Tuesday, January 25, 2011

or not...

Dell cancelled my order, saying the product I ordered was not in stock?

I thought the whole idea behind the Outlet was that you were ordering a specific system they had ON THE SHELF.

Ohh, well.

My new ride...

My new "tool". 20% off coupons at the dell outlet right now!

This should be much better than the 12" tablet pc running 5 putty tabs in PCM, a CBT vid, and a Kindle window with the Cisco Press book open. Can't beat it for $455.00 before tax.


System ID: FCRMV5KH
XPS M1730
Scratch & Dent - SD
System Price: $569.00



Base
XPS M1730 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Business
Hard Disk Drive
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Memory
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)
Media Bay
8X DVD +/- RW Optical Drive
Video
NVIDIA SLI GeForce 8700MGT with 512MB GDDR3 Memory
AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator
System Color
Smoke Grey
Laptop Screen
17 inch Wide Screen WUXGA TrueLife LCD Panel
Laptop Battery
9 Cell Primary Battery
Network Interface Card
3945 802.11a/g Wireless Mini Card
Bluetooth Wireless
Bluetooth Wireless Card 355
Web Camera
Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Camera
Hardware Upgrade
230 Watt AC Adapter
Software Upgrade
64BIT Operating System
Office Software
Microsoft Works 9.0


http://www.techbargains.com/dellcoupons.cfm

this is how the magic happens right now. Teeny, tiny, and with a new chinese aftermarket battery that the laptop refuses to recognize because it's not a "genuine" Lenovo battery. Needless to say this is likely my last Lenovo. Their customer support act like they don't need repeat customers as well.


Monday, January 24, 2011

Access Server setup

I had been meaning to add my current setup config for my Access Server. Using an access server will allow you to access your network lab remotely anywhere you have access to telnet. I even have a telnet program that works so-so for my android phone and can access my lab from it.

I am using a cisco 2509 for access server duties. So far it has been ok, that said I do wish I had purchased a 2511 for the 8 additional ports.

I have an Ethernet transceiver attached to the AUI port running to my home router. I have the port in the router forwarding telnet to the ip I have hard set to that port. The ip default gateway statement in the 2509 config points to the Home router.





The 2509 is the bottom router with the ethernet transceiver and octal cable plugged in.

My config:


Current configuration:
!
version 12.0
service tcp-keepalives-in
service tcp-keepalives-out
service timestamps debug uptime
service timestamps log uptime
service password-encryption
!
hostname as
!
enable secret 5xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
!
ip subnet-zero
no ip domain-lookup
ip host r1 2001 10.10.10.10
ip host r2 2002 10.10.10.10
ip host r3 2003 10.10.10.10
ip host r4 2004 10.10.10.10
ip host r5 2005 10.10.10.10
ip host s1 2006 10.10.10.10
ip host s2 2007 10.10.10.10
ip host s3 2008 10.10.10.10
ip domain-name homelab.com


ip default-gateway 192.168.0.1
ip classless
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1


line con 0
 session-timeout 35791
 exec-timeout 35791 0
 password 7 104C08xxxxxxxxxxxxx
 logout-warning 60
 absolute-timeout 10000
 login
 transport input none
line 1 8
 session-timeout 35791
 no exec
 exec-timeout 35791 0
 absolute-timeout 10000
 no history
 transport input telnet
 autohangup
 stopbits 1
line aux 0
 transport preferred telnet
 transport input all
 speed 38400
 flowcontrol hardware
line vty 0 4
 exec-timeout 240 0
 password 7 060xxxxxxxxxxxxx
 login
 transport input telnet

In use, once logged into the Access server you just type the name of the router you have set to the numbered cable from the octal cable, i.e. ip host r1 2001 10.10.10.10, r1 being the name you have set, and 2001 being the number of the cable (2001=1st, 2002=2nd, etc.)

Although I think there is a command that keeps this from happening, one may have to clear a line that has locked up from time to time. The command for that, from the Access server, is:

clear line tty 1

with "1" being the cable line you are attempting to clear. It will ask you to confirm.

Also want to add this info that was either sent to me or I found on the interwebz:

Hi,
Hopefully this article will help you a bit in configuring your Cisco access server....
As your CCNA / CCNP home lab expands, an access server such as the Cisco 2509 or 2511 is one of the best investments you can make. In this article, we'll look at the basic configuration for an access server and discuss how to connect to the other routers and switches in your pod through the AS.
Here's part of a configuration from one of my access servers:
ip host FRS 2006 100.1.1.1
ip host SW2 2005 100.1.1.1
ip host SW1 2004 100.1.1.1
ip host R2 2002 100.1.1.1
ip host R1 2001 100.1.1.1
ip host R3 2003 100.1.1.1
interface Loopback0
ip address 100.1.1.1 255.255.255.255
no ip directed-broadcast
This is an IP Host table, and this is what makes the entire AS setup work. Your PC will connect to the access server, and the access server is in turn physically connected to your other routers and switches via an octal cable. One end of the octal cable splices off into eight separate cables, each terminated with an Rj-45 connector. That connector will be placed into the console port of one of your home lab devices. In this configuration, I have connector 1 connected to the console port of R1, connector 2 to R2, connector 3 to R3, connector 4 to Sw1, and so forth. (The connectors are physically numbered as well.)
The IP Host table entries here are linked to the loopback address shown. The loopback can be any address, but it must match the address in the IP Host table. This allows you to create reverse telnet sessions to the routers and switches.
To open the reverse telnet sessions upon opening a connection to the AS, type the entire name of the device and press the enter key twice. A connection to that device will now be visible, as shown here:
Access_Server#r1
Trying R1 (100.1.1.1, 2001)... Open
R1#
To get back to the access server, use the key combination followed by pressing the "x" key. Keep doing this until you've opened a connection to every router and switch in your pod.
Once you've opened the lines, you will not use the full device name to connect to the home lab devices. You should press only the number corresponding to the reverse telnet session you opened. For instance, in this configuration I opened telnet session 1 to R1, session 2 to R2, and session 3 to R3. Once I opened those sessions, I just use those numbers to reconnect to the devices, as shown here:
Access_server#1
[Resuming connection 1 to r1 ... ]
R1#
Access_server#2
[Resuming connection 2 to r2 ... ]
R2#
Access_server#3
[Resuming connection 3 to r3 ... ]
R3#
If you type the full hostname again after initially opening the connection, you will see this message:
Access_server#r1
Trying R1 (100.1.1.1, 2001)...
% Connection refused by remote host
The connection is refused because you already have an open connection to that router.
There's one more important part of an access server config your CCNA / CCNP home lab will need:
line 1 8
no exec
transport input all
The line numbers may differ according to your access server, but "no exec" is very important here. This will stop rogue EXEC sessions from refusing connections that it shouldn't be refusing. Without this command, you'll commonly see "connection refused by remote host" when you shouldn't be. That message is the most common error you'll see on an access server, and it's there because you already have an open connection or you left "no exec" out of your configuration. "No exec" isn't mandatory, but it will help you keep your sanity!






EIGRP - Summary routes, Bandwidth Allocation, Authentication

next few sections of the CBT nuggets config settings

HQ router settings:


key chain EIGRP_KEYS
 key 1
  key-string cisco1
  accept-lifetime 00:00:00 Jan 17 2011 00:00:00 Jan 18 2011
  send-lifetime 00:00:00 Jan 17 2011 00:00:00 Jan 18 2011
 key 2
  key-string cisco2
  accept-lifetime 00:00:00 Jan 27 2010 infinite
  send-lifetime 00:00:00 Jan 27 2010 infinite


interface Serial0/1.1 multipoint
 ip address 172.16.124.1 255.255.255.248
 ip bandwidth-percent eigrp 25 80 (allowing allocation of 30% more than the standard 50% that eigrp allocates by default)
 no ip split-horizon eigrp 25
 ip summary-address eigrp 25 10.1.0.0 255.255.252.0 5
 frame-relay map ip 172.16.124.2 102 broadcast
 frame-relay map ip 172.16.124.3 103 broadcast
!
router eigrp 25
 network 10.1.0.0 0.0.255.255
 network 172.16.0.0
 no auto-summary

If all goes well with the summary address statement you should get a show ip route like this:



     172.16.0.0/29 is subnetted, 1 subnets
C       172.16.124.0 is directly connected, Serial0/1.1
     10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 6 subnets, 2 masks
D       10.2.0.0/22 [90/2297856] via 172.16.124.2, 00:04:39, Serial0/1.1
C       10.1.3.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback3
D       10.3.0.0/22 [90/2297856] via 172.16.124.3, 00:02:26, Serial0/1.1
C       10.1.2.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback2
C       10.1.1.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback1
D       10.1.0.0/22 is a summary, 1w0d, Null0


Then with the Authentication Key statements made, but authentication not turned on Show ip Route looks like this on the West router:



     172.16.0.0/29 is subnetted, 1 subnets
C       172.16.124.0 is directly connected, Serial0/1
     10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 4 subnets, 2 masks
C       10.3.1.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback1
D       10.3.0.0/22 is a summary, 00:17:55, Null0
C       10.3.3.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback3
C       10.3.2.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback2



And after the authentication key commands are entered:

ip authentication mode eigrp 25 md5
and
ip authentication key-chain eigrp 25 EIGRP_KEYS
should result in the neighbors coming back up:

Jan 24 04:00:07.878: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 25: Neighbor 172.16.124.2 (Serial0/1.1) is up: new adjacency
r1(config-subif)#
Jan 24 04:02:23.074: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 25: Neighbor 172.16.124.3 (Serial0/1.1) is up: new adjacency

Then the Show ip route will look like this again:

     172.16.0.0/29 is subnetted, 1 subnets
C       172.16.124.0 is directly connected, Serial0/1
     10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 6 subnets, 2 masks
D       10.2.0.0/22 [90/2818560] via 172.16.124.1, 00:00:09, Serial0/1
C       10.3.1.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback1
D       10.3.0.0/22 is a summary, 00:00:09, Null0
C       10.3.3.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback3
D       10.1.0.0/22 [90/2306560] via 172.16.124.1, 00:00:09, Serial0/1
C       10.3.2.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback2

With all your correctly summarized routes listed.


You can run a little:

debug eigrp packet and see it working


Jan 24 04:19:38.338: EIGRP: Received HELLO on Loopback2 nbr 10.2.2.1
Jan 24 04:19:38.338:   AS 25, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0
Jan 24 04:19:38.338: EIGRP: Packet from ourselves ignored
Jan 24 04:19:39.278: EIGRP: Sending HELLO on Loopback1
Jan 24 04:19:39.278:   AS 25, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0
Jan 24 04:19:39.278: EIGRP: Received HELLO on Loopback1 nbr 10.2.1.1
Jan 24 04:19:39.278:   AS 25, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0
Jan 24 04:19:39.278: EIGRP: Packet from ourselves ignored
r2#
Jan 24 04:19:40.494: EIGRP: Sending HELLO on Loopback3
Jan 24 04:19:40.494:   AS 25, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0
Jan 24 04:19:40.494: EIGRP: Received HELLO on Loopback3 nbr 10.2.3.1
Jan 24 04:19:40.494:   AS 25, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0
Jan 24 04:19:40.494: EIGRP: Packet from ourselves ignored

What you get with show eigrp transmit when you shut down west routers interface (after holdtime expires)


Jan 24 10:13:42.532: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 25: Neighbor 172.16.124.3 (Serial0/1.1) is down: holding time expired
Jan 24 10:13:42.532: Peer 172.16.124.3 going down
Jan 24 10:13:42.532: DNDB QUERY 10.3.0.0/22, serno 56 to 57, refcount 1
Jan 24 10:13:42.532:   Anchoring Serial0/1.1, starting Serial0/1.1 timer
Jan 24 10:13:42.544: Packetizing timer expired on Serial0/1.1
Jan 24 10:13:42.544: Packets pending on Serial0/1.1
Jan 24 10:13:42.544: Intf Serial0/1.1 packetized QUERY 57-57
Jan 24 10:13:42.544:   Interface is now quiescent
Jan 24 10:13:42.548: Building MULTICAST QUERY packet for Serial0/1.1, serno 57-57
Jan 24 10:13:42.548:   Items:  57, SIA-T-Start(10.3.0.0/22)
Jan 24 10:13:42.600: Packet acked from 172.16.124.2 (Serial0/1.1), serno 57-57
r1#
Jan 24 10:13:42.600: Flow blocking cleared on Serial0/1.1
Jan 24 10:13:42.600: Multicast acked from Serial0/1.1, serno 57-57
Jan 24 10:13:42.600:   Found serno 57, refcount now 0, SIA-T-Stop(10.3.0.0/22)




Moving on to OSPF.







Saturday, January 15, 2011

Frame Relay setup Fixed

Fixed this: subinterfaces were wrong on the hub router, and I changed the West router to a router with a WIC1-T1-DSU card, i.e. the T1 commands on the interfaces.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Frame Relay Setup working

Finished Frame Relay setup for now, it may not be perfect, but it works for now.

Hopefully you can read it.If you are using the CBT Nuggets for CCNP Route and aren't using GNS3, this
is pretty close to how Jeremy has his network for the Advanced EIGRP Nugget set up.

Added some of the books I've used through the Amazon Associates. The Cisco Press book I'm using by Kindle for PC, and Kindle for Android.
Sometimes....

Figured out what most of my issue was (hopefully)

for whatever reason, I was thinking the first port on the NM-8 AS was showing up as 1/1... umm, no, it's 1/0, so all my configs for things were off one port on the Frame relay router/switch.

sigh...
Link that I'm drawing from at Cisco Press:

Cisco Press Frame relay config.



Battling with setting up a Frame Relay lab. Having config issues that may be related to the fact that I'm setting it up with subinterfaces that are mutlipoint type. This, I think, makes use of frame-relay interface-dlci as opposed to frame-relay map protocol protocol-address dlci [broadcast] to configure the hub and spoke interfaces an issue.

Created in Visio, but a bit of a PITA to save as a pic. Had to save as a webpage first, then Jpeg. Gliffy owns Visio, figuratively.

Right now I have the Frame relay set up as such:

interface Serial1/1
 description link to R1
 no ip address
 encapsulation frame-relay
 logging event subif-link-status
 logging event dlci-status-change
 clock rate 64000
 no dce-terminal-timing-enable
 no frame-relay inverse-arp
 frame-relay intf-type dce
 frame-relay route 102 interface Serial1/2 201
 frame-relay route 103 interface Serial1/3 301
!
interface Serial1/2
 description link to R2
 no ip address
 encapsulation frame-relay
 logging event subif-link-status
 logging event dlci-status-change
 clock rate 64000
 no dce-terminal-timing-enable
 no frame-relay inverse-arp
 frame-relay intf-type dce
 frame-relay route 201 interface Serial1/1 102
!
interface Serial1/3
 description link to AS(R5 s/0)
 no ip address
 encapsulation frame-relay
 logging event subif-link-status
 logging event dlci-status-change
 clock rate 64000
 no dce-terminal-timing-enable
 no frame-relay inverse-arp
 frame-relay intf-type dce
 frame-relay route 301 interface Serial1/1 103
!
interface Serial1/4
 no ip address
 encapsulation frame-relay
 logging event subif-link-status
 logging event dlci-status-change
 clock rate 64000
 dce-terminal-timing-enable
 no frame-relay inverse-arp
 frame-relay intf-type dce
And the Hub:


interface Serial0/1
 no ip address
 encapsulation frame-relay
 no dce-terminal-timing-enable
!
interface Serial0/1.1 multipoint
 ip address 172.16.124.1 255.255.255.248
frame-relay interface-dlci 102 or frame-relay map ip 172.16.1.1 203 broadcast

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Screenie of Putty Connection Manager and Gliffy



Screen shot of Putty connection manager for those that don't use it.

Wonderful to use.


Gliffy, for all your flowcharting and network diagrams.

What I've spent over the last year on Cisco Cert.


































Just a list of what I've spent over the last year. Not cheap, but it's definitely increased my pay by probably a couple times what I've spent since acquiring the CCNA. We'll see what the CCNP produces.

It's still much less than a single typical Boot camp, and I think you learn a good bit by working with live equipment that will benefit you once you are on the job.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Beginning of the year and back to the grindstone...

Now that I've got that other big certificate out of the way, (BBA Management, Mcoy School of Business, Texas State) and have taken four short months to stare at the wall and figure out where to go next, I'm ready to dive back into the Cisco Cert path.

I worked crazy hours this last pay period to try to get us as caught up financially from my 3 months of short-term disability, and a full racing season. Adios Pig Pen, you were a blast last year. Pig Pen is the Black, 4 wheeled, money pit in the Pics at the left.

I'm setting the end of June as a finish date for the CCNP, starting semi-from scratch. I've already got a remotely accessible(2509 access server) 5 router, 3 switch, all purchased off of ebay, and upgraded where needed to run the IOS needed. I actually was pretty thrifty and have built the lab for right around $1k, and have a few routers not in the lab(3640, and a 2610)

As it sits, I have:

2 x 2620xm with 256mb ram, and 48mb flash., 1 WIC1-T, 1 WIC-1DSU-T1 
1x 2621xm with 128mb ram, and 32mb flash
2x 2650 with 128mb ram and 32mb flash, 1 with 1 WIC1-T, 1 WIC-1DSU-T1, 1 with NM8-AS(frame relay switch)
3x 2950 catalyst switches
1 2509 with an Ethernet tranceiver for network access server duties.



I'm thinking of making some videos for youtube on how I assembled all of this as there isn't a whole lot of info on how to get this type of home lab up and running. You can see a pic of the current state of the rack in the slideshow at left.

To those that haven't run across it, and don't have access to Visio, I've found the Online Software as a Service Giffy, that does a great job with network representations. I'll be making one of each of the lab topologies that are used in the CBT Nuggets CCNP Videos. So far I have the EIGRP basic configuration, and the first of the Advanced EIGRP config done, with Frame relay setup.

I'll also be posting the configs of all my routers in the topologies when the lab is completed, so anyone can see how I did it. Just found out today there is a more modern way to set up the Frame relay router/switch using the connect command instead of Frame relay route, so I wiped all the devices and started over.

that's about where I'm at now. I watched the vids quite a while ago and wrote everything down on paper and am now transcribing them as I hit each section in the Cisco Press book.



Tips of the Day:

Putty Connection manager: When you are going to wipe configs it's awesome to be able to do it on all routers with one command entry. That and just having all the routers up in tabs makes it pretty convenient.

Gliffy: keeps what you have in the lab in your head if you are using a live setup.(which I highly recommend)

The Cisco Learning Network: The discussion groups are worth their weight in gold, and being free, don't empty your pocket of any.

Books by Todd Lammle: He just has a knack for ordering things in a book in the way that ends up most useful for learning. I just picked up his CCNA IOS Command Survival guide to remember how to change confreg on a new router I picked up(one of the reasons to use a live lab), and am already finding other uses for it.

Good luck to all, and I hope this is useful to someone.