December, 2008

VIDEO: Cisco Nexus 1000-V

I have blogged a few times in the past about the Cisco Nexus 1000-V. See:

• Is Cisco selling a new car? Or what is the Cisco Nexus 7000?
• How will the Cisco Nexus 1000V change your job role?
• Cisco taking greater investment in VMware - both with cash and Nexus

However, as the saying goes, these have been “all talk and no action”. Well, what I mean is that you didn’t get to “see it” in any of these posts and, if you are a visual person like me, it can be tough to imagine a new Cisco virtual switch from a bunch of words.

Now, you can see the Nexus 1000-V by watching this new Cisco video:

Cisco offers new Catalyst 2975 Stackable Switches

Cisco has announced that they are offering new Catalyst 2975 stackable switches. Cisco claims that these new switches can help to lower your TCO for Ethernet switches. These switches offer:

• Integrated security, including network admission control (NAC)
• Enhanced quality of service (QoS)
• Resiliency to deliver intelligent services for the network edge
• 48 10/100/1000 PoE ports and 4 Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) uplinks
• High-speed stacking for up to nine switches
• Unified stack management to simplify management of the network access layer
• Auto software image and configuration provisioning for plug-and-play hardware replacement
• Network control and bandwidth optimization using QoS shaping, granular rate limiting, traffic classification, sophisticated access control lists (ACLs), and multicast services
• NAC through a wide range of authentication methods and support for the Cisco Catalyst Integrated Security Framework
• Common Cisco IOS Software with support for Auto QoS and Smartports
• Easy network configuration and troubleshooting using Cisco Network Assistant software
• Software updates at no additional charge

For more information see: Cisco 2975 Stackable Switches.

Cellular Data to your Cisco Router - have you tried it?

A little while back I wrote an article entitled Cellular Data to your Cisco Router - have you tried it? In this article, I talked about how I used a Kyocera KR1 cellular data router with a Sprint 3G cellular data card. Toward the end, I have a large section on the Cisco WIC cards that are available if you want to use cellular 3G with your Cisco router.

Recently, Cisco has begun offering 880 series routers that have 3G capabilities built in. Checkout the options for 3G in your Cisco router at- Cisco 800 3G Integrated Services Routers.

10 dumb things you can do to your Cisco router and how to fix them

I was shocked! My latest Cisco networking article was VERY popular and I didn’t expect that it would be. So far, it has received over 37 votes and 14 comments. Who knows how many web page impressions it has gotten (well, I guess the webmaster and guy monitoring SEO could tell me but I don’t really care that much).

The title says it all- 10 dumb things you can do to your Cisco router and how to fix them

The 10 Cisco IOS Router file management commands you must know

This month I posted another great article over at TechRepublic entitled The 10 Cisco IOS Router file management commands you must know. In this article, I cover how to navigate the Cisco IOS when it comes to managing file systems. Really, it works a lot like the Windows command line. Learn how to view, rename, copy, delete files (and much more) in this latest article!

Exploring entry-level options for using VoIP

So what is the least expensive way to get your foot in the door with VoIP? What if you have a “shoestring budget”? I know, I have been there. Network Admins may not be crazy about moving all compan voice to VoIP and having to administer it. However, most Network Admins are interested in learning about VoIP. Learn how you can begin learning about VoIP at the lowest cost possible in my most recent TechRepublic article: Exploring entry-level options for using VoIP.

David’s Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Resource List

For those of you interested in the routing protocol of the Internet - Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP - I have written a number of articles on the topic. I recommend you checkout the following:

• Five things you should know about Cisco IOS BGP configuration
• How to use BGP to achieve Internet redundancy
• Build Your Skills: Use IP and BGP to troubleshoot Internet connectivity

All 3 of these articles I wrote for TechRepublic and they offer some great tips!

Also, for the official Cisco BGP documentation, please see: Configuring BGP in the Cisco IOS.

How to Enable Policy-Based Routing in the Cisco IOS

Policy based routing (or PBR) is a process that has the router put packets through a route map before routing them.  This may be a good way of sending packets to a particular path for protocol security routes, for instance, instead of using the default shortest path algorithm. 

To use PBR, just identify the route map that you want to use for policy-based routing and then create the route map on the interface. 

Here is the syntax to define the route map for Policy-based routing:
routera(config)# route-map map-tag [permit | deny] [sequence-number]

For more step-by-step how-to information on configuring and using PBR, see my full article: How to use the Cisco IOS Policy-Based Routing Features

Managing Cisco IOS IP Routing Authentication Keys

Key management is a way of controlling authentication keys used by routing protocols. You can think of these as “passwords” for your routers. Not all routing protocols can use key management. Only DRP Agent, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), and Routing Information Protocol (RIP) Version 2 use key chains.

You must configure a key chain with keys to enable authentication. Although you can identify multiple key chains, we recommend using one key chain per interface per routing protocol. Upon specifying the key chain command, you enter key-chain configuration mode. A key chain must have at least one key and can have up to 2,147,483,647 keys.

Before you manage authentication keys, authentication must be enabled. To manage authentication keys, define a key chain, identify the keys that belong to the key chain, and specify how long each key is valid.

Each key has its own key identifier (specified with the key key-chain configuration command), which is stored locally. The combination of the key identifier and the interface associated with the message uniquely identifies the authentication algorithm and Message Digest 5 (MD5) authentication key in use.

You can configure multiple keys with lifetimes. Only one authentication packet is sent, regardless of how many valid keys exist. The lifetimes allow for overlap during key changes but please note that the router must know the time.

To configure a key, use the global configuration key chain (name of chain) command then the key-string command inside key configuration mode.

For more information on managing Cisco IOS authentication keys, please see Cisco’s IOS IP Routing Command Reference for the key chain (and other key related) commands.

How to Configure Integrated IS-IS

Cisco Integrated IS-IS is part of a link-state Interior Gateway protocol and supports CLNP, IPv4, and IPv6.  To verify your platform support, please see my article covering the Cisco IOS Feature Navigator. An Intermediate-System-to-Intermediate System (IS) operates at Level 1 or Level 2 routing, or both.

Following is a sample configuration showing a router using IS-IS as the IP protocol.

routerB(config)# router isis
routerB(config-router)# net 49.0001.0000.0000.000a.00
routerB(config-router)# interface ethernet1/1
routerB(config-if)# ip address 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
routerB(config-if)# ip router isis
routerB(config-if)# interface serial 2/0
routerB(config-if)# ip router isis
routerB(config-if)# ip address 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0

Additionally, do the show ip route command to verify your configuration. Notice the “i” routes. These are your IS-IS Routes:

RouterB# show ip route
Codes: C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2
i - IS-IS, su - IS-IS summary, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2
ia - IS-IS inter area, * - candidate default, U - per-user static route
o - ODR, P - periodic downloaded static route
Gateway of last resort is not set
C 172.21.1.0 is directly connected, Serial5/0
172.22.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets
i L1 172.22.1.0 [115/20] via 172.21.1.2, Serial5/0
10.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets
i L1 10.1.1.0 [115/20] via 192.168.1.2, Serial2/0

For more information, please see the Cisco documentation on Cisco IOS IP Routing Protocols and Cisco’s Configuring IS-IS for IP on Cisco Routers.