I had the chance to go through several of the BSCI videos and have to say I was really impressed. The videos are done by Chris Bryant who writes other certification related items and also contributes to Tech Republic. I’ve read his work in the past and thought him to be a smart guy with a good way of explaining things.

The videos are about an hour each, and are a screencast of a OneNote presentation, graphics, and console sessions. I found them to be informative and well paced. After having watched a few of the Video Mentor series from Cisco Press I was happy to be listening to someone without a heavy Texas accent!

The content of the videos is more or less what you’d expect from a classroom. Unlike the CCNP Video Mentor, this covers all the topics a class would.

A couple of things I didn’t like — the website claims that a PDF should be on the DVD containing a lab guide, which I didn’t find. That’s one thing I like about the CCNP Video Mentor series. Secondly, the practice exams on the DVD are terrible. The questions themselves aren’t too bad, but the interface is so brutal that I gave up on it.

At $199 per exam it’s far cheaper than taking a $3,000 class, and covers the same information. If you’re the kind of person that learns visually, checking out Train Signal’s offerings would be a smart move.

Content Copyright Sean Walberg

TrainSignal video training

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PPA is all about using Ethereal/Wireshark to solve network problems. While not explicitly written as such, the book is done on two parts. The first is using the Wireshark software, the second brings up scenarios where Wireshark is used to solve the problem.

Packet sniffing is like real estate, it’s all about location. I was happy to see that several mentions were made about the most appropriate place to put your tracer, talk of SPAN/Remote monitoring ports, switches vs hubs, and all that. In the scenario sections, each scenario starts with a decision of where to sniff. It’s excellent for the beginner.

The advanced user will be disappointed. There is very little here that you won’t already know. Despite the chapter on “Advanced Wireshark Features”, it’s just talking about conversations, protocol statistics, TCP streams, and I/O graphs.

The book is only 164 pages long, meaning it covers a fraction of what Wireshark can do. With another 100 pages it could have shown how to use some of the statistics, actually show how I/O graphs can help you profile an application, and how to troubleshoot VoIP. Yes, that’s right, a book on network problem solving written in 2007 and there’s no VoIP. If I can describe how to use Wireshark to Solve VoIP problems in under 2500 words, it could have fit in the book.

To its credit, there is a chapter on wireless troubleshooting. It’s OK for 15 pages, but like the rest of the advanced chapters, left me wanting more.

The capture file for each example is downloadable from the author’s site. Despite being contrived examples, they are quite effective. Besides just showing screen shots, the book makes each a learning experience, gathering a description of the problem, locating the sniffer, and walking through the process of capturing the packets and analyzing them.

For the person getting started with packet tracing (and if you don’t know it, you should) this is a good start. You’ll learn how to find a spot to sniff, how to use capture and display filters effectively, and learn some of the basic protocols and how to spot problems.

Content Copyright Sean Walberg

Practical Packet Analysis

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It’s a lot like O’Reilly’s cookbook series, but more concise. The inside front cover has a list of “I want to…” type statements, grouped by protocol, along with the page number. The pages inside have examples of command usage. What’s not to love?

This book is remarkable not for its study value, but for its helpfulness in the field. It’s a small book, both in page count and form (6×9). It’s got all the stuff you need to help jog your memory on routing commands. This one is going on my desk come Monday.

For some reason Cisco Press chose to offer a downloadable version for the same price. I can’t see the value of that. While people studying for BSCI won’t be hurt by having this book, it’s far more valuable for when you’re doing some work.

There are 3 others coming out for the remaining 3 exams. I’m looking forward to the switching one most of all…

Content Copyright Sean Walberg

CCNP BSCI Portable Command Guide

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I must admit that my initial impression when looking at the box was that this was going to be generic learning, and that I wasn’t interested in seeing some guy read from a book when I could do it faster myself. However once you sit down and view the videos you realize that it’s a specific topic being explained in the form of a lab. Even after doing this stuff for several years and having passed the CCNA (twice) I thought the content and format were interesting enough to keep my attention.

One of the labs, PPP and CHAP Configuration, stands out in my mind for being more than what the title says. It starts off with a look at interface status and what the line and protocol really mean by working through an example of configuring an HDLC link to PPP. For someone that doesn’t understand how the line could be up but protocol down, this lab shows how and why it happens. The actual configuration of PPP and CHAP in this lab takes a back seat.

Conversely, RIPv1 with Split Horizon, Route Poisoning, and Poison Reverse is exactly what it says. The lab uses some power point animations to describe what happens, and then shows the output of “debug ip rip” in different cases to really understand what split horizon, route poisoning, and poison reverse do.

I think the lessons have a good steady pace and are about the right length. Each lab is distinct so all you really need is a block of 10 or 15 minutes at a time to watch a video. The booklet came in handy for looking at the topology when the focus on the video was on a console session. I really liked how a specific scenario was chosen, whiteboarded, and demonstrated on real equipment in about 10 minutes.

Since the videos are closely tied to the certification books by the same author it would help to have those, too (only 2 of the videos relate to the INTRO book, so it’s the ICND book that matters more). The intent of the videos aren’t to watch 2 hours solid, it’s to accompany your self directed study.

The only mark against this product is its price — $70US (shop around online to find discounts). However, these videos are much more valuable than purchasing a second CCNA study guide (ie, in addition to the Cisco Press ones that are tied to the CVM), which softens the blow. When browsing CCNA forums I often see people purchasing multiple study guides and I think that this would be a far better investment than buying the extra books.

This one is a winner. I’m looking forward to seeing more video offerings from Cisco Press on more advanced subjects. This approach reminds me of some of the mini labs that used to be posted on Cisco.com where you could choose a small topic to lab out. The CVM does the same, except you just watch someone do it.

The topics (with some of my comments were applicable)

CCNA Basics
1. Navigating the Router/Switch Command Line Interface
2. Router Configuration and Managing Configuration Files

LAN Switching
3. Switch Basics: Learning, Forwarding/Filtering, and Interface settings
4. Configuring VLANs – Also includes VTP, trunks, and DTP

Basic Routing
5. Static and Connected Routes
6. RIPv1 Configuration
7. RIPv1 with Split Horizon, Route Poisoning, and Poison Reverse – Really well done, the power point animations and use of debugs were right on

Advanced Routing
8. Single-Area and Multiarea OSPF Configuration – Well done, this one packed a lot of configuration in a little period of time. Could have added a few lines about troubleshooting especially since it’s good exam fodder
9. EIGRP Configuration and Operation
10. NAT Overload (PAT)

WAN
11. PPP and CHAP Configuration – Really interesting look at interface status using the example of an HDLC link being changed to ppp

Security
12. Access Lists

Content Copyright Sean Walberg

CCNA Video Mentor Review

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Compared with the previous incarnation, this one is far more in depth — more analysis of spanning trees, in depth question on multicast, HSRP, GLBP. Several questions where you were given some show commands or debugs and asked to interpret what’s going on. The simulations were very straightforward.

I mostly used the new CCNP Self-Study: Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN), 3rd Edition (ISBN 1-58705-219-9)and some reading on cisco.com (and on the job experience, of course). I also flipped through the corresponding exam prep guide by Cisco Press, though it turned out to be the second edition which older.

Cisco Press generally puts out two books for each exam, one is the exam certification guide that is focused on the exam. The other is the foundation guide, which is basically the course notes that have been expanded into a book, and is what I used.

In this case, the exam prep guide was older and had some topics that were no longer valid, and were missing some content. The foundation book was far more in depth on all the right topics.

I found the foundation guide to be well written, though when I was reading docs on STP on CCO I found them to be nearly identical to the book. In most cases the book had done a good job of distilling the online content, though I remember one case where the online version had a worked out example for 802.1s/w that clarified a doubt I had.

All in all I’m happy with my results. The book I used did a good job of guiding me through the topics that I don’t have experience in, and even pointed out a couple of things in the areas that I work with daily. If I had to go back I’d have studied more on MST and multicast, which seemed to be the areas that I had the most problems.

I saved a lot of links that might prove helpful.

Content Copyright Sean Walberg

Passed BCMSN

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Normally I try to do a detailed review of the good ones, but sometimes I get backed up. Here are three books that I’ve been through recently.

Cisco IOS in a Nutshell, 2ed

View this on O’Reilly.

Cisco IOS in a Nutshell is a great reference for those that don’t spend a lot of time in the IOS CLI. It has information on absolutely everything (in varying degrees of detail). Going over the features that I frequently use (LAN switching, EIGRP, troubleshooting) showed that the level of detail would be appropriate for most people.

I was pleased with the examples and the layout of the book. It’s very how-to oriented, with a solid coverage of the basics, and a look at the really complex stuff. It’s current as of the 12.3T train, so the shelf live of this book is excellent.

The IOS guru would probably be best to look elsewhere, since they’ll know a lot of the content, and a search on cisco.com will pull up the detail you’re looking for. However if you use IOS infrequently, this 800 page volume will be a time saver.

TCP/IP Guide – A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference

View this on O’Reilly.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this book. It’s huge (1650 pages). It covers everything from networking to TCP/IP to routing protocols and the major layer 7 protocols in detail. Packet formats, common uses, everything.

While it’s tempting to drone on about the topics covered, I think it’s more helpful to look at a few of the outstanding features instead. The diagrams explaining the protocols are excellent. The author’s diagrams really make sense of the protocols. Case in point — the TCP FSM. Have you ever tried to follow the one out of the RFC? It’s brutal. The one here adds some text and shading, making it clear as day. Trying to remember how IP fragmentation works? There’s an example all worked out for you here.

For the topics themselves:

Basic networking stuff and routing protocols
Layer 3: IPv4, IPv6, PPP, ARP, NAT, IPSEC, Mobile IP, ICMP
Layer 4: TCP, UDP,
Layer 5-7: DNS, NFS, BOOTP/DHCP, SNMP, FTP/TFTP, SMTP, POP, IMAP, HTTP, NNTP, Gopher (heh)

There’s also a great deal of background information. When talking about email, there’s a look at MIME and the encoding. For HTTP, there’s a discussion of URIs.

This is an outstanding reference book for anyone involved in networking, or managing applications such as email and web. It has an incredible level of detail and will make RFC reading almost unnecessary. As a network guy who often finds himself trying to find documentation on a protocol’s behaviour, this book will come in handy.

Optimal Routing Design

View this at Cisco Press

This book is a rewrite of the 1999 title Advanced IP Network Design, which was a CCIE professional development book. The focus is on desiging large scale networks by efficient use of the routing protocols, and advanced features of the protocols.

Optimial Routing Design picks up where the Doyle books (Routing TCP/IP Vols 1&2) leave off. It assumes you have a detailed understanding of EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, and BGP (though the appendices and sitebars provide a lot of this if you don’t), and then really gets into the details of how to use them in a large network.

After looking at how to scale the core routing protocols, the book goes on to look at how to improve convergeance time, both by tweaking the routing protocols themselves and the layer 2 technologies. Security, VPNs, MPLS, and other tunneling techniques are also investigated toward the end.

While the topic is about scaling huge networks, the examples distill the techniques into a few routers, so that you can try them yourself. Just in the EIGRP chapter alone I found a few examples that after trying, I was able to put to use in my own network.

I found a few problems with the diagrams in the first few chapters, where the diagram and explanatory text didn’t line up. Other than that, it’s a good read. There’s liberal use of humour in what could otherwise be a dry subject.

This is a really advanced book, but a fascinating read if you like to understand the hows and whys of routing protocols. If you just put down Routing TCP/IP and are asing yourself “now what?”, this is the book you want.

Content Copyright Sean Walberg

Three quickies

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Synopsis

This book is a must for anyone in charge of a datacenter, be they building, expanding, or just running the operation. It provides a solid grounding in HVAC, electrical, layout, and other concerns.

Working in IT, I’m quite familiar with the inside of a data center, but I’ll be the first to admit my knowledge of running one is quite superficial. So it was with great interest that I read this book, hoping to understand what goes into building and running a data center. Build the Best Data Center Facility for Your Business is written by the team lead of Cisco’s data center team, so I know the author is well qualified to write this.

Since this book is pretty specific, and I don’t see anything else out there in the topic, it doesn’t need a long review.

As the title implies, the book is about building a data center. It’s also about upgrading a data center, or making the most of the space you’ve already built. It’s also about how to run a data center properly so that it stays useful. The subtitle is then more descriptive: A comprehensive guide to designing and operating reliable server environments.

The book is divided into two sections. The first talks about building and upgrading a data center. This includes finding a site, choosing a layout, flooring, electrical, HVAC, and data cabling. It’s also got a chapter on things you can do to prolong the life of your current data center.

The second half of the book is about operating a data center. This includes everything from parts bins to signage and documentation.

I found that the writer assumed the reader had little knowledge of the topic, so he took the time to explain concepts. There were also dozens of anecdotes strewn about in sidebars which were not only very informative, but also somewhat entertaining. The writing addresses international issues which is not surprising given Cisco’s international reach. Most chapters end with a section on common problems which is an added benefit.

I must also stress this book is very practical. Much of the first chapter is written from the standpoint of someone preparing tender documents, based on the author’s years of experience. The companion site to the book even includes a complete set of documents that can be used should you have the need.

The one complaint I do have about the book is that some of the photos are pretty blurry, which doesn’t detract signifcantly from the quality, but is enough to mention.

Build the Best Data Center Facility for Your Business is a comprehensive guide to designing and operating reliable server environments. I highly recommend it to anyone who plays an active role in managing or designing their company’s present or future data centers.

Content Copyright Sean Walberg

Build the Best Data Center Facility for Your Business

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Synopsis

A book covering the use of Open Source software to manage and document your Cisco network. Topics range from the traditional availablity and performance graphs, to more advanced security tools.

The Book

I was pretty happy when I received this book because a year ago I thought of the exact same thing but couldn’t get it off the ground. When I flipped through the index of Network Administrators Survival Guide (NASG) I thought “This is pretty much the book I wanted to write!” From that perspective, I’m glad that a book on Open Source network management and Cisco has finally hit the market.

The author’s philosophy is that while there are many good commercial packages out there, there’s also a lot of good free stuff. In an environment where you’re pressed to do more with less, Open Source starts to make great sense. The products he chose to discuss are those that he used himself in similar situations. Though Open Source is traditionally associated with Linux, the author recognizes not everyone is willing to adopt Linux, so Windows solutions for all the problems are also included with an equal level of detail. On the Cisco side, he covers IOS, CatOS, PIX, and VPN 3000 concentrators. Cisco’s line of commercial NMS products are also given a nod at the end of each chapter where appropriate, but unless you’ve used them before the descriptions don’t say much.

The basic flow of the book is pretty simple: Define the problem being solved; Survey the software available; Describe installation of the software under Linux; Describe installation of the software under Windows; Describe configuration of the Cisco equipment; Provide a summary. This pattern is repeated every chapter, which makes this a great how-to type book. The end of chapter summary is a simple table listing the tools, platforms they run on, and a URL which is a handy feature.

Within each topic the author picks one or two tools for each of Windows and Linux and goes over their basic configuration (this isn’t a hard and fast rule, since sometimes the same tool has both a Linux and Windows version). Having used most of the tools covered I can attest to their usefulness, though I feel the level of detail is less than I would have wanted. That said, at 500 plus pages getting to all the features I’d like to see would make this book several times its size. Instead, this book can be looked upon as an introduction to many tools with the instructions giving you enough to make the tool immediately useful. In most instances the tools are compared to help you choose. For example, in the Performance Monitoring section the author give some helpful limitations of the tools in terms of number of interfaces monitored, which will aid in the decision.

This book should not just be looked upon as a series of instructions on how to configure tools, there are also some good pointers on what to look for and how to interpret the results. Of particular note is the second chapter where many basic utilities, from ping to nslookup and even nbtstat are used to troubleshoot problems and perform common tasks like finding a host on the network.

Chapter Highlights

Chapter 3 – Access control. AAA is one of those features that isn’t well explained but allows for a great deal of flexibility when controlling access to network elements. This chapter covers both RADIUS and TACACS+, including the differences, along with the software to run it and how to implement it on your routers and switches. Not only do you learn how to set up the daemons, but you learn various ways to make use of it.

Chapter 4 – Syslog. Cisco devices generate a lot of helpful debugging output that most people ignore. This book covers two different Linux syslog servers (one is simple, the other more feature-rich but also complex) and one Windows server. On the Cisco side, the logging system is explained along with the parameters to tweak what gets logged.

Chapter 5- Monitoring Network Availability. Nagios and Big Brother are used, again each has different functionality which is well explained. Nagios is a very complex product, and this is one example of a situation where the book focuses on getting the basics going rather than trying to cover every feature.

Chapter 6- Network Performance Monitoring. MRTG and Cacti are the tools for this chapter, though some others get mentioned. MRTG is well explained, and even some recipes for advanced monitoring (such as CPU and firewall connections) are included. Cacti, like Nagios, is a complex product, so the author chooses to cover the basics of getting a device monitored rather than all the bells and whistles. That said, he makes a brief mention of where to get plugins, but never explains how to use them, which would have been helpful.

Buried deep in the end of this chapter is a mention of Service Assurance Agents as being a feature of IOS to measure performance. Unfortunately the author downplays their functionality, saying they only produce output in text format unless you buy Cisco IPM. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, Cacti has some helpful plugins to plot SAA data that I use with many of my routers to obtain useful data.

Chapter 7- Network Security Testing. The predictible tools (nmap and Nessus) are covered, but so are some Open Source packet analyzers, and the features in IOS to help them be useful (SPAN). This goes well with Chapter 8 – Router and Switch Security, where the security tools in IOS are used to lock down the network elements and enforce a baseline.

Chapter 9- Intrusion Detection System (IDS) has some good parts, like the use of Rancid to check for changes to configuration, but the topic of network IDS is so large it’s hard to do it justice in the 28 odd pages this chapter covers.

Chapter 10 – Virtual Private Networks goes over getting various Cisco products to speak with Linux and Windows VPN software. It seems somewhat out of place in this book, but would be a helpful reference if you ever have the need.

Chapter 11 – Network Documentation is something I’ve always taken for granted since I’ve always had Visio. But, for those companies that don’t want to shell out the cash for licences for the team, Anand has dug up both a Windows and a Linux replacement. In addition to showing off the software, he discusses the practice of diagraming your network (logical or physical? what do I include?) and how to best store your documentation for others to read.

Conclusion

I’m really impressed with this book. It’s perfect for anyone responsible for a Cisco network of any size who wants to know what’s going on. Even if you don’t need all the functionality described in this book, the time saved in implementing one or two of these will more than make the purchase worthwhile.

Content Copyright Sean Walberg

Network Administrators Survival Guide

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