Don’t forget that on Monday, May 21, INE begins our 5-Day CCNA Wireless course.
If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time to do so here.
The course will be streamed live, online here.
Look forward to seeing everyone on Monday.
May 18
May 17
Continuing on in our series on CCD, today we’ll look at the 3rd video (the shortest) in that series (video #55) from our current 62-hour CCNP Voice v8 bootcamp.
- CCD via SAF :: Overview (29m)
- CCD via SAF :: CUCM Inter-Cluster Call Routing (1h 32m)
- CCD via SAF :: CUCM Call Routing with PSTN Failover (29m)
- CCD via SAF :: CUCM Call Routing during SRST Fallback (48m)
- CCD via SAF :: CUCM to CME Call Routing (54m)
- CCD via SAF :: Inter-Cluster RSVP via SIP Preconditions (21m)
Related Posts
May 16
It’s 8:30pm here in Bellevue, WA and I just finished the PfR/OER section of the 10 Day R&S CCIE Bootcamp that was broadcast live online. The session started at 9:30am this morning with a break for lunch and we ended up with roughly 10 hours of video. We had over 5000 unique IP addresses connect during the session and at the peak we were pushing nearly 80GB with our content provider. If you didn’t attend the live session, the recording will be available at the end of this week or first part of next week. I covered everything from basic PfR/OER configurations using static routes and BGP to very advanced PfR/OER configurations using PBR with GRE tunnels. This should be what everyone needs to help them prepare for the CCIE lab and fully understand PfR/OER.
I’ll post an update once the video is available. Additionally I’ll publish the diagrams, initial configurations and some lab scenarios with final configuration so you can follow along with the video.
Lastly I’ll ensure that this video is made available to our customers free of charge. Unlike some vendors who want to nickel and dime you to death by charging you for material that should be included in their main products, I’m going to ensure if you’re an INE customer you get access to the video free of charge.
May 13
R&S CCIE Training Video Updates:
As most of you already know we’ve totally redone nearly all of the R&S CCIE training videos over the past year. I’ve removed for sale the vast major of what I will call for lack of a better term, sub-par, R&S CCIE videos that were done in the past by some of our former instructors. After being gone for nearly two years and coming back a year ago I reviewed the quality of the videos in question and the feedback from our customers and decided that these videos where not up to the traditional standard of INE’s products and services. We will continue to add more R&S CCIE videos in the future but they will only be done by Brian McGahan or myself.
R&S CCIE Workbook Updates:
We are in the process of testing out a few options to move the workbooks away from a traditional MS Word document format for authoring and PDF for the final product release. This legacy format makes it hard to make even the smallest change without becoming a major project. We are looking into switching over to a web based format (i.e. wikipedia style) that will allow for a faster updating process and better overall reader experience. We will still offer the PDFs for offline viewing and printing but the latest version will always be available through your members site account. By moving it to the web you will be able to optimize and customize your flow through the products. My personal goal is to move away from a separate product model (R&S Vol I, Vol II, ATC Videos, Mock Labs, etc, etc, etc) to a single all encompassing product (workbook and videos) by the end of 2012.
New Troubleshooting labs for Volume II are going to be in beta starting in June with final release by the end of June. We’re updating the configuration labs after the TS labs are released. The new Volume III will be released starting this week. I’m working on some changes to the Volume I workbook and hoping to start releasing them next month also.
R&S CCIE Rack Updates:
We’re currently using the Cisco 360 topology for my live bootcamps and will start to rent out the racks to customers in June when I’m not running a live bootcamp. The topology is identical using all ISRs (1841, 2811, 3825) and four 3560s but the material is 100% INE’s. Additionally the traditional INE R&S topology will be updated to remove the 2600XMs and consolidate the backbone routers starting in June. Not much will change other than the Serial interfaces on R1 and R2 from S0/0 and S0/1 to S0/0/0 and S0/1/0. All R&S rack rentals will also move to a 3 hour rental block as opposed to the standard 6 hour block. This will allow for more flexible starting and ending times.
R&S CCIE Troubleshooting Bootcamp and Racks:
I’m running the first R&S CCIE Troubleshooting bootcamp the following week here in Bellevue. We have 14 dedicated Troubleshooting racks each using 27 1841s, 1 2811 (FRS) and 4 3550s. You will be able to rent these racks in June in 3 hour blocks and access the same lab material that is used in the Troubleshooting live bootcamp. We will also be beta testing instantaneous grading for them in late June/early July.
Lastly I would like to once again extend the invitation out to any former student who attended an INE bootcamp that wasn’t taught by me to reseat one of my bootcamps. Contact Jeremy Brown at jbrown@ine.com or myself directly.
May 10
Update: Congrats to Mark, our winner of 100 rack rental tokens for the first correct answer, that XR2 is missing a BGP router-id. In regular IOS, a router-id is chosen based on the highest Loopback interface. If there is no Loopback interface the highest IP address of all up/up interfaces is chosen. In the case of IOS XR however, the router-id will not be chosen from a physical link. It will only be chosen from the highest Loopback interface, or from the manual router-id command. Per the Cisco documentation:
For BGP sessions between neighbors to be established, BGP must be assigned a router ID. The router ID is sent to BGP peers in the OPEN message when a BGP session is established.
BGP attempts to obtain a router ID in the following ways (in order of preference):
- By means of the address configured using the bgp router-id command in router configuration mode.
- By using the highest IPv4 address on a loopback interface in the system if the router is booted with saved loopback address configuration.
- By using the primary IPv4 address of the first loopback address that gets configured if there are not any in the saved configuration.
If none of these methods for obtaining a router ID succeeds, BGP does not have a router ID and cannot establish any peering sessions with BGP neighbors. In such an instance, an error message is entered in the system log, and the show bgp summary command displays a router ID of 0.0.0.0.
After BGP has obtained a router ID, it continues to use it even if a better router ID becomes available. This usage avoids unnecessary flapping for all BGP sessions. However, if the router ID currently in use becomes invalid (because the interface goes down or its configuration is changed), BGP selects a new router ID (using the rules described) and all established peering sessions are reset.
Since XR2 in this case does not have a Loopback configured, the BGP process cannot initialize. The kicker with this problem is that the documentation states that when this problem occurs you should see that “an error message is entered in the system log”, however in this case a Syslog was not generated about the error. At least this is the last time this problem will bite me 
Today while working on additional content for our CCIE Service Provider Version 3.0 Lab Workbook I had one of those epic brain fart moments. What started off as work on (what I thought was) a fairly simply design ended up as a 2 hour troubleshooting rabbit hole of rolling back config snippets one by one, debugging, and basically overall misery that can be perfectly summed up by this GIF of a guy smashing his head against his keyboard. 
The scenario in question was a BGP peering between two IOS XR routers. One was the PE of an MPLS L3VPN network and one was the CE. As I’ve done this config literally hundreds of times in the past I could not for the life of me figure out why the BGP peering would not establish. The relevant snippet of the topology diagram is as follows:
Since this scenario caused me so much pleasure I am offering 100 tokens good for CCIE Service Provider Version 3.0 Rack Rentals - or any of our other Routing & Switching rack rentals & mock labs, Security rack rentals, or Voice rack rentals – to whoever the first person is that can tell me why did these neighbors not establish a BGP peering. The relevant outputs needed to troubleshoot the problem can be found below. I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to leave this problem in the workbook or not since it’s such a mean one Good luck!
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR1#show run
Fri May 11 00:34:38.563 UTC
Building configuration...
!! IOS XR Configuration 3.9.1
!! Last configuration change at Fri May 11 00:32:50 2012 by xr1
!
hostname XR1
username xr1
group root-lr
password 7 13061E010803
!
vrf ABC
address-family ipv4 unicast
import route-target
26:65001
!
export route-target
26:65001
!
!
!
line console
exec-timeout 0 0
!
ipv4 access-list PE_ROUTERS
10 permit ipv4 host 1.1.1.1 any
20 permit ipv4 host 2.2.2.2 any
30 permit ipv4 host 5.5.5.5 any
40 permit ipv4 host 19.19.19.19 any
!
interface Loopback0
ipv4 address 19.19.19.19 255.255.255.255
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/1/0/0
ipv4 address 172.19.10.19 255.255.255.0
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/1/0/1
ipv4 address 26.3.19.19 255.255.255.0
!
interface POS0/6/0/0
vrf ABC
ipv4 address 10.19.20.19 255.255.255.0
!
route-policy PASS
pass
end-policy
!
router isis 1
is-type level-2-only
net 49.0001.0000.0000.0019.00
address-family ipv4 unicast
mpls ldp auto-config
!
interface Loopback0
passive
address-family ipv4 unicast
!
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/1/0/1
point-to-point
hello-password hmac-md5 encrypted 022527722E
address-family ipv4 unicast
!
!
!
router bgp 26
address-family ipv4 unicast
!
! address-family ipv4 unicast
address-family vpnv4 unicast
!
neighbor-group PE_ROUTERS
remote-as 26
update-source Loopback0
address-family vpnv4 unicast
!
!
neighbor 1.1.1.1
use neighbor-group PE_ROUTERS
!
neighbor 2.2.2.2
use neighbor-group PE_ROUTERS
!
neighbor 5.5.5.5
use neighbor-group PE_ROUTERS
!
vrf ABC
rd 26:65001
address-family ipv4 unicast
!
neighbor 10.19.20.20
remote-as 65001
address-family ipv4 unicast
route-policy PASS in
route-policy PASS out
as-override
!
!
!
!
mpls ldp
label
allocate for PE_ROUTERS
!
!
end
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR1#
RP/0/3/CPU0:XR2#show run
Fri May 11 00:35:04.932 UTC Building configuration... !! IOS XR Configuration 3.9.1 !! Last configuration change at Fri May 11 00:30:30 2012 by xr2 ! hostname XR2 logging console debugging username xr2 group root-lr password 7 00071A150754 ! cdp line console exec-timeout 0 0 ! interface GigabitEthernet0/4/0/0 ipv4 address 10.20.20.20 255.255.255.0 ipv6 address 2001:10:20:20::20/64 ! interface POS0/7/0/0 ipv4 address 10.19.20.20 255.255.255.0 ipv6 address 2001:10:19:20::20/64 ! route-policy PASS pass end-policy ! router bgp 65001 address-family ipv4 unicast ! neighbor 10.19.20.19 remote-as 26 address-family ipv4 unicast route-policy PASS in route-policy PASS out ! ! ! end RP/0/3/CPU0:XR2#
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR1#show bgp vrf ABC ipv4 unicast summary Fri May 11 00:34:29.712 UTC BGP VRF ABC, state: Active BGP Route Distinguisher: 26:65001 VRF ID: 0x60000002 BGP router identifier 19.19.19.19, local AS number 26 BGP table state: Active Table ID: 0xe0000002 BGP main routing table version 1 BGP is operating in STANDALONE mode. Process RcvTblVer bRIB/RIB LabelVer ImportVer SendTblVer StandbyVer Speaker 1 1 1 1 1 1 Neighbor Spk AS MsgRcvd MsgSent TblVer InQ OutQ Up/Down St/PfxRcd 10.19.20.20 0 65001 2 7 0 0 0 00:03:59 Idle
RP/0/3/CPU0:XR2#show bgp ipv4 unicast summary
Fri May 11 00:35:02.278 UTC BGP router identifier 0.0.0.0, local AS number 65001 BGP generic scan interval 60 secs BGP table state: Active Table ID: 0xe0000000 BGP main routing table version 1 BGP scan interval 60 secs BGP is operating in STANDALONE mode. Process RcvTblVer bRIB/RIB LabelVer ImportVer SendTblVer StandbyVer Speaker 1 1 1 1 1 1 Neighbor Spk AS MsgRcvd MsgSent TblVer InQ OutQ Up/Down St/PfxRcd 10.19.20.19 0 26 2 2 0 0 0 00:04:31 Active
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR1#show bgp vrf ABC ipv4 unicast neighbors
Fri May 11 00:34:18.708 UTC
BGP neighbor is 10.19.20.20, vrf ABC
Remote AS 65001, local AS 26, external link
Remote router ID 0.0.0.0
BGP state = Idle
Last read 00:00:00, Last read before reset 00:04:10
Hold time is 180, keepalive interval is 60 seconds
Configured hold time: 180, keepalive: 60, min acceptable hold time: 3
Last write 00:00:15, attempted 53, written 53
Second last write 00:01:01, attempted 53, written 53
Last write before reset 00:04:10, attempted 72, written 72
Second last write before reset 00:04:15, attempted 53, written 53
Last write pulse rcvd May 11 00:34:02.927 last full not set pulse count 9
Last write pulse rcvd before reset 00:04:10
Socket not armed for io, not armed for read, not armed for write
Last write thread event before reset 00:04:10, second last 00:04:10
Last KA expiry before reset 00:00:00, second last 00:00:00
Last KA error before reset 00:00:00, KA not sent 00:00:00
Last KA start before reset 00:00:00, second last 00:00:00
Precedence: internet
Enforcing first AS is enabled
Received 2 messages, 0 notifications, 0 in queue
Sent 7 messages, 0 notifications, 0 in queue
Minimum time between advertisement runs is 0 secs
For Address Family: IPv4 Unicast
BGP neighbor version 0
Update group: 0.2
Route refresh request: received 0, sent 0
Policy for incoming advertisements is PASS
Policy for outgoing advertisements is PASS
0 accepted prefixes, 0 are bestpaths
Cumulative no. of prefixes denied: 0.
Prefix advertised 0, suppressed 0, withdrawn 0
Maximum prefixes allowed 524288
Threshold for warning message 75%, restart interval 0 min
AS override is set
An EoR was not received during read-only mode
Last ack version 0, Last synced ack version 0
Outstanding version objects: current 0, max 0
Connections established 1; dropped 1
Local host: 10.19.20.19, Local port: 19432
Foreign host: 10.19.20.20, Foreign port: 179
Last reset 00:00:15, due to Peer closing down the session
Peer reset reason: Remote closed the session (Connection timed out)
Time since last notification sent to neighbor: 00:02:11
Error Code: administrative shutdown
Notification data sent:
None
RP/0/3/CPU0:XR2#show bgp ipv4 unicast neighbors
Fri May 11 00:34:58.427 UTC
BGP neighbor is 10.19.20.19
Remote AS 26, local AS 65001, external link
Remote router ID 0.0.0.0
BGP state = Active
Last read 00:00:00, Last read before reset 00:04:50
Hold time is 180, keepalive interval is 60 seconds
Configured hold time: 180, keepalive: 60, min acceptable hold time: 3
Last write 00:04:50, attempted 19, written 19
Second last write 00:04:50, attempted 53, written 53
Last write before reset 00:04:50, attempted 19, written 19
Second last write before reset 00:04:50, attempted 53, written 53
Last write pulse rcvd May 11 00:30:08.305 last full not set pulse count 4
Last write pulse rcvd before reset 00:04:50
Socket not armed for io, not armed for read, not armed for write
Last write thread event before reset 00:04:50, second last 00:04:50
Last KA expiry before reset 00:00:00, second last 00:00:00
Last KA error before reset 00:00:00, KA not sent 00:00:00
Last KA start before reset 00:04:50, second last 00:00:00
Precedence: internet
Enforcing first AS is enabled
Received 2 messages, 0 notifications, 0 in queue
Sent 2 messages, 0 notifications, 0 in queue
Minimum time between advertisement runs is 30 secs
For Address Family: IPv4 Unicast
BGP neighbor version 0
Update group: 0.2
Route refresh request: received 0, sent 0
Policy for incoming advertisements is PASS
Policy for outgoing advertisements is PASS
0 accepted prefixes, 0 are bestpaths
Cumulative no. of prefixes denied: 0.
Prefix advertised 0, suppressed 0, withdrawn 0
Maximum prefixes allowed 524288
Threshold for warning message 75%, restart interval 0 min
An EoR was not received during read-only mode
Last ack version 0, Last synced ack version 0
Outstanding version objects: current 0, max 0
Connections established 1; dropped 1
Local host: 10.19.20.20, Local port: 60056
Foreign host: 10.19.20.19, Foreign port: 179
Last reset 00:02:27, due to Interface flap
Time since last notification sent to neighbor: 00:05:07
Error Code: administrative reset
Notification data sent:
None
May 02
CCIE SPv3 Rack Rentals – which include IOS XR – are now out of beta and available for normal scheduling via the INE Members’ Site. The rack topology is based on our CCIE Service Provider Version 3.0 Lab Workbook and the CCIE Service Provider Version 3.0 Advanced Technologies Class.
Currently each session costs 20 tokens, and each session is 3 hours long. If you purchase tokens in bulk this basically means that SPv3 rack time is around $3 per hour. Token based sessions start on Monday May 7th. People who booked beta sessions before this time (i.e. through Sunday) will still maintain their free sessions. Anyone who booked a beta session on Monday May 7th or later has had your session removed. You can of course add them back through the scheduler, but the sessions are no longer free to book after the end of this weekend.
A brief video on how to use the new scheduling system and SPv3 Rack Rentals is available here.
We’re continuing to add functionality to the new scheduler and its control panel, which includes choosing a config to pre-load before a session starts via the control panel, remote power control via the control panel, loading product configs, saving your current configs, renaming your previously saved configs, downloading your previously saved configs, and re-loading your previously saved configs onto a current session or session scheduled in the future.
If anyone runs into any problems with the scheduler or any of its features please submit feedback so we can get these issues addressed as soon as possible.
Thanks and good luck in your studies!
Apr 29
I’m very proud to announce that once again INE will be awarding CCIE scholarships. We will be awarding 8 CCIE R&S scholarships and 2 CCIE Voice scholarships. The R&S scholarships will be awarded one per region: Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, North America (US/Mexico), Oceanic (Australia) and South America. The CCIE Voice scholarships will be awarded globally. Each scholarship includes:
- 2 Year All Access Pass (access to all of our videos)
- 1500 Tokens for Rack Rentals or Mock Labs Exams
- CCIE Lab Exam Voucher (value $1500 to $1800)
- Complete Set of CCIE Workbooks
- Live Onsite 10-Day Bootcamp Seat
In addition to the 10 scholarships that INE is awarding I’m going to personally award 8 more that I will pay for out of my own pocket (basically the CCIE lab exam vouchers worth at least $12,000). Some people in the industry like to talk about helping others but I’m going to put my money where my mouth is This means there will be a total of 18 CCIE scholarships given away in 2012 by INE worth nearly $250,000.
Since INE has been so successful over the years helping people become CCIE’s and making INC 5000′s list of Fastest Growing Educational companies last year and will again this year, it’s vitally important that we give back to the community that has continued to make INE the leading CCIE training company in the industry. It’s important for any company in the education business to always balance growing the business with helping people and that’s why we are giving back. We try to pass on part of that success by offering free training (CCNA Voice, CCNA R&S, etc), free customized polo shirts when you pass the lab, keeping our pricing low and by offering these scholarships.
To apply for the scholarship you can use the link below:
http://www.ine.com/ccie-scholarship.htm
Good Luck!
Brian Dennis, CCIEx5 #2210 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/SP/Voice)
bdennis@ine.com
Internetwork Expert, Inc.
http://www.INE.com
Apr 27
INE is proud to announce that our long awaited CCIE Service Provider Version 3.0 Rack Rentals are now available, which includes access to IOS XR routers! Furthermore during the initial beta testing of our new rack scheduling system, SPv3 rack rentals are FREE to book! Our new rack scheduler is easier to use than the previous version, and breaks rack sessions down into 3 hour blocks as opposed to the previous 6 hour blocks, which allows for more granularity and affordability in your study schedule. The new scheduler will remain in beta for the next week or so, during which sessions are free to book, but are limited to 1 concurrent session scheduled per customer. Below is a short HOWTO video that I created on using the new scheduling system:
For those of you on mobile platforms the direct link is http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4DzgoiS9tPI
Additionally a new update has been posted to the CCIE SPv3 Workbook, which now includes the first Full Scale Lab. These updates can be found in the Workbooks tab of the members site, as seen in the above video.
Apr 27
So we continue our series on CCD, something that is being talked about lately – in conjunction with UCM SME (Session Management Edition – think UCM as a Gatekeeper for other UCM clusters) – and something that is bound to be covered on the next version of the CCIE Voice blueprint (something that’s received a lot of chatter lately with the advent of UCM v9 beta training this week). Also, a topic that you must know understand well today if you are studying for your CCNP Voice CIPT2 exam.
Today we’ll look at the 2nd video in that series (video #54) from our current 62-hour CCNP Voice v8 bootcamp.
- CCD via SAF :: Overview (29m)
- CCD via SAF :: CUCM Inter-Cluster Call Routing (1h 32m)
- CCD via SAF :: CUCM Call Routing with PSTN Failover (29m)
- CCD via SAF :: CUCM Call Routing during SRST Fallback (48m)
- CCD via SAF :: CUCM to CME Call Routing (54m)
- CCD via SAF :: Inter-Cluster RSVP via SIP Preconditions (21m)
Related Posts
Apr 24
Cisco keeps giving this week by allowing any desktop to join – for free – into any existing Telepresence video, and the quality of this video is really, really good. John Chambers recently said that Video is already the #1 traffic driver over Cisco’s internal network, and that by 2013 it is expected that over 90% of all traffic over the internet will be based on Video. There’s never been a better time to be training for Unified Communications!
