Debug commands are useful to observe the switch responses in real time.
To disable a debug command use “no debug” command. Using “no debug
all” or “undebug all” command can disable all currently running debug
commands.
During password recovery, the config register and NVRAM are modified.
ROM holds the bootstrap code to start up the router and Flash contains the
IO image.
During the process of Spanning-Tree Algorithm execution, redundant ports
need to be blocked. This is required to avoid bridging loops. To choose
which port to use for forwarding frames, and which port to block, the
following three components are used by the Spanning-Tree Protocol:
- Path
Cost: The port with lowest path cost is placed in the forwarding mode.
Other ports are placed in blocking mode.
- Bridge ID: If the path costs
are equal, then the bridge ID is used to determine which port should
forward. The port with the lowest Bridge ID is elected to forward, and all
other ports are blocked.
- Port ID: If the path cost and bridge ID are
equal, the Port ID is used to elect the forwarding port. The lowest port ID
is chosen to forward. This type of situation may arise when there are
parallel links, used for redundancy.
During the process of Spanning-Tree Protocol execution, Root switch
(say, switch A) is elected first. Next, the switch closest to the root
switch is selected. This switch is known as Designated switch or Parent
switch (say switch B). The frames are forwarded to the root switch(A)
through the designated switch(B). Now the lowest cost port on a switch (say
switch C) is selected. This is known as the Root port. A Root Port is the
port on a switch that has the lowest cost path to the Root Bridge. All
Non-Root Switches will have one Root Port. Here, switch B is the designated
switch for switch C and switch A is known as the root switch for switch C.
Note that switch C is connected to the root switch (A) through its
designated switch (B).
Each Telnet port is known as a virtual terminal. Usually, Cisco routers
support up to five virtual terminal (VTY) ports, allowing five concurrent
Telnet sessions. Please note that the communication server provides more
VTY ports. The virtual terminal ports are numbered from 0 through 4. The
console and auxiliary ports on Cisco IOS routers and switches are
asynchronous serial ports and use asynchronous protocols such as PPP, SLIP,
and ARA.
EIGRP, by default, uses bandwidth and delay as metrics fro taking
routing decisions.
EIGRP uses auto summarization of routes at major network boundaries.
Enable dynamic NAT on an interface include the following:
- Defining a
standard IP access-list using the command: access-list
<access-list-number> {permit | deny} <local-ip-address>
- Defining an IP NAT pool for the inside network using the command: ip nat
pool <pool-name> <start-ip> <end-ip> {netmask
<net-mask> | prefix-length <prefix-length>} [type-rotary] Note
that type-rotary is optional command. It indicates that the IP address
range in the address pool identifies hosts among which TCP load is
distributed.
- Mapping the access-list to the IP NAT pool by using the
command: ip nat inside source list <access-list-number> pool
<pool-name>
- Enabling NAT on at least one inside and one outside
interface using the command: ip nat {inside | outside}
Frame Relay offers NBMA (Non Broadcast Multi Access) connectivity to
various destinations. There might be several PVCs residing on one serial
interface. A result of this would be, no broadcasts are forwarded among
these PVCs due to implementation of split horizon rule Split horizon rule
prevents a route from being advertised onto the same interface (through
which the router was learned). One way to allow broadcasts to propagate
among these PVCs is to disable split horizon. But, this may again result in
routing loops. The recommended solution to this problem is sub-interfaces.
A sub-interfaces are logical subdivisions of a physical interface. Routing
updates received on one sub interface can be sent to another sub interface.
This enables the FR network administrator to implement the split horizon,
and at the same time use multiple PVCs on one physical interface.
Frame Relay supports two type of virtual circuits (VCs):
- Permanent
Virtual Circuits (PVCs) _ these are permanently established connection that
are used for frequent and consistent data transfers between DTEs across a
Frame Relay cloud.
- Switched Virtual Circuits (SVCs) _ these are
temporary connections used in situations requiring only occassional data
transfers between DTEs across Frame Relay cloud. The terms "Call
Setup", "Data Transfer", "Idle", and "Call
Termination" are associated with SVCs. Frame Relay SVCs are not widely
supported by manufacturers.
Frame-Relay supports point-point and multipoint connection types. In
point-to-point connection type, a single sub interface establishes a PVC
connection to another physical interface or sub-interface. In multipoint
connection type, a single sub-interface is used to establish multiple PVC
connections to several physical interfaces or sub-interfaces. In multipoint
Frame-Relay network, split horizon rule is applicable to broadcast traffic.
Another important thing to note when configuring Frame-Relay using
sub-interfaces: The physical interface on which sub-interfaces are
configured would not be assigned any IP address. Even if one is assigned,
it should be removed prior to configuring Frame-Relay. Note that if an IP
address is assigned to a physical interface, the sub-interfaces defined
within the physical interface will not receive any frames.
Given below are salient features of Frame Relay DLCIs:
- DLCIs (Data
Link Connection Identifier) have only local significance It means, the end
devices over FR network can have different DLCI numbers.
- DLCI number is
provided by the FR service provider. DLCI number is mapped to Layer 3
protocol address using 'frame-relay map' statement.
- DLCI numbers must be
unique on a router.
Given below are some important features of classful and classless
routing protocols: Classfull routing protocols: RIP v1, IGRP are examples
of classful routing protocols. It is important to know that classful
routing protocols do not exchange subnet information during routing
information exchanges. The summarization is always done automatically at
major network boundaries. Classless routing protocols: RIP v2, EIGRP, OSPF,
BGP v4, and IS-IS are examples of classless routing protocols. In classless
routing protocols, subnet information is exchanged during routing updates.
This results in more efficient utilization of IP addresses. The
summarization in classless networks is manually controlled.
Holddown timers prevent regular update messages from reinstating a route
that has gone bad. Here, if a route fails, the router waits a certain
amount of time before accepting any other routing information about that
route. Holddowns tell routers to hold any changes that might affect routes
for some period of time. The holddown period is usually calculated to be
just greater than the period of time necessary to update the entire network
with a routing change.
In Frame Relay NBMA networks, if no sub-interfaces are defined, then the
routers will not be able to communicate routing information due to split
horizon rule. Split horizon is a method of preventing a routing loop in a
network. The basic principle is simple: Information about the routing for a
particular packet is never sent back in the direction from which it was
received. To overcome the split horizon, sub-interfaces can be configured
on NBMA networks. A sub interface is a logical way of defining an
interface. The same physical interface can be split into multiple logical
interfaces, with each sub interface being defined as point-to-point.
Internally, STP assigns to each bridge (or switch) port a specific role.
The port role defines the behavior of the port from the STP point of view.
Based on the port role, the port either sends or receives STP BPDUs and
forwards or blocks the data traffic. The different port roles are given
below:
- Designated: One designated port is elected per link (segment).
The designated port is the port closest to the root bridge. This port sends
BPDUs on the link (segment) and forwards traffic towards the root bridge.
In an STP converged network, each designated port is in the STP forwarding
state. The switch with the lowest cost to reach the root, among all
switches connected to a segment, becomes a DP (Designated Port) on that
switch. If the cost is tied (that is two or more switches have the same
cost), the switch with the lowest bridge ID will have the DP (the switch on
which DP is elected is called Designated Switch or Designated Bridge).
Bridge ID: Priority + MAC address
- Root: A bridge can have only one root
port. The root port is the port that leads to the root bridge. In an STP
converged network, the root port is in the STP forwarding state. All
bridges except the root bridge will have a root port.
- Alternate:
Alternate ports lead to the root bridge, but are not root ports. The
alternate ports maintain the STP blocking state. 4. Backup: This is a
special case when two or more ports of the same bridge (switch) are
connected together, directly or through shared media. In this case, one
port is designated, and the remaining ports block. The role for this port
is backup.
Inter-Switch Link (ISL) is one of the VLAN trunking protocols used for
switched VLAN networks. It uses frame tagging to identify the VLAN. ISL
encapsulates the original Ethernet frame, and a VLAN-ID is inserted into
the ISL header
Inter-Switch Link and 802.1Q are two VLAN Trunking Protocols used with
Fast Ethernet that Cisco supports. LANE is associated with ATM and 802.10
is associated with FDDI. Also, it is important to note that ISL, 802.1Q,
and 802.10 use Frame Tagging to identify the VLANs.
IP access lists are a sequential list of permit and deny conditions that
apply to IP addresses or upper-layer protocols. Access Control Lists are
used in routers to identify and control traffic. There are two types of IP
access lists:
A. Standard IP Access Lists: These have the format, access-list [number]
[permit or deny] [source_address]
Keep in mind that:
- Place standard access lists as near the
destination as possible and extended access lists as close to the source as
possible.
- Access lists have an implicit deny at the end of them
automatically. Because of this, an access list should have at least one
permit statement in it; otherwise the access list will block all remaining
traffic. 3. Access lists applied to interfaces default to outbound if no
direction is specified.
B. Extended IP Access Lists: IP Extended Access lists have the format,
access-list {number} {permit or deny} {protocol} {source} {destination}
{port} With extended IP access lists, we can act on any of the following:
-Source address - Destination address - IP protocol (TCP, ICMP, UDP, etc.)
-Port information (WWW, DNS, FTP, etc.)
The permitted numbers for some important access-lists are: 1-99 : IP
standard access list 100-199 :IP extended access list 800-899 : IPX
standard access list 900-999 : IPX extended access list 1000-1099 : IPX SAP
access list 1100-1199 : Extended 48-bit MAC address access list
Ip address: 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.240 Subnet ID: 191.168.1.0 Available
Host IDs: 191.168.1.1 - 191.168.1.14 Broadcast address: 191.168.1.15
Ip address: 192.168.1.17 255.255.255.248 Subnet ID: 191.168.1.16
Available Host Ids: 191.168.1.17 - 191.168.1.22
IP address: 192.168.1.36 255.255.255.224 Subnet ID: 191.168.1.32
Available Host Ids: 191.168.1.33 - 191.168.1.62
IP helper addresses forward a client broadcast address (such as a DHCP
or BOOTP requests) to a unicast or directed broadcast address.
Helper-address is required due to the fact that routers do not forward
broadcasts. By defining a helper-address, a router will be able to forward
a broadcast from a client to the desired server or network. There can be
more than one helper-address on a network. The helper-address must to be
defined on the interface that receives the original client broadcast. Note
that “ip unnumbered” command is used to enable IP processing on a
serial interface without assigning a specific IP address to the interface.
ISL, 802.1Q are the VLAN trunking protocols associated with Fast
Ethernet. The VLAN trunking protocol defined by 802.10 is associated with
FDDI. LANE (LAN Emulation) is associated with ATM.
NAT (Network Address Translation) can be broadly classified as below:
- Static NAT: Static NAT maps an unregistered IP address to registered IP
(globally unique) addresses on one-to-one basis. The command used for this
purpose is: ip nat inside source static <local-ip> <global-ip>,
where, <local-ip> is the local IP address assigned to a host on the
inside network. <global-ip> is the globally unique IP address of an
inside host as it appears to the outside world.
- Dynamic NAT: Maps an
unregistered IP address to a registered (globally unique) IP address from a
group of registered (globally unique) IP addresses.
- Overloading - A
special case of dynamic NAT that maps multiple unregistered IP addresses to
a single registered (globally unique) IP address by using different port
numbers. Dynamic NAT with overloading is also known also as PAT (Port
Address Translation).
- Overlapping - This occurs when your internal IP
addresses belong to global IP address range that belong to another network.
In such case, the internal IP addresses need to be hidden from the outside
network to prevent duplication. NAT overlapping allows the use of internal
global addresses by mapping them to globally unique IP addresses using
static or dynamic NAT.