Networking

Cisco to Target Exchange

Based on a few articles and blogs it looks like Cisco is going to start tredding into Microsoft’s territory a bit. Granted Microsoft Exchange is a well established product and it is unlikely that anyone is going to displace it easily but Cisco has a habit of taking over industries that it sees as available (i.e. VoIP).

As much as Cisco and Microsoft usually play in different sand boxes Cisco seems to think that Microsoft’s sand box needs to be a little bit smaller. It likely wont affect the market for a while but it should be interesting to watch this unfold.

Links
Information Week - Cisco Buys PostPath, Targets MS Exchange
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/08/cisco_buys_post.html

Gigaom - Why Cisco Bought Mail Startup PostPath for $215M
http://gigaom.com/2008/08/27/why-cisco-bought-mail-startup-postpath-for-215-million/

Cisco Packet Magazine

Cisco has it’s own magazine that it publishes where it explains up-coming features, what companies it purchased, how to perform common tasks and a whole bunch of other information. The magazine is really well put together and can be downloaded in PDF form for free here.

If you have any interest in Cisco equipment check it out.

Generic Cisco RAM

Cisco routers and switches are like any other piece of computing hardware. It needs slow long-term storage and fast short-term storage. In the case of a Cisco 2821 router this equates to compact flash storage for the long slow storage and regular RAM for the fast short-term storage.

Typically, people think if I am going to add RAM to a Cisco router then I will need Cisco brand RAM. While the logic is sound it misses a standard point. The RAM in a Cisco router is the same RAM they sell off of eBay or for HP, IBM or Dell computers. You don’t have to purchase the Cisco brand.

Recently, we priced out some RAM for a Cisco 2821 for a 1 GB strip of the generic stuff it was just over 100 dolllars. The Cisco RAM was about 3,000 dollars for basically the same thing.

The moral of the story, make sure you know what your buying.

Cisco Feature Comparison Tool

The need for more robust hardware is always a struggle. Cisco hardware is very exspensive so you always want to do more with it than you origianlly intended. What seems to always end up happening for me is that I load the IOS with just the features that I need and then later I need to a feature that isn’t in that version of the IOS. The question is always “Which version of the IOS does what I need it to do”?

Now there is a tool that will allow you to compare the features of the different flavours of Cisco IOS. The Cisco Feature Navigator FAQ found here allows you to compare and contrast different flavours of different of the same version of the IOS or different versions of the same flavour. It is a tool worth checking out.

CCNA Voice Certification

Cisco updates their exam tracks every few years and requires each certified person to re-certify every few years (typically 3). Recently they have introduced a new track for those wishing to pursue the VoIP side of things.

CCNA Voice Certification can be found here and outlines what you will need for this exam. The exam is a good addition to their already strong line of certifications and will increase their precense in the VoIP market.

Cisco Router Emulator

Cisco hardware and software is extremely complex. When it comes to routers their abilities are unmatched which is why a lot of people strive for the Cisco certifications of CCNA, CCNP and the highly coveted CCIE. But who can afford to purchase 5 to 10 thousand dollars for the hardware that you would need in order to practice for those exams?

Cisco router emulators will the need just perfectly. While Cisco emulators have been around for a long time their success has been somewhat limited but their stability. Recently I was re-acquanted with a very good and very stable emulator named Dynagen.

The tool highly customizable, runs on Linux and Windows, can emulate several hardware platforms and allows you to add/remove hardware as needed. Perfect for testing and training.

5 Sample BGP Configurations

Cisco’s documentation is some of the best for any IT product. With the fast pace that IT keeps for change and the complexity of the products that they make a hand has to be given to their technical writing department. To that end here is a link to five sample BGP configurations that anyone using BGP can find useful.

Load Sharing with BGP in Single and Multihomed Environments: Sample Configurations
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/technologies_configuration_example09186a00800945bf.shtml

10 Dynamic DNS Services

If you have an Internet Service Provider that isn’t providing you with a static IP address for some reason then it can be a really hassle to continually find out your IP address. There are a variety of reasons why you might want to connect to your home or work place such as:

- Retriving files that are at home while you are at work
- Running a home based web or FTP site
- Various webcam or IP based security devices

There are services that will track your IP address and give you a nice name to refer to the IP address with. There is usually a client that you will need to install on your computer or server that will report that IP address of your home or work to the DDNS provider. The client usually small and very light weight. With the exception of a few companies the “no-frills” version is usually free.

Dynamic DNS Providers:

- DynDNS - http://www.dyndns.org
- No-IP - http://www.no-ip.com
- HN - http://www.hn.org
- ZoneEdit - http://www.zoneedit.com
- ChangeIP - http://www.changeip.com
- Yi - http://www.yi.org
- DHS - http://www.dhs.org
- DtDNS - http://www.dtdns.com
- DyNS - http://www.dyns.cx
- DNS2GO - Trackback URL

Sample HP Procurve Configuration

So everyone probably knows how to setup a switch. You plug them in and away they go right. Wellll, that is mostly true. While they will work if you use them that way you won’t really get the value out of a higher-end switch if you do do that.

In this post I run through the basics of configuring an HP Procurve switch. While a lot of this information can be carried over to other platforms such as Cisco the commands will be different for most of the entries.

This is the name of the swtich. You are going to want to set this value even if it is a simple name since it will help immesenely when trying to figure out which switch it is exactly.
hostname “net-2610″

By default most HP switches have a low threshold for the number of VLAN’s that they can support. Entering in this command will allow you to break that maximum most of the time.
max-vlans 256

This one will let you set the timezone
time timezone -360

This one sets the daylight savings time information
time daylight-time-rule User-defined begin-date 3/11 end-date 11/4

If you want to be able to manage your switches from other subnets or if you want them to pick up their time from the Internet you will need the switch to have a gateway.
ip default-gateway 192.168.1.1

Set the IP of the time server
sntp server 192.168.1.10

Set the protocol for time synchronization
timesync sntp

Set the method of synchronization
sntp unicast

VLAN 1 is in the configuration by default so you don’t have to add this line
vlan 1

Default lines as well
name “DEFAULT_VLAN”
untagged 1-44,46-52

IP address of the VLAN. This IP is the one that you will be using when managing the switch remotely.
ip address 192.168.5.53 255.255.255.0

Default command that lets you exit this section
exit

This entry isn’t a default but I like to move the various devices off of VLAN 1 and into their VLAN if possible
vlan 10

Name the VLAN so you know why you created it.
name “Data”

Default command here
exit

If you are running a PoE switch I find that I usually need to run this command since a lot of devinces are running on a standard that is pre-standard for PoE.
power pre-std-detect

The next few lines turn on spanning-tree which you definitely want to use.
spanning-tree
spanning-tree legacy-path-cost
spanning-tree priority 2 force-version STP-compatible

These next two lines let you know that you will need a password for managing the device.
password manager
password operator

Links:
If you want more information on setting the time for an HP Procurve device check out my previous post here

How-to Set the Time on Your Servers and Routers

(Windows, Cisco and HP Procurve)

Time synchronization on your network gear is very important. Logs, IPSec tunnels and other services rely on the correct time to make sure that they are doing their jobs properly and securely. In order to synchronize the time your network gear (routers and switches) will need to be manageable and have IP addresses that can reach the time synchronization sources that you are going to set.

To Start: Picking the service
There are lots of time sources that you can use that are outside of your internal network. You will need at least one device that is synchronizing with the outside world at the least if not more. Below are the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) list of time sources but any will work.

Windows:
Since it is likely that almost everyone will have Windows boxes is logical to start here first.

Step 1: Open a command prompt by going to Start → Run → cmd → ok
Step 2: Enter in the following commands in order to set the time service.

net time /setsntp:(Server)
For example net time /setsntp:time-a.nist.gov
Step 3: Stop and start the time service in order for the changes to take effect by running these commands.

net stop w32time
net start w32time

Cisco:
While the commands and methods for time synchronization for both Cisco and HP are similar there are some definite differences. After logging into the router here are the commands that you can run.

Step 1: Get into configuration mode
Router# conf t

Step 2: Tell the device which server to synchronization the time to
Router# ntp server 192.168.1.15

Step 3: Set the timezone
Router# clock timezone PST -8

Step 4: Set daylight savings
Router(config)# clock summer-time CDT recurring

HP Procurve:
After logging into the HP switch with manager rights.

Step 1: Get into configuration mode and enter these commands.
Router# conf t

Step 2: Set the server
Router# sntp server time-a.nist.gov

Step 3: Set the protocol for time synchronization to sntp since the default is timep for HP devices.
Router# timesync sntp

Step 4: Set the type of sntp to unicast since the default for HP devices is multi-cast.
Router # sntp unicast

Step 5: Set the daylight savings time information
Router# time daylight-time-rule User-defined begin-date 3/11 end-date 11/4

Links:
NIST How-to for serveral OS’s: http://tf.nist.gov/service/its.htm
David Davis gives the details for the Cisco devices: http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6129454.html