Cisco Monitor Common Mistakes

I am going to touch on common mistakes in cisco network monitoring today. You know for sure that you need a network-monitoring tool for managing your network. There are wide varieties of tools available that range from simple to complex and free to enterprise ones. If you get one monitoring tool and install it, can you say that everything is under control? Are you going to be aware of what happened in your network? I will try to warn you about common...

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Network Monitoring Tools

What are your daily duties as the network administrator? You have to keep your network up and running. You have to answer calls which may relate to situations like “X location is down” or “Y location is slow”. You should monitor your network as described below to fulfill the tasks. You should monitor your network and take actions with respect to situations like device and line failures. You should analyze line utilizations, errors on the line...

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Advanced SSH settings Cisco IOS

I mentioned about basic SSH setting in SSH@Cisco article. But I saw that there are other questions about SSH settings, so, I decided to dive a bit deeper. The settings mentioned below are tested with IOS 12.4, but I am not sure about exact version that supports below features. Q1. What happens if I changed hostname or ip domain name after SSH settings has been done? A1. Nothing. You need them to create rsa keys but, but afterwards, if you change...

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SSH @ Cisco

       Recently, I had to swap the Internet router of my company. BGP and cef ate up the whole memory and it was not possible to upgrade the memory of Cisco 3725 router beyond 256MB. It was time to change it.        I had a chance to install a new Cisco 3845 with 1GB memory. Everything was fine except SSH access that I needed because of security policy. I searched the web and found...

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Top five learning tools

Guide to network adminGood network administration is the backbone of today's technology-dependent enterprises. Network administrators are charged with keeping expansive networks and numerous applications running smoothly, and the job can seem overwhelming at times. We're coming to the rescue with this guide that brings you back to basics. We polled our readers about their most common tasks to find out what the heart and soul of network administration consists of...

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Hardware/Software Life Cycle

Hardware Life CycleOn lists of hardware recommendations, you will see a status value which may be one of these four options: Early Adoption – equipment is new and is undergoing validation testing in company's network. Sites installing hardware of this type do so at their own risk but we do encourage a certain amount of creativity and look forward to receiving feedback on the community's experiences. We recommend early adoption hardware is installed...

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IOS Commands

Privileged Mode   enable - get to privileged mode   disable - get to user modeConfiguring the Router    sh running-config - details the running configuration file (RAM)   sh startup-config - displays the configuration stored in NVRAM   setup - Will start the the automatic setup; the same as when you first boot the router   config t - use to execute configuration commands from the terminal  ...

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Troubleshooting Strategy

How do you know when you are having a network problem? The answer to this question depends on your site's network configuration and on your network's normal behavior. See "Knowing Your Network" for more information. If you notice changes on your network, ask the following questions: Has this event ever occurred before? Is the change expected or unusual? Does the change involve a device or network path for which you already have a backup solution...

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Knowledge of Networking Practices

1 Implementing the Installation of the Network       1.1 Demonstrate awareness that administrative and test accounts, passwords, IP addresses, IP configurations, relevant SOPs, etc., must be obtained prior to network implementation.     1.2 Explain the impact of environmental factors on computer networks. Given a network installation scenario, identify unexpected or atypical conditions that could either cause...

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Troubleshooting the Network

How To Troubleshooting The Network Recognize the following steps as a systematic approach to identifying the extent of a network problem and, given a problem scenario, select the appropriate next step based on this approach:    1. determine whether the problem exists across the network,    2. determine whether the problem is workstation, workgroup, LAN or WAN,    3. determine whether the problem is consistent and replicable, and    4. use standard troubleshooting methods. Identify the following steps...

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Baseline & network health facts

- Ethernet segments should not exceed 40% Network Utilization - Token Ring should not exceed 70% Network Utilization - WAN Links should not exceed 70% Network Utilization - Response time should be less than 100ms - Broadcasts/Multicasts should be no more than 20% of all network traffic - On Ethernet there should be no more than 1 CRC error per 1million bytes of data - Cisco Router CPU Utilization should not exceed 75%...

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Data Center Access/ Visitor

Procedure Background        In order to reduce physical exposures to data center equipment, production operations and backed up application data files, access controls are required. This is a preventive measure to safeguard the continuous operation of Company Hubs. Data center access audits are performed quarterly and door checks are performed weekly. · The Data Center Facilities Team Lead is responsible to...

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802.1x Authentication

Figure 1: IOS Version Required Figure 2: Cisco 3560, 3750, 4500, 6500 802.1x Configuration Figure 3: Cisco 3560, 2750, 4500, 6500 802.1x Configuration Removal    1.  Introduction           The objective of this content is to provide an overview of the 802.1x capability of the Cisco IOS Switches.  This allows stakeholders to determine whether port-based authentication using 802.1x...

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Cisco 3G Aircard Configuration

1. Introduction       Wireless services offer a compelling alternative to traditional terrestrial services, and with the increasing expansion of the Service Provider offerings in the 3G space, this offers the network designer a new exciting paradigm in Wide Area Network design:               • a cheap alternative to leased line or satellite services               • a...

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Next Generation WAN FAQs

  What is MPLS? MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) is a packet-forwarding technology which uses labels to make data forwarding decisions. With MPLS, the Layer 3 header analysis is done just once (when the packet enters the MPLS domain). Label inspection drives subsequent packet forwarding. MPLS provides the following beneficial applications: Virtual Private Networking (VPN), Traffic Engineering (TE), Quality of Service (QoS) and ATM...

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IP Telephony FAQs

What does IP telephony mean?     IP (Internet Protocol) telephony, or called IPT, is a method for taking analog audio signals, like the kind you hear when you talk on the phone, and turning them into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet.  In the company, the digitized telephone traffic between Company locations will be carried over our WAN and LANs instead of the Public Telephone Network or the Interne...

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Network Questionnaire

Example network questionnaire for Network Administrators: General 1. Please provide an organization chart(s) for all personnel who will be involved with this audit. 2. Please provide a list of contacts.  This list should include the person's name, telephone number, e-mail address, room number, and job description (Ex. UNIX System administrator). 3. Please provide network drawings identifying all firewalls,...

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Cisco Network Design

      Cisco uses its own brand of networking symbols. Since Cisco has a large Internet presence and designs a broad variety of network devices, its list of symbols is exhaustive. For CISCO specific network drawing diagrams, download the add-ons to enjoy the full functionality of all the Cisco Visio  here>>> http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac50/ac47/2.html Detailed Cisco Network Diagram      ...

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Problem & Communication Process

Problem Management and Communication Process        Outage Communication Timeline for example Sev 1 Communications activities begin after notification from Help Desk, from users or from Key Production Environment Manager. After initial consultation with responding infrastructure manager or appropriate support team assigned to...

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Manual Back up and Restore CFG

Manual Back up and Restore Configuration Files for Switch        The purpose of this content provides the IT services staff with some basic steps to migrate the configuration from an existing switch to a new switch and this content is to ensure that all backup the configuration is correct and also ensure the backup and restore process are agreeable with the business unit requirement. Use a Terminal Emulation Program...

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