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VyOS Documentation
VyOS Administrator Guide
VyOS Operation Mode

VyOS Operation Mode

Operation mode in VyOS provides commands for monitoring system health, diagnosing problems, and performing operational tasks without changing the configuration. It is the primary working mode for day-to-day VyOS administration.

Core Concepts

Operation vs Configuration Mode

Operation Mode:

  • The default mode after logging in
  • Read-only and monitoring
  • Runs operational commands (show, monitor, reset, clear)
  • Does not change the configuration
  • Prompt: vyos@router:~$

Configuration Mode:

  • For changing the configuration
  • The set, delete, commit, and rollback commands
  • Transactional approach
  • Prompt: vyos@router#
  • Entry: the configure command

Command Categories

  1. show - Viewing information (state, statistics, configuration)
  2. monitor - Real-time monitoring
  3. reset - Resetting state (not the configuration)
  4. clear - Clearing counters and caches
  5. ping/traceroute - Network diagnostics
  6. generate/add/delete - System operations

Show Commands

System Information

# General system information
show version

# Output:
# Version:          VyOS 1.5.x
# Release train:    current
# Built by:         autobuild@vyos.net
# Built on:         Mon 14 Oct 2024 12:00 UTC
# Build UUID:       ...
# Architecture:     x86_64

# Hardware information
show system hardware

# Resource usage
show system memory
show system cpu
show system storage

# Uptime and load average
show system uptime

# Processes
show system processes
show system processes summary
show system processes extensive

Network Interfaces

# All interfaces
show interfaces

# A specific interface
show interfaces ethernet eth0
show interfaces bridge br0
show interfaces bond bond0

# Brief format
show interfaces brief

# Interface statistics
show interfaces ethernet eth0 statistics
show interfaces ethernet eth0 counters

# Physical state
show interfaces ethernet eth0 physical

# Interface queues
show interfaces ethernet eth0 queue

IP Configuration and Routing

# IP addresses
show interfaces addresses

# ARP table
show arp
show arp interface eth0

# Routing table
show ip route
show ip route summary
show ip route 192.168.1.0/24

# A specific route
show ip route 8.8.8.8

# IPv6 routes
show ipv6 route
show ipv6 route summary

# Neighbor table (IPv6)
show ipv6 neighbors

Routing Protocols

# OSPF
show ip ospf neighbor
show ip ospf database
show ip ospf interface
show ip ospf route

# BGP
show ip bgp summary
show ip bgp neighbors
show ip bgp
show ip bgp neighbor 10.0.0.1 advertised-routes
show ip bgp neighbor 10.0.0.1 received-routes

# Route maps and prefix lists
show route-map
show ip prefix-list
show ip community-list

VPN

# IPsec
show vpn ipsec sa
show vpn ipsec state
show vpn ipsec status

# WireGuard
show interfaces wireguard
show interfaces wireguard wg01

# OpenVPN
show openvpn server
show openvpn client
show openvpn status server server1

Firewall and NAT

# Firewall rules
show firewall
show firewall name WAN_IN
show firewall statistics

# NAT
show nat source statistics
show nat destination statistics
show nat source rules
show nat destination rules

# Connection tracking
show conntrack table ipv4
show conntrack table ipv6
show conntrack statistics

Services

# DHCP server
show service dhcp-server leases
show service dhcp-server statistics
show service dhcp-server leases pool LAN

# DHCPv6 server
show service dhcpv6-server leases

# DNS forwarding
show dns forwarding statistics
show dns forwarding nameservers

# NTP
show ntp
show system ntp

# SNMP
show snmp community
show snmp v3

System Services

# SSH
show service ssh

# Users
show users
show users recent

# Logs
show log
show log tail
show log tail 50
show log | match error
show log | match eth0

# Services
show system services

Configuration

# Current configuration
show configuration

# A specific section
show configuration interfaces
show configuration service dhcp-server

# Commands for reproduction
show configuration commands
show configuration commands | match interface

# Saved configuration
show configuration file /config/config.boot

# Commit history
show system commit
show system commit diff 5

Monitor Commands

Real-Time Monitoring

# Logs in real time
monitor log
monitor log colored

# Interface traffic
monitor interfaces
monitor interfaces eth0
monitor interfaces eth0 traffic

# Firewall
monitor firewall
monitor firewall name WAN_IN

# BGP neighbors
monitor protocol bgp

# Bandwidth usage
monitor bandwidth interface eth0

Traffic Capture

# Traffic capture (tcpdump)
monitor traffic interface eth0
monitor traffic interface eth0 filter "port 80"
monitor traffic interface eth0 save /tmp/capture.pcap

# With additional filters
monitor traffic interface eth0 filter "host 192.168.1.100 and port 443"

# Verbose output
monitor traffic interface eth0 verbose

Reset Commands

Connection and Session Reset

# Reset a BGP neighbor
reset ip bgp 10.0.0.1

# Reset the OSPF process
reset ip ospf process

# Reset an IPsec SA
reset vpn ipsec-peer 203.0.113.1

# Reset conntrack connections
reset conntrack-sync external
reset conntrack-sync internal

Terminal Reset

# Reset the terminal
reset terminal

Clear Commands

Clearing Counters and Cache

# Clear interface counters
clear interfaces ethernet eth0 counters

# Clear firewall counters
clear firewall name WAN_IN counters
clear firewall statistics

# Clear the ARP cache
clear arp

# Clear the route cache
clear ip route cache

# Clear the DNS cache
clear dns forwarding cache

# Clear the conntrack table
clear conntrack table ipv4
clear conntrack table ipv6

Clearing System State

# Clear system logs
clear system login history user vyos

# Clear a DHCP lease
clear service dhcp-server lease 192.168.1.100

Network Diagnostic Commands

Connectivity Testing

# Ping
ping 8.8.8.8
ping 8.8.8.8 count 5
ping 8.8.8.8 size 1400
ping 8.8.8.8 source-address 192.168.1.1

# Ping IPv6
ping 2001:4860:4860::8888
ping6 2001:4860:4860::8888

# Traceroute
traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute 8.8.8.8 source-address 192.168.1.1

# Traceroute IPv6
traceroute6 2001:4860:4860::8888

# MTU path discovery
ping 8.8.8.8 do-not-fragment size 1500

DNS and Network Tools

# DNS lookup
nslookup google.com
nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8

# Dig
dig google.com
dig google.com @8.8.8.8 +short
dig google.com MX

# Host
host google.com
host 8.8.8.8

# Telnet
telnet 192.168.1.1 22
telnet smtp.gmail.com 25

Network Scanning

# Port scan (if nmap is installed)
scan port 192.168.1.1
scan port 192.168.1.0/24 port 22

# ARP scan
scan arp interface eth1

System Operation Commands

Power Management

# Reboot
reboot
reboot now
reboot in 10

# Power off
poweroff
poweroff now
poweroff in 30

# Cancel a scheduled reboot
shutdown -c

Image Management

# List images
show system image

# Install a new image
add system image https://downloads.vyos.io/...

# Delete an image
delete system image 1.4.0

# Set the default boot image
set system image default-boot 1.5.0

Configuration Management

# Copy the configuration
copy file /config/config.boot to /config/config.boot.backup
copy running-config file /tmp/running.conf

# Load a configuration
load /config/config.boot.backup

# Save the configuration
save
save /config/config.boot.backup

PKI Operations

# Generate keys
generate pki key-pair
generate pki key-pair install my-key

# Generate a certificate
generate pki certificate sign my-ca install my-cert

# Generate a CSR
generate pki certificate-request install my-csr

# View certificates
show pki ca
show pki certificate

SSH Keys

# Generate SSH keys
generate ssh-key user vyos

# Show SSH keys
show ssh fingerprints
show ssh server-key

Advanced Operational Commands

System Debugging

# Enable debugging for a protocol
debug ospf events
debug bgp updates

# View the debug output
show log | match debug

# Disable debugging
no debug ospf events
no debug all

Hardware Information

# PCI devices
show hardware pci

# CPU information
show hardware cpu

# Memory banks
show hardware mem

# Sensors (temperature, fans)
show hardware sensors

Container Operations

# List containers
show container

# Container details
show container name my-container

# Container logs
show container log name my-container

# Container statistics
show container name my-container statistics

Practical Usage Examples

1. Diagnosing Connectivity Problems

# Step 1: Check the interfaces
show interfaces brief

# Step 2: Check IP addresses
show interfaces addresses

# Step 3: Check routing
show ip route 8.8.8.8

# Step 4: Check conntrack
show conntrack table ipv4 | match 8.8.8.8

# Step 5: Ping test
ping 8.8.8.8 source-address <your-ip>

# Step 6: Traceroute
traceroute 8.8.8.8

2. Checking VPN Status

# IPsec
show vpn ipsec sa
show vpn ipsec status

# If the tunnel is down - check the logs
show log | match ipsec

# VTI interface statistics
show interfaces vti vti0 statistics

# Routing over the VPN
show ip route | match vti0

3. Performance Monitoring

# CPU and memory
show system uptime
show system cpu
show system memory

# Network throughput
show interfaces eth0 statistics

# Connection tracking usage
show conntrack statistics

# Top processes
show system processes extensive | head -20

4. BGP Diagnostics

# BGP neighbor state
show ip bgp summary

# Neighbor details
show ip bgp neighbors 10.0.0.1

# Received routes
show ip bgp neighbor 10.0.0.1 received-routes

# Advertised routes
show ip bgp neighbor 10.0.0.1 advertised-routes

# BGP table
show ip bgp

# Path to a specific network
show ip bgp 203.0.113.0/24

5. Firewall Analysis

# All firewall rules
show firewall

# Statistics for a specific ruleset
show firewall name WAN_IN statistics

# Connection tracking
show conntrack table ipv4 | wc -l

# Top conntrack sources
show conntrack table ipv4 | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d= -f2 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -10

# Check a specific connection
show conntrack table ipv4 | match "192.168.1.100"

6. DHCP Troubleshooting

# Active leases
show service dhcp-server leases

# DHCP statistics
show service dhcp-server statistics

# Leases for a specific pool
show service dhcp-server leases pool LAN

# DHCP logs
show log | match dhcp

Useful Techniques

Filtering Output

# Grep (match)
show configuration | match interface
show log | match error

# Exclude
show configuration | no-more | grep -v "!"

# Head/Tail
show log tail 50
show log | head -20

# Pipe to less for long output
show configuration | no-more

Formatting Output

# JSON format (for the API)
show interfaces format json
show configuration format json

# Without pagination
show log | no-more

# With timestamps
show log | match error | tail

Copying and Saving Output

# Save to a file
show configuration > /tmp/config.txt
show running-config | cat > /tmp/running.txt

# SCP copy
scp /tmp/config.txt user@server:/backup/

Aliases for Frequent Commands

In configuration mode:

configure
set system login user vyos alias sh="show"
set system login user vyos alias si="show interfaces"
set system login user vyos alias sir="show ip route"
commit
save

Now, in operation mode:

sh version      # instead of show version
si brief        # instead of show interfaces brief
sir summary     # instead of show ip route summary

Command Cheat Sheet

Top 20 Commands for Daily Work

  1. show interfaces brief - Brief interface status
  2. show ip route - Routing table
  3. show configuration - Current configuration
  4. show system uptime - System uptime
  5. show log tail 50 - Last 50 log lines
  6. ping 8.8.8.8 - Connectivity test
  7. show service dhcp-server leases - DHCP leases
  8. show vpn ipsec sa - IPsec tunnels
  9. show ip bgp summary - BGP status
  10. show firewall - Firewall rules
  11. show conntrack table ipv4 - Connection tracking
  12. monitor log - Logs in real time
  13. show system memory - Memory usage
  14. show system cpu - CPU usage
  15. show interfaces statistics - Interface statistics
  16. show nat source statistics - NAT statistics
  17. show version - System version
  18. show users - Logged-in users
  19. show system commit - Commit history
  20. save - Save the configuration

Best Practices

  1. Regular monitoring

    • Check show system uptime daily
    • Monitor show system memory and CPU
    • Track show conntrack statistics
    • Check show log | match error

  2. Documentation

    • Save the output of important commands
    • Take screenshots when problems occur
    • Keep an operations log book
    • Document changes

  3. Troubleshooting workflow

    • Start with show interfaces brief
    • Check show log tail 100
    • Use monitor log for real-time visibility
    • Collect all diagnostics before contacting support

  4. Performance monitoring

    • Regularly check show system resources
    • Monitor interface statistics
    • Track conntrack usage
    • Keep an eye on routing table size

  5. Security

    • Regularly check show users
    • Monitor show system login
    • Review firewall statistics
    • Analyze conntrack for anomalies

  6. Automation

    • Use scripts for regular checks
    • Collect metrics into monitoring systems
    • Automate routine tasks
    • Create health check scripts

  7. Backup awareness

    • Run save regularly
    • Periodically run show configuration commands > backup.txt
    • Store backups off the device
    • Test the restore procedure

  8. Learning path

    • Start with the basic show commands
    • Study command output
    • Experiment with filters
    • Create your own aliases

  9. Remote management

    • Use SSH instead of telnet
    • Set up tmux/screen for long sessions
    • Maintain out-of-band access
    • Document recovery procedures

  10. Command history

    • Use the command history (up/down arrows)
    • Ctrl+R to search the history
    • Save frequently used commands
    • Create command templates

Conclusion

VyOS operation mode provides a powerful set of commands for monitoring, diagnosing, and managing the system. Mastering these commands is critical for efficient VyOS administration and for quickly resolving problems in production environments.

Key takeaways:

  • Operation mode is for monitoring, not for changes
  • Show commands are the foundation of diagnostics
  • Monitor commands give real-time visibility
  • Reset/Clear are for operational tasks
  • Hands-on practice is the key to mastery

Additional resources:

Reviewed by OpenNix LLC · Last updated on
VyOS Automation - REST API, Ansible and PythonTroubleshooting