Although it may not seem to be an important tool in our troubleshooting toolbox, the ability to clear interface counters is very important. This lesson will introduce you to the clear counters [interface] command as well as show you when to use this command instead of the more comprehensive clear counters command.

Troubleshooting Toolbox: Clearing Interface Counters

When you are performing debugs you have at least two concerns: 1) making sure the that debug does not clobber the CPU of your device, and 2) filtering the debug output to get to the information that you need for troubleshooting your issue. The debug interface command can help you with the second issue.

In many cases (especially on production equipment) you may have a lot of interfaces running the protocol that you are troubleshooting. When you enable a debugging command (like debug ip ospf hello), the output that will be returned is for all interfaces running that protocol. This can quickly overwhelm you with information and make troubleshooting more difficult/time consuming.

The debug interface command allows you to limit the debug output to a specific interface.

Cool Cisco IOS Commands - debug interface