Help with Switches

I applied for a job recently that I expect to get and the majority of the work will be on switches. Nothing on the routers in the first year probably. I got my CCNA in 2006 and from what I remember studying for it there wasn't a very heavy focus on switches. Most of it seemed to be on routers and the protocols and subnetting and so forth. Yeah, I know, it all ties together, and theoretically if you know routers which are more complex then you can do switches. But I'm thinking more of the specific commands and things that are specific to switches.

So, I'm looking for a good source of material that I can go over to get me ahead of the game as much as possible. I have a boson simulator so I can do some basic configuration stuff. One area that will be important is port security and VLANS. Not so much setting up VLANS because they're already in place, but having a good understanding of them.

I'm not sure what switches they're using, but my guess would be basic 3000 or 4000 series. I'm sure buying some switches would be the ideal situation, but won't be doing that right now.

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Comments

billscott92787

It really depends on what they will have in place. I mean there is a lot of material on switches now, you have STP, PVST, PVST+, RSTP, VLANs, you have load balancing that could be used to balance certain VLANs over certain trunk links. VTP, you have Etherchannel. I would dig into some more information on the position so you don't get caught with your pants down. VLAN wise I would get yourself the ICND1 and ICND2 Cisco Press books they do a good job on explaining VLANs, lab them out, make sure you understand everything. Most of the stuff you could do in dynamips or packet tracer, or even GNS3.

sleemie

Well, it's been described to me as a "grunt" position, so it's starting out pretty much on the bottom rung of a networking type position, so I don't think they're expecting more than basic configuration and setting port security and that type of thing. I do know it will be big on port security and assigning ports to certain VLANS. I want to know as much as I can going in to make a good impression so I can advance more quickly in to higher level stuff. I guess right now I'd like to get a good grasp of the basic and intermediate commands. I know some of it from my CCNA, such as setting IPs on interfaces and naming the switch and some of that basic stuff.

billscott92787

I would definitely recommend grabbing the ICND1 and ICND2 books or even the train signal CCNA videos or CBT Nuggets. They would probably give you exactly what you are looking for. Wow the 2006 CCNA didn't have VLANs and that kind of stuff? That is pretty intersting... Won't you be having to re-new your CCNA soon?

sleemie

The 2006 had VLANS. I just need to brush up on it and was looking for some materials that were more focused on primarily just the switch stuff at this point.

billscott92787

I'd check out train signal or CBT nuggets then. Then that way you can pick and choose the videos that you want to brush up on. They deal with switches and labs and the configurations and everything. I used them when preparing for my CCNA. Both are decent.

miller811

sleemie wrote: »

The 2006 had VLANS. I just need to brush up on it and was looking for some materials that were more focused on primarily just the switch stuff at this point.

Pick up any on the CCNP level BCMSN books, so instead of a refresher, you can get up to speed.