Archive for ‘ Routing

Distance Vector Routing Protocols 26 September 2008 at 8:40 pm by admin

Distance Vector Routing Protocols

The meaning of Distance Vector:
A router using distance vector routing protocols knows 2 things:
Distance to final destination.
Vector, or direction, traffic should be directed.

RIP uses hop count as the metric for path selection.
If hop count for a network is greater then 15, RIP cannot supply a route to that network.
IGRP/EIGRP use Bandwidth, delay, load and reliability for path selection.
EIGRP can perform unequal cost load balancing.
EIGRP uses Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) to calculate the shortest path.
EIGRP only sends updates when there is a change in the topology.

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Tags: 802.1q, guides, router, cisco, switch, interface

+ Dynamic Routing Protocols & router password recovery By admin 05 September 2008 at 11:00 pm and have No Comments


Dynamic Routing Protocols:

Dynamic routing helps the admin overcome the time-consuming process of configuring and maintaining static routes.
Routing protocols have been used since the early 80s.
Routing algorithms have been in use since 1969.
Some function(s) of Dynamic Routing Protocols:
Dynamically share information between routers.
Automatically update routing table when topology changes.
Determine best path to a destination.


The purpose of a dynamic routing protocol is to:

Discover remote networks.
Maintain up-to-date routing information.
Choose the best path to destination networks.
Find a new best path if the current path disappears.

Components of a routing protocol:
Data Structures – Some routing protocols use tables and/or databases for operations.  This info is kept in RAM.
Algorithm – A procedure for accomplishing a certain task.  Different protocols use different algorithms.
Routing protocol messages – These are messages for discovering neighbours and exchange of routing information.

Advantages of static routing:
Can backup multiple interfaces/networks on a router.
Easy to configure.
No extra resources (CPU/memory) are needed.
More secure.

Disadvantages of static routing:
Network changes require manual reconfiguration.
Config is error-prone, especially in large networks.
Admin intervention is required to maintain changing route info
Does not scale well in large topologies.
Requires complete knowledge of the whole network for proper implementation.

Advantages of Dynamic routing:

Admin has less work maintaining the config when adding or deleting networks.
Protocols automatically react to the topology changes.
Config is less error-prone.
More scalable, growing the network usually does not present a problem.

Disadvantages of Dynamic routing:
Router resources are used (CPU cycles, memory and link BW).
More admin knowledge is required for config, verification, and troubleshooting.

Classifying Routing Protocols:
Dynamic routing protocols are grouped according to characteristics.
Dynamic Routing Protocols.
Interior Gateway Protocols.
Distance Vector Protocols.
Link-State Protocols.
Exterior Gateway Protocols.

Autonomous System is a group of routers under the control of a single authority (eg. Company).


Interior Gateway Routing Protocols (IGP).
Used for routing inside an autonomous system and used to route within the individual networks themselves.
Example: RIP, EIGRP, OSPF.

Exterior Routing Protocols (EGP).
Used for routing between autonomous systems.
Example: BGPv4.

IGP: Comparison of Distance Vector and Link State routing protocols.
Distance vector.
Routes are advertised as vectors of distance and direction.
Incomplete view of network topology.
Generally, periodic updates.
Link State.
Complete view of network topology is created.
Updates are not periodic.

Classifying Routing Protocols:

Classful routing protocols.
Do NOT include subnet mask information in routing updates.
RIPv1, IGRP.

Classless routing protocols.
Do include subnet mask in routing updates. (support VLSM)
RIPv2, EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, BGP

Convergence is defined as when all routers’ routing tables are at a state of consistency (not identical but will know about the same networks).
Convergence time is the time it takes for all routers to converge.  Faster is better! (RIP is a poor one can take up to 7.5min, OSPF a matter of seconds, EIGRP can converge the fastest, under a second).
Convergence properties include the speed of propagation of routing information and the calculation of optimal paths.  Routing protocols can be rated based on the speed to convergence.
The faster the convergence, the better the routing protocol.  Generally, RIP and IGRP are slow to converge, whereas EIGRP and OSPF are faster to converge.

Routing Protocols Metrics:

Metric – a value or unit of measure used by a routing protocol to determine which routes are better then others.
Metrics used in IP routing protocols:
Hop count – counts the number of routers a packet must traverse.
Bandwidth – path selection by preferring the path with the highest bandwidth.
Load – traffic utilization of a certain link.
Delay – time a packet takes to traverse a path.
Reliability – assesses the probability of a link failure, calculated frm the interface error count or previous link failures.
Cost – value determined either by the IOS or by the network admin to indicate preference for a route.  Cost can represent a metric, a combination of metrics or a policy.

The Metric Field in the Routing Table: (1st number is the administrative distance, second number is the hop count in [120/1])
Metric used for each routing protocol.
RIP – hop count.
IGRP and EIGRP – Bandwidth and Delay (default), Load, Reliability.
IS-IS and OSPF – Cost, Bandwidth (Cisco’s implementation).

The metric associated with a certain route can be best viewed using the #show ip route command.

Load balancing:
This is the ability of a router to distribute packets among multiple same cost paths.
Load balancing across equal cost paths.


Administrative Distance of a route:

A metric is used to determine the best path to a destination.
When comparing routes using different protocols, the metrics are incompatible. E.g. hops vs. Bandwidth.
Administrative Distance (AD):
A numeric value specifying the preference of a particular routing source.  I.E. the reliablility of the route information.

Identifying the Administrative Distance (AD) in a routing table.
It is the first number in the brackets in the routing table.
The lower the value the better – best = 0, worst = 255.
The lower the value the more trustworthy the route.
0 is directly connected to the router.
#show ip protocol.
If you see the word “distance” it usually means AD.

Dynamic Routing Protocols:

#show ip route
#show ip protocols.

Static Routes:
AD of a static route has a default value of 1 regardless of how it is configured.
You can verify AD values with #show ip protocols.
It is possible to change the AD of static routes

Directly connected routes:
Immediately appear in the routing table as soon as the interface is configured, enabled and operational.

Password Recovery:

Do a hard reboot (cold reboot) – i.e. turn power off/on.
In Hyperterminal, Hit Ctrl-Break key combination with 60s (hit a few times).
Router prompt should display rommon >(read only memory monitor mode).
Type:
rommon> confreg 0×2142     – to change config register.
rommon> i            - to reboot/initialize router.
router should reboot into setup mode (ctrl-C to bypass).
Type:
.R1(config)#config-register 0×2102    - to change back to default otherwise if you have to reboot again you will not be using th.
Then either 1) erase startup-config OR 2) copy it to RAM and change passwords (then save back to NVRAM).
In the real world.
Copy startup-config running-config.

R1(config)# enable secret NEWPASSWORD.
# copy running-config startup config

Tags: vtp, vlan, switch, study, router, guides

+ Static Routing & CDP By admin 05 September 2008 at 10:46 pm and have No Comments

Introducing the Topology:

The show controllers command reveals whether the cable is DCE or DTE.

#show controllers serial 0/0/0

Interface serial0/0/0
Hardware is powerQUICC MPC860
DCE v.35, no clock

Interfaces:
By default all Serial and Ethernet interfaces are down.
The routing table will be empty.

Debugging:

Allows us to watch changes a router performs in real time.
For example, to observe routes being added and removed.

#debug ip routing
#undebug all (disables all debug commands). or
#no debug all. or
#un a. (short form)

Routing Table and CDP Protocol:

When a router only has its interfaces configured and no other routing protocols are configured, then:
The routing table contains only directly connected networks.
Only devices on directly connected networks are reachable.

Router Interfaces:

#show interfaces serial 0/0
Serial 0/0 is administratively down, Line protocol is down.
Layer 1            Layer 2
L1
Administratively down – shutdown with command (administrator).
Down – no cable, bad cable, or other end shutdown.
Up –
L2
Down – no carrier signal or clock signal (no keep alive).
Up –

Purpose of CDP.
A L2 proprietary tool used to gather information about other directly connected Cisco devices, only works at L2.

Concept of neighbours.
2 types of neighbours.
L3 neighbours.
L2 neighbours. everyone that is directly connected to the one router

CDP show commands:

show cdp neighbours Displays:
Neighbour device ID.
Local interface.
Holdtime value, in seconds.
Neighbour device capability code.
Neighbour hardware platform.
Neighbour remote port ID

show cdp neighbours detail.
Same displays as above +.
Useful in determining IP address config errors.
Reveals the IP address even if you can not ping it!.

Disabling CDP:
To disable CDP globally use:

R1(config)# no cdp run.

To disable CDP on an interface use:

R1(config-if)#no cdp enable.

Static routes with Exit Interfaces:

Purpose of a static route.
A manually configured route used when routing from a network to a stub network.

R1(config)#ip route network-addr SN-mask {ip-addr | exit-interface}

E.G. R1(config)# ip route network-address subnet-mask {ip address | exit-interface}

Zinin’s 3 routing principles:
Principle 1: Every router makes its decision alone, based on the info it has in its own routing table.
Principle 2: The fact that one router has certain info does not mean that other routers have the same info.
Principle 3: Routing info about a path from one network to another does not provide the return path.

Recursive Route Lookup:

Occurs when a router has to perform multiple lookups before forwarding a packet.
A static route to a next-hop IP uses this 2 step process:
1. Match static route’s dest IP with the Next hop address.
2. Match next hop address to an exit interface.

The Routing Table:

Inside the square brackets is the Administrative Distance (AD) and the Metric.
Lower is better for both numbers.
Static routes have an AD = 1.
Static routes configured with an exit interface appear as directly connected networks even though they are not.
Static routes with an exit interface are more efficient since they can be resolved in a single search.
If the interface on which static routes depend, goes down, the routes are removed until the interface returns.

Modifying Static routes:

Existing static routes CANNOT be modified.  The old static route must be deleted by placing no in front of the ip route.
Example:

No ip route 192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.2.2.

A new static route must be rewritten in the config.

Verifying the Static Route Configuration:

Step 1 show running-config.
Step 2 verify static route has been entered correctly.
Step 3 show ip route.
Step 4 verify route was configured in routing table.
Step 5 use ping to verify reachability.

Static Routes with Ethernet:

On serial interfaces there is generally only one next hop.
A serial exit interface knows where to go (only 1 address).
With Ethernet, multiple addresses could be attached.
An exit interface on Ethernet, does NOT know the MAC to use.
SO, do NOT configure an exit-interface route on Ethernet.

Route Summarization:

Summarizing routes reduces the size of the routing table.
Route summarization is the process of combining a number of static routes into a single static route.
Can be used if the:
Networks can be summarized into a single address, and
If static routes all use the same exit-interface or next-hop address.
Look at the binary of each address and when the bits are no longer the same then you count up the bits that are the same and that will give you the prefix
E.G. 172.16.1.0, 172.16.2.0, 172.16.3.0 = 172.16.0.0 with a Subnet mask of 255.255.2

Configuring a Summary Route:

Step 1: delete the current static route.
Step 2: configure the summary static route.
Step 3: verify the new static route

Summary and Default Route:

Default Static Route
A route that will match all packets.  Stub routers that have a # of static routes all exiting the same interface are good candidates for a default route.
This reduces the size of the routing table.

Configuring a default static route.
A static route with IP address and subnet mask = zeros.
Example:

R1(config)#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 {exit-interface | ip-addr}.

Static routes and subnet masks.
The routing table lookup process will use the most specific match when comparing dest IP address and subnet mask.

Default static routes and subnet masks.
Since the subnet mask used on a default static route is 0.0.0.0 all packets will match.

Troubleshooting a Missing Route:

Tools for isolating routing problems include:
Ping – end to end connectivity.
Traceroute – where problems start.
show ip route – routing table and forwarding process.
show ip interface brief – status of interfaces.
show cdp neighbours detail – config info from neighbours (IP address even if you can not ping or remember it).

Tags: 802.1q, study, vlan, switch, vtp, wan

+ Intro to Routing & Packet Forwarding By admin 18 August 2008 at 11:32 pm and have No Comments

Routing & Packet Forwarding

Routing Protocols & Concepts

Router as a Computer:

Computers that specialize in sending packets over the data network.
Responsible for interconnecting networks.
Routers are the network center.
Generally have a min of 2 connections:
WAN connection (Connection to ISP).
LAN connection.
In addition to packet forwarding, routers provide other services as well.
A router connects multiple networks.
This means that it has multiple interfaces that each belong to a different IP network.
Each network that a router connects to typically requires a separate interface.

Routing Table:

Used to determine the best path.
Incoming packets’ dest IP address is looked up in the table.
The table includes an exit interface or next hop.
Once a match is found, the router encapsulates the IP packet into the L2 frame of the exit interface.

Router as a computer:

Router components and their functions:
CPU – Executes OS instructions.
RAM – Contains the running copy of config, routing table, buffers, etc. Contents lost when pwr is off.
ROM – Holds diagnostic software used @ startup and the bootstrap prgm.
NVRAM – Stores startup config.
Flash – Contains the OS, non-volitile.
Interfaces – usually multiple physical interfaces. Examples of interface types:
Ethernet / Fast Ethernet interfaces.
Serial interfaces.
Management interfaces (concole).

Internetwork Operating System:

IOS
A multitasking OS integrated with routing, switching, internetworking, and telecomm functions.
Stored as an image. Many different IOS images available.
IOS interface is CLI
On boot, the startup-config file in NVRAM is copied into RAM and stored as the running-config file.
Changes entered by the admin are stored in the running-config and are immediately implemented by the IOS.

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Tags: switch, ip, 802.1q, guides, router, study

+ Inter VLAN Routing (Router On A Stick) By admin 27 June 2008 at 1:50 pm and have 1 Comment

Bitmindframes cisco study guides

INTERVLAN ROUTING
A VLAN is a broadcast domain and unique ip subnet
Switches operate at layer2 (Data link Layer)
VLANS cannot communicate without L3 (Network Layer)
The L3 communication is called inter-vlan routing
Inter-vlan routing is a process of forwarding network traffic from one vlan to another using a router
The Subnets of your network facilitate the routing process.
Router interfaces can be connected to separate vlans.
Devices on vlans send traffic through the router(L3) to other vlans.

Traditionally vlan routing required multiple interfaces.
Each interface was connected to a separate switch port & configured with a different subnet
The switch port is connected to the router in access mode.

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Tags: study, 802.1q, vtp, router, cisco, guides