Using show run To Determine Latest Changes To A Cisco Device – Part 1

Using show run To Determine Latest Changes To A Cisco Device – Part 1 of 2 In the process of troubleshooting, you may need to find out when the last change to the device was made and by whom. There are a number of ways to do this, but a quick and easy way to find this information is to issue the show run (show running-config) privileged EXEC command. By looking at the first few lines of output, you can quickly determine who last changed the running configuration and when they did it. You can do the same for who last wrote the configuration (write or copy running-config startup-config) and when they did it. This information is not perfect as it will record the last user to enter configuration mode on the device, regardless of whether or not they made any actual changes. This information will not persist a power cycle or reload. Even with these limitations, many time you can use the show run command to find out who was the last person to make a change on your Cisco device. Oftentimes, that is directly related to your current problem. 🙂