I had a really, really bad day this past Tuesday.  I mean, a really bad day.  I guess I should have seen it coming since the last #stabbytuesday was uneventful.  Here’s what said cosmos had in for me and the lessons I took away.  Most of these are things we’ve all lived before, but, for various reasons, I got blindsided.  I expected more from myself.

We use a hosted application that requires IPSec tunnels to the provider from different properties across the country.  The ones in the lower 48 perform adequately, but the new one in Alaska is absolutely horrible.

I don’t usually cover news from Cisco, but they’ve changed some certification stuff around again, and I thought I would bring it up.  This time they’ve changed the CCNA Voice, CCVP, and CCSP, so, if you’ve on those tracks, be careful what you’re studying!

CCNA Voice

Circle 28 February 2011 on your calendars.  That’s when the CCNA Voice track gets a shakeup.  The IIUC (640-460) exam will be no more, and passing CVOICE (642-436) will no longer be a valid way to get the cert.  After the big day, you’ll have to take ICOMM (640-461).  This seems to be a much broader exam instead of having the enterprise and commercial focuses in CVOICE and IIUC, respectively.  Look out for both CME- and CUCM-based topics including a troubleshooting section. 

We’re working on an data center design for a customer, and they’ve dropped in two ISP links - each with it’s own managed router and public IP space off one of the Ethernet interfaces.  The idea is that they want to use the Internet links in an active-passive setup without getting their own IP addresses to avoid running BGP with the ISPs.  To top it off, the headend of their control is an ASA cluster, so we wind up with two interface on the Internet to treat with a local security level.  Oh, the joys of doing network design.

Here’s my solution to the exercise I posed last week.  Let’s see if we can get this right.

I’m going to assume you know how to give a router an IP address.  If you don’t, let me know and I’ll help you out.  We’ll use 10.10.10.1/24 for our CME router.

Let’s work on the telephony section first.  We need to limit our CME to 10 ephone-dns and 5 ephones.  Easy enough.  While we’re at it, we’ll have to give the telephony service a source IP address.  We might as well do the music on hold, too.

I tried something like this earlier this year with STP.  It got rave reviews (from my mother), so I figured I try it again.  

Below is a list of requirements for configuring a router as a call processor.  In a lab or in your head, configure the router to support the features as listed.  This isn’t a contest or anything like that.  If you get it right, a virtual thumbs up is all I can afford to give you.  There are some licensing issues for running this stuff in GNS3/dynamips, so I can’t help you out on that.  I’ll just hint that GNS3 and dynamips will bind to real networks and that copies of a compatible IP softphone are available.

More of my IIUC study notes.  As always, feel free to correct.  I really need to have a real post, don’t I?

show voice port summary

• Shows the voice ports available for use

R1#show voice port summary
                                          IN       OUT
PORT           CH   SIG-TYPE   ADMIN OPER STATUS   STATUS   EC
============== == ============ ===== ==== ======== ======== ==
50/0/1         1      efxs     up    up   on-hook  idle     y
50/0/1         2      efxs     up    up   on-hook  idle     y
50/0/2         1      efxs     up    up   on-hook  idle     y
50/0/2         2      efxs     up    up   on-hook  idle     y
50/0/3         1      efxs     up    up   on-hook  idle     y
50/0/4         1      efxs     up    up   on-hook  idle     y
50/0/5         1      efxs     up    up   on-hook  idle     y

• An ephone-dn shows up as efxs, so all these are ephone-dns.
• Channels are numbered 0-23; timeslots are numbered 1-24

FXS Ports

Here are some more notes from my IIUC studies.  As always, corrections requested.

Paging

• Broadcasts messages to a group for a one-way communication
• Paging groups are used to limit which phones get the broadcast
• Paging can be unicast or multicast
  • Unicast groups limited to 10 members
  • Multicast requires mcast support on the network
• Paging configurations can be unicast, multicast, or multiple-group

!  Unicast Paging
!  When 1044 is dialed, ephone 1 is paged
R1(config)#ephone-dn 44
R1(config-ephone-dn)#number 1044
R1(config-ephone-dn)#paging
R1(config-ephone-dn)#exit
R1(config)#ephone 1
R1(config-ephone)#paging-dn 44

Here are some more notes from my IIUC studies.  As always, corrections requested.

Local Directory

• Allows users to look up names
• Allows names to show up when dialing or receiving a call
• Most phones have a directory button; some have a menu options for the directory

R1(config)#ephone-dn 1
R1(config-ephone-dn)#name Roger Smith

• Directory entries can be added manually

R1(config-telephony)#directory entry 1 1700 Corporate Fax
R1(config-telephony)#directory entry 2 1701 HR Fax

• By default, sorting is done alphabetically by first name.
• Sorting can be changed

R1(config-telephony)#directory last-name-first

More study notes.  Correct if wrong, though I hope I get some of it right since I already since I’m an R&S guy.  :$

**Switchport Configuration
**

• switchport mode access:  This config makes the port an access port that carries the primary and voice VLAN traffic
• switchport mode trunk:  This config akes the port a trunk unconditionally, but it will still send DTP messages
• switchport nonegotiate:  This config keeps the port from sending DTP messages.
• switchport mode dynamic auto:  If the port receives DTP messages, it will become a trunk.  If not, it will be an access port.
• switchport mode dynamic desirable:  The port actively sends DTP messages trying to become a trunk.  This is the default configuration on a Cisco switch.

Cisco IP Phone Boot Process