Cisco

Cisco this week has announced the end of sale and end of life dates for the 7200 Series NPE-G1 Network Processing Engine. This is an older routing engine that is definitely showing its age compared to newer platforms that are available.

The last day to buy the NPE-G1 is February 27, 2012. Last day for hardware support is February 28, 2017. The recommended upgrade path is the ASR1000 series.

Full details are available in the official announcement.

If you are ever designing a network or deploying a new switch that will be providing Power over Ethernet, be sure to check your power draw with the Cisco Power Calculator (CCO login required):

http://tools.cisco.com/cpc/LU.cpc

You start by selecting the type of switch you are deploying. Then you can choose how many of each type of device you will be plugging into your switch and it will tell you how much power will be required.  Here is a sample of some of the devices they let you choose from:

• 7961G-GE - 0.3071 amps (12.9W)
• AP-1200 with a+g radios (12.4W)
• CP-7971G (14.9W)

Also, if you are deploying non-Cisco phones or APs, there are several IEEE compatible devices listed toward the bottom of the list:

If you have ever implemented NetFlow, you may have noticed there are different commands available under interface configuration mode to enable collection. If you aren't sure what the different is between ip route-cache flow and ip flow ingress, here's the simple explanation:

To enable flow collection on a whole interface (including sub-interfaces), use:

ip route-cache flow

To enable flow collection only on a specific sub-interface, use:

ip flow ingress

Whenever you are faced with troubleshooting a routing problem and the routing table looks normal, don't forget to check CEF. Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) has been enabled by default for quite some time on most Cisco routers and has been known to cause issues from time to time.

I've created a list of a few of the most common (and a few not so common) CEF show commands that can help you track down a problem. Let's start with the basics - the FIB and the Adjacency table.

Forwarding Information Base (FIB) - This is a table that the router builds based on the routing table, but it's not the same thing as a routing table.  It contains the same forwarding decision information, but where the routing table would be like an encyclopedia of where to send packets, this is a cheat sheet.

Adjacency table - This is a table of all the layer 2, next hop information for the entries in the FIB.

A Tekcert member recently posted a question in the forums regarding IOS Clientless SSL VPN, a.k.a WebVPN. This prompted me to test the functionality in a lab environment and post my findings. To make it easier to find, I decided to make it a full-blown blog post. So, here we go...

The first step I took was to get a router with 12.4T code running on a LAN with a desktop connected to it. The following configuration is broken into chunks to help break down the process.

Configure basic settings on the router, including hostname, domain, usernames, etc. (not all of this is required for WebVPN to work, but it is what I had on my router so you're getting it all):

Here is another pop quiz for another Friday:

1. What is the 802.1d spanning-tree port role for every port on a root bridge?
A) Root
B) Blocking
C) Designated
D) Nondesignated

2. Every switch running IEEE 802.1d spanning-tree protocol has a Bridge ID (BID). How is the BID derived?
A) The BID is the base MAC address.
B) The BID is created from a bridge priority value, optionally an extended system ID, and the switch's base MAC address.
C) It is a random number generated based on when the switch is powered on.

3. Select the correct steps that a port goes through when transitioning to forwarding when using IEEE 802.1d:
A) Forwarding, Blocking, Listening, Learning
B) Blocking, Forwarding, Listening, Learning
C) Blocking, Learning, Listening, Forwarding
D) Blocking, Listening, Learning, Forwarding

Answers below...

Cisco announced today that it will be laying off 6,500 employees as part of the "comprehensive action plan" to rightsize the company. 

According to the press release, this includes 2,100 employees who chose to participate in an early retirement program. This includes a reduction of 15 percent of their VP and higher executive level employees. 

This process will cost Cisco about $1.3 Billion USD in severance fees and other payments. Hopefully for shareholders it will yield some cost savings and help the company make a turn in the right direction. 

In addition to the 6,500 employees, a set-top box manufacturing plant in Mexico will be sold to Foxconn Technology Group (the same group that makes iPhones and other electronics). This equates to 5,000 additional employees being shed from Cisco's payroll (and shifted to Foxconn's payroll) effective FQ1 2012.

If you have never been inside of the NERV Truck, you've got to check it out. The truck itself is actually a production ready vehicle that responds to real disasters where communications have been knocked out. 

According to the woman I spoke with today in the truck, Cisco deploys the truck as a public service to assist public safety officials and rescue personnel after disasters strike an area hard enough to take local communication systems down. The truck is equipped with a conference room and enough cameras and phones to support several conversations at the same time. 

Connectivity is provided via a satellite uplink and the specific provider is negotiated based on the area that the truck is being deployed. 

Check out the video and the link below for more information.