Still Routing Around

I've had a bunch of life changes this year but I'm still here and getting back into the swing of things. I've been primary planning, designing, and implementing LAN technologies the past 18 months. SDN is really starting to take off and I want to ride on the coat tails of it along with data center design.

I'm back to studying CCNP R&S again and it's a lot easier to dig into it with the network experience I've gained compared to my first attempt 4 years ago. I'm only about 1/4th through the FLG Routebook but I plan on keeping a steady past. Network projects and after hours maintenance is a huge killer on persistence along with general life.

My immediate goals have changed a lot but the end goal is to own a business of my own of some sort. I've tried a lot of difference things and experienced a lot of different failures but I plan on pushing on and just work smarter and harder.

Local Route Group is for Winners

There's still a lot for me to learn when it comes to digit manipulation and simplifying dial plans. Last week I read up on local route groups along with practicing it in my lab. It vastly cuts down on the amount of partitions and CSS's needed. As to not copyright this link provides a better explanation:

Local Route Groups

This is something I may keep in my back pocket when we get around to changing the dial-plan configuration on our CUCM.

I have a feeling once I get to CIPT2 and Globalization it may change the way I ever design a dial-plan from scratch.

Voice Lab Fully Functional

It took a lot longer than expected due to life in general; but my voice lab is fully functional. With the current career shift I'll probably be finishing the CIPT1 test and then going back to Routing and Switching. Then after that I'll be moving towards the design certs as my role is now focused on network implementation and design.

I rolled out a few new networks already with my team which includes planning, designing, and implementation. This includes VoIP, wireless, and security so I've been learning a ton. I'm filling all the gaps that's been missing since I was thrown into mainly VoIP from the start.

Anyways I knocked out a lot today:

1. Configured Extension Mobility on my CUCM Servers
2. Created Extension Mobility profiles and logged the users in
3. Re-provisioned HQ PRI to use only 3 channels
4. Configured Partitions and CSS's
5. Configured Route Groups, Lists, and Patterns for both the HQ and Branch site
6. Created Translation Patterns for DID's
7. Configured correct Dial-Peers on PSTN router and Branch Router (HQ Router uses MGCP)
8. Created Corporate GPO on Domain Controller (wanted to relax the default security settings)

Here's a picture of the route patterns I created:

Here's a picture of me testing out a call using a DID:

CUCM LDAP Synchronization Tip

  I finished chapter 4 in the CIPT 1 book along with creating a few labs to go with it. I was stuck with getting LDAP to synch with my domain controller that had Active Directory. For some reason it wouldn't save my settings due to authentication issues. After viewing http://www.markholloway.com/blog/?p=1189 I noticed that the username had @domainname while my username didn't have this info. Once I added this portion LDAP synched and life was good.

Next up is chapter 5 and I still have a few more chapters to go until I finally register a phone!

P.S. Never hit the undo button in Google Blog, it deletes your entire post and there's no way to go back that I know of. Especially since it auto saves ever 2 seconds which can make things even more useless... Super Frustrating

A lot Smoother Installation - VMPlayer Tip

I reinstalled the CUCM Publisher last night and the install went a lot smoother than a few months back when I attempted to install it on ESXi on an old HP server. VMPlayer worked surprisingly well even though it's not as convenient as VM Workstation.

The only issue I ran into was getting connectivity to the network which was a combination of things. It didn't like my trunk port on my switch so I changed it to an access VLAN (VLAN 100) for my server subnet. I also had to play with the VMPlayer network settings, once I changed my VM to following connectivity was established:

Network Adapter Settings:
1. Network Connection set to bridged mode
2. Check mark "Replicate physical network connection state"
3. Select the "Configure Adapters" button
4. Select only the Ethernet port or whatever port you use for connectivity, un-select the others.

Tonight I plan on installing the Subscriber and I have to get my hands on Unity Connection still from some where. I have a CUPS 6.0 DVD so hopefully that works when the time comes. At some point I need to run to Walmart or somewhere to pick up a crossover cable, I don't have good tools to make my own.

Rebuilt my Lab with PICS!

Finally got around to rebuilding and configuring my lab again, it's been a very busy year with a lot of changes. I have the majority of the basic configuration finished, I'm using the same design as my last lab before I had to give all of my equipment up. The only thing that I'm missing is a cross-over cable for my Branch IP Phone since I'm connecting it directly to my branch router. I believe this is the reason why it's showing as not connected, at least I hope. I'm using OSPF for the WAN

Not pictured is my beefy work laptop that's 8 core with 24 gigs of RAM or some thing crazy like that. I'm hoping I can get away with VM Player but I may have to go with some of the higher end VM solutions like Workstation or ESXi with a dedicated server if I run into to many snags.

My job role changed pretty drastically and I may not be touching voice as much as I did in the past, I'm being moved to the design and implementation space for my company. There will for sure be enough phone stuff to keep me occupied but it may only be 25% of my workload instead of 80% like my previous gig.

I'm thinking of finishing the CCNP: Voice track and then start moving sideways to CCNP R&S and then the Design tracks. maybe even Data Center stuff depending on how much deeper we get into it at my company.

Knocked out first CIPT1 Chapter

I'm off to a decent start but it could be a little better, I finished up the first chapter out of 16 from the official study guide. I looked around quite a bit and besides the quick reference book there isn't much study material for this exam besides going through one of the training vendors. Once I'm reimbursed for this first test I'm going to invest it into a Skeletek rack with all the goodies like cable management.