September 3, 2010

Networking Careers and Investing in Yourself

July 29, 2010 8 Comments
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In my long and storied IT career (haha!), I have seen many rounds of Reductions in Force (RIFs) and layoffs. When a company sells a division, spins off a business, or shows less-than-positive revenue, we invariably see some people, deserving or not, get their walking papers. I have to be completely candid and say that it sucks when there are layoffs. In some cases, especially now (in the worst economic climate in 50 years), there is nothing you can do about losing your position. You may be the best of the best, but sometimes it is just your turn.

There are a lot of things you can do to make yourself valuable to your current employer and desirable as an employee should you happen to be laid-off. Fear and uncertainty can paralyze you and render you ineffective. Guess what? Being ineffective is really bad, and can end up making you a prime candidate for dismissal. Or, you can take that fear/uncertainty/doubt, turn it into motivation, and commit to constantly learning and improving.

A good friend and mentor of mine had an email signature that I probably scoffed at when I first saw it years ago. It read: ‘Success is a journey, not a destination’. Regardless of who said it, I think it is a really relevant bit of wisdom these days.

To succeed, I have to keep getting better; to get better, I have to keep learning.

But how, you ask, might you do that? Thanks for asking! Here are some things  I find important to combat uncertainty.

  • Set professional certification goals for yourself. Ever heard the term ‘paper CCNP’ or ‘paper MCSE’? Yeah, me too. Certifications never guarantee you a job, and if you are not really an expert at the subject matter and claim to be, you will be exposed in short order. On the other hand, if you are a hard worker, have good references AND relevant certifications, you just might get a foot in the door. If you are not worried about losing your job, I believe it’s still vitally important to have cert goals to work toward. Certifications are a benchmark of your ability to learn material and pass a test, but certifications also show that you are willing to make an effort on your own time to acquire new knowledge and skills, to make an investment in yourself. I also strongly believe that you have to set cert goals for yourself; if your boss is setting the goal for you to become CCNA-certified, that is external to you and I feel you are not as likely to follow through and succeed.
  • Learn a programming or scripting language. This is very specific, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to show your current or future employers that you are versatile and can use your knowledge to innovate and automate. Being an expert in Cisco IOS or Juniper JUNOS is really great, but knowing how to write a SHELL or PERL script to take care of some routine function shows you value efficiency and are more versatile than the guy that memorizes router commands. It has been my experience that knowing scripting and programming is a desirable skill and sought after.
  • Cross train. Anybody out there old enough to remember Bo Jackson? He was the spokes-athlete for Nike’s cross training shoes in the late 1980s. He was both a pro American Footballer and pro Baseball player. His versatility was lauded. You can follow his example in your job and work closely with the folks that you support. Do you work with Linux or Windows admins? Learn about operating systems and processes. Build your own servers (VMWare and other similar systems are great for this), learn to find your way around, read the MAN pages. This kind of cross training will not only help you with learning about Cisco IOS (guess what? It’s an OS!!), but also with troubleshooting and debugging problems. Be a specialist in networking, but learn enough about the other stuff to be valuable as well.
  • Learn the Theory. It’s a drag to read RFCs in most cases, but I recommend it. Learning the theory and principles behind what we do in production networks is one of the best ways to add value. If your employer changed tomorrow from Cisco to HP networking gear, would your learning curve be steep? If you have only concentrated on Cisco-specific commands, then yes, probably very. If you know the theory behind a protocol, you can more easily discern what commands, regardless of vendor, you need to use to achieve a certain result.
  • READ A LOT. Most people are not readers of books these days, and many argue that the material in books is more often than not outdated and irrelevant. In some cases, that is true. Some are timeless, ‘classics’ of networking if you will, and should be read and re-read. If books are not your thing, find and follow reputable blogs. Take their content and do your own research. [I have to include a shameless, unsolicited plug: Safari Books Online is such a great investment in learning. You have access to literally thousands of books and videos. Check it out, it’s worthwhile.]
  • Don’t Ignore Layer 8. Layer 8 you ask? The political layer usually, although in this case, I use Layer 8 to mean the Business Coping Skills Layer. Learn about project management and business processes related to your work. Project management is a really great skill, and in most cases, you can continue to be a technical contributor as well. Any situation in which you can lead others and add value to projects is a good idea.

So there is my take on making yourself relevant and valuable. It is by no means comprehensive, and if your employer is laying people off, it may not be possible, in spite of your efforts, to stay employed there.  Be prepared, be knowledgeable, work hard, and always have a plan for when the unpleasant happens.

Filed Under: Certification, Commentary, Featured Tagged With: , ,

Configuring CCNA Dynamic DHCP on a Cisco Router – Part 2

March 3, 2010 3 Comments
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By Joe Spoto

Step 1: The first step is to enable the service on the Cisco Router

Router(config)# service dhcp

This command enables the Cisco service on the Router and relay features on your router.

To remove the command use the same command with no at the beginning

Configuring the DHCP Pool Name

Configure the pool name and, use the following command in global configuration mode:

Router(config)#ip dhcp pool name

This command creates a name for the Service IP address pool and puts you into pool configuration mode, the prompt changes to dhcp-config#.

Setting up the Address Pool Subnet and Mask Next step is to setup a subnet and mask for the address pool you just created. This pool contains the valid range of IP addresses which the Service will assign to DHCP clients:

Router(dhcp-config)# network network-number [mask|prefix-length]

The prefix length indicates the number of bits which make up the address prefix. The prefix is the alternative way to specify the network mask of the client.

Setting up the Domain Name for the Client The domain name for a client puts the client into that domain.

Router(dhcp-config)# domain-name domain

Setting up the IP Domain Name System Servers for the Client When clients query DNS IP servers when they need to resolve host names or URLS to IP addresses.

Router(dhcp-config)# dns-server address [address2 ...address5]

Specifies the IP address of a DNS server that is available to a client. Only one IP address is needed but you can configure up to 8 of them.

Configuring the Default Router for the Client The client needs to route off of the network and needs to know the IPaddress of the default gateway or default router. The IP address of the default router has to be on the same subnet as the DHCP client.

Router(dhcp-config)# default-router address [address2 ... address8]

Specifies the IP address of a DNS server that is available to a client. Only one IP address is needed but you can configure up to 8 of them.

Setting up the Address Lease Time The default lease time for each IP address assigned by a Server one-day. This is the period of time which the leased address is valid. To change the lease value for an IP address:

Router(dhcp-config)# lease {days[hours][minutes] | infinite}

Configuring Dynamic DHCP on a Cisco Router Part 2

For the CCNA certification you must have a solid understanding in how to configure Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) on a Cisco router to serve IP address information to one or multiple subnets

Example Configuration of DHCP

Router(config)# service dhcp

Router(config)# ip dhcp pool CCNA

Router(dhcp-config)# network 10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0

Router(dhcp-config)# domain-name COMMSUPPORT.LOCAL

Router(dhcp-config)# dns-server 10.1.1.1

Router(dhcp-config)# default-router 10.1.1.254

Router(dhcp-config)# lease 5 2 3

The above configuration will assign an address in the range between 10.1.1.2 and 10.1.1.253 to any client, the server will also tell the client that the domain name is commsupport.local, that the DNS server on the subnet is 10.1.1.1, to use a gateway known as 10.1.1.254 and to hold onto the address for 5 days 2 hours and 3 minutes.

Joe Spoto is a senior lecturer at Commsupport networks in the United Kingdom. Joe teaches Cisco CCNA, CCNP, CCVP courses when he is not out on the road fixing and building networks, if you want to find out more about what we do at Commsupport please visit us at CCNA Course

Commsupport run free one day training sessions and free on-line webinars, CCNA training

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Spoto

Filed Under: CCNA

Configuring CCNA DHCP on a Cisco Router Overview Part 1

March 1, 2010 Leave a Comment
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RFC 2131, DHCP offers IP address and other parameters to IP hosts.

DHCP is a server/client setup where clients are given network addresses and other configuration parameters to dynamically configured hosts.

DHCP supports three mechanisms for IP address allocation:

  • Static/Automatic allocation - Server leases a permanent IP address to a DHCP client.
  • Dynamic allocation- Server leases an IP address to a client for a limited period of time or until the DHCP client gives up the IP address information
  • Reserved / Manual allocation-Here the network administrator manually reserves and assigns an IP address to a client and the Server conveys the assigned address to the DHCP client.

As a CCNA student you are expected to know how to configure all options

DHCP messages re formatted based on the Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) message. Using this format ensures support for the BOOTP relay agent functionality and interoperability between BOOTP clients and DHCP Servers.

We use relay agents to eliminate to setup a unique Server on each subnet/VLAN or physical network segment.

By default, Cisco routers running Cisco IOS software include DHCP server and relay agent software.

=============

DHCP Server Overview

Cisco have developed for their IOS a full Server implementation which will assigns and manages IP addresses from administratively specified address pools configured on your router to DHCP clients.

Even if the Cisco Router cannot assign IP addresses to a client it can be configured to forward the request to one or more DHCP Servers once again manually configured by the network administrator.

The four basic steps that occur when a client requests an IP address from a DHCP Server.

A. The client sends a DHCPDISCOVER broadcast message to locate a Server.

B. A DHCP Server offers configuration parameters (such as an IP address, a MAC address, a domain name, and a lease for the IP address) to the client in a DHCPOFFER unicast message.

C. A DHCP client might be offered IP host information from many DHCP Servers. The client could accept any of these offers, but the will normally accept the very first offer it receives.

Note: Any offer from the DHCP Server is not a guaranteed until the DHCP client has had a chance to formally request the address but the server will normally reserves the address until the client does request it

D. The DHCP client then returns a formal request for the offered IP address to the Server in a DHCPREQUEST broadcast message.

E. In return the Server will confirm that the IP address has been allocated to the client by returning a DHCPACK unicast message to the client. The reason that the request for the offered IP address (the DHCPREQUEST message) which is issued by the DHCP client is sent as a broadcast is so that every other DHCP Server which may have received the initial DHCPDISCOVER broadcast message from the client can now reclaim the IP addresses that they had offered to the DHCP client.

In the event that the configuration parameters which were initially offered by the server to the DHCP client in the DHCPOFFER unicast message are invalid; say a misconfiguration error exists, the DHCP client will returns a DHCPDECLINE broadcast message to the Server.

When the Server receives the DHCPDECLINE it will then issue to the DHCP client a DHCPNAK denial broadcast message, this means the originally offered configuration parameters will not be assigned. In the event that an error occurs during the negotiation of the IP configuration parameters or the DHCP client has taken too long in reply to the DHCPOFFER message the DHCP Server will assign the parameters to another DHCP client of the DHCP Server.

As a CCNA student you are expected to know understand all options

Why use a the DHCP server features on the Router?

  • Trackable cost savings

By deploying the DHCP client on the outside interface on each remote site router will reduce internet costs. Static IP addresses are more costly to purchase than to use dynamically acquired addresses

  • Less client configuration and centralised management

DHCP is very simple to setup on clients

Because the Server supports all of the DHCP client configurations for all sbnets several subnets, you only need to manage a single, central server when you need to make configuration parameter changes.

Before you start to configure configure the Cisco Server features on the router you will need to complete the following steps

  1. Determine which subnets and IP addresses that you will setup on the Server for it to assign along with which IP addresses that are to be excluded.
  2. Default routers
  3. Domain Name System (DNS) servers
  4. Decide on a DNS domain name.

As a CCNA student you are expected to know how to configure all options

Joe Spoto is a senior lecturer at Commsupport networks CCNA training in the United Kingdom. Joe teaches Cisco CCNA, CCNP, CCVP courses when he is not out on the road fixing and building networks, if you want to find out more about what we do at Commsupport please visit us at CCNA Course

Commsupport run free one day training sessions and free on-line webinars, CCNA training

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Spoto

Filed Under: CCNA

Cisco Changes up the CCNP Requirements (Again)

January 29, 2010 2 Comments
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ccnp requirementsWell its seems that, in their constant efforts to improve the certification path for candidate engineers, Cisco has once again changed up the requirements for CCNP and CCNP re-certification.

From the press release Cisco states:

Cisco has updated its Cisco CCNP® certification for network engineers through a comprehensive process involving customers and partners from around the globe. The revision focuses on the competencies that are needed to plan, implement, and troubleshoot routed and switched networks and is designed to be more predictive of job readiness.

The new certification process still involves a Routing and a Switching test.  However the new certification introduces a troubleshooting exam where candidates are given real world scenarios and must logically deduce the issues to prove a practical application of routing and switching.

This seems like a good move on Cisco's part as the bulk of the common CCNP duties do involve generic day to day troubleshooting of LAN/WAN systems.  More good news is that the current (read old) system involves taking 4 tests - Routing, Switching, Optimizing Routed Networks (QoS), and ISCW (which included a lot DSL and cable modem information most people simply memorized to get through the exam).  With the exam process this is reduce to only three test that are more applicable to being a CCNP.

Beta exams begin in February:

The new CCNP TSHOOT certification exam will first be available as a beta; candidates can register and take the beta (#643-832) from February 16 through March 26, 2010. To encourage beta testers, Cisco will provide the TSHOOT beta exam free of charge to the first 150 candidates who complete it. (Use the promo code TSBETA when registering.) After that, beta exams will be available a discounted price of $50 USD. Passing scores on beta exams count towards certification just like final release exams, however scores will not be available until April 30, 2010. The TSHOOT exam is a good choice for recertification because it validates the troubleshooting skills commonly used by professional evel network engineers on the job. Act quickly to obtain a free beta exam; CCNP is Cisco's second most popular certification worldwide. Beta exams are available at any Pearson VUE testing facility.

Looking over the Cisco training area of CCO,  anyone who wants to get their CCNP under the current testing plan has until July 31st 2010 before those exams are put to rest.

The new Routing Exam (642-902 ROUTE -  Implementing Cisco IP Routing) and the new Switching Exam (642-813 SWITCH - Implementing Cisco IP Switched Networks) will both be available March 10th, 2010.  The newest exam for the CCNP (642-832 TSHOOT - Troubleshooting and Maintaining Cisco IP Networks) will be available April 30th, 2010

Filed Under: CCNP

How to Build Your Cisco Router Lab

January 6, 2010 Leave a Comment
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routerAuthor: Cisco Kits

The Cisco router lab is one of the most difficult labs to build because it touches on so many different pieces of equipment. When you are building your Cisco CCNP lab, it is pretty easy as three Cisco routers and three Cisco switches will put you in a pretty good position at a pretty reasonable price. Definitely a lot less then the price of attending a Cisco CCNP training class and you get to keep the equipment to practice on for as long as you like. When building a larger Cisco router lab for things like the CCIE, you concentrate on one particular discipline such as Security, Voice, Storage or Routing and Switching so you only have to purchase Cisco equipment for that area of expertise.

Now with building your Cisco router lab, you should consider four different technologies within networking. The technologies are aligned to the CCNP curriculum.  Routing, which is basically advanced routing concepts extending everything you learned in your Cisco CCNA training to the next level. So will require several routers to complete most your lab.  Switching, which also extends on what you learned in your CCNA training from a Cisco Switching perspective adding in new concepts such as Layer 3 switching and QoS to a greater degree. This area really gets into the nitty gritty of Cisco Switching and thus requires some of the higher end, more expensive switches, such as a 3550 or 3750, that are capable of Layer 3 switching.

Additionally in a perfect scenario, you will need multiple of these Cisco switches to complete your labs and really get the full experience of the topics. Finally  we have  troubleshooting which covers how to expand your current enterprise network to remote sites and teleworkers with a focus on configuring VPN client access and securing the remote access methods. Many of these concepts can be accomplished on the Cisco routers you purchased for routing, but the possibility of adding in a VPN concentrator or PIX firewall is nice, but not an absolute requirement if you are on a tight budget.

Much of this is applied to voice packets which is time sensitive packets that require QoS attention. In this module you will also be reviewing basic wireless security setups. So much of the QoS items will be exercised on the Cisco routers you purchased for the BSCI track and the Cisco switches you already purchased for the BCMSN track. So now you see that to a large degree, you will be able to use the equipment in the first two modules to support the concepts in the last two modules. We try to strike a balance between the amount of equipment, price of the equipment and labs that can be performed as most people do not have the budget to go out and spend $30,000 to cover every single concept that is presented in the Cisco CCNP curriculum. So that is what makes it so difficult to build a Cisco CCNP lab at a reasonable price.

CCNP Lab Approach

Now that you have an idea of what you are looking to accomplish in your Cisco CCNP lab from an equipment perspective, let’s see how we might approach this. If you are not real strong on the features, pros and cons of the various routers, you may want to review our Cisco CCNA lab suggestions. Not only are there suggestions on building a Cisco CCNA lab, but we also cover many of the features and pros and cons of the various Cisco routers and Cisco switches.

Now if you are only just beginning your Cisco certification studies looking to obtain your CCNA, but are looking ahead to your CCNP, I applaud you! Network engineers must be able to sharpen their skill set of planning ahead of capacity. In this case, you are planning ahead for your Cisco certification career. So if you are at the Cisco CCNA level and are ready to purchase a CCNA lab but you want to make sure it scales well to your future Cisco CCNP studies, well then look at our Cisco Advanced CCNA/Starter CCNP kits. These were developed to give you the best experience possible from a Cisco CCNA perspective with the understanding that this kit will be used as a seed for you CCNP kit. All of the items in this kit will be able to be utilized in your Cisco CCNP lab so you will not be wasting any money.

As with most things in the world, the more you pay for the kit, the more features you will get to play with in your Cisco lab. These Advanced CCNA/Starter CCNP kits are great if you do not have all the money for a full blown CCNP kit now or if you are 100% sure you will want to continue on to the Cisco CCNP certification. But then again, who doesn’t want to progress in their career?

Common Cisco CCNP Lab Questions

12.4 IOS

12.4 IOS is a requirement for the routers. Says who? Why can’t I use 12.3? Well, I guess you can, but when it states on the CCNP exam page that you should be using 12.4, I tend to listen to Cisco since it is their test and they get to modify it at their discretion! So what does that mean to you? 2500 routers and the normal 2600 routers cannot support 12.4. So if you have the budget, jump right to the 3640 or 2600XM series routers for your CCNP lab. They are the two most economical routers that will support 12.4. The 3640 is a modular router that comes with no built-in Ethernet or serial ports, but has 4 network module slots you can put various Ethernet, Serial and Voice cards into. The 2600XM series has one open network module slot and two WIC slots. The nice thing about the 2600XM series is that it has a built-in 100mb Ethernet port!

What Can I Do With My Old 2500 or non-XM 2600 routers?

Even though Cisco states that the new CCNP exams are based on 12.4, that does not mean that you have to throw out all of your 2500 and/or non-XM 2600 routers and start from scratch. We can incorporate them into your new CCNP lab environment. However you must realize that you may not be able to see every feature work on each router since some of you routers may be running 12.3 and other 12.4. The old saying that you get what you pay for is applicable in this situation. The larger your budget is, the more features you will get. It is just like buying a car. The more money you have, the more bells and whistles you get.

Why Do Your Kits Mostly Have 3640s and 2600XM Routers?

We have included the 3640 routers are they are the most economical way to build out your 12.4 lab supporting IPv6 and SDM. To support IPv6 and SDM you must have 128/32 on each of these routers. Since these are the two waves of the future and they are on the tests, you should be able to perform labs incorporating each.

How Many Routers Do I Need?

Another great question! The more the better! Actually, we need to make it complex enough that we can see routes propagate, DHCP relay agents working, load balancing, route summarization, different OSPF stub types, Frame-Relay, IS-IS Intra-Area vs Inter-Area addressing, multi-casting, BGP groups and IPv6 on a dual-stack router. Wow, that was a mouthful! So more than two or three routers is a safe assumption to build your CCNP lab. We like to see about 8 routers in your lab. You can see the available CCNP labs we offer to review the specific Cisco models. Our Premium kit will match our lab courseware very well. The Standard and Economy kits will match closely and you will be able to comprehend most of the concepts by running the commands on the equipment you have even though it may not exactly match up to the labs you will be performing.

So if you can only afford one of those kits, don’t worry, you will still get tons of great experience from those kits! *Note, some people ask to be able to perform every concept that is covered in the book. That is not realistic for most customers who are self studying as this will cost well in excess of $20,000 per person.

How Many Switches Do I Need?

We think four switches is a pretty good number for your CCNP lab. That gives you the ability to configure various scenarios which require multiple switches such as trunking in multilayer switched networks, multi-casting, QoS, VTP concepts such as pruning, creating loops and suppressing them with STP, controlling root bridge elections, multiple spanning tree environments, UplinkFast and BackboneFast, EtherChannel and Layer 3 through 7 switching. Two Layer 3 switches plus 2950 switches seem to work pretty well which being cost conscientious.

What Is A Layer 3 Switch?

Wait until you get to BCMSN exam as this is a cool concept. This is a switch that can also do routing! So no need to bounce the traffic out of the switch, to a router only to have it sent right back to the same switch because the destination is on a different subnet. These switches will route that traffic within the switch and save precious bandwidth and time! We find that in a perfect world, you will have two of these switches, but you can get by with one. This way you can see how they communicate, trunk together and such.

Can You Give Me A General Idea Of The Lab Environment?

That will slightly change as per the kit you purchase. However in following the labs you will for the most part have a frame relay switch interconnecting four different areas in which summarizations can happen.

What Is A Terminal Server Router And Why Do I Want One?

A very nice to have is a 2509 or 2511 access/terminal server router. This way you do not have to keep moving the console cable from router to router as you are configuring them. You can access all your routers and switches via the terminal server and connected octal cable. This is not going to function in your lab, but it is nice to have to make your lab much easier to use.

If you already have your Cisco CCNA certification, the above should have made a lot of sense to you. Also congratulations on your CCNA! You should have a very good grasp on the different features of the various Cisco routers and Cisco switches. Now you will just need to know what Cisco routers and Cisco switches you need to purchase to build your Cisco CCNP lab.

CCNP Lab Kit Options

Well, we have four main Cisco CCNP labs available for you all at different price points. As mentioned before, the more you spend, the more bells and whistles you will be able to experience in your Cisco CCNP lab studies. We tend to prefer the Cisco Press books to accompany our Cisco CCNP labs. Who better to get this information from than straight from Cisco? The Cisco Press books come with full blown labs for the BSCI and BCMSN modules. We follow pretty closely the lab topologies presented in the BSCI and BCMSN books. This is because you will then be able to follow the accompanying labs. Now you must understand that to follow their labs exactly, you would have to spend easily twice as much as we are charging for any of these kits.

So from our experience we have modified the kits with some less expensive Cisco routers and Cisco switches that will cover a majority of the concepts in the labs. Again, the more you pay for the kit, you will be able to experience more of the concepts. Also from our experience we determined a way to reduce the price of the kit was to remove some routers that were there primarily just to make the lab environment more complex by adding extra routers which thus introduced additional routes. Well when we are trying to keep things on a tight budget, we don’t see the need to have three extra routers, all the Cisco modules and cables just so we can see a few extra routes in our tables.

It would be one thing if these routers were $50 each, but when you take into consideration the router, the module, the cables and such you can easily be adding $1,000 or more to the price of your kit. When in essence much of that information is going to wind up in a route summarization anyway! So again, we have to look for the most bang for the buck in building these kits. As mentioned before, the Cisco CCNP lab is probably the most difficult to build because of all the different technologies it touches.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! You will be able to use all these pieces of equipment in your Cisco CCIE lab so they will not go to waste! Especially with the CiscoKits Trade-Up program which enables you to upgrade your Cisco routers and Cisco switches you purchased from CiscoKits. Please see the Trade-Up Program for details. But since you have most of the CCIE equipment already, you are well on your way to acing your Cisco CCNP exam and then conquering your Cisco CCIE certification.

About the Author:

Cisco Kits is a leading provider of http://www.ciscokits.com - CCNA, CCIE and CCNP Cisco training courses and equipment. For more information on certification and education, visit then online today.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Build Your Cisco Ccnp Lab

Filed Under: Certification
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