As Network Engineers we all have to send Cisco “Show tech-support” to Cisco TAC or any large CLI (Command Line Interface) output to the vendor for troubleshooting purposes. The result of a large output is that we are unable to copy the entire content in one go. I searched the internet and Cisco but I didn’t find any easy method, after struggling initially, at last, I figured out a simple way, the way was so simple, that I was really amazed.
Simple trick to copy Show tech-support or large data into Putty
Let me first tell you what exactly is Putty and why we use it. Putty is a terminal emulator, serial console, and network file transfer software that is free and open-source. It supports various network protocols, such as SCP, SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, and raw connecting sockets. You can even use putty to connect to a serial port.
The next step which you rightly guessed is to install Putty on your computer, it is free and can be downloaded from here. Now you need to adjust some settings in putty before connecting to your device. Open the putty console, under Session click the tab Logging, the default option selected is None, change it to “All session Output” and under Log File Name click the tab Browse and choose a location on your computer, then again click to Session, under session click Default Settings and Save it.
Now type the IP address of the destination device, select the port, and connect to the device.
Pro-Tip:- In the exec-mode of the Cisco device prompt, type “terminal length 0” so that the whole command can be executed in one shot.
Now Run whatever command you want to run in my case it was “show tech-support”. The output of that command will be saved into the file location mentioned under the putty “log_file name” section.
One more Pro-tip:- Take a backup copy of the running-config first and then save the config somewhere safe before executing the “Show tech-support” command.
Enjoy 🙂
How do you get show tech support?
Open putty console or your favorite telnet/ssh client on your personal computer. Now type the ip address of the destination device, select the port, and connect to the device. Once you are connected to the device. For cisco devices, In the exec-mode of the device prompt, type “show tech-support”. Make sure you have enough privilege to type in the “show tech-support” command, else get proper rights of the device before executing the command.
How do I output a file in PuTTY?
For this you need to have Putty installed on your computer, it is free and can be downloaded from here. Now you need to adjust some settings in putty before connecting to your device. Open the putty console, under Session click the tab Logging, the default option selected is None, change it to “All session Output” and under Log File Name click the tab Browse and choose a location on your computer, then again click to Session, under session click Default Settings and Save it.
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Helping me out 8-9 years later. I knew about Putty logging but had a brain fart. Thanks for sharing your struggle. You’re a real one. TYVM.
Thank you!
i only get so far with sh tech, and then putty window closes on me….seems to be too big even for this solution…what do i do?
excellent…it helped me
thank you
a better sollution:
sh tech-support | tee flash:/tech-support