IOS vs. CatOS: Basic Configuration

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CatOS

CatOS is the operating system used on Cisco's Catalyst switches before changing over to IOS. Before purchasing the technology from Crescendo in 1993, CatOS was called XDI. CatOS is a Unix-like operating system for many legacy Cisco switches. CatOS runs on the following switch series: 1200, 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000 and 6500. Some of the high end switches such as the Catalyst 6500 series still run CatOS.

On this page we will be comparing two switches; a Catalyst 2900XL running CatOS and a Catalyst 2960 running IOS.

Commands

Commands entered in CatOS are committed to NVRAM instantaneously. In IOS, the user is required to issue a command to save to NVRAM.

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	IOS Command	CatOS Command
Global Configure	Configure Terminal
Hostname	(config)hostname Name
Password	(config)line con 0 (enter)password password
Bandwidth	(config-if)bandwidth number in kb

Troubleshooting

	IOS Command	CatOS Command
	Ping
	tracert
	show ip route
	show int int
	show run
	copy run start
	erase start

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