Cisco Network Assistant

Automatic Topology Creation via CDP

So today I've finally played around with Cisco Network Assistant which is essentially the same as the Cisco Configuration Assistant that's used to configure the UC500 device. For all the people studying for the CCNA:Voice, I'm sure you're well aware that Cisco Configuration Assistant is mentioned quite a bit during the UC500 chapter. It was good to get at least somewhat exposed to the software as I didn't want to shell out the money to buy a UC520 just to learn the few basics of configuring it.

Configuring Switch Port Settings through 2D GUI

I went through all the various tabs i could find and I will admit that it's a lot more feature rich than what i expected, especially if you're connecting a a compatible CCA Cisco device to it, such as the UC520. Tomorrow's lab will consist of configuring FXS connectivity using the following lab diagram:

Verifying FXS Connectivity Lab 5-1

I will say that the IP Telephony CME Labs are quite handy as it's teaching me different ways to manipulate the CME features in different environments.

Be careful of the IP Route command on a Switch Pt. II

As I was making a frozen pizza (don't laugh!) it hit me that I believe the reason I couldn't ping any of the other VLAN's was because the ip route command turned my switch into a L3 capable device. I didn't tell my switch how to get to the other subnets via a static route/dynamic route since it was now basically a router as well. It could reach the router still because it was on the same subnet 10.1.0.0 /24.

I didn't have time to test this theory but I'm 90% positive this was the issue!

Be careful of the IP Route command on a Switch

Well I decided to tear down my current voice lab and rebuild it as i work my way through the "IP Telephony Using CallManager Express Lab Portfolio" workbook. One of the labs I was working on required me to create RoAS (Router on A Stick) and I had everything configured and for some strange reason I couldn't ping between the other VLAN'S. This was due to having the ip route command configure by accident on my switch. I'll be honest and admit that I'm not quite sure how this effects routing quite yet, if you know feel free to leave a comment.

A colleague at my current job ran into the exact issue as he was making some IP address range changes on one of our remote sites. He was lucky and was able to have someone on site connect a console cable for him to connect back to the switch to remove the command. While all the devices stayed up he lost connectivity to the switch completely.

In other news I FINALLY scheduled my CCNA:Voice test for January 4th! I really need to pass on the first go round as the cut off date for IIUC is Febuary 28th and then it switches to the ICOMM series.