Wednesday, May 29, 2013

GNS As Network Interview Tool - Test 1 (Layer-2)

Recently I was interviewing lots of people for a Level-2 Engineer profile. The requirement  was for one of my Enterprise client NOC. The client simply asked me to ensure only quality Engineers get through this. So I decided to change my regular interview pattern this time. I designed a Series of hands on test for this purpose. So here is the Test-1. Though I wrote this for level-2 Engineers to ensure even a rusty CCNP Engineer can qualify this but even I expect a Good CCNA Engineer to pass this easily.




Guidelines
ü  All VLANs are preconfigured.
ü  All passwords are preconfigured.
ü  Verify VLAN database using “ sh vlan-switch brief “ command.
ü  Don’t configure any local user account.
ü  Don’t change default console settings.
ü  Use dummy username “abc” for ssh testing.
ü  There are some configuration faults which you may need to find and fix.
ü  Don’t reload the device without checking with Interviewer.
ü  The given time for test is 35 Mins.
Tasks

Ø  1. Configure all inter switch links as 802.1Q Trunks.
Ø  2. Make sure SW-1 is Root Bridge for VLAN 10 , SW-2 is Root Bridge for VLAN 20 , SW-3 is Root Bridge for VLAN 30
Ø  3. Confi gure the inter switch links between R1 & R2 , R1 & R3 so that none of the link is in spanning tree block state.
Ø  4. Make sure all switches are able to telnet each other. Use password as " cisco " whenever required. Management IPs are as Followed:
SW-1 > 1.1.1.1/24
SW-2 > 1.1.1.2/24
SW-3 > 1.1.1.3/24
Ø  5. Configure SW-1 so that it allows SSH connection for management in INBOUND direction. Make sure when you SSH from SW-2/SW-3, you are able to get SSH login Prompt.
 Example:

 

Ø  6. Enable SNMP environmental monitor traps on SW-2 to ensure traps are generated for High Temperature & Fan failures for example. The traps should be sent out to NMS Address “1.1.1.250”. Use community value as “ cisco “ if required.
Ø  7. Create a SPAN (AKA Port Mirroring) session with source interface as Fa1/5 on SW3. The SPAN Destination is Fa1/6

GNS Initials & Topology - http://www.4shared.com/rar/Zhou26u3/L2_Section.html

HTH...
Deepak Arora
Evil CCIE
at

6 comments:

  1. PraveenJune 5, 2013 at 6:36 PM

    can we expect few more task like this

    ReplyDelete
  2. KrishnaJune 6, 2013 at 5:20 PM

    Deepak,

    I downloaded the topology file.

    Can you please tell me how to open it up in GNS3?

    How switching will work in GNS3.

    Krishna

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2014 at 9:39 AM

    Appreciate this post. Let me try it out.

    Check out my blog

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownAugust 5, 2014 at 5:29 PM

    Hi Deepak

    To meet with task no -3, i configured ehter-channel between R1 & R2. With this, all links will not be in block state. However not able to ping vlan1 IPs configured on R1 & R2 from R3.

    Regards
    Jagz.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownAugust 5, 2014 at 5:31 PM

    Hi Deepak

    To accomplish task 3 - Confi gure the inter switch links between R1 & R2 , R1 & R3 so that none of the link is in spanning tree block state.

    Configured ehter-channel between R1 & R2 to make all links not to be in block state. However not able to ping R1 & R2 vice versa. From R3, able to ping R2.


    Regards
    Jagz

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownAugust 5, 2014 at 5:35 PM

    Hi Deepak

    To accomplish task 3- Confi gure the inter switch links between R1 & R2 , R1 & R3 so that none of the link is in spanning tree block state.

    Configured Ether-channel between R1 & R2, R1 & R3. However not able to ping R1 to R2 vice versa. Able to ping from R3 to R2 where ether-channel was not configured.

    Regards
    Jags

    ReplyDelete