Ahoy,
I've read Cisco documentation and forum posts from a number of sources, and there doesn't seem to be any mention of how someone can issue commands like they would in a CLI environment on a console-less switch like the CE500. It is something that has annoyed me before, so I thought I'd share what I've discovered through some experimentation with you all.
When using a web browser to manage your switch, issue the following url:
http://10.0.0.1/level/15/exec/-/
(Replacing the IP address with the one configured on your own switch)
After providing your username/password, this brings you to a web-based console interface to the CE500. I don't know for sure, but I think this functionality is in the WEB_EXEC module enabled by default on the factory IOS [12.2(25)FY]. You can issue commands in the Command field just like you would in the CLI environment, and the output is shown below the field. It takes a bit of getting used-to, but I prefer it over the CNA and Device Manager.
From what I can tell, the commands are just HTTP GET requests with the url as the command; where / slashes after the exec/-/ part are interpreted as spaces, \ slashes precede special characters, and CR stands for Carrier Return (the enter key at the end of a command issued in CLI). I suppose knowing this someone could script an actual CLI-interface for the CE500 that just issues HTTP GET requests and parses the returning output, but this works just fine for my needs :).
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Cedric
