Hold-Queue & Hardware TX Ring: TX-Ring DEFAULT on 1841 (128) packets on a FastEthernet interface “tx-ring-limit X” verify with “sh controller fa 0/1 | in tx” FIFO Ingress queue is 75 packets by default and 40 packets on an 1841 FastEthernet interface “hold-queue X in|out” verify with “sh interface fa0/1 | in queue” Keep in mind that the software queue is only invoked when the hardware (TX-RING/FIFO) is full. CPU/packet spikes can tie up CPU cycles causing the router to use…
MPLS: Autoconfig (enable LDP on all interfaces) only available when using OSPF as IGP. LDP send discovery packets via UDP to 224.0.0.2 (all routers) port 646. Route-ID is highest loopback but can be forced “mpls ldp route-id x.x.x.x force”. To use the physical connection of the interface (not the loopback due to lack of reachability) use this command on the interface. ” mpls ldp discovery transport-address interface”. Once communications is established, via TCP 646, authentication is verified (MD5 only). After peer is…
The Basics: Link state routing protocol. Uses IP protocol 89. Hellos sent on 224.0.0.5. Uses Dijkstra SPF algorithm independently on each router against the local LSDB to calculate the best routes. Hellos sent every 10 seconds on LAN and 30 seconds on WAN interfaces. Dead time is 4x hello, so 40sec and 120 sec respectively. Router ID: 1) Configured “router id” 2) Highest loopback 3) Highest non loopback interface in up/up state. Hello Process Sanity check: Pass authentication (verify with “debug ip ospf adj”)…
Braveheart spoof by Cisco marketing. http://www.cisco.com/go/rightnetwork
One of my favorite routing subjects to discuss. Usually, I’ll be asked what is a better IGP OSPF or EIGRP and my answer is always… it depends. There a couple compelling reasons why EIGRP is still a great IGP after so many years. Here are a few in my opinion; ease of deployment, convergence speed (without tweaks), and offset capability. Of course, there are some disadvantages; scale, ease of deployment (your not required to take a deep look at your topology like OSPF), and it’s proprietary….
Personally, this is an area that I struggled with during my studies. Not quite sure why, the concept is not that difficult. Perhaps, it’s one of those “boring” subjects and I just could not get excited about it no matter how hard I tried. In real world use cases, I used PPP all the time for the PE to CE encapsulation method. The thing is at the SP, there was no need to “secure” the /30 MPLS circuits so, LCP was…
Overview: MSTP, which uses RSTP for rapid convergence, enables VLANs to be grouped into a spanning-tree instance, with each instance having a spanning-tree topology independent of other spanning-tree instances. This architecture provides multiple forwarding paths for data traffic, enables load balancing, and reduces the number of spanning-tree instances required to support a large number of VLANs. All the details can be found here. My personal field experience: It’s funny, I always hear how great MST is (and it does have…
UDLD is a Layer 2 protocol that enables devices connected through fiber-optic or twisted-pair Ethernet cables to monitor the physical configuration of the cables and detect when a unidirectional link exists. All connected devices must support UDLD for the protocol to successfully identify and disable unidirectional links. When UDLD detects a unidirectional link, it disables the affected port and alerts you. Unidirectional links can cause a variety of problems, including spanning-tree topology loops. UDLD uses it’s own keepalives and not…
Enjoy this short (3min) cartoon. Link to YouTube Video
I got 99 problems but a SWITCH ain’t one. I love it! It’s a Cisco 3750-x in the picture and one of the best access switches on the planet.