My rustiness with multicast is evident in the amount of time it's taking me to troubleshoot silly issues. The fundamental difference in configuring sparse mode vs. dense mode is that an RP is required. When given the option, don't bother messing with dynamic protocols and just assign a static RP.
No problem there. I throw the static RP on each router, verify pim neighbors, see the 224.0.1.40 flow--everything seems to be working great. One problem, the flow from R7 didn't appear anywhere. Debugs don't seem to be telling me anything special.
And then it dawns on me. Do the routers actually have a route to the RP? No! I used R2's loopback, but never actually assigned the loopback into OSPF. I fix that and bam! everything comes up as expected.
Bottom line, I still don't have any sort of troubleshooting methodology for multicast. Most likely because I simply haven't spent enough time troubleshooting multicast issues. Hopefully by time I get through the rest of the volume I exercises I'll be more comfortable.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
IE Vol1 PIM Dense Mode Complete
This exercise was pretty simple, but I really enjoyed going through the show commands and debugs to refresh my memory on how to troubleshoot multicast. In R&S I definitely felt as if multicast was my weakest subject. I want to spend a lot more time on it before the SP lab to make sure it's second nature to me.
There really isn't a whole lot to dense mode. But the exercise had me bring up ip sla to start a flow, and then use debug ip pim and sh ip mroute to watch the flow get pruned back because there are no receivers. After watching this, I added a receiver to the far end of the network. Sure enough, the debugs showed graft messages and sh ip mroute showed that the path was no longer pruned. Finally, turning off ip mroute-cache and debug ip mpacket showed the packets flowing.
There really isn't a whole lot to dense mode. But the exercise had me bring up ip sla to start a flow, and then use debug ip pim and sh ip mroute to watch the flow get pruned back because there are no receivers. After watching this, I added a receiver to the far end of the network. Sure enough, the debugs showed graft messages and sh ip mroute showed that the path was no longer pruned. Finally, turning off ip mroute-cache and debug ip mpacket showed the packets flowing.
I Just Don't Feel Like It!!!
I do not feel like studying lately. Last year I got a heck of a lot of studying done over Christmas, New Year's, and the following weekends. But this year I just don't seem to have the energy. I'm working a lot more hours these days and my son is a year older. I'm not sure how much all of that has to do with it. Last year I was still going to grad school, so I would think I'd have more energy this year.
It's not a feeling of being overwhelmed--I actually feel like I'm somewhat close. Maybe that's part of the problem. The fear and accompanying adrenalin hasn't hit yet.
Interestingly, a lot of the other CCIE blogs seem to be pretty quite the last few weeks. I'm probably not the only one having a hard time getting motivated right now.
I'm gonna force myself to go through a multicast lab or two to at least get something done.
It's not a feeling of being overwhelmed--I actually feel like I'm somewhat close. Maybe that's part of the problem. The fear and accompanying adrenalin hasn't hit yet.
Interestingly, a lot of the other CCIE blogs seem to be pretty quite the last few weeks. I'm probably not the only one having a hard time getting motivated right now.
I'm gonna force myself to go through a multicast lab or two to at least get something done.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
IE Vol 2 Lab 1 Wrap-up
Some thoughts on this lab:
Layer 2:
Everything but Cell Mode MPLS was simple. I would expect switching and frame-relay to be MUCH simpler than what was on the R&S lab.
Regarding Cell Mode, this was literally the first time I touched it. I realized quickly I had absolutely no clue what I was doing.
Next step: Watch the CoD
IGP:
This section was simple as well. Not much to single area OSPF.
Next step: Read the message board to see why point-to-multipoint non-broadcast was used instead of non-broadcast
EGP:
Everything was straightforward here until task 3.4, bestpath selection. I did put some time into this and couldn't figure it out. I'm looking at the solution and I'm not sure about it.
Next step: Lab this up in dynamips.
MPLS:
I skipped TE mostly because it was only 3 points and a lot of work for those 3 points.
Next step: Redo a Vol 1 TE lab as penance.
VPN:
The Internet Access task was the first time I did route leaking. But I understood the theory enough to get this working relatively easily. The key is the destination interface and the ip must both be stated on a multipoint interface in the static route.
This was the first time I've configured VRF NAT. I almost had it, but debugs were complaining about host unreachable. Turned out I completely missed the route-target import so I didn't have a route back to the source. If I were more confident in NAT I would have continued troubleshooting--it was certainly solvable if I wasn't so "sure" it was a NAT issue.
Next step: Watch NAT CoD
IP Multicast:
I apparently did a pretty big brain dump on Multicast.
Next step:
Do Vol 1 Multicast labs
QoS: Skipped
Next step: Do Vol1 QoS lab
Security: Skipped
Next step: Review tasks, research doccd for anything that's not obvious
System Management: Skipped
Next step: Review tasks, research doccd for anything that's not obvious
All in all, I am pretty please with the way this went. It was a HECK of a lot better than my first ever R&S full lab. A few takeaways but nothing extravagant. Once I complete the next steps I'll move on to lab 2, but may come back to repeat this one later.
Final Score: 55/100
Layer 2:
Everything but Cell Mode MPLS was simple. I would expect switching and frame-relay to be MUCH simpler than what was on the R&S lab.
Regarding Cell Mode, this was literally the first time I touched it. I realized quickly I had absolutely no clue what I was doing.
Next step: Watch the CoD
IGP:
This section was simple as well. Not much to single area OSPF.
Next step: Read the message board to see why point-to-multipoint non-broadcast was used instead of non-broadcast
EGP:
Everything was straightforward here until task 3.4, bestpath selection. I did put some time into this and couldn't figure it out. I'm looking at the solution and I'm not sure about it.
Next step: Lab this up in dynamips.
MPLS:
I skipped TE mostly because it was only 3 points and a lot of work for those 3 points.
Next step: Redo a Vol 1 TE lab as penance.
VPN:
The Internet Access task was the first time I did route leaking. But I understood the theory enough to get this working relatively easily. The key is the destination interface and the ip must both be stated on a multipoint interface in the static route.
This was the first time I've configured VRF NAT. I almost had it, but debugs were complaining about host unreachable. Turned out I completely missed the route-target import so I didn't have a route back to the source. If I were more confident in NAT I would have continued troubleshooting--it was certainly solvable if I wasn't so "sure" it was a NAT issue.
Next step: Watch NAT CoD
IP Multicast:
I apparently did a pretty big brain dump on Multicast.
Next step:
Do Vol 1 Multicast labs
QoS: Skipped
Next step: Do Vol1 QoS lab
Security: Skipped
Next step: Review tasks, research doccd for anything that's not obvious
System Management: Skipped
Next step: Review tasks, research doccd for anything that's not obvious
All in all, I am pretty please with the way this went. It was a HECK of a lot better than my first ever R&S full lab. A few takeaways but nothing extravagant. Once I complete the next steps I'll move on to lab 2, but may come back to repeat this one later.
Final Score: 55/100
IE Vol 2 Lab 1
7:00am Lab Started
7:30am Diagrams and read-through complete
7:55am 1.1 complete, 3 points
8:01am 1.2 compete, 3 points (switchport protected)
8:08am 1.3 complete, 2 points
8:13am 1.4 complete, 2 points
8:17am 1.5 complete, 2 points
9:10am 1.6 complete, 0 points (cell mode mpls, had to cheat)
9:27am 2.1 complete, 3 points
9:34am 2.2 complete, 2 points
9:46am 2.3 complete, 3 points (assuming non-broadcast)
10:02 am 3.1 complete, 3 points
10:11am 3.2 complete, 3 points
10:26am 3.3 complete, 3 points
10:47am skipping 3.4 until mpls is complete, 0 points
11:02am 4.1 complete, 3 points
11:03am 4.2 complete, 3 points
11:05am 4.3 complete, 3 points
**BREAK***
1:49pm back from break
skipping 4.4 MPLS TE
1:57 5.1 complete, 3 points
2:06 5.2 complete, 3 points
2:14 5.3 complete, 3 points
2:39 5.4 complete, 3 points
3:23 5.5 complete, 0 points (cheated)
3:32 5.6 complete, 3 points
3:42 5.7 complete, 2 points
That's it. My energy is gone so I'm calling it a day.
7:30am Diagrams and read-through complete
7:55am 1.1 complete, 3 points
8:01am 1.2 compete, 3 points (switchport protected)
8:08am 1.3 complete, 2 points
8:13am 1.4 complete, 2 points
8:17am 1.5 complete, 2 points
9:10am 1.6 complete, 0 points (cell mode mpls, had to cheat)
9:27am 2.1 complete, 3 points
9:34am 2.2 complete, 2 points
9:46am 2.3 complete, 3 points (assuming non-broadcast)
10:02 am 3.1 complete, 3 points
10:11am 3.2 complete, 3 points
10:26am 3.3 complete, 3 points
10:47am skipping 3.4 until mpls is complete, 0 points
11:02am 4.1 complete, 3 points
11:03am 4.2 complete, 3 points
11:05am 4.3 complete, 3 points
**BREAK***
1:49pm back from break
skipping 4.4 MPLS TE
1:57 5.1 complete, 3 points
2:06 5.2 complete, 3 points
2:14 5.3 complete, 3 points
2:39 5.4 complete, 3 points
3:23 5.5 complete, 0 points (cheated)
3:32 5.6 complete, 3 points
3:42 5.7 complete, 2 points
That's it. My energy is gone so I'm calling it a day.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
IE Vol 1: MPLS TE Unequal Cost Load Balancing Complete
This time, we create two tunnels. One uses explicit paths, the other uses dynamic paths. Setting the traffic-eng bandwidth different on each tunnel causes unequal-cost load-balancing to occur.
One troubleshooting note, there are three requirements to have the TE tunnels show in the routing table:
R4#sh ip route 150.1.3.3
Routing entry for 150.1.3.3/32
Known via "ospf 1", distance 110, metric 5, type intra area
Routing Descriptor Blocks:
* directly connected, via Tunnel0
Route metric is 5, traffic share count is 2
directly connected, via Tunnel1
Route metric is 5, traffic share count is 1
One troubleshooting note, there are three requirements to have the TE tunnels show in the routing table:
- tunnel mpls traffic-eng autoroute announce must be configured on each tunnel
- the TE tunnels must show up/up in sh mpls traf tun brie
- the TE tunnels must have ip unnumbered or an IP address assigned
R4#sh ip route 150.1.3.3
Routing entry for 150.1.3.3/32
Known via "ospf 1", distance 110, metric 5, type intra area
Routing Descriptor Blocks:
* directly connected, via Tunnel0
Route metric is 5, traffic share count is 2
directly connected, via Tunnel1
Route metric is 5, traffic share count is 1
IE Vol 1: MPLS TE Explicit PE-PE Tunnels Complete
This is the same as the last lab, but instead of dynamic tunnels, explicit tunnels are used.
To do this, an ip explicit path list needs to be created, which lists each ingress interface on each router in the path.
When I set it up, I used one of the wrong IPs. The nice part was the sh mpls tra tun told me which was incorrect:
Last Error: PCALC:: Explicit path has unknown address, 150.1.45.4
To do this, an ip explicit path list needs to be created, which lists each ingress interface on each router in the path.
When I set it up, I used one of the wrong IPs. The nice part was the sh mpls tra tun told me which was incorrect:
Last Error: PCALC:: Explicit path has unknown address, 150.1.45.4
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