MPLS

So...I am trying to MASTER the MPLS portion of the ISCW before moving on to the next topic.  I have spent about 3 days on it thus far, and will probably give it through tomorrow.  I have read all the MPLS chapters in the ISCW Authorized Self Study guide, watched the nuggets, and completed the labs in the portfolio.  Man, I really dont even know where to begin...there is soooo much with MPLS, and only a portion of it is even covered by this exam.  I do however feel that my knowledge on the matter is growing, and it is something that peaks my interest.  Lets go over the labs first:

4-1 Frame Mode MPLS
Diagram (sorry!):
[R1]----------[R2]----------[R3]

Easy enough!  Started by configuring loopbacks and serial IP's to the interfaces.  I then ran eigrp on the interfaces and advertised all loopbacks and serials.  Ensured end-to-end connectivity by pinging from R1's loopback to R3's loopback interfaces, checking routing tables, and show ip eigrp commands.  Then configured MPLS as follows:

 (config) ip cef  \\enabled cisco express forwarding
(config-if) mpls ip \\enabled mpls on all mpls interfaces
(config-if) mpls label protocol ldp \\set ldp as the label distro. protocol
(config-if) mpls mtu 1512 \\set the mtu to 12 > than 1500 to accomodate 3 X 4 byte labels

Verified with:

show mpls ldp bindings
show mpls forwarding-table
show mpls interfaces [type] [number] [detail]

This was a basic frame mode mpls configuration.  As you can tell this is done over ethernet, thus the "frame" mode.  This is opposed to mpls over atm; which is known as mpls cell mode.

The next lab was a bit more challenging....guess thats why it is called the "challenge" lab.
Lab 4-2 MPLS VPN's
[HQ]-------[SP1]-------[SP2]--------[SP3]---------[Branch]

This is hard to even explain....

1. Set up interfaces with loopbacks, ip's, etc...
2. Configured ospf over service provider network
3. configured MPLS in SP domain
4. Configured a virtual routing and forwarding table for the "customer"
1. ip vrf "name"
2. rd 100:1  \\route distinguisher...unique for each "customer"
3. route-target both 1:100  \\will help if the customer uses multiple vpn's
4. (config-if) ip vrf forwarding "name"  \\do this on the customer facing interface
1. Verify with ping vrf "name" [ip]
5. Configured eigrp AS 1 on both customer routers advertising networks
6. Configured eigrp AS 100 on PE routers SP1 and 3 and then set up the ipv4 vrf
1. address-family ipv4 vrf customer
2. autonomous-system 1  \\customers as
3. no auto
4. network [ip]
1. Verify with show ip route vrf "name"
   
7. BGP setup on PE routers SP1 and SP3
1. router bgp as
2. neighbor [ip] remote-as [as]
3. neighbor [ip] update-sourec loop0
4. address-family vpnv4
5. neighbor [ip] activate
6. neighbor [ip] send-community both
7. exit
8. address-family ipv4 vrf customer
9. redistribute eigrp 1
8. Redistribute bgp routes into eigrp
1. address-family ipv4 vrf customer
2. redistribute bgp [as] metric 64 1000 255 1 1500
   

And done....that one was a real brainwasher. Made me re-evaluate everything I thought that I knew about MPLS. Like I said...I will do some re-study tomm. and probably move on to the next topic by Wednesday.