User lines

The device uses user lines (also called user interfaces) to manage CLI sessions and monitor user behavior. You can configure access control settings, including login authentication and user role, on user lines. After users are logged in, their actions must be compliant with the settings on the user lines assigned to them.

Users are assigned different user lines, depending on their login methods, as shown in Table 7.

Table 7: CLI login method and user line matrix

User line

Login method

AUX line

Console port.

Virtual type terminal (VTY) line

Telnet or SSH.

User line assignment

The device automatically assigns user lines to CLI login users, depending on their login methods. Each user line can be assigned to only one user at a time. If no user line is available, a CLI login attempt will be rejected.

For a CLI login, the device always picks the lowest numbered user line from the idle user lines available for the login type. For example, four VTY lines (0 to 3) are configured, of which VTY 0 and VTY 3 are idle. When a user Telnets to the device, the device assigns VTY 0 to the user, and uses the settings on VTY 0 to authenticate and manage the user.

User line identification

Every user line has an absolute number and a relative number for identification.

An absolute number uniquely identifies a user line among all user lines. The user lines are numbered starting from 0 and incrementing by 1 and in the sequence of AUX, and VTY lines. You can use the display line command without any parameters to view supported user lines and their absolute numbers.

A relative number uniquely identifies a user line among all user lines that are the same type. The number format is user line type + number. All the types of user lines are numbered starting from 0 and incrementing by 1. For example, the first VTY line is VTY 0.