The Journey Resumes

carterw65

I haven't updated in a while. I am still at it. I need more discipline though for sure. Wasting too much time. I am still in MPLS; it is the hardest section for me by far. I think I will have it finished today though.

I started using Evernote per suggestions on this forum. I like it and will use it now to keep track of things. Much better for me than writing it by hand.

BTW, this place has been a grave yard lately! LOL Does everyone still have a pulse?

broli720

I'll be following along. Definitely interested in your progress.

bermovick

I hear ya about the discipline thing -- I might go a week without opening the book just because I'm distracted by (SQUIRREL) things.

I'm also having to find some new way of studying - for the NA I didn't have to take any notes - it was enough for me to either remember, or remember "good enough". For CCNP, I really only had to take a few notes for Route - maybe a dozen pages in word total. For this beast I've gotten at least 50-60 pages in word (separated by chapter), but it's just too much "need to know this" information (as I mention in my thread so I won't repeat here in yours). I'll have to get this Evernote everyone talks about and see if it helps.

carterw65

So, I advanced into Vol II. Not sure I was completely ready for that, but it is what it is. Vol I is still at the ready for reference. I will do one lab over a weeks time for now. What do you consider labbing? I was only counting time doing actual configurations. Would you count creating diagrams and reading through the lab to see what needs to be done? I think this is part of the real lab so I am going to count it. Normal reading and watching VODs I won't count though.

carterw65

Only put about 2 hours of actual labbing yesterday. Most of the 5 hours I put in were reading and watching the VOD's

carterw65

Well into Lab 1 of volume II now. Finished up BGP and part of IPv6 last night. For me at least it is pretty tough, but I push through it and figure it out. BGP had routing loop that was not part of the plan. I spent quite some time figuring out "why" there was a routing loop and how to fix it properly. Watched parts of VODs too. Didn't get any reading done though, work smoked me yesterday so I was beat by the time I even started my labbing last night.

carterw65

Ugh, yesterday was not so good at work. I usually study during lunch, but had a lunch gathering with co-workers so no studying there. Got home late and my wife didn't have time to cook before she left for an activity with the church ladies, so we went and grabbed something to eat. As soon as I got home from eating, one of the church ladies had a flat tire with kids in the vehicle and her husband was away. So went to the rescue on that.
Needless to say, I was smoked by the time I could actually turn the equipment on. No studying last night. Went to bed.

On the bright side, I did get some studying in before I went to work. Only about an hour though.

carterw65

The Journey Resumes - again. I was going to go for CCNP again, but I decided against it. Instead I will just do CCIE studies and if I feel comfortable along the way, I will take the CCNP tests.

The last several weeks I have been putting my lab together again, it has been quite a process. I posted it on IEOC, but I will post it here as well. All this week I have been labbing every evening and have also read a little. I am at the end of INE's VTP section right now. I have made the commitment and have the time so here goes. Next post will be my lab set up which is working out really well.

I thought about starting a fresh thread, but decided to resurrect this one instead.

carterw65

Here is my post from INE about my lab:

I just built out my home lab and thought I would share what I did. It was a pain so I figured I would help out in case anyone wanted to do something similar to me.

Here it is:

HP Z800, 2xXeon X5650 processors, 96gb of ram, 1tb hhd, Quadro 600 1gb video card. This cost me $655 on Ebay.

I installed ESXi 5.5 on it and use both the desktop client and the web client. The web client is absolutely necessary for my situation. I found a guy on Ebay selling ligit 5.1 license keys and bought one. 5.5 upgraded seamlessly with no license issues.

I downloaded 5.5 vCenter .ova so I could have the web client and installed it as its own VM. I did have to use my corporate account to get the vCenter, but I am not using my work licensing. It actually is showing as an evaluation, but with an expiration date of "never", so I am just leaving it alone. I put a static IP on ESXi and connected it to my home router that is not connected to the internet. I left the username as root and set a password.

Here is why I needed web client - I have a subscription to VIRL and downloaded the IOSv and IOSvL2 files. I installed GNS3 VM on ESXi, downloaded GNS3 appliances for IOSv images, and installed it all into the GNS3 VM. If you are only using the desktop client, you cannot turn on the hardware vitualization feature GNS3 needs to run the IOSv images. You have to use the web client to do this. At least that is the only way I could get the full hardware vitualization settings applied without it. This is set under the CPU settings for the VM. If this is not turned on, GNS3 with give you and error of: Hardware Virtualization Support: False. Once it was all configured right, I found I don't need the web client anymore and just use the regular client to start up the GNS3 VM. You don't even need to start the vCenter VM.

I used GNS3 VM and GNS3 client version 1.5.2. You could probably use 1.5.4, but I was having that vitualization problem and I saw online where someone used 1.5.2 with success. Once I figured it all out, I just stuck with it rather than change it. At least for now anyway. The more you tinker with your lab, the less labbing gets done.

I set the GNS3 VM settings to use 12 vitual sockets and 1 core per socket. My CPUs are 6 core CPUs. I set the memory at 64gb also.

Ok, all that being said, with the GNS3 VM on the Z800 ESXi box, I downloaded the regular GNS3 program for the front end client of the GNS3 VM. I connected it to the GNS3 VM in Preferences-Server-GNS3 VM server tab. If you look at the console of the GNS3 VM, you will see the IP address. You will need this and port number 3080. At the bottom of the window you will see a place to put the IP and port number in this way: 10.10.10.10:3080. Use whatever IP the GNS3 VM is using in place of the 10.10.10.10. Check the "Use GNS3 VM" box. Also, on the Local server tab, make sure you uncheck the "Use local server" box.

Then I went to File-Import Appliance, and imported the IOSv and IOSvL2 appliances from GNS3 the GNS3 marketplace. When installing the appliances you will point them to the IOSv images which I had placed in the GNS3 images folder.
From there you build out your topology just like the old GNS3, but use the IOSv and IOSvL2 routers and switches. I have INE's toplogy of 10 routers and 4 switches built and it works superbly. I did have to add another IOSvL2 switch that all the routers connect to and then the switch connects to SW1, but that was just a preference for now.

I tried to add more ports on the devices, but it made them unusable until I changed it back. Also, the IOSv images are less resource intensive than the CSR1000V image. You could use CSR and the IOSvl2 I suppose though.

I also changed the settings in PuTTy using this: https://www.linux.com/blog/improving-putty-settings-windows. Make sure when you are done, you type "Default Settings" in the Saved Sessions box and click Save. Navigate to PuTTy in C\programs\GNS3. At least that is my path to it. I am also using Super PuTTy for tabs and set it up using: https://youtu.be/Ag2Xx_GqPGc

For the first time I have a complete lab that is virtual with virtual switches and the only physical hardware I am using is the Z800 for the server and my laptop for the client. This has turned out to be a really sweet lab! Post any questions if you have any. Time to get labbing!

tunerX

All you have to do is add the required settings to the vmx file. SSH into the host and go to the directory where the VM is stored and vi the file.

Another method would be to use the datastore browser download the VMX, add the changes, re upload it then add/remove the VM from inventory.

That would be to fake the processor. You might only have to enable VTxD and hardware virtualization in the BIOS of the Z800.

I actually bought a Z820 with 128GB of memory. I run 4x RAID 10 128SSD for the OS and 4x RAID 10 256SSD for VMs. Then I have some 2TB and 4TB for bulk storage.

I paid 1100 from ebay for the Z820, 128GB, and 2x E5-2690V1 processors.

carterw65

That's a good point about the vmx file. I really didn't think about doing that. I have changed it from 10 to 8 or so before, but didn't think to look at the virtualization settings.

I had an 820 at work and it gave me fits trying to set all this up. Plus I didn't really have the cash, so I went with the 800. I am really pleased with it other than I need to get another drive so I can use raid.

carterw65

I did find a known bug in IOSvL2 last night. IOSvL2 does not forward VTP messages when a switch is in transparent mode. It took me a while to figure this out, but once I was certain my config was correct, I started googling. I have the latest version of IOSvL2 unless they put one out in the last week.

tunerX

On ebay I bought 2x rackable systems with dual L5630 and 32GB of memory for 130 each. I then bought 4x E5649s for 100 bucks.

There were no hard drives but I bought 4 240GB SSD and run 2 in each one.

I ended up with 24 cores 960GB SSD and 64 GB of memory with 24 physical ethernet interfaces for a total price of 500 bucks.

carterw65

Nice buy

carterw65

Went through VTP Ver 3 and started into etherchannels last night. I need to play with the etherchannels tonight or tomorrow. Order of operations was kicking my behind for some reason. I am going to mess around with it and use the doc cd to check out how I am going to develop a process to configure it.

Watched INE vid on etherchannels as well. It was a good solid 3 hours of study.

carterw65

I am going to try GNS3 Vm on VMware Workstation on my laptop. The laptop has i7 and 16gb ram. I want to see if I can run the switches on it. I am usually not around my server on the weekends and I have horrible internet so reaching back to the server isn't an option right now. I just need something to use on weekends.

I have another server, but it doesn't support VT-x EPT (Dell 1950iii). I can run CSRs on it though, which I plan to do. I can have access to that one over the weekend.

tunerX

All in all, I will end up with 4x half depth servers running with 48 cores and 192GB of memory in a VIRL openstack configuration.

carterw65

tunerX wrote: »

All in all, I will end up with 4x half depth servers running with 48 cores and 192GB of memory in a VIRL openstack configuration.

Any reason you are sticking with VIRL and not just using the IOSv images?

tunerX

carterw65 wrote: »

Any reason you are sticking with VIRL and not just using the IOSv images?

I use a lot of XRv/XRv9k, ASAv, CSR, and NXos for work. The only ISR systems we use are the 4400 ISR and ESR routers 5915 and 5940.

I hope cisco will virtualize a metro 3600 or 3800 switch.

carterw65

So you have sat the R&S lab before? How did it go?

tunerX

Passed it in 2009.

carterw65

This weekend was pretty much a wash. I didn't have my server, so I was trying to set things up on my laptop. I started labbing and immediately started having trouble with the IOSvL2 image. I haven't figured it all out yet, but I need to just for the switching aspect. I have my 1950 server setup and running CSRs on it so I am good there. I will usually not have my Z800 with me on the weekends so I have to figure things out.

carterw65

I have been stumbling through trying to make etherchannels work with IOSvL2 and finally gave up on them Monday night. Yesterday I started in on Spanning-Tree and found no problems with it so far. Everything is working as expected. Most Wednesday evenings are occupied with other commitments which may go away soon. Anyway, I may not get much done today other than possibly watching Bryan McGahan a bit.

tunerX

What problems are you having with etherchannel?

carterw65

tunerX wrote: »

What problems are you having with etherchannel?

Well, rather than regurgitate all that, here is the link to it all on GNS3: https://www.gns3.com/qa/iosvl2-keeps-crashing-gns3-2-0

There is screenshots there also.

I know etherchannel fairly well so I didn't figure it would hinder me right now. I will revisit it later with some other equipment or service. I do have a Virl subscription, it expires next month and I am not planning on renewing do to the changes and restrictions they made on the new subscriptions.

Edit: I guess I should explain my Virl comment. I just don't want to waste the time setting it up with less than 2 months left in my subscription.

carterw65

Spanning tree went well last night. I was pretty tired so I was only able to do a couple of labs. I did have an interesting behavior that I will post a pic of. I must admit, my confidence in IOSvL2 is waning. I just have to be sure it isn't me or that it the behavior should be expected. I am almost ready to scrap L2 for now and move on to routing which is the biggest portion anyway. I can always rent a rack or something for L2. I have INE tokens I haven't used.

carterw65

I set port G3/3 to access Vlan 146 and all of a sudden it throws an error giving a native Vlan mismatch on itself. I have never seen this behavior before so maybe I am missing something, but this doesn't seem like it should be resulting in this. :

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Danielh22185

carterw65 wrote: »

I set port G3/3 to access Vlan 146 and all of a sudden it throws an error giving a native Vlan mismatch on itself. I have never seen this behavior before so maybe I am missing something, but this doesn't seem like it should be resulting in this. :

Well CDP is detecting the issue as it normally does when there is a native vlan mismatch on on interconnected switches. What is on the other end of that port? If it is a switch which based on the error it seems as so, why are you creating that port as an access port?

carterw65

Danielh22185 wrote: »

Well CDP is detecting the issue as it normally does when there is a native vlan mismatch on on interconnected switches. What is on the other end of that port? If it is a switch which based on the error it seems as so, why are you creating that port as an access port?

The other end was an unconfigured switch. This is what the lab I was working on called for. The thing is, I didn't manipulate the native vlan. I only told the port which vlan it was in. The other switch had a native vlan of 1 also.

What I am really unclear about is why CDP thinks the native vlan is now 146 rather than 1. I could see a vlan mismatch, but not a native vlan mismatch.