Category Archives: Cisco

Cisco Champions Banner V2

Accepted for Cisco Champion Program 2015

Cisco, General, ,

So tonight was a saved by the bell moment, brought with a little joy.

I’ve been selected for the Cisco Champion Program 2015.

So it means I have something to blog about, =D.

The program was brought about last year for its first year, bringing together members of the community who work with Cisco products and services. Heres the official line;

The purpose of the Cisco Champions Program is to create and nurture a network of people who are passionate about Cisco and enjoy sharing their knowledge, expertise, and thoughts across the social web and with Cisco.

The Cisco Champions program encompasses different areas of interest and geographical areas within the company, providing a variety of opportunities for Champions to participate in the program.

The full information set can be found in this FAQ.

What it means to me

I guess it shows I am passionate about an area of technology, for me I was on the Enterprise Networks last year, which looked at Datacenter and Security technologies. Which meant I was given insider exposure to Cisco UCS, which is an area I am looking at developing into, creating designs around the platform, and deploying the solutions, even having a chat with one of the Cisco UCS team members to see how the Mini fitted in with a customer design I was underway with.

I’ve also met other peers from around the world of various different job roles and experience, and shared deep dive insights and jokes with them. Which is a great way of networking further, aside from writing in community based blogs.

What I’m looking forward to
  • Blogging for Cisco’s website as a community member, who could pass up that chance, I’m hoping to talk about the Cisco CCNP Certification.
  • Development oftheUK based Cisco Champions
    • A lot of the stuff done for the Cisco Champions is based around USA time, which is a pain for me personally, however speaking with the guys who run things, this is something they are looking at developing out further, after all 2014 was its first year!
  • Enhancement of Cisco Product range, and getting the insider track on whats coming.
  • Enhancing the Cisco Community in any way possible.
  • vBacon 😉

CiscoChampion200PX

So thanks to all of those who reviewed my application and accepted it!

Regards

 

Dean


CCNP SWITCH

Cisco CCNP 624-813 Switch Exam Experience

Cisco, Networking, , , ,

ccnp-switch-642-813

So I took and passed my CCNP Switch Exam on Monday morning. 934 out of 1000.

I’ve been meaning to do my CCNP for the past two and a half years, since I passed my CCNA, which doesn’t expire until April 2015, but will be renewed now due to the pass on switch exam.

As you may know, the current 642 CCNP series exams will be retired on 29th January, so I chose this as my hard deadline to pass the exam.

The training resources I used were

You can find my revision notes here.

Exam Experience

Continue reading Cisco CCNP 624-813 Switch Exam Experience →

cisco ccnp

Cisco CCNP Training – Bootcamp Roundup

Cisco, Networking, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So this post is mainly a big round-up of the day by day posts I made of my CCNP bootcamp notes.

Here is a list by topics covered each day to make it easier for you to jump into.

There is no TSHOOT posts at the moment, as the idea of TSHOOT is covered in ROUTE and SWITCH, however I will post something to do with troubleshooting in the future.

The training resources I used were

For my fancy Visio Diagrams, please find them on dropbox here. (I only ask that credit is given where used, as these were created by myself.) Examples below;

Policy-Based RoutingBGP Topologies - Full mesh - MPLSGateway Load Balacing Protocol

Cisco CCNP Training Course – Day 1 – ROUTE
  • EIGRP
  • EIGRP Timers
  • EIGRP Troubleshooting
  • EIGRP Lab Topolopy

Continue reading Cisco CCNP Training – Bootcamp Roundup →

Cisco CCNP Training Course – Day 8 – SWITCH

Cisco, Networking, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So day 8 essentially was the last day of the bootcamp, with Day 9 + 10 being left for TSHOOT, of which there is very little documented, as its……. troubleshooting a broken system.

So Day 8, let’s get to it.

Here’s whats covered;

  • HSRP Continued…..
    • comparison between HSRP and VRRP
    • GLBP – Gateway Load Balancing Protocol
  • Port-Security
  • Private VLANs
  • AAA – Authentication, Authorization, Accounting
  • VLAN Access-List
  • DHCP Snooping
  • ARP Poisoning / Man in the Middle
  • IP Spoofing
  • Other security considerations
  • Logging
  • MLS-Mutli-Layer Switching
    • Process Switching
    • Fast Switching
    • CEF
  • Voice – IP Telephony
  • QoS – Quality of Service
    • Layer 2 – Class of Service
    • Layer 3 – IP Precedence (Old setting)
    • Layer 3 – DSCP – Sub Marking (New setting)
    • Configuration of QoS
  • And that’s all folks

Continue reading Cisco CCNP Training Course – Day 8 – SWITCH →

Cisco CCNP Training Course – Day 7 – SWITCH

Cisco, Networking, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lets Jump straight in…

Covered is

  • MST Config
  • Etherchannel
  • Spanning-Tree
  • BPDU Guard, Filter, Loop Guard, Root Guard, UDLD
  • Uplink Fast, Backbone Fast
  • HSRP
MST Config
(config)#spanning-tree mode mst
(config)#spanning-tree mst configuration
(config-mst)#name (value)
(config-mst)#revision (value)
(config-mst)#instance (value) vlan (value) (Eg. 1-3, 1,3,5 or 1-3,5,7)
(config-mst)#end (applies the configuration)
(config)#spanning-tree mst (instance No.) root (primary/secondary)

To see the configuration, whilst in spanning-tree mode mst; Continue reading Cisco CCNP Training Course – Day 7 – SWITCH →