Internetwork Expert Volume II: Lab 9

This lab is rated at a difficulty level 8 so that means it is harder than an average lab. After reading through the lab, I saw that BGP/EIGRP was pre-configured meaning more work looking through the configs/outputs to draw the topology diagrams. Also there were no initial errors to my relief and I was able to start the lab without worrying too much about the errors.

• Section 1 - Switching
  • Task 1.1 & Task 1.2 - Trunking: First couple of tasks were basic trunking tasks that everyone should be able to configure without much fuss.
  • Task 1.3 - Trunking: Task 1.3 says "all traffic sent over these trunk links should include a 32-bit tag". Well I started thinking what this could be, I was thinking ISL but that has a 24 byte tag. Well this is a 32 bit tag meaning 4 byte! aah wording got me. Also you have to tag the native vlan since that traffic doesnt get a tag by default.
  • Task 1.4: VLAN Assignments - I still have hard time configuring minimum number of vlans by looking at the topology. I find it easier when they ask you which vlans to configure. Well I came up with a way of doing this by drawing out the switches and writing down the vlans in the boxes. This will need some more practice so I am hoping for some more tasks like these in the future labs.
  • Task 1.5 - Spanning-Tree Filtering: Spanning-tree root guard can be used to prevent an issue of superior BPDU being received on a port. This will disable the port if it sees a BPDU on this port.
  • Task 1.6 - Spanning-Tree: I was stumped by this one because I didn't know how to alter the intervals in one line. Spanning-tree "diameter" option is your friend.
  • Task 1.7 - Etherchannel: This was an interesting task where I had to configure dot1Q tunnel to get an etherchannel setup between two non-directly connected switches.
• Section 2 - Frame-relay: Nothing stood out from this section other than the time for backup interface.
• Section 3 - IGP: OSPF tasks very straight forward since we were only dealing with one area. EIGRP was not tricky either other than the authentication tasks. I had to configure rip version so the router can send updates as version 1. Task 3.10 required that I change the AD of the routing protocols so it prefers certain routes over the others. Redistribution was not that difficult esp after watching IE's COD.
• Section 4 - BGP: Most of the BGP was already configured but I still had to troubleshoot a couple of neighbor sessions where I was not seeing routes. I also messed up initially and didn't advertise SW2's Loopback interface and that created a few problems. I was able to locate that quickly and got my peer sessions going.
• Section 5 - IP Multicast: Not a bad multicast section overall but I still need some multicast help. I think I can do most of the tasks related to multicast but every now and then I mess up and make a stupid mistake that really comes back and bites me.
• Section 6 - IPv6: This section was all about 6to4 tunnels and I was able to get most of the section going without much trouble. I did struggle initially to figure out what IPv6 address they wanted me to use but once I Was able to convert the decimal into hex, it was all good then.
• Section 7 - QoS: Had a nice traffic-shaping task where we were not allowed to use frame-relay traffic-shaping command. I had to work with MQC to get this going. Most of the other tasks were straight forward as long as you know which method of QoS to use.
• Section 8 - Security: Basic IP addressing filters using ACLs and then 2nd task required the use of a timebased ACL. Once again nothing that you would lose your sleep over.
• Section 9 - System Management: I got through this section in less than 15 minutes even though I had to look through the documentation. I hope the real lab is as straight forward. Tasks were related to core dump and ntp configuration.
• Section 10 - IP Services: I looked up this whole section on Documentation site and did not have any issues configuring it. I am liking the fact that I can look up few of these tasks on documentation cd without much trouble

Overall this lab was def worth  it. I think I learnt a few little commands and was pleased with the way I approached it. I did not finish this anywhere close to 8 hours but that is not my goal. I am trying to get good with all the core technologies along with looking up things on documentation cd. I think once I am done with all 20 labs I will start Volume 3 and that is where I expect to speed-up my core technologies.