd party Telnet clients: Do a web seach for a Telnet client available for your operating systems. Two popular Telnet clients are PuTTY and TeraTerm Pro Web..

I'm Telnetted into the CLI, what is the next step?

One very useful feature of the CLI (of some Digi products) is that you can add a ? at any level of the command menu, to find available options and syntax at that level of the menu. For instance, "set ?" will show a list of settable menu items of the CLI. "display ?" and "show ?" are useful to view the list of commands which have parameters and current settings to be viewed (not supported on all products).

CommandLine Reference Guides:

Here are links to various Command Line Reference Guides we have online.  These have detailed descriptions for the each specific productline:

Digi Connect and ConnectPort family
Digi TransPort User Guide
Digi CM User Guide
Digi Passport and Passport FIPS User Guide
Digi One and Portserver TS family
Portserver II

Note: The links above were current at the time this article was created. If needing the most current version of the Command Line Reference for your product, please check under the Documentation section for your product on the
Technical Support website.