EIGRP: Impact of Auto-Summary & Split Horizon | Complete Lab Included

If auto-summary is enabled across a discontinuous classful network, routers will only install a summary route pointing to Null0.

Split horizon is loop-avoidance measure used by EIGRP which prevents a route from being advertised out of the same interface it was received.

Network Diagram: EIGRP and Impact of Auto-summary and Split Horizon

This lab demonstrates how routing tables are impacted when auto-summary and split horizon are both turned off. NetBrain’s unique lab format (Qmap) gives you access to step-by-step EIGRP configuration and show-commands which highlight the impact of the configuration. You will need NetBrain Qmap Reader to view these details.

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Note: If you don’t have NetBrain Qmap Reader already, click here to download it. To view more labs, visit Qmap Learning Center.

Download All EIGRP Qmaps

 Lab Credit: Tim Girouard

Disable RIPv2 Auto Summarization | Complete Lab Included

When auto summary is enabled in RIPv2, route entries will be summarized automatically at the classful network boundary. This can cause problems when there are discontinuous classful networks.

This lab focuses on the impact auto summary has on routing tables. Our unique lab format gives you access to step-by-step RIPv2 configuration and show-commands which highlight the impact of the configuration.

Lab Objective

Configure RIPv2 on R1, R2, and R3 to begin exchanging routes. Then disable auto-summary to ensure unique routes are added to the route tables for each loopback interface.

Network Diagram: Disable RIPv2 Auto Summarization

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This dynamic network diagram (also called Qmap) contains

• Step-by-step RIPv2 configuration
• Show-command data highlighting route table changes
• A detailed Lab topology diagram

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Note: If you don’t have NetBrain Qmap Reader already, click here for download. To view more labs, visit Qmap Learning Center.

Qmap for Learning and Cisco Certification

Did you know NetBrain offers free Personal Edition software designed to help aspiring CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE candidates achieve their certification? The software is one of the most powerful free tools available. It includes features such as:

• Build network diagrams instantly using config files
• Highlight routing protocol and design on the map
• Collect output from show commands for specified devices
• Map Traceroute results
• Export Qmaps to Visio diagrams

NetBrain PE enables you to form an effective study group to tackle the certification challenge together. Now that team members can share the results of practice labs easily through a NetBrain Qmap, everyone can spend more time learning and less time in repetitive lab building.

Lessons Learned from CiscoLive 2012, San Diego

By:  Lingping Gao – CEO and Founder of NetBrain Technologies

With 17,000 customers, partners and employees attending this year’s CiscoLive event, Cisco has set another record for the 4-day show.  The weather certainly helped as well.

On the floor of World of Solutions, over 250 Cisco partners showcased their solutions.    Collectively these vendors are setting the trend for the industry of network management for 2012 and beyond.  Here are my three observations:

“Big Data” is the “New” target of both software and hardware solutions

Big data is a problem.  Anyone taking a look at the size of a corporate SAN or the hard disk drive of a PC would agree.  It is really not new.  Google helped solve this problem for the web through search.  There are data mining companies coming and going in every vertical segment every year.  In IT, there is Splunk who handles “big data” well in log files analysis.  It seems that Cisco is starting to treat everything as a big-data problem, including their TAC support cases.    Sure, without computers, what can a human being do?

NetBrain’s approach to handle “big data” with a dynamic map got good reception at the show.  The formula is simple: Only show me the portion I am interested, and do it with a map.

“Simple but not simpler”

250 vendors all seem to be struggling with this goal: How to keep the product simple enough, and yet functionally relevant.  StatSeeker took an admirable approach to keep the complexity under the wrap –using an appliance.  Solarwinds separates its product into many stand-alone, single-function apps.  Even Ciscoworks (now Cisco Primer) starts to realize the importance of ease-of-use.  But the devil is in the details – How to make it simple?  NetBrain’s approach is to drive everything from a map.  If an engineer knows how to read a map, he would know how to do visual troubleshooting.

“Which side are you on? -Reactive or Proactive”

People used to categorize the NMS product into a reactive or proactive side.  This is not the case anymore.  Most trending tools now understand the importance of “reacting” to real-time needs. They have easy-to-use search capability, mapping functions etc.  Most reactive tools now have a “dash-board” to give users a proactive view of what is/was/will be happening.  These are good steps in the right direction.  If end users have to deal with both, how can the tools only understand one aspect of network management?

Last word – What’s Surprising and What’s the same?

What’s the same is that StatSeeker again puts up a colorful car for the grand prize drawing – 2 years in a row.  I will start to call them the CarSeeker next year – a bit easier name to remember.

What’s surprising is that Solarwinds didn’t show up. Wow, it takes a lot of self-confidence to ignore the 17,000 Cisco customers, even just once.

What is Dynamic Network Mapping?

Truly dynamic network mapping means being able to instantly visualize any aspect of your network.  Dynamic maps are data-driven and contain rich details such as IP addresses, net masks, routing protocols, multicast groups, and access-lists.  This means that you can zero-in on a problem area with a single search string and start working with an interactive network map on the fly.  If you need more information about a neighboring switch, or a connected host, this information can be displayed on-demand.  This presents you with exactly the right amount of information and detail for the task at hand.

NetBrain maintains a benchmark of your network so that your network design can be accessible at a moment’s notice.  This guarantees that not only are you network diagrams descriptive and informative, they are also up-to-date.  NetBrain specializes in Layer-2 and Layer-3 mapping and is ideal for troubleshooting your network.  See how much time it will save you on your network.  Download a Free 30 Day Trial Today!

NetBrain at CiscoLive! 2012 Right Around the Corner

CiscoLive! is in San Diego this year and we are excited to be there to showcase our NetBrain Computer-Aided Network Engineering solution.  CiscoLive! is an annual IT and networking conference that takes place this year June 10 – 14.

Throughout the event we will be performing demos at our booth within the World of Solutions exhibit.  The demos will focus on how NetBrain can be used for network document automation and visual troubleshooting.  If you plan to attend the event, please stop by and pay us a visit at Booth #2330.  Visit here for more information.

When you grab your attendee conference bag at check-in please be sure to check inside for a gift from our team.  Included, we are also offering an opportunity to win an iPad.  You are eligible to win simply by taking advantage of our powerful solution to document your network for free.  See our brochure for details.

Understaffed and Overwhelmed? Why IT Operations Need Automation

While economists continue to argue whether the recession that began in December 2007 is really over, it’s safe to say that the majority of American enterprises are still feeling its effects. IT operations teams today are challenged to provide more services with fewer resources.  Although this is an unfortunate side effect of the economic downturn, technology and market research company Forrester Research states that it could also be seen as the perfect opportunity to update processes and introduce automation technology into day-to-day routines.

Analysts at Forrester examined the reasons why enterprise IT organizations need to re-evaluate their approach to IT operations and begin to incorporate automation tools in their plan. Demand for more IT operations seems to be ever increasing and complexity of the network environment continues to grow with it. The amounts of tasks that require human operator management leave many understaffed IT departments struggling to keep up. So what can automation do to help?

Tools such as our Operator Edition software for automation of network documentation and visual troubleshooting, allows tedious manual tasks typically associated with managing complex enterprise networks to be eliminated. With the ability to phase out manual processes with network mapping and documentation, reports become increasingly more accurate.  Forrester reported that automated solutions ensured a nearly perfect degree of accuracy.

By working to restructure IT best practices and processes and then automating them with tools, IT operations teams will improve service delivery and better support the business. Forrester states that “it is almost certain that you will realize substantial overall benefits in operational expenses and business agility of you approach automation right.”

Read the full Forrester Research report here.

EIGRP Timer Mechanism – Part 1

EIGRP implement these mechanisms to detect the link status between itself and its neighbors:
– Its own Hello and Hold timer
– Bidirectional Forwarding Mechanism (BFD)

Most of us are familiar with EIGRP’s own timers. By default, Hello timer is:
– 5 seconds for broadcast media, point-to-point serial link, and WAN links with bandwidth equal or greater than that of T1
– 60 seconds for WAN links slower than that of T1
Hold timer, by default, is 3 times the value of Hello timer

In EIGRP, the Hello Interval and Hold Timer may change on a per-interface basis by applying ‘(config-if)#ip hello-interval eigrp ASN TIMER’ or ‘(config-if)#ip hold-time eigrp ASN TIMER’, where TIMER is the value you would like to configure the timer.
Note: hello and hold timer are independent of each other. Changing the Hello timer wont’ change the hold timer for the same EIGRP process on the same interface.

If 2 routers (in a neighbor relationship) has different Hello and Hold Timer, with R1 having the smaller values, R2 MUST have a Hello Timer less than R1’s Hold Timer. This way, before R1’s Hold Timer expires, R2 will be able to send Hello messages to R1, to maintain their neighbor relationship.
However, if the timer values differ, and R2 has a Hello Timer greater than R1’s Hold Timer, the neighborship continues to fail and recover, flapping routes in and out of routing table.

Why is this so? This is because EIGRP has no Hello Timer field for any packet they send. This means a router only knows its own timer and assumes their neighbors are using the same timer value. You can see this from a simple lab.

(Image Capture provided by NetBrain’s Free Personal Edition, but check out more powerful products such as our Operator’s Edition and Architect’s Edition)

As you can see, R1 is configured with Hello timer of 10 seconds and hold timer of 20, while R2 is configured with Hello timer of 7 and Hold timer of 28. However, only Hold timer value is transmitted to neighbor.

Introducing NetBrain’s Lab Network

Here at NetBrain Technologies, we wanted to give our potential customers the ability to try our software without having to commit to an on-premise evaluation. Now, you have the opportunity to test run NetBrain Workstation instantly.

With a NetBrain instant trial you’ll have full access to Operator Edition’s powerful features (such as network diagramming, visual network troubleshooting, network design, etc.), without running into any holdups that may be associated with trying it in your own network environment. With access to our configured lab network you can try NetBrain in minutes.  Be able to automatically identify and map up to 2000 connections in under 60 minutes.

Just follow these basic steps to try NetBrain (30 day FREE Trial) today:

Step 1: Download NetBrain Operation Edition
Step 2: Install Operation Edition to your computer
Step 3: Access the NetBrain Lab Network and start your evaluation.

If after your instant trial you’re curious to see how NetBrain works in your own network, submit your request to our sales team.

An experienced account representative will contact you shortly after your request to get your on-premise evaluation up and running.

The Excitement Builds for CiscoLive! 2010

It’s getting toward the end of June already and there’s a buzz and excitement around the office as it’s quickly approaching CiscoLive! 2010. CiscoLive!, an annual IT and networking conference, will be held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 27 – July 1, 2010. For more information about the show, please visit http://www.ciscolive.com.

During the event, we will showcase our latest software innovations including automation of network documentation, visual network troubleshooting and network simulation at booth #849. In addition to running constant demonstrations of one of our hottest products to the networking audience, we will also have a one-on-one demo sessions with attendees that have signed up in advance.

If you plan to attend the show, be sure to stop by and say hello! We may just give you a little thank you gift for showing us your support