Switches and routers in the rack

Hi guys,
I am mounting few switches and routers in a rack in our new office. I am new to this and was wondering if I can stack them all on top of each other or need some gap for ventilation?
The rack is in a server room which has proper ventilation and cooling.
Please share your experience. Thanks.

Remember this: Hot air goes up, cooler air goes down.
If you are trying to keep your appliances cool then rack-mounting them on the top is a useless exercise.
I normally rack-mount routers and switches halfway down the rack. I leave 1 RU between them to put cable-management. You can find 2RU cable management if you have thick cables or if you have a 48-port switch.
Another thing: Never, EVER, mix copper cable and fibre optic cable in the same cable management.
When it comes to copper cables, make sure you use "snagless" ones. Also, for the sake of future troubleshooting, make sure you use good brand cables like Panduit or Krone. Don't get "sold" by those cheap copper cables that are reputed to be "tested" and/or "GigabitEthernet ready".

Similar Messages

Email Notifications for Switches and Routers

Dear All,
How may I configure switches and routers to send email notifications when link is UP/Down.
We have Switches - ((C3750-IPBASE-M), Version 12.2(25)SEB4) & Routers - (C2900-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 15.1(4)M3.
Thanks in Advance,
Best Regards,
Taufeeq.

You can use EEM scrip to achieve the same. Just check EEM scripting in the community directory for some examples.
Regards,
Sathvik

Rebooting switches and routers

Is it a good practice to reboot your switches and routers periodically and is there anything gained by doing this??

The only instance in which I would say this is unequivocally a good idea is one in which a known bug is causing, say, a memory leak which, uncorrected, will lead to a system crash. In that case, one would monitor memory usage and schedule preventitive maintenance reboots to forestall an unplanned outage.
Other than something like that, the practice of keeping one's IOS/CatOS relatively current (i.e., at least on a supported release) and analyzing new features for utility in your environment (or, more likely bug or vulnerability fixes) would more likely be the catalyst for introducing a new software version (and thus indirectly requiring a reboot to load the new code).
Hope this helps. Please rate it if it does.

Cisco Prime 2.1.2 auto sync config for switches and Routers

hello Support,
how to configure auto sync config in CPI? when the customer make a changes in the switches and Routers, the customer expect a new version of the configuration in CPI immediately. but we are getting the new version after 10 minutes. if we not configure in the switches and Routers to send syslog we are not getting anything.
where we have to configure in CPI to get the new versions immediately?
thanks!

Make sure you have completed the recommended preparation steps given in Before You Begin Installing the Patch.
If you are not using the Prime Infrastructure High Availability (HA) feature, follow the steps in Installing the Patch instead of the steps below.
If your current Prime Infrastructure implementation has High Availability enabled, follow the steps below to install the patch. You must start the patch installation with the primary server in “Primary Active” state and the secondary server in “Secondary Syncing” state.
Patching of the primary and secondary servers takes approximately one hour. During that period, both servers will be down. If you have trouble at any point, see Troubleshooting Patch Installs in HA Implementations.
Step 1 Ensure that your HA implementation is enabled and ready for update:
a. Log in to the primary server using an ID with Administrator privileges.
b. Select Administration > System Settings > High Availability , The primary server state displayed on the HA Status page should be “Primary Active”.
c. Select HA Configuration . The current Configuration Mode should show “HA Enabled”.
d. The Failover Type must be set to “Manual” throughout the patch installation. If Failover Type is currently set to “Automatic”, select “Manual” and then click Save .
e. Access the secondary server’s Health Monitor (HM) web page by pointing your browser to the following URL:
https:// <ServerIP> :8082
where ServerIP is the IP address or host name of the secondary server.
f. You will be prompted for the authentication key entered when HA was enabled. Enter it and click Login .
g. Verify that the secondary server state displayed on the HM web page is “Secondary Syncing”.
Step 2 Download the patch:
a. Point your browser to the software patches listing for Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.1.
b. Click the Download button for the Release 2.1.2 patch file (pi212_20141118_01.ubf), and save the file locally.
Step 3 Install the patch on the secondary server:
a. Access the secondary server’s HM web page by pointing your browser to the following URL:
https:// <ServerIP> :8082
where ServerIP is the IP address or host name of the secondary server.
b. You will be prompted for the authentication key entered when HA was enabled. Enter it and click Login .
c. Choose the HM web page’s Software Update link. You will be prompted for the authentication key a second time. Enter it and click Login again.
d. Click Upload Update File and browse to the location where you saved the patch file.
e. Click OK to upload the patch file.
f. When the upload is complete: On the Software Upload page, verify that the Name, Published Date and Description of the patch file are correct.
g. Select the patch file and click Install . When the installation is complete, you will see a popup message confirming this.
h. After the installation is complete on the secondary server, verify that the Software Updates page shows:
– In the “Installed” column: A “Yes” opposite the listing for this patch.
– In the “Pending Restart” column: A “Yes” for the secondary server. Do not restart the secondary server at this point.
Step 4 Install the patch on the primary server:
a. Log in to the primary server using an ID with administrator privileges and choose Administration > Software Update .
b. Click Upload Update File and browse to the location where you saved the patch file.
c. Click OK to upload the patch file.
d. When the upload is complete: On the Software Upload page, verify that the Name, Published Date and Description of the patch file are correct.
e. Select the patch file and click Install . When the installation is complete, you will see a popup message confirming this.
f. After the installation is complete on the primary server, verify that the Software Update page shows:
– In the “Installed” column: A “Yes” opposite the listing for this patch.
– In the “Pending Restart” column: A “Yes” for the primary server. Do not restart the primary server at this point.
Step 5 Stop the servers in the following sequence, using the commands explained in Running Commands:
a. On the secondary server, run the ncs stop command.
b. On the primary server, run the ncs stop command.
Step 6 Re-start and monitor the servers in the following sequence, using the commands explained in Running Commands:
a. On the secondary server, run:
– The ncs start command to restart the secondary server. Wait for the processes on the secondary to restart.
– The ncs status command to verify that the processes on the secondary have re-started.
– The ncs ha status command to verify that the secondary state is “Secondary Lost Primary”.
b. Once the secondary server is in “Secondary Lost Primary” state: On the primary server, run:
– The ncs start command to restart the primary server. Wait for the processes on the primary to restart.
– The ncs status command to verify that the primary’s Health Monitor and other processes have re-started.
Once all the processes on the primary are up and running, automatic HA registration will be triggered. This normally completes after a few minutes.
Step 7 Once registration completes, verify the patch installation as follows:
a. Run the ncs ha status command on both the primary and secondary servers. You should see the primary server state change from “HA Initializing” to “Primary Active”. You should see the secondary server state change from “Secondary Lost Primary” to “Secondary Syncing”.
b. Log in to the primary server and access its Software Update page as you did earlier. The “Installed” column should show “Yes” and the “Pending Restart” column should show “No” for the installed patch.
c. Access the secondary server’s Health Monitor page as you did earlier. The “Installed” column should show “Yes” and the “Pending Restart” column should show “No” for the installed patch.

Privilege Levels on FWs, switches and Routers

One question - I am bothered with the privilege level settings.
Is there a default mapping between a priv lvl and teh commands you are allowed to execute or one needs to define that.
EX: I want somebody to only have the right of executing sh run on a device and nothing more.Can this be done?
Thx,
Vlad

I would start by configuring a privilege level and then use the ? to list all the commands available at that level.
privilege level 0 - Includes the disable, enable, exit, help, and logout commands.
privilege level 1 - Normal level on Telnet; includes all user-level commands at the router> prompt.
privilege level 15 - Includes all enable-level commands at the router# prompt.
Commands available at a particular level in a particular router can be found by typing a ? at the router prompt. Commands may be moved between privilege levels by using the privilege command, as illustrated in the example. While this example shows local authentication and authorization, the commands work similarly for TACACS+ or RADIUS authentication and exec authorization (more granularity in control of the router may be achieved with implementation of TACACS+ command authorization with a server.)
Additional details on the users and privilege levels presented in the example:
User six is able to Telnet in and execute the show run command, but the resulting configuration is virtually blank because this user cannot configure anything (configure terminal is at level 8, not at level 6). The user is not permitted to see usernames and passwords of the other users, or to see Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) information.
User john is able to Telnet in and execute the show run command, but only sees commands that he can configure (the snmp-server community part of the router configuration, since this user is our network management administrator). He can configure snmp-server community because configure terminal is at level 8 (at or below level 9), and snmp-server community is a level 8 command. The user is not permitted to see usernames and passwords of the other users, but he is trusted with the SNMP configuration.
User inout is able to Telnet in, and, by virtue of being configured for autocommand show running, sees the configuration displayed but is disconnected thereafter.
User poweruser is able to to Telnet in and execute the show run command. This user is at level 15, and is able to see all commands. All commands are at or below level 15; users at this level can also view and control usernames and passwords.
HTH

Unable to boot a ws-c2960-48tc-l, recovered switches and routers before but this one stuck me.

Any suggestions??
This is where I'm at:
I'm using Secure CRT with a baud rate of 115220
switch: set BAUD 115200
switch: format flash:
switch: copy xmodem: flash:c2960-lanbasek9-mz.150-2.SE6.bin
switch: set BAUD 9600
switch: boot flash:c2960-lanbasek9-mz.150-2.SE6.bin
switch: boot
Loading "c2960s-universalk9-mz.152-1.E2.bin"...c2960s-universalk9-mz.152-1.E2.bin: no such device
or
switch: boot flash:c2960-lanbasek9-mz.150-2.SE6.bin
Loading "flash:c2960-lanbasek9-mz.150-2.SE6.bin"...flash:c2960-lanbasek9-mz.150-2.SE6.bin: magic number mismatch: bad mzip file
Error loading "flash:c2960-lanbasek9-mz.150-2.SE6.bin"

hello thompson318,
most probably the following mentioned error/ messages you are getting is due to bad IOS, the IOS is corrupted, i would suggest you to use another well-known working/ verified IOS and to upload it to the switch using Xmodem...
magic number mismatch: bad mzip file
here is some links for your reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTO5qxti-I
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/routers/2600-series-multiservice-platforms/15085-xmodem-generic.html
please note, if there is no enough space on the flash to handle the new and the old IOS image, i would suggest you to upload old/small IOS to fits into the flash, then you can delete the old corrupted one and to upgrade to new IOS image...
Kind Regards,
/Osama

Switch and Broadcast filtering

I read this article in the cisco curriculum, but I did not understand it well :
" Occasionally, a device will malfunction and continually send out broadcast frames, which are copied around the network. This is called a broadcast storm and it can significantly reduce network performance.
A switch that can filter broadcast frames makes a broadcast storm less harmful.
Today, switches are also able to filter according to the network-layer protocol. This blurs the demarcation between switches and routers. A router operates on the network layer using a routing protocol to direct traffic around the network. A switch that implements advanced filtering techniques is usually called a brouter. Brouters filter by looking at network layer information but they do not use a routing protocol ".
Can the switch filter the broadcast ? Yes, it can,,,,as Cisco says :"This filtering is achieved through the implementation of virtual local-area networks or VLANs ".,,,,,Is there any other type of filtering ?
What is the main difference between router and brouter

hi
if u would like to control the broadcast and multicast storms you can refer the link for configuring the storm control for both broadcast and multicast.
you can define up the values and shut the port if it exceeds the threshold limit..
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/ios124/124cr/hif_r/int_s4h.htm#wp1229258
About the difference between a router and a Brouter afaik BROUTER u use in most of the SP network where you got customers in either DSL or Metro ethernet network where you will have the aggregation of the whole network traffic and from where it will be forwarded to upstream.
It depends on the ios code too which is available to serve the purpose for the same..
you got to have something like 7200 or 7300 in place to serve your purpose of brouter.
regds

Switches and speed

Hello,
I was just wondering if more switches and routers on a network can increase speed greatly (mainly for internet). My design is
IDU -> 8 portDlink switch -> Pix 501 -network
IDU -> 8 portDlink switch -> cisco 2600 series -> catalyst 2950 -network
i also have other switches (e.g 3com, intex) along the way. Does a mixture of different vendors equipment affect the perfomers of others? If i add more switches and routers and stick to Cisco products can/how can i increase spead?
Thanks
D

Hi D,
The fastest speed you'll be able to achieve is a function of the slowest link along a given path. Adding more devices in the path will not help increase speeds. If anything, it may introduce more delay.
HTH,
Bobby
*Please rate helpful posts.

Can you control switch and router access with AD (Kerberos)

I am standing up a small environment with less than 20 switches and I want to configure the authentication so that dedicated Active Directory accounts provide access to the switches. We are not going to be able to put up an ACS box, and I don't want to use RADIUS unless I have to. Since both AD and Cisco support Kerberos, is it possible to us an AD group to control access to my switches and routers?

Sam,
Have you looked at these at Cisco?
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/sec_user_services/configuration/guide/sec_cfg_kerberos.html
Section "Login Authentication Using Kerberos"
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2/security/command/reference/srfindx.html
or these
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/configure-cisco-routers-to-use-active-directory-authentication-the-windows-side/6180954
HTH,
Arnold

DHCP config in switch and router

Hi,
I was wondering if we can configure dhcp in switch and routers such that the IP of device assigned with IP address would change if we assign same static IP to another device in the same network. does cisco support such kind of configuration?
Thanks,
Vish

Consider this (I will not use in a production network): if you statically assign the IP add 192.168.1.1. to the PC both host will detect a uplicate ip address. After this the first host (the one using DHCP) will not renew the lease, instead it send a:
DHCPDECLINE - Client to server indicating network address is already
in use.
DHCP server will offer a new IP address and put the old one in the conflict database.
If you set a very short lease in some way you have the desired behavior but, again, it's nothing I wolud like to use ina production network
A little test with lease 1mnute
*Mar 1 01:31:01.183: DHCPD: DHCPDECLINE received from client 0063.6973.636f.2d63.3230.322e.3164.3234.2e30.3030.302d.4661.302f.30.
*Mar 1 01:31:01.187: DHCPD: Sending notification of TERMINATION:
*Mar 1 01:31:01.187: DHCPD: address 192.168.123.7 mask 255.255.255.0
*Mar 1 01:31:01.191: DHCPD: reason flags: DECLINE
*Mar 1 01:31:01.191:   DHCPD: htype 1 chaddr c202.1d24.0000
*Mar 1 01:31:01.195:   DHCPD: lease time remaining (secs) = 57
*Mar 1 01:31:01.195: DHCPD: returned 192.168.123.7 to address pool DP.
*Mar 1 01:31:01.199: %DHCPD-4-DECLINE_CONFLICT: DHCP address conflict: client 0063.6973.636f.2d63.3230.322e.3164.3234.2e30.3030.302d.4661.302f.30 declined 192.168.123.7.
*Mar 1 01:31:01.207: DHCPD: Sending notification of DISCOVER:
*Mar 1 01:31:01.207:   DHCPD: htype 1 chaddr c202.1d24.0000
*Mar 1 01:31:01.211:   DHCPD: remote id 020a0000c0a87b0100000000
*Mar 1 01:31:01.211:   DHCPD: circuit id 00000000
*Mar 1 01:31:01.215: DHCPD: DHCPDISCOVER received from client 0063.6973.636f.2d63.3230.322e.3164.3234.2e30.3030.302d.4661.302f.30 on interface FastEthernet0/0.
*Mar 1 01:31:01.219: DHCPD: Seeing if there is an internally specified pool class:
*Mar 1 01:31:01.219:   DHCPD: htype 1 chaddr c202.1d24.0000
*Mar 1 01:31:01.223:   DHCPD: remote id 020a0000c0a87b0100000000
*Mar 1 01:31:01.223:   DHCPD: circuit id 00000000
*Mar 1 01:31:01.223: DHCPD: Allocate an address without class information (192.168.123.0)
R1#
R1#
*Mar 1 01:31:03.227: DHCPD: Adding binding to radix tree (192.168.123.8)
*Mar 1 01:31:03.227: DHCPD: Adding binding to hash tree
*Mar 1 01:31:03.231: DHCPD: assigned IP address 192.168.123.8 to client 0063.6973.636f.2d63.3230.322e.3164.3234.2e30.3030.302d.4661.302f.30.
*Mar 1 01:31:03.235: DHCPD: Sending DHCPOFFER to client 0063.6973.636f.2d63.3230.322e.3164.3234.2e30.3030.302d.4661.302f.30 (192.168.123.8).
*Mar 1 01:31:03.239: DHCPD: broadcasting BOOTREPLY to client c202.1d24.0000.
*Mar 1 01:31:03.267: DHCPD: DHCPREQUEST received from client 0063.6973.636f.2d63.3230.322e.3164.3234.2e30.3030.302d.4661.302f.30.
R1#
*Mar 1 01:31:03.271: DHCPD: Sending notification of ASSIGNMENT:
*Mar 1 01:31:03.275: DHCPD: address 192.168.123.8 mask 255.255.255.0
*Mar 1 01:31:03.275:   DHCPD: htype 1 chaddr c202.1d24.0000
*Mar 1 01:31:03.279:   DHCPD: lease time remaining (secs) = 60
*Mar 1 01:31:03.279: DHCPD: No default domain to append - abort update
*Mar 1 01:31:03.283: DHCPD: Sending DHCPACK to client 0063.6973.636f.2d63.3230.322e.3164.3234.2e30.3030.302d.4661.302f.30 (192.168.123.8).
*Mar 1 01:31:03.283: DHCPD: broadcasting BOOTREPLY to client c202.1d24.0000.

FlexConnect local/central switched and Access-Accept Packets

For our branch offices’s wireless access, we would like to use FlexConnect with one SSID and two distinct user profiles:
• Full network access, local switched.
• Limited network access, central switched:
◦ To isolate traffic from the branch’s LAN.
◦ To force traffic through a firewall at the central site.
▪ To ease access rules management.
◦ Internet access only by default.
▪ Internet access is located at the central site.
▪ We expect to manage some exceptions to the rule.
We know that it’s not possible to switch from local to central switched using the same SSID with FlexConnect and AAA Override.
However, we found an interesting bit in the documentation pages regarding RADIUS attributes:
Authentication Attributes Honored in Access-Accept Packets (Airespace)
VAP ID
This attribute indicates the WLAN ID of the WLAN to which the client should belong. When the WLAN-ID attribute is present in the RADIUS Access Accept, the system applies the WLAN-ID (SSID) to the client station after it authenticates. [...]
Source:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/7-6/configuration/guide/b_cg76/b_cg76_chapter_0101000.html#reference_327F94A40AAE46E48153B265E521DDCF
We then made an assumption that the following was possible:
• Create a second SSID
◦ Broadcast not enabled
◦ Central Switched
• Users would authenticate using the first SSID
• In it’s access-accept packet, the RADIUS server would return an
Airespace-WLAN-Id attribute with the value of the second SSID.
• The WLC would then assign the second SSID to the users so they’re central switched and forwarded through the firewall at the main site.
So far, our tests showed no results.
• Is that solution achievable at all? It seemed so from the documentation, but we haven’t found any documented evidence that someone actually tried it.
• If not, what would you recommend?
For RADIUS, we are using Microsoft 2012r2 NPS servers. Everything’s been working fine with them so far. We can do AAA vlan override for our main site and with FlexConnect also, without any problems. What’s not working is the local/central switched scenario we’re trying to pull off. The RADIUS server sends the Airespace-WLAN-Id attribute from what I see with Wireshark, but the WLC does not seem to react to it like I thought it would. I couldn’t find a debug command that would tell me what the WLC does with the attributes from the access-accept packet. Maybe the behaviour I’m experiencing is to be expected, that’s what I would like to know.
Thank you very much,

Your WLAN is defined with as centrally switched or locally switched, AAA override will not chage that value. AAA attributes can change a users vlan, acl and QoS. The other attributes are intended to use for rules... example:
Is the user part of this AD group and is this user on WLAN ID=1.
You will not be able to go from centrally switched to locally swithed and vice versa. I don't know how you would be able to achieve what your trying to acomplish with one SSID to be honest.

Cisco Switches and Dell EqualLogic PS series integration

Scanrio: In head office there is Dell EqualLogic PS series and in branch also same for replicaiotn from head office to branch i want to know the ios feature set of Switch and Router.

If the Dell EqualLogic systems are using iSCSI to communicate there is no specific feature required on the Cisco gear. The Cisco gear will pass iSCSI traffic just like any other IP traffic.
Make sense?
Cheers,
Brad

Normal config for uplinks to switches and core

Hi all, can anyone tell me the way most people set up there uplinks between switches, and uplinks to the core, ie do you use uplink fast, backbone fast etc ?
thanks

Yes, we normally use uplink fast for the link from distribution layer to core layer switch; and use backbone fast between core switches.
However, you can use Rapid STP (RSTP) now for all links. Check below for info and examples :
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps628/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a00800d84bc.html
Hope this helps.

PoE switch and Compact Fieldpoint

Hello all... Is it possible to connect my Compact Field Point Controller to a PoE switch (Power over Ethernet Switch)??? This is because some other devices on the same subnet require PoE (IP cameras) and I wanted to know if this can cause some sort of problem with my Cfp... Should I connect the Compact Fieldpoint to a regular switch and connect that switch to the PoE switch??
Let me know any suggestions...
Thanks a million in advance,

Hi Jaime!
Currently there are only certain products that support the PoE standard, unfortunately the cFP family is not one of them. The best you can do is connect your cFP to a switch and then to the PoE switch like you said and check if that works. Here is the document where the PoE and NI products are described:
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/9847
Hope this helps!
Have a great day!!!

I have just switched on my new 5s and gone through the intro sections. After entering my apple id, I selected the icloud update I wanted it to use (from my 4s). It is now stuck on the progress bar screen. What can I do?

I have just switched on my new 5s and gone through the intro sections. After entering my apple id, I selected the icloud update I wanted it to use (from my 4s). It is now stuck on the progress bar screen and has been for hours. Can I get it back to the original settings? I want to set it up as a new phone, until I can get on to a better wi-fi signal. Any help would be great.

Greetings,
I've never seen this issue, and I handle many iPads, of all versions. WiFi issues are generally local to the WiFi router - they are not all of the same quality, range, immunity to interference, etc. You have distance, building construction, and the biggie - interference.
At home, I use Apple routers, and have no issues with any of my WiFi enabled devices, computers, mobile devices, etc - even the lowly PeeCees. I have locations where I have Juniper Networks, as well as Aruba, and a few Netgears - all of them work as they should.
The cheaper routers, Linksys, D-Link, Seimens home units, and many other no name devices have caused issues of various kinds, and even connectivity.
I have no idea what Starbucks uses, but I always have a good connection, and I go there nearly every morning and get some work done, as well as play.
You could try changing channels, 2.4 to 5 Gigs, changing locations of the router. I have had to do all of these at one time or another over the many years that I have been a Network Engineer.
Good Luck - Cheers,
M.

Switches and routers in the rack

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