Juniper Networks :: Technical Documentation :: Adding an Interface Description to the Configuration

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Adding an Interface Description to the Configuration

Adding an Interface Description to the Configuration

You can include a text description of each physical interface in the configuration file. Any descriptive text you include is displayed in the output of the show interfaces commands, and is also exposed in the ifAlias Management Information Base (MIB) object. It has no impact on the interface’s configuration. To add a text description, include the description statement at the [edit interfaces interface-name] hierarchy level:


                        
                           [edit interfaces interface-name]
                           
                           description text;

The description can be a single line of text. If the text contains spaces, enclose it in quotation marks.

For information about describing logical units, see Adding a Logical Unit Description to the Configuration.

Example: Adding an Interface Description to the Configuration

Add a description to a Fast Ethernet interface:

[edit interfaces]
user@host#

set fe-0/0/1 description "Backbone connection
                              to PHL01"

[edit interfaces]
user@host#

show

fe-0/0/1 {
   description "Backbone connection to PHL01";
   unit 0 {
      family inet {
         address 192.168.0.1/30;
      }
   }
}

To display the description from the router CLI, use the show interfaces command:

user@host>

show interfaces fe-0/0/1

Physical interface: fe-0/0/1, Enabled, Physical link is Up
  Interface index: 129, SNMP ifIndex: 23
  Description: Backbone connection to PHL01
  ...

To display the interface description from the interfaces MIB, use the snmpwalk command from a server. To isolate information for a specific interface, search for the interface index shown in the SNMP ifIndex field of the show interfaces command output. The ifAlias object is in ifXTable.

user-server>snmpwalk host-fxp0.mylab public ifXTable | grep -e '\.23'
 snmpwalk host-fxp0.mylab public ifXTable | grep -e '\.23' ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifName.23 = fe-0/0/1
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifInMulticastPkts.23 = Counter32: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifInBroadcastPkts.23 = Counter32: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifOutMulticastPkts.23 = Counter32: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifOutBroadcastPkts.23 = Counter32: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHCInOctets.23 = Counter64: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHCInUcastPkts.23 = Counter64: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHCInMulticastPkts.23 = Counter64: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHCInBroadcastPkts.23 = Counter64: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHCOutOctets.23 = Counter64: 42
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHCOutUcastPkts.23 = Counter64: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHCOutMulticastPkts.23 = Counter64: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHCOutBroadcastPkts.23 = Counter64: 0
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifLinkUpDownTrapEnable.23 = enabled(1)
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifHighSpeed.23 = Gauge32: 100
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifPromiscuousMode.23 = false(2)
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifConnectorPresent.23 = true(1)
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifAlias.23 = Backbone connection to PHL01
ifMIB.ifMIBObjects.ifXTable.ifXEntry.ifCounterDiscontinuityTime.23 = Timeticks: (0) 0:00:00.00

Adding an Interface Description to the Configuration

Example: Adding an Interface Description to the Configuration

Updated: 2009-04-07