Routing & Switching

Since Cisco announced an intention to unify software version across routing and switch platforms, we have already seen the first software release of Denali 16.1 on Cisco IOS XE switches. Subsequently, Cisco has also released the first common software version between router and switch with Denali 16.2.1. While you can upgrade a switch as you normally would, upgrading a router requires a closer attention. In this article, we will show you how to upgrade an ISR 4000 to Denali 16.2.1. We will be using ISR 4321 running IOS XE 3.6.

We have been asked by one of our members on how we configured our Windows 2008 server to serve as a NTP server. The followings are the steps we took in our lab. Please note that the server is Windows 2008 domain controller with an IP of 172.16.32.40. 

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) has been around for over a decade, and has been considered to be one of the most stable, scalable and feature-rich routing protocols. What used to once be a routing protocol that was primarily used to build the internet and in service provider realm, it has pervasively made its way into enterprise networks. Today, BGP is the main routing protocol used by many companies to interface with their ISP and MPLS provider. This usually requires network administrators to only have basic knowledge of BGP that is enough to get the connection up and running, and possibly for day-to-day troubleshooting.  However, if you wish to get the most out of the protocol in terms of routing control, security, or scalability especially if you plan for BGP internal implementation, it is inevitable to spend time and try to understand the protocol and be aware of what BGP has to offer. This article will guide you through BGP videos that are available on our website, either as free online steaming or video download, and provide overview of how to best utilize these video to maximize your learning experience.

Device redundancy is usually the key to increase your network uptime. However, the trade-off of having multiple, almost identical, devices in the network does not only add configuration and management burden to administrators, but also, in most cases, calls for a more complicated design. Cisco virtualization technologies such as stackable switches, Virtual Switching System (VSS), and Virtual Port-channel (vPC), although vCP does not really count since you still have two separate management points, have been created to solve this problem in the switching arena. Such technologies did not exist for routers until now with an introduction of NV Edge System in Cisco ASR 9000 series. 
In this article, we will go through steps to configure a NV Edge System specifically on Cisco ASR 9001. 

Cisco Catalyst 6500 has been around for almost a decade and has gone through two iterations of switch chassis; the original non-E, and the E Chassis. With growing demands for higher bandwidth in today’s network, the next generation of 6500 chassis, rebranded to 6807-XL, has been released by Cisco to support future linecards with increased throughput (> 80Gbps fabric). This article summarizes what you need to know about this product. 

When it comes to user access environment, Cisco has a compressive list of product portfolio for you to choose from including the well-known Catalyst 2K/3K/4K. That portfolio is about to expand with the introduction of Cisco Catalyst 6880-X. 6880-X is a highly scalable and manageable solution for user access offering up to 1008 (FCS) 10/100/1000 ports within a single management system when working with the Catalyst 6800ia remote linecard, while providing the same feature set as a regular 6500 that you might be longing for. This article summarizes what you need to know about this product.

If you are familiar with Nexus 2K in datacenter, let’s meet its counterpart for wiring closet. Cisco Catalyst 6800ia Instant Access has been introduced to fulfill the need of those that use 6500/6800 switches for user access, especially the 6500 knowing that all the its PoE linecards (61xx,63xx,65xx) have become End-of-Sale (EoS). Here is some critical information that will help you decide if 6800ia is right for your environment.

Virtual Switching System (VSS) is a method to combine two physical switches into one logical switch to achieve physical redundancy, Spanning-Tree blocking elimination, and increased bandwidth. VSS was first available in Cisco 6500 but it has recently been introduced to Cisco 4500 and 4500X. This article provides configuration that will allow you to easily enable VSS on these switches.

If you are looking for Cisco switch to operate in an extreme environment, one of your options might be Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3000 (IE-3000). I have recently had an opportunity to review this product and quickly realized its differences from regular Cisco Catalyst switches. Since this is a switch that not a lot of people may have come across, I am going to provide a quick summary to highlight important characteristic of the switch and clarify switch hardware configuration so you do not have to spend hours going through Cisco documentations. The same information can be found on the datasheet and hardware install guide of the switch.

Domain ID is one of the first parameter you come across when configuring Cisco Virtual Switching Systems (VSS). At first, it might appear that which value you choose is insignificant and you might even be able to use the same number among different VSS switch pairs. This is true as long as those VSS systems are not connected, whether directly or being Layer-2 adjacent, or the virtual MAC address is not implemented. Otherwise, you might find yourself having connectivity issue in your VSS implementation. In this article, we reveal the cause of the issue when connecting two VSS systems that have identical domain ID and offer various options to rectify. Here, we assume that you have basic knowledge of Cisco VSS.