This is the number of times initialization of this circuit has failed, counting events such as PPP NCP failures; failures to form an adjacency are counted separately by ciiCircRejAdjs. It specifically counts lower-layer initialization failures that prevent IS-IS from even attempting to bring the circuit up, a distinct failure mode from an adjacency being actively rejected once the circuit came up, so a climbing value points an admin toward the link or encapsulation layer rather than IS-IS protocol negotiation itself. For example, a serial circuit repeatedly failing PPP NCP negotiation due to a mismatched encapsulation configuration on one end would increment ciiCircInitFails without ever getting far enough to attempt an actual IS-IS adjacency.