Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 2026 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The command #copy run start is used in Cisco environments to save the current running configuration to the startup configuration file. This action ensures that any changes made to the device's configuration while it was running are preserved. The running configuration is the file that contains all the current settings of a device, and the startup configuration is the file that is used when the device is rebooted. By copying the running configuration to the startup configuration, you effectively ensure that the device will retain its current settings after a restart, allowing for a consistent operation.

In a practical scenario, an administrator might make several changes to the network settings, such as modifying interface configurations or routing protocols, and once these changes are verified and deemed correct, saving them with this command guarantees that they will be applied again when the device is powered off and back on.