Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Labbing...

Rented a rack session from INE's graded labs today.  All in all, it was a good experience.  I did have some times where the lab froze up, and I had to disconnect several times.  But, like I said, for the most part it operated as intended.  I spend the first part of my day getting used to INE's diagrams out of their Volume 1 WB.  Once I got the hang of things I started cranking through labs 1.1 - 1.21.  It was a good day, touching on native vlans, dtp, router-on-a-stick configs, vtp, pruning, etherchannels (L2/3), dot1q tunneling, and spanning tree.  So all layer 2 stuff basically, and I still have 29 sections to go...  I can easily see how CCIE study's can go well beyond the 1000 hour marks :)

Monday, August 30, 2010

BGP...almost done

Getting a good refresher on BGP, but considering I just finished it up for the CCIP, I am not learning a whole lot that is new to me; but there still are some things.  My notes need to be organized again...yaaaa.  They are almost 10,000 words, and over 41 pages long now.  I think that they will be  GREAT review paper for me before I go in for my written.  Cant wait.....

Friday, August 27, 2010

LSA Propogation in Different OSPF Area's

Well I have been doing ALOT!  Reading a bunch more on OSPF, and hitting IGP redistribution really hard.  I made some video's tonight, mostly doing exactly what the title of this post says.  I goofed in the video, but learned alot from it.  Normally if I do something stupid, or miss something, I dont post the video...but here I felt like it could be a good learning experience for everyone.  It certainly was for me..so a moment of humility on my part will hopefully teach someone, somewhere, a little more about OSPF :)  2 videos...P1 and P2.  I have found they are REALLY time-consuming to do..so I might not post to many more in the future...they deter me from my studies a bit.  Here's the topology for this lab:





Saturday, August 21, 2010

Lmiting Redistributed Prefixes in OSPF

Cisco Catalyst 3550 Password Recovery

For those who have ever been lost trying to enter into 3550's rommon to recover a password, quit trying...lol, just follow Cisco's instructions here:
CATALYST 3550 PASSWORD RECOVERY...ALONG WITH SOME OTHERS

Here's a brief synopsis though (taken verbatim from Cisco's site...)


Follow the password recovery procedure below.
  1. Attach a terminal or PC with terminal emulation (for example, Hyper Terminal) to the console port of the switch.
    Use the following terminal settings:
    • Bits per second (baud): 9600
    • Data bits: 8
    • Parity: None
    • Stop bits: 1
    • Flow Control: Xon/Xoff
    Note: For additional information on cabling and connecting a terminal to the console port, refer to Connecting a Terminal to the Console Port on Catalyst Switches.
  2. Unplug the power cable.
  3. Power the switch and bring it to the switch: prompt:
    For 2900XL, 3500XL, 2940, 2950, 2960, 2970, 3550, 3560, and 3750 series switches, do this:
    Hold down the mode button located on the left side of the front panel, while you reconnect the power cable to the switch.
    Catalyst Switch Series
    LED Behavior and Mode Button Release Action
    2900XL, 3500XL, 3550
    Release the Mode button when the LED above Port1x goes out.

  • Issue the flash_init command.
    switch: flash_init
    Initializing Flash...
    flashfs[0]: 143 files, 4 directories
    flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
    flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 3612672
    flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 2729472
    flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 883200
    flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 86 seconds
    ....done Initializing Flash.
    Boot Sector Filesystem (bs:) installed, fsid: 3
    Parameter Block Filesystem (pb:) installed, fsid: 4
    switch:
    
    !--- This output is from a 2900XL switch. Output from 
    !--- other switches will vary slightly.

  • Issue the load_helper command.
    switch: load_helper
    switch:

  • Issue the dir flash: command.
    Note: Make sure to type a colon ":" after the dir flash.
    The switch file system is displayed:
    switch: dir flash:
    Directory of flash:/
    2    -rwx  1803357                  c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC7.bin
    
    !--- This is the current version of software.
    4    -rwx  1131                     config.text
    
    !--- This is the configuration file.
    5    -rwx  109                      info
    6    -rwx  389                      env_vars
    7    drwx  640                      html
    18   -rwx  109                      info.ver
    403968 bytes available (3208704 bytes used)
    switch:
    
    !--- This output is from a 3500XL switch. Output from 
    !--- other switches will vary slightly.

  • Type rename flash:config.text flash:config.old to rename the configuration file.
    switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.old
    switch:
    
    !--- The config.text file contains the password 
    !--- definition.

  • Issue the boot command to boot the system.
    switch: boot
    Loading "flash:c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC7.bin"...###############################
    ################################################################################
    ######################################################################
    File "flash:c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC7.bin" uncompressed and installed, entry po
    int: 0x3000
    executing...
    
    !--- Output suppressed.
    !--- This output is from a 3500XL switch. Output from other switches 
    !--- will vary slightly.

  • Enter "n" at the prompt to abort the initial configuration dialog.
    --- System Configuration Dialog ---
    At any point you may enter a question mark '?' for help.
    Use ctrl-c to abort configuration dialog at any prompt.
    Default settings are in square brackets '[]'.
    Continue with configuration dialog? [yes/no]: n 
    
    !--- Type "n" for no.
    Press RETURN to get started.
    
    !--- Press Return or Enter.
    Switch>
    
    !--- The Switch> prompt is displayed.
    Thats the jist of it though.  If you want to keep a fresh config just issue a wr, if you want to keep your current config and change the password just follow the rest of the steps in that doc!

  • Thursday, August 19, 2010

    OSPF Virtual Link or GRE Tunnel

    100th post!! woot! No really, heres another lab...let me know what you think.




    Heres part 2 of this video...

    Wednesday, August 18, 2010

    OSPF Summarization Lab

    I am still trying to tweak the quality...dont know why its blurry...

    Sunday, August 15, 2010

    OSPF and all things Cisco

    Well I have begun reading about OSPF...again.  Still find it amazing how much you do not retain in your studies.  At least this time it is like "oh ya" instead of "what the heck are they talking about?"  Good refresher all-in-all actually, and I am finding it easier to hold together the smaller things that used to be kind of hard to digest mentally (like LSA types, propagation, and general design recommendations).  Didnt find as much time as I wanted this w/e, but I will take what I can get.  I also have officially procured the rest of my lab equipment.  Two more 48 port 3550's are on the way at a basement bargain price of $400 dollars. Hope they work :)  Just need to get it cabled up now and I should be on my way~

    Until next time....
    Jason

    Friday, August 13, 2010

    Lab Time...

    Well I decided to revisit RIP a bit and do the Labs in Narbik's Soup to Nuts WB.  Great set of 5 labs that really show you what RIP has to offer in terms of filtering and fine-tuning.  I will definately need to run back through the WB and add some notes to my notes pages.  This WB is a free offering from Narbik on his website @
    MicronicsTraining
    You can click on that link.  I urge you to check his stuff out...he writes some truly great labs.

    Wednesday, August 11, 2010

    More EIGRP

    Well I read Routing TCP/IP's chapters on EIGRP, and have been labbing quite a bit out of Narbik's soup to nuts lab book.  Great book btw.  I even recorded my session last night using Camtasia.  I will try to figure out the best way to embed the video in the blog here. 

    One of Narbik's tasks was to inject a default into the eigrp domain without using a global command, or a router configuration command.  Honestly, I was stumped... Heres the brilliant solution.
    (config-if)ip summary-address eigrp 100 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0

    Thats it!  It sends the default to the neighbor, and they send it to their neighbors.  Worked like a charm.

    Monday, August 9, 2010

    EIGRP

    Took some useful notes throughout the EIGRP chapter in the official exam certification guide.  Notes now approaching 25 pages and have grown to over 5500 words.  Amazing how fast they accumulate and I am only starting week 3 of my CCIE studies...

    Sunday, August 8, 2010

    EIGRP

    So I went through basically all of the CLI INE CoD's today regarding EIGRP.  They are good, definitely more honed towards the lab, but were a good overall review on EIGRP on the router.  I will take the next ~2-3 days and read what the CCIE R/S certification guide has to say on it, and then follow that up with Routing TCP/IP's take on the whole matter.  I "might" be falling into a groove, lets hope that I can keep it up.

    Saturday, August 7, 2010

    RIP....basic lab

    Just wanted a short post on what RIP does with auto-summary. Here is the...well, quite simple topology:
    So you can probably see what I did here.  I first tested RIPv1, and just wanted to see if R2 would pass the /30 over to R1, and if so how R1 would interpret it.



    R2#debug ip rip
    RIP protocol debugging is on

    *Mar  1 00:03:21.227: RIP: sending v1 update to 255.255.255.255 via FastEthernet0/0 (172.16.0.2)
    *Mar  1 00:03:21.231: RIP: build update entries - suppressing null update



    R1#show ip route
         172.16.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets
    C       172.16.0.0 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0


    Nothing...R2 has the connected routes but is not even advertising it over to R1.  This is because RIPv1 is classfull, and even if R1 got the route, it would put a /24 mask to it even though it is a /30, because rip interprets any update without a mask like it has the same mask as one of its connected interfaces within that major network number.  As soon as I put "version 2" under the RIP process I got some joy:


    R1(config-router)#do show ip route
         172.16.0.0/16 is variably subnetted, 3 subnets, 2 masks
    R       172.16.1.4/30 [120/1] via 172.16.0.2, 00:00:11, FastEthernet0/0
    C       172.16.0.0/24 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0
    R       172.16.1.0/30 [120/1] via 172.16.0.2, 00:00:11, FastEthernet0/0
         10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 2 subnets, 2 masks
    R       10.10.10.0/24 [120/2] via 172.16.0.2, 00:01:06, FastEthernet0/0
    R       10.0.0.0/8 [120/1] via 172.16.0.2, 00:00:11, FastEthernet0/0


    I also want you to note that 10.10.10.0/24 network.  Originally when I enabled Version 2, I also put on the no auto-summary command.  R3 has a loopback of 10.10.10.1/24 and is advertising it into RIP.  To show what auto-summary does, I went ahead and disabled it right before I ran the preceding show ip route.  Notice the timer on the /24...its getting awfully close to that 180 invalid timer.  I went ahead and ran a clear ip route * again, and look at the output now...


    R1(config-router)#do show ip route
         172.16.0.0/16 is variably subnetted, 3 subnets, 2 masks
    R       172.16.1.4/30 [120/1] via 172.16.0.2, 00:00:02, FastEthernet0/0
    C       172.16.0.0/24 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0
    R       172.16.1.0/30 [120/1] via 172.16.0.2, 00:00:02, FastEthernet0/0
    R    10.0.0.0/8 [120/1] via 172.16.0.2, 00:00:02, FastEthernet0/0


    Now because R2 is the one with auto-summary on it is summarizing that major network...10.0.0.0/8 and sending it down the pipe to R1.  Heres the debug output:


    *Mar  1 00:14:25.451: RIP: sending v2 update to 224.0.0.9 via FastEthernet0/0 (172.16.0.2)
    *Mar  1 00:14:25.455: RIP: build update entries
    *Mar  1 00:14:25.455:   10.0.0.0/8 via 0.0.0.0, metric 1, tag 0
    *Mar  1 00:14:25.459:   172.16.1.0/30 via 0.0.0.0, metric 1, tag 0
    *Mar  1 00:14:25.459:   172.16.1.4/30 via 0.0.0.0, metric 1, tag 0

    *Mar  1 00:14:35.003: RIP: received v2 update from 172.16.1.2 on FastEthernet1/0
    *Mar  1 00:14:35.007:      10.10.10.0/24 via 0.0.0.0 in 1 hops


    Now the highlighted portions are important b/c R2 is receiving an update of the /24 version of that network, but is sending just the /8 (the actual class A boundary) to R1.  This is the default behavior or RIP:v2, and is reflected in the routing table of R1.

    Now you might be wondering...well Jason, why then is the 172.16.1.x/30 routes still showing up in there if auto-summary is enabled...and to be honest I was wondering the same thing.  Here's direct quote from the Cisco god himself, Scott Morris:
    "Auto-summarization only works when routes are from a differerent classful network than the interface it's received on.  So if everything in your network is 10.0.0.0/8 addresses, you won't see much difference (exception = redistribution).  But when you see a route come in that's 172.16.1.0, even though you have a /24 mask on the interface, auto-summarization will change that to a /16 in your routing table."

    Thanks Scott, that clears it up!

    References:
    https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/6541

    Tuesday, August 3, 2010

    Keep on keeping on...

    Well, full day of studying today...probably around 6 hours.  My biggest downfall in all of this is that I cant seem to "stick" to something and study it all the way through.  I am finding myself going "ahh, I know this stuff, I can move on" and then later coming to the realization that I have missed some crucial aspect of that particular technology.  I must stay focused and stick to the plan...on topic, all the way through and then move on....read, watch video, lab....repeat.  Lots today though, brief stuff on IP forwarding, CEF, L3 switching, IP addressing, and PPP, including PPPoE and PPPoFR.  Fun stuff really.