Switch

SWITCH - Epic Regression

2010-05-11 ·2 min read

Just because I like giving more money to Pearson Vue, I took the BCMSN test today to see how I would do. I passed with no problem. In my mind, the CCNP is a technical certification, so I expect to be …

642-812 642-813 mcmsn switch

SWITCH - Epic Fail

2010-05-06 ·4 min read

I did my standard 2ish-hour drive to the closest testing center today to take the SWTCH test (642-813). Utter failure. That’s 3 for those scoring at home. The test was the absolute worst I’ve ever …

642-813 ccnp cisco fail switch test

Stubby Post - UplinkFast

2010-04-28 ·3 min read

I’ve got a few switches daisy chained together with single links and have enabled UplinkFast on them. This switch is not the root bridge; F0/24 is the root port and F0/23 is a blocked alternate …

645-813 ccnp cisco spanning-tree stp switch uplinkfast

Stubby Post - Path Cost of EtherChannels

2010-04-27 ·1 min read

I was doing some STP labs tonight and found something that caught me off guard a bit. I had been meddling with some EtherChannels between a pair of 3750s earlier today, and I forgot to reset the …

645-813 cost etherchannel path spanning-tree stp switch

SWITCH - STP Exercise #1

2010-04-22 ·1 min read

Here’s an STP exercise for you. Given the bridge priorities, MAC addresses, and interface types in the diagram, calculate the root bridge, root ports, designated ports, and blocked ports. You …

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BCMSN Notes -- STP States

2009-05-22 ·3 min read

I’ve decided to take on the CCNP certification, so I’m going to wind up with a few posts will be more my own notes than anything. :) A switch port on a 2960 comes up with a default …

bcmsn blocking ccnp cisco forwarding learning listening spanning-tree state stp switch

Using SSH to Run Commands on a Router or Switch

2009-04-30 ·3 min read

SSH is more than just a shell. You can copy files from and to a server or piece of network gear with it. You can use it to tunnel traffic. Possibly my favorite, though, is to use SSH to run a command …

cisco cli csm grep privilege router ssh switch

Server NIC Aggregation to a Cisco Switch

2009-04-14 ·3 min read

Have you even noticed that your new servers all have 2 NICs on the board? At least all of them that I’ve seen in the last 3 years have. A lot of server admin actually use them in a NIC teaming …

bonding cisco etherchannel ethernet switch teaming

RSPANs on Cisco Switches

2009-03-18 ·3 min read

We discussed SPANs earlier, but let’s talk about RSPANs for a bit. Can anyone guess what the “R” means? You guessed it – “Remote”. An RSPAN is a way to get traffic …

cisco remote rspan span switch vlan

SPANs on Cisco Switches

2009-03-13 ·3 min read

I can’t believe I haven’t blogged on this yet. SPANs are one of my favorite things in the world. The switched port analyzer (SPAN) is a mechanism on Cisco switches that allows you to take …

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