The Long Road to Cisco
So while I am working diligently at getting back into the Cisco swing of things with my study notes and Cisco Press books and making posts on a regular basis (this is happening just slowly OSPF is beating me up left, right and centre). This all after some added work commitments and other stuff has been sorted out.
This came in a Cisco email today and I really enjoyed it. Good for a laugh or two. These cubicle jockeys are somewhat athletic compared to the ones I know.
Something on the vine I found that was interesting. I really think this kind of thing should be done more often and with more fanfare by Associations and Large Companies with access to Statistics where abuse of a “public” system is prevalent.
The SPAM hall of shame from Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) lists the Top 5 SPAM generators in South Africa. These boys and girls are probably mild compared to their international counterparts but still in a local view attempting to manage SPAM this may help some.
I’m bogged down at the moment with HP Partnership Management work and haven’t been making posts on Network Ninja (never mind touch CCNP books or get organized with putting my LAB together) so don’t feel left out if you feel I have been neglecting updating, I feel like I am running backwards fast on getting my CCNP done.
I haven’t had time for anything else either like seeing clients, making sales, doing installations or even going into the office 
(I’m not really complaining all that much about the last one). I’ve moved my “office” to my house and for the time being haven’t seen any other room but my Study and Bedroom. Teleworking is really the bomb, rolling out of bed and getting straight to work suits me just fine (for a while) I kind of like separating my home and work life when it gets down to it.
I did however break my self inflicted work isolation to attend the brief for the new collaboration portfolio hosted by Christopher Thompson, Senior Director for Solutions Marketing at Cisco via Telepresence (ooooh!! very nice kit this). This was the first time I was actually in the room attending a meeting using the Cisco Telepresence (above) solution, while Chris was in Europe we were in South Africa and let me tell you, when I grow up one day I am getting one of these! My web cam just doesn’t cut it any more. A little off-topic, I did a post on Telepresence a while ago and I did say that everyone should organize a Demo for themselves (Call Cisco and ask) because let me tell you impressive does not cover this solution, its really amazing!
After the meeting ended we chatted with Chris for a while and he mentioned that by Friday (that is Friday 26th not next Friday) he will have done 300 presentations to Press and other parties all over the world on the Collaboration Portfolio. Imagine the cost savings Cisco realised in one week by doing these Telepresence meetings versus sending multiple people like Chris (Senior Director mind you) all over the world to do these briefings for the pre-launch? AND This is just one event and they do this all the time!
I am going to say again to any Corporate or Mid-sized company that is interested in Telepresence to cut down travel costs for meetings where they have multiple locations either nationally or internationally. Organise a demo by calling Cisco or a local Partner you won’t look back. Back to the topic.
Collaboration
The concept of Collaboration in the workplace (Also during Degree Training at Universities) has been a hot-topic for a while and many vendors (IT or not) have positioned product, services and bundled solutions at this space because of its “importance” in $$$ terms. Whether these products are new and engineered to meet this need or old re-boxed marketing/advertising spins is another topic for another day.
The importance of Collaboration cannot be discounted however as maximizing the ease, effectiveness and efficiency of communication, sharing, meetings and abilities inter- and intra-company drives higher return on investment per project as more can be done, more effectively, in less time, with more ease, without the need of any re-work and no-work because of crossed-wires and misunderstanding.
Collaboration with Cisco
The Cisco Collaboration Portfolio is designed and engineered to work with you like you work. That’s whether you are 20 or 50 the CEO or the Grad Student doing the coffee run. Cisco realises that people, companies, and age groups are different and they have modeled an open solution portfolio set to suit the way in which individual companies work and the individuals in the company like to work.
The solution will work even in mixed deployment environments where Microsoft, Linux, OSX and others play as it was made to be operating system independant. There is deeper linking with vendors like IBM and Microsoft (if that matters). The portfolio scales from small to super-size by being either hosted on demand (SaaS) or mixed hosted and on-premises or totally on-premises. The portfolio will help accelerate business processes, increase productivity and speed innovation by bringing people together and helping them work more efficiently and effectively together.
The Portfolio consists of Unified Communications, Video (Telepresence) and new Web 2.0 applications platforms all of which leverage the network as a platform to enable people to connect, communicate and collaborate from ANY WORKSPACE (Microsoft, Apple, Linux and even Smartphones) without degradation of service of a change of experience.
The Portfolio works the way you do and is designed to integrate with business applications, existing IT infrastructure and other web services (If it has an API it can integrate examples Goolge, Flickr, Salesforce), allowing developers and partners to develop and create customized applications and network based services.
The Portfolio includes some of the following key products and solutions:
Cisco Unified Communications Release 7.0
Cisco Unified Communications System Release 7.0 enables collaboration so that organisations can quickly adapt to market changes and improve competitive advantage through speed and innovation. Accelerating the deployment of unified communications requires the ability to leverage existing infrastructure and applications.
It offers enhancements to its applications development environment and provides deeper integration with desktop products from IBM and Microsoft. Mobility enhancements extend productivity features across every workspace.
Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator now supports devices running on Windows Mobile as well as Symbian and Blackberry with support for Apple iPhone coming soon. Cisco UC Release 7.0 continues to drive down system and management costs by increasing Cisco Unified Presence scalability to 30,000 users and Cisco Unity to 15,000 users on a single server and by optimizing network management through an easy-to-use appliance deployment environment.
Cisco TelePresence Expert on Demand
Cisco TelePresence Expert on Demand integrates Cisco Unified Communications and Cisco Unified Contact Center with the immersive “in person” experience of Telepresence to transform the way organisations deliver high-touch customer and point of sale services.
It enables customers to connect with subject-matter experts for tailored, in-person service at the touch of a button. This gives users the ability to summon expert assistance directly in a Cisco TelePresence meeting or use a dedicated customer-facing Cisco TelePresence endpoint and get face-to-face assistance.
An organisation can choose to configure Cisco TelePresence Expert on Demand with a direct assistance number, a hunt group, or its Cisco Unified Contact Centre deployment. In the latter case, a user will be connected to an appropriate agent via skills-based routing.
Cisco WebEx Connect
Cisco WebEx Connect is a cloud-based application platform for collaborative business mashups. It includes a number of standard applications including enterprise instant messaging, team spaces, document management, calendaring and wikis, which can be combined with third party widgets built using open APIs, enabling companies to work from a single workspace. Extensive administrative controls support enterprise policy, security and compliance requirements to enable highly secure inter-company collaboration.
WebEx Connect works with Cisco Unified Communication system to deliver seamless communication capabilities within the context of a collaborative mash-up.
More Information:
Cisco Unified Communications 7.0
Thanks
Thanks goes out to JP and Jonathan for the Invite to the Brief.
So yesterday it became official that Cisco Systems, Inc. is going to be investing ZAR 215,000,000 in South Africa (USD 27,000,000) love the naughts makes it looks like REAL money. The investment will go to the Cisco Innovation Hub Technology Centre (CIHTC) that will be become the home of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiatives including an InnovationLab, a global Talent Acquisition Programme, the Cisco Netversity, an Entrepreneur Institute and a Software Development Programme.
This investment is expected to collectively drive a R1bn gross domestic product (GDP) effect over an initial five year period. The 3000 square metre CIHT Centre will be based at the Innovation Hub (accross the CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa.
The CIHTC complex will be an advanced tech incubation centre aimed at fostering and developing local skills, intellectual property, entrepreneurship and solution development capabilities in the ICT sector. The implications of this is 200 direct and 800 indirect employment opportunities and development of intellectual property, the training and certification of design and network engineers, local software development, state of the art network communication laboratories (maybe even CCIE and practice labs, hold thumbs!!!!), access to business guidance and a showcase for venture capital providers looking to fund solutions or businesses that result from Centre Operations.
In the words of Steve Midgley, Managing Director of Cisco South Africa “South Africa is on the brink of entering a broadband boom,” which in turn will “change the way people live and work – giving the public sector and business the opportunity to gain significant efficiencies, to drive productivity enhancements, to achieve cost reductions and to gain access to new market segments within their existing business models. It will also create an enabling platform from which new business models can be created. Cisco is investing in this initiative now to ensure that when the broadband revolution really kicks off, South Africa has enough of the right kind of skills, solutions creation capabilities and intellectual property to leverage the many benefits broadband will bring to the country.”
About a two weeks ago David Bombal from Configure Terminal contacted me about doing a write up for CCIE Command Memorizer. As a current CCNP student there is obviously some of the CCIE content that still goes over my head but most of the stuff I am fairly okay with. David didn’t seem to mind that I wasn’t a CCIE as yet and I sure didn’t mind giving CCIE Command Memorizer a spin so below are my thoughts and feelings.
During my initial research on the CCIE Command Memorizer I found that CCIE Command Memorizer was geared towards the CCIE Routing and Switching (R&S) Lab. When I received the application Monday two weeks ago my initial impression was that it covers without many frills and spills in an effective and efficient manner the commands in a Do-It-Yourself fill in the blanks task to objective orientated format. There is no round-about, search for things “what now” moments; everything is straight and to the point. Another bonus is that the download isn’t enormous either.
The CCIE Command Memorizer application itself is written in an e-book format, which works for the content and in that format. If like myself you like using the keyboard when you get going on command line (IOW dislike moving between the mouse+keyboard) some of the shortcuts might feel “off” and take a bit to get use to. Take heart that once you get going it all starts flowing like second nature.
My feelings on how the CCIE Command Memorizer would fit into my studies it that as a study tool / study aid as it helps you practice commands anywhere at any time as long as you have your notebook handy (face it as a CCNP I realize I am a Geeks and my notebook goes on holiday with me so this pretty much means anywhere). My current situation with a LAB is that I am busy getting racks, cabling, and other kit together to put a LAB up, the actual LAB is non-existent. In my situation the CCIE Command Memorizer is my stop-gap for actual “command” time practice as I don’t really have kit and at times no block time to zero in on a specific Technology Area and do some quick revision work with a specific focus only on that technology. This is different from the LAB where you need to setup and configure peripheral services and technologies to get to the meat close to the bone, CCIE Command Memorizer lets you focus ONLY on those parts to give you practice on those parts.
In my opinion students that would find the CCIE Command Memorizer useful would be individuals who have problems with instant recall of information when under stress or duress (people with classic test condition issues that forget as they walk through the door when in normal day-to-day they are Uber networkers) and students who need to drill things to remember (repetition, repetition, repetition) information to get it to pass from short term into long term memory (this one would be me). Most other students may also find it handy to bridge the book theory and lab practical (where you just went through the theory to quickly go over the practical again to cement the knowledge just a bit more).
From my perspective as a CCNP student the CCIE Command Memorizer shares most (if not all) of the content material with the CCNP that I cared to check up on. In the two weeks I have been working through EIGRP and OSPF (notes to follow shortly) for the BSCI. Everything I covered in theory the CCIE Command Memorizer covered + some more.
To close off for those who want a one-size-fits-all study solution don’t mistake the CCIE Command Memorizer for something it wasn’t built to be. The CCIE Command Memorizer is a STUDY TOOL / STUDY AID and not a “Complete Blended Solution” or All-In-One (aio) Product like the guys from IP Expert offer. This will mean that you will probably either attend classes from a Cisco Learning Partner and/or do labs at home or through a Rack Rental Company and/or also have Cisco Press books that will ADD TO THE VALUE the CCIE Command Memorizer.
In summation I suggest taking a serious look at the CCIE Command Memorizer and how to integrate it into your study plans. Taking all things into consideration I would seriously recommend the CCIE Command Memorizer even to current CCNP level students. The value add is easy to find and it helps to have something that you can take along as you travel that does command line study effectively without the need to spend hours on “setting up other things” before you get to play with advanced topics.
Working from the my last couple of EIGRP consists I am going to try and crystallize some of the material found by working through questions found in Stewart, B,D., Gough, C (2008). CCNP BSCI Official Exam Certification Guide, Fourth Edition. Indianapolis: Cisco Press.
The 256 kbps access line to the hub has 56 kbps access lines to each of ten spoke sites. Each link has a Frame Relay Committed Information Rate (COR) of 56 kbps. The access line to each router reflects the CIR. The access line to the hub router, Router A, is 256 kbps, but the CIR of the hub is the same as its access line.
From a Frame relay perspective, a circuit is considered oversubscribed when the sub of the CIRs of the remote circuits is higher than the CIR of the hub location. With ten links, each with a CIR of 56 kbps, this circuit is oversubscribed (56 kbps * 10 = 560 kbps).
Resources:
Notes and Notices:
This is a part of my personal BSCI notes and research to assist myself in learning and understanding the concepts and theory for the BSCI exam. I learn by making notes reading and writing things down and wish to file them where I can’t lose them. These notes are not to be seen, judged or mistaken for replacements to Cisco recognized and authorized training which I personally support and attend and suggest you undertake if you are going for the BSCI Certification.
Working from the my last couple of EIGRP posts I am going to try and crystallize some of the material found by working through questions found in Stewart, B,D., Gough, C (2008). CCNP BSCI Official Exam Certification Guide, Fourth Edition. Indianapolis: Cisco Press. The Scenario works from the EIGRP Technology White Paper Sections on Cisco.com
The above network is experiencing timeouts and network crashes. In addition, EIGRP appears to be losing routes from its routing tables, which is adding to the problem.
Enter Router Mode to Define Routing Protocol
RouterA(config)#router eigrp 1
Define EIGRP Network for Routing Protocol
RouterA(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0
Disable Auto Summarization
RouterA(config-router)#no auto-summary
This is me being strange and clean exiting from the routing protocol sub-section
RouterA(config-router)#exit
Enter the Serial Interface where to start defining your Hub on the Hub-and-Spoke Network
RouterA(config)#interface serial 0/0
Define summary for this interface
RouterA(config-if)#ip summary-address eigrp 1 10.1.0.0 255.255.0.0
RouterA(config-if)#exitRouterA(config)#interface serial 0/0
RouterA(config-if)#frame-relay encapsulation
RouterA(config-if)#bandwidth 168
RouterA(config-if)#exitRouterA(config)#interface serial 0/0
RouterA(config-if)#frame-relay encapsulation
RouterA(config-if)#bandwidth 56
RouterA(config-if)#exitResources:
Notes and Notices:
This is a part of my personal BSCI notes and research to assist myself in learning and understanding the concepts and theory for the BSCI exam. I learn by making notes reading and writing things down and wish to file them where I can’t lose them. These notes are not to be seen, judged or mistaken for replacements to Cisco recognized and authorized training which I personally support and attend and suggest you undertake if you are going for the BSCI Certification.
Working from the my last couple of EIGRP posts I am going to try and crystallize some of the material found by working through questions found in Stewart, B,D., Gough, C (2008). CCNP BSCI Official Exam Certification Guide, Fourth Edition. Indianapolis: Cisco Press.
On what occasion should you consider configuring the bandwidth on subinterfaces?
In multipoint networks where one differing speeds allocated to the Virtual Circuits (VCs), it is easier to manage and maintain the configuration when each VC is logically treated as its own interface or point-to-point link.
In this case the bandwidth command can be configured on each subinterface which will allow different speed VCs while maintaining optimum use of each. The links that have the same configured Committed information rate (CIR) are represented as a single subinterface with a bandwidth that reflects the aggregate CIR of all the circuits.
Resources:
Notes and Notices:
This is a part of my personal BSCI notes and research to assist myself in learning and understanding the concepts and theory for the BSCI exam. I learn by making notes reading and writing things down and wish to file them where I can’t lose them. These notes are not to be seen, judged or mistaken for replacements to Cisco recognized and authorized training which I personally support and attend and suggest you undertake if you are going for the BSCI Certification.
Working from the my last couple of EIGRP posts I am going to try and crystallize some of the material found by working through questions found in Stewart, B,D., Gough, C (2008). CCNP BSCI Official Exam Certification Guide, Fourth Edition. Indianapolis: Cisco Press.
If a multipoint serial interface uses five Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs) with Committed Information Rates (CIRs) of 56-, 128-, 128-, 128-, and 256-kbps, how would the bandwidth command be implemented on the interface?
EIGRP will assume even distribution of bandwidth on a multipoint interface. The bandwidth command serves two purposes in this situation,
IOS uses it as part of the routing metric and determines how much traffic it can send over an interface
One method method is to take the slowest PVC and calculate aggregate bandwidth
A better solution would be to split the PVC into subinterfaces so that each subinterfaces can be treated on its own.
Resources:
Notes and Notices:
This is a part of my personal BSCI notes and research to assist myself in learning and understanding the concepts and theory for the BSCI exam. I learn by making notes reading and writing things down and wish to file them where I can’t lose them. These notes are not to be seen, judged or mistaken for replacements to Cisco recognized and authorized training which I personally support and attend and suggest you undertake if you are going for the BSCI Certification.
Working from the my last couple of EIGRP posts I am going to try and crystallize some of the material found by working through questions found in Stewart, B,D., Gough, C (2008). CCNP BSCI Official Exam Certification Guide, Fourth Edition. Indianapolis: Cisco Press.
Give two reasons why you might want to change the hello timer?
One might want to change the hello timer would be to decrease the period between hellos (thus increasing the amount of hellos sent). This uses more bandwidth marginally but increases stability and causes faster convergences. This is a useful practice in WANs like non-broadcast multiple-access (NBMA) technologies where EIGRP assumes low bandwidth and sets hello timers to 60 seconds.
Resources:
Notes and Notices:
This is a part of my personal BSCI notes and research to assist myself in learning and understanding the concepts and theory for the BSCI exam. I learn by making notes reading and writing things down and wish to file them where I can’t lose them. These notes are not to be seen, judged or mistaken for replacements to Cisco recognized and authorized training which I personally support and attend and suggest you undertake if you are going for the BSCI Certification.