Snapshot saves all of the counter attributes available from the specified entity at that time. You can snapshot only counters, and the results are displayed using a subsequent show command. For example, do either of the following: ncl> snapshot node 0 all counters or ncl> snapshot node 0 all counters, to file_name If you omit the attribute list entirely from the snapshot command, NCL defaults to all counters. If you do not choose a file name, NCL retains the binary data in memory. If you enter the show command for which the remote entity returns any counters, NCL tries to find snapshot data in the snapshot file you specified (or within its memory, if you did not specify a file name). If your show command does not contain the from preposition, NCL tries to find a corresponding snapshot in memory. If you have not performed a snapshot command in this NCL session, NCL displays just the raw counters. If the show command does contain the from preposition, NCL tries to read the specified file. If NCL cannot open the file, it returns the appropriate error message and displays the data returned from the entity. If a snapshot file exists, but does not contain data from the current entity, NCL displays just the raw counters. If NCL succeeds in finding a saved snapshot of the entity's counters, then it displays the counters returned by the agent. The following example shows a typical snapshot file, in this instance called x.tmp: ncl> snapshot 12.80 csm sta * oct se, oct r, to x.tmp To recall the snapshot file x.tmp, you would use the following command: show n 12.80 csm sta *, from x.tmp Node 12.80 CSMA-CD Station csmacd-1 AT 1994-09-08-11:12:01.497-04:00I0.165 Snapshot Elapsed Time = +0-02:01:47.536I0.428 Current Snapshot Difference ------- -------- ----------- Counters Octets Sent 64354851 45070297 19284554 Octets Received 34030180 27575906 6454274 To list all the snapshots that NCL is holding "in memory," use the command: ncl> show ncl snapshots To eliminate the snapshot corresponding to a value, thus allowing counters to be displayed in the normal name=value format, use the command: ncl> clear ncl snapshot 50 without this, the only way to get back to a normal display is to exit NCL and reinvoke it. To periodically poll the value of a counter and display it (using the snapshot format) until ^C'ed, use the command: ncl> cmonitor entity counter this is similar to netstat and iostat which allow you to monitor a value by specifying an interval. To control what the interval between polls should be, use the commands: ncl> set ncl cmonitor time = 5 ncl> show ncl cmonitor time