Using Cisco ASA NAT to Translate Outbound DNS Lookups to OpenDNS

So you have decided to use Cisco Umbrella or OpenDNS as your recursive DNS. Good choice! You update your internal DNS servers to point to 208.67.222.222.

All done, right?

Then you check your firewall logs and notice there are devices sending DNS queries directly to public DNS servers. How can you force those devices to use 208.67.222.222?

With NAT!

First you need to identify which external DNS servers are being used. Then you need to NAT DNS requests to those external DNS servers to the OpenDNS server.

Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.1 - Upgrade VMware Tools

Cisco Prime Infrastructure includes a built-in evaluation license valid for 60 days and 100 devices. You can download the virtual appliance from the Cisco Promotional Software Store. I am running this in my lab on a VMware ESXi 5.5 host.

After I installed and configured Prime Infrastructure (PI) vSphere Client reported the PI vm was running an outdated version of VMware Tools. To upgrade VMware Tools you need to enable root access on the PI appliances, then follow the VMware instructions for "Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Linux Virtual Machine".

Step 1 - SSH into the appliance and login.

Step 2 - Enable root shell and set the password, then log into root


lab-prime/admin# root_enable
Password :
Password Again :
Root enabled
lab-prime/admin#
lab-prime/admin# root
Enter root password :
Starting root bash shell ...
!

Step 3 - On the VMware host, enable Interactive Tools Upgrade. Right click the VM, Guest, Install/Upgrade VMware Tools, and select Interactive Tools Upgrade.

Step 4 - Back in the ssh windows, mount vmware tools and copy to /tmp

ade # mkdir /mnt/cdrom
ade # mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
mount: block device /dev/cdrom is write-protected, mounting read-only
ade # cd /mnt/cdrom
ade # ls | grep VMware
VMwareTools-9.4.0-1280544.tar.gz

ade # cp VMwareTools-9.4.0-1280544.tar.gz /tmp
ade # cd /tmp
ade # ls | grep VMware
VMwareTools-9.4.0-1280544.tar.gz

Step 5 - untar the file and run the install

ade # tar zxvf VMwareTools-9.4.0-1280544.tar.gz
ade # cd vmware-tools-distrib/
ade # ./vmware-install.pl


From here just accept the defaults.

Attending Cisco Live 2014 Online

I am not attending Cisco Live San Francisco this year, or should I say, I won't be in San Francisco for Cisco Live 2014. I wanted to share some information on Webcasts and Broadcasts available to anyone not attending.

Anyone can sign up for a free ciscolive.com account. This is also often referred to as Cisco Live 365. Simply go to Ciscolive365.com and create an account. Once your account is created and you login here is what you see:

The On-demand Library is where you can find PDFs of all the breakout sessions. Yes that's correct, you can download any and all the PDFs for Cisco Live!!

But wait there's more... Every session is video recorded. Soon these videos will be uploaded right here. This year Cisco has Fastracked Sessions  "A link to early release, on-demand videos of selected session will be posted here each night of the conference on May 20, 21 & 22. "

The lat section of ciscolive.com I wanted to share is the Online Events. After clicking Online Events, you see a schedule of events. If you click details on an event they provide the WebEx information and you can download the iCalendar File to add the event to your calendar. Or if you want all of the online events in your calendar, you can select "1. Subscribe to our calendar"

Finally, follow the fun from the twitters. #CLUS

-Bill Carter
CCIE 5022

Book Review: End-to-End QoS Network Design, 2nd Edition

As a Network Consultant and CCIE 5022, I have worked with Cisco QoS since, frankly, the beginning of QoS (yes I am old). I have been eagerly awaiting this books release. In the two weeks, I have had this book; I have already referred to it several times to gain additional insight. This book is an all-encompassing presentation and tutorial on Cisco Quality of Service (QoS).

The book flows very well. A reader new to QoS can start at the beginning and build up to the design strategies and product specific sections. Those more experienced, can fast forward to the more advanced sections. The authors have done a tremendous job explaining the foundational architecture and concepts of QoS, and the flow and syntax of Cisco's Modular QoS Command-line (MQC).

The opening section, “Part 1: QoS Design Overview” (Chapter 1 – 9) layout the history of QoS, including the evolution of IETF RFCs, and the QoS implementation tools. The chapters build on each other, and do a great job of introducing a topic, then diving deeper into the details. Each of these chapters starts with a ‘Terminology’ section. This has the nice effect of clearly defining the chapters’ concepts.

The next section, “Part II: QoS Design Strategies” offers a discussion of business and application QoS requirements and thoroughly explores the overall design principles and implementation strategies. Applications covered include voice, broadcast video, multimedia conferencing, and mission-critical data applications. Within this section are my favorite nuggets… The design best practices and recommendations.

The remaining sections provide comprehensive design and configuration information on campus networks (Cisco Catalyst switches), traditional wireless networks, and new ‘Converged Access’ wired and wireless networks (Catalyst 3850, and Cisco 5760 WLC).

Of particular help to me was the Data Center QoS section. On the Cisco web site, Nexus QoS design and best practices information is lacking. This section fills this void and provides great information on the QoS hardware architectures and configuration. The covered platforms are Nexus 7000, 5500, 2000 and 1000v. Great stuff!

The final sections explore WAN, VPN and Branch QoS. I was pleasantly surprised with the inclusion of the Cisco ASR 1000, ASR 9000, and Cisco CSR.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone working with Cisco infrastructure. QoS is intimidating; however, this book is a tremendous resource that will ease your anxiety.

This book is kept in my cubicle and is already filled with highlights, notes in the margin, and many dog-eared pages.

End-to-End QoS Network Design 2nd Edition at Cisco Press

Cisco ASA Static NAT Multiple Global IPs to Single Real IP

I am finally getting comfortable with Cisco ASA Object NAT introduced with software version 8.3. I like that ACLs use the real IP address not the global/translated IP Address.

I am still struggling when in the CLI trying to parse the different elements of the of the object because there are two "object network XYX" references in the configuration, one for the host and one for the NAT mapping.

Now on to the NAT fun....

I had an interesting Static NAT configuration scenario with Cisco ASA software version 9.1(1) recently. A customer has a domain registered and hosts their own public DNS servers. Originally they had two Authoritative Name Servers (NS) with different IP Addresses.

NS1
Public IP X.X.X.1
Private IP Z.Z.Z.1

NS2
Public IP X.X.X.2
Private IP Z.Z.Z.2

The ASA had the standard object with static nat translations:

object network inside-NS1
 host Z.Z.Z.1
 nat (inside,outside) static X.X.X.1
!
object network inside-NS2
 host Z.Z.Z.2
 nat (inside,outside) static X.X.X.2


They wanted to decommission the NS2. The NS records with the Internet Domain Name Registrar where updated, NS2 was powered off, and object inside-NS2 NAT and access list references was removed from the ASA configuration.

After a few days I saw in the ASA logs, packets blocked for DNS requests to X.X.X.2/Z.Z.Z.2. Since there was no long a real server at Z.Z.Z.2 I could not recreate the NAT translation.

I found Cisco documentation for Static NAT with One-to-Many. This allows for multiple public/global/outside IP addresses to be mapped to a single real/internal address.

1st we have to remove the remaining NS1 translation

object network inside-NS1
 host Z.Z.Z.1
 no nat (inside,outside) static X.X.X.1

2nd we create the object range for the global/outside addresses

object network outside-ns1-ns2
 range X.X.X.1 X.X.X.2

3rd we add a new nat statement

object network inside-ns1
 host Z.Z.Z.1
 nat (inside,outside) static outside-ns1-ns2

The nice thing about this solution is how it handles traffic flows. When Internet traffic sent to X.X.X.1, the returning traffic has a source IP of X.X.X.1, and Internet traffic sent to X.X.X.2, the returning traffic has a source IP of X.X.X.2.

Cisco ASA One to Many Static NAT

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For this post:
 X.X.X.# = external, public, Internet routable IP Addresses
Z.Z.Z.# = internal, private, IP Addresses.

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References:
Cisco Support Forums ASA 8.3 Upgrade - What You Need to Know
Cisco ASA CLI Configuration Guide, 9.0

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Meraki and the The Cisco Cloud Networking Group

I think this is the most interesting part of the acquisition;

"Cisco’s strategy is to take Meraki’s cloud platform and business model and scale this within Cisco as our new Cloud Networking Group, led by Sanjit, John, and Hans."

I wonder if any existing Cisco groups will be moved into the Cloud Networking Group.

Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Meraki

Hilton Romanski | November 18, 2012 at 5:34 pm PST

Cisco is dedicated to innovation as the path to growth as well as the key to sustaining our market leadership position. Our build, buy, partner strategy has always been driven by customer need and on capturing market transitions.

Today, we are excited to announce an important acquisition that addresses the rapidly occurring shift to cloud networking as a key part of Cisco’s overall strategy. San Francisco-based Meraki, a leader in cloud networking, offers customers on-premise networking solutions that are centrally managed from the cloud.

When compared to other opportunities, Meraki built a unique cloud-based business from the ground up that addresses the broader networking shift towards cloud, not just within wireless. Meraki created a massively scalable architecture that offers easy to deploy, secure, and manage networks. They didn’t obsess about the number of features, but instead focused on those that could be simplified or removed entirely.  Customers liked what they saw, and today they are supporting 20,000 customers and hundreds of thousands of network devices on their cloud platform. This has resulted in a business that is growing exponentially with great margins.

Talent is one of the most important components of every Cisco acquisition. Meraki’s co-founders, Sanjit, John and Hans, are true visionaries and leaders. The founders began with the technology, and then experimented with different markets -- pivoting from a research project at MIT to a municipal Wi-Fi company to a leading cloud networking company focused on the midmarket. Along the way, they recruited experts and created a culture in San Francisco that attracted great talent. They have focused this team around a business model that combines a rapid development methodology tightly linked to a go to market engine.

During the course of our interactions, we quickly realized that Cisco and Meraki’s shared a vision of accelerating the adoption of cloud within networking as a means to simplify operations and enable new network applications. Sequoia Capital, an early investor in Cisco, also recognized the strength of the people at Meraki, and it’s great to see the technology ecosystem come full circle.

The Meraki acquisition is another example of Cisco’s focus on accelerating our adoption of software based business models. In fact, Cisco’s last seven acquisitions (Cloupia, vCider, ThinkSmart, Virtuata, Truviso, ClearAccess and NDS) have all been software companies. Cisco’s strategy is to take Meraki’s cloud platform and business model and scale this within Cisco as our new Cloud Networking Group, led by Sanjit, John, and Hans.

I am delighted to welcome the Meraki team to the Cisco family, and look forward to a prosperous and industry-transforming future together.

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Cisco Unity vs. Unity Connection - Installation and Recovery Times

Billy Carter Post Unity Restore

For several years Cisco has offered two Unified Communications voice messaging products. Unity, built on Windows Server, Exchange (or Lotus Domino), and MS SQL, and Unity Connection built on Linux and Informix.

I just spent 12 hours restoring a Cisco Unity system and thought this would be a good time to discuss the installation and disaster recovery process. I will skip the configuration steps to integrate with the phone system, create voice mail users, etc.

Overview of the Cisco Unity Installation Process

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I have been building Cisco Unified Communications Systems (or VoIP systems for the ol'timers) since 2000. Regular Unity has always been a complicated and comprehensive installation. There are many steps including things like "click options 2,3 and 5", "before proceeding to the next step, install this patch on the Exchange server", "if the Partner Exchange server is version 20XX, install Engineering Special ES9".

There is really four installations; Windows Server install, MS SQL install, messaging platform install (either full Exchange for Voice mail only, minimal Exchange components for Unified Messaging, or Domino), and finally the Unity application install.

Thankfully Cisco provides separate Cisco Unity Installation Guides or each option. I have to say, after 12 years of Unity Installations, I still always have the guide right in front of me:

1. Unity Unified Messaging Configuration with Exchange (with Failover Configured)
2. Unity Unified Messaging Configuration with Exchange (without Failover Configured)
3. Unity Voice Messaging Configuration with Exchange  (with Failover Configured)
4. Unity Voice Messaging Configuration with Exchange  (without Failover Configured)
5. Unity Unified Messaging Configuration with IBM Lotus Domino (with Failover Configured)
6. Unity Unified Messaging Configuration with IBM Lotus Domino (without Failover Configured)

All of the guides have you install the operating system, SQL, and messaging backend, then they all have to be patched. The Cisco Unity Server Updates wizard automatically installs recommend updates. Depending on the server model, this step takes 1.5 to 2 hours (Prior to the wizard, this was a manual process that often included 93 reboots and took 4 to 8 hours.)

Now that the core components are installed, but before installing the Unity software, the Active Directory scheme is extended and special AD accounts are created (unityinstall, unityadmin, unitydir, and unitymsg).

The Permissions Wizard is run to give these new accounts special permissions in Active Directory. Then you have to manually delegate Exchange Administrative control to some of the special Unity AD accounts. In my experience, 90% of the time when Unity fails to work properly after installation, it is due problems with the Unity accounts and permissions not being properly assigned.

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Note - You can see there is extensive changes made to Active Directory, and the Unity accounts have some significant and powerful rights to Active Directory. This DOES make the AD administrators nervous (as it should). After installation, if the Unity AD accounts have some permissions removed, it will break Unity.

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Finally the Unity software is installed and connected to the messaging environment.

Total Unity Installation Time: 8 to 16 Hours

Overview of the Cisco Unity Connection Installation Process

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There is a single Cisco Unity Connection Installation Guide per Unity Connection version. The installation is very simple:

1. Put the installation DVD in the server and boot it up
2. Follow the installation wizard to set IP Addressing, Primary DNS, NTP, Time Zone, DHCP settings, SMTP hostname, and X.509 Certificate information. 
3. Set the application and operating system usernames and passwords
4. Identify if the server is the 1st server in the cluster.
5. To install a Unity Connection High Availability server, follow steps 1-4, but mark the systems as the 2nd server in a cluster and enter the information about the 1st system.
6. Patch the system buy uploading the single update file and click install.
7. If using Unified Messaging following the configuration steps.

Total Unity Connection Installation Time: 1 to 1.5 Hours

Overview of Cisco Unity and Unity Connection Restore Process

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Unity uses the Disaster Recovery Tool (DiRT). DiRT allows you to back up and restore a Unity system. It is very important the exact same version of DiRT is used to backup and restore.

Cisco Unity Restore Process:

1. You should already have run a DiRT backup and stored the files off-box
2. Follow the complete installation process from above (8-16 hours). The version of Unity installed must be the EXACT SAME version that was backed up (major version and Engineering Specials)
3. Install and run DiRT restore (30 minutes to 1 hour)

Cisco Unity Connection Restore Process:

1. You should already have run the Disaster Recovery System backup
2. Follow the complete installation process from above (1 to 1.5 hours). The information entered in installation steps 2 and 3 must be the same.
3. The version of Unity Connection installed must be the EXACT SAME version that was backed up (major version and updates)
4. Sign into the Disaster Recovery System and run the Restore Wizard (~30 minutes)

Summary

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Unity Connection has several advantages over Unity:

1. Much faster installation process, thus much shorter RTO
2. Automated installation eliminates many steps which could break the system
3. Less dependent on the Active Directory and Messaging environment
4. Almost complete feature parity with Unity (Cisco says they almost have feature parity, but I can find any features missing that I or my customers want). In fact Unity Connection has many features not available on Unity
5. Unity Connection is under active development with new features every release while Cisco has announced Unity End Of Life
6. Its just an easier system  

What do you think about Unity vs. Unity Connection?

Cisco Configuration Tip - 3rd Party SFP Modules

It is possible to use non-Cisco SPF modules in a Cisco Catalyst switch. By default this is forbidden not allowed, but a top secret hidden command can make this happen.

switch(config)#service unsupported-transceiver
switch(config)#no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid

In the SFP modules EEPROM, a Serial Number, Vendor Name & ID, Security code and a CRC. The switch reads these values and if they are not "Cisco" values reports an error such as:


%PHY-4-UNSUPPORTED_TRANSCEIVER: Unsupported transceiver found in Gi1/0/1
%GBIC_SECURITY_CRYPT-4-VN_DATA_CRC_ERROR: GBIC in port 65538 has bad crc


The official position from Cisco is:

Q. Do the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series Switches interoperate with SFPs from other vendors?
A. Yes, starting from 12.2(25)SE release, the user has the option via CLI to turn on the support for 3rd party SFPs. However, the Cisco TAC will not support such 3rd party SFPs. In the event of any link error involving such 3rd party SFPs the customer will have to replace 3rd party SFPs with Cisco SFPs before any troubleshooting can be done by TAC.

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Cisco Press eBook Deal of the Day


Billy Carter

Cisco Configuration Tip - Command Macro To Change IP Address

Remotely changing an IP address on a Cisco router or switch, or moving an IP from one interface to another can be a challenge.

Cisco allows you to use macros although I have not really worked with them. rekrowteN has a great blog post about using macros to move an IP address from one VLAN interface to another.

In a previous Configuration Tip I discussed using the reload in/at commands to prevent getting locked out of a router or switch.

In this scenario we need to move the IP Address assigned to interface VLAN 1 to VLAN 10.

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For this tip start by entering reload in 15.


Next we create the macro

conf t
macro name mgmtchange
interface vlan 1
no ip address
shutdown
interface vlan 10
ip address 172.16.1.1 255.255.255.0
no shutdown
@

The "@" signifys  at the end of the macro. To apply the macro enter:

conf t
macro global apply mgmtchange

Once the change is made and you can reconnect don't forget reload cancel.

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Configuring Command Macros


Have you used macro's? What Macro scripts do you use?

Cisco Configuration Tip - Protect Your Tail

I have long been a fan of the Cisco "reload in/at" commands. These have saved my tail a number of times. This enables a brave network engineer to schedule a device reload for either a specific amount of time from now, 15 minutes, or just a specific time such as 11:00pm.

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Protect Your Tail

This has saved my tail a few times when working on a remote device. When changing ACLs or firewall rules there is always the potential of getting locked out. It has also saved me when debug messages flooded a device and I could not get the telnet/ssh session to respond.

Bonus Tip: When I have to debug a router or a switch I open a second telnet/ssh window. The primary window is set to terminal monitor so I can see the messages. In the second window I type in "undebug all" but don't press enter. If the debug messages get out of hand in the primary window, I switch to the second window and hit enter.

 Before making configuration changes, do the following:

copy run start
terminal monitor (so you can see reload countdown warnings
reload in 15

You are now free to make changes. If you get locked out, sit back and wait for the reload.

When you have made changes and still have access type:

reload cancel
copy run start

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Configuration Tricks - Catalyst 4900M with CVR-X2-SFP and 1Gb SFP

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The Cisco Catalyst 4900M is a high performance, low latency, layer-3 switch suitable for Top of Rack 10Gb link aggregation or small data centers server connectivity. eWeek testing validated 320 Gbps throughput, or 16 10G ports running at full line speed with latency of ~2.6 microseconds.

The 4900M chassis includes 8 fixed wire-speed X2 ports. Two half-card module slots can be added for additional ports. Supported modules available are:

• WS-X4920-GB-RJ45 - 20 port 10/100/1000 RJ45
• WS-X4904-10GE - 4 port wire speed 10GE (X2)
• WS-X4908-10GE - 8 PORT 2:1 over subscription 10GE (X2)
• WS-X4908-10G-RJ45 -  8 PORT 2:1 over subscription 10GbaseT

I recently had a situation were we deployed a Catalyst 4900M with the WS-X4920-GB-RJ45 and WS-X4908-10GE modules. The switch needed to connect a 1GB metro Ethernet circuit. No problem, with the 20 port 10/100/1000 module we had it covered...So I thought.

#SMH

The service provider handed off 1GB multi-mode fiber.

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How Do I Connect 1GB Multi-Mode Fiber To This Thing?

WS-X4908-10GE

The WS-X4908-10GE offers 8 10GE ports at a 2:1 over subscribed ratio. A feature of this card is the ability to convert 10GB ports to dual-1GB ports with SFP transceivers.

CVR-X2-SF

The CVR-X2-SFP Cisco TwinGig Converter is installed into an X2 port and 2 SFPs are plugged into the TwinGig






(Note: The CVR-X2-SFP10G can be used to convert a 10GB X2 port into a 10GB SFP+ port)

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Pre-Sales - Cisco Dynamic Configuration Tool

The first step happens in the sales process. Using the Cisco Configuration tool, you choose the WS-X4908-10GE module.

Second, click the "+" next to the 4908 part number, click the "+" next to the Port Group 1, click "SFP options" then choose the GLC part needed.

Now you can't see it, but this adds the CVR-X2-SFP TwinGig Converter Module.

Using this method, the CVR-X2-SFP is included at no-cost. Otherwise the converter sells for $195 list price.

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Installation - Good 'ol CLI

The half-card slot the WS-X4908-10GE is divided into 4 port-groups. 8 ports divided by 4 port groups = 2 ports per group. A command is required to convert a port-group into 1GB ports. Since an entire port-group is converted, two of the X2 ports are switched to 1GB.

The Catalyst 4900M is based on the Catalyst 4500 family of switches. the 4900M carries over the configuration concept of modules. Module 1 is the fixed 8 ports of 10GB, module 2 is the top left slot, and module 3 is the top right slot.

To see the current port-group can be seen with:

4900# show hw-module module 3 port-group
Module Port-group Active                         Inactive
-------------------------------------------------------------
   3        1     Te3/1-2                        Gi3/9-12
   3        2     Te3/3-4                        Gi3/13-16
   3        3     Te3/5-6                        Gi3/17-20
   3        4     Te3/7-8                   Gi3/21-24

To change the configuration the command is:

4900(config)# hw-module module 3 port-group 4 select gigabitethernet

Verify the configuration with:

4900# show hw-module module 3 port-group
Module Port-group Active                         Inactive
-------------------------------------------------------------
   3        1     Te3/1-2                        Gi3/9-12
   3        2     Te3/3-4                        Gi3/13-16
   3        3     Te3/5-6                        Gi3/17-20
   3        4     Gi3/21-24                      Te3/7-8

Next a reboot is required.

We ran into a small caveat. We created interfaces G3/23 and G3/24, connected the 1GB SFP into G3/24 but the interface would not connect. We had to move the 1GB SFP to interface G3/23.

Cisco configuration guide reference.

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Cloud Computing and Data Center Predictions for 2012

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Solid State Drives Go Mainstream 
The terrible flooding in Thailand has caused a shortage in hard drives. Hard drive prices have increased. I expect price increases from SAN manufactures such as NetApp, EMC, HP, and others. These shortages will also increase costs for Cloud Computing providers like Rackspace, Google, and Amazon.

Credit
www.soultravelmultimedia.com 

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, LSI CEO Abhi Talwalker said that companies are turning to solid state drives to relieve some of the hard drive back log. SanDisk, Marvell, and Micron have stated they have seen or expect to see increasing demand for SSD. InfoWorld reported on IDC market research that SSD shipments increased 66% in Q3 with the biggest advances coming from Enterprise (storage and servers) and Client (PCs). Price increases in traditional hard drives will provide a boost to solid state drive adoption rates in consumer PCs and SANs deployed in enterprise and service provider clouds. Also the increasing volume of SSD shipments will be accompanied by lower SSD costs. Look for more SSD in the SANs.

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Hybrid Cloud Computing
In-house solutions such as Cisco Flexpod, VCE, HP Cloud, Microsoft, and others will see accelerated growth as enterprises have seen the benefits of public Cloud Computing but prefer some of the comforts of in-house private Clouds. I expect growth in Hybrid Cloud Computing deployments.

With the Hybrid model specific aspects of IT infrastructure is moved to the cloud. This allows you to mix and match the resources between in-house infrastructure which is difficult to scale and cloud resources that’s scalable and can be provisioned on demand. An example would be a Business Intelligence application where the data is located in-house cloud and the processing is performed in the cloud.

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Data Center Fabric Infrastructure Takes Hold
Cisco, Juniper, and Brocade have been touting the benefits of a data center “Fabric”. In 2012, I expect to see data center fabric networks, running over 10Gb Ethernet, to move from the “early adopter” phase to the “mass adoption” phase. (It could be argued that this is already happening).

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Data Center Bridging (DCB) allows storage and network traffic to be transported across common lossless Ethernet links. Server adapters called Converged Network Adapters (CNA) unify storage and network I/O to FCoE data center switches.

Benefits of a Data Center Fabric infrastructure:

• Consolidated server I/O
• Reduced cabling
• Reduced power consumption
• Increased Virtual Machine mobility
• High-Speed, low latency interconnectivity
• Layer-2 connectivity

What do you think?

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Cisco Overtakes HP in Data Center Market

The global data center infrastructure hit US$26.2 billion in the third quarter of 2011, with Cisco Systems overtaking HP on aggregated revenue to take pole position, according to Canalys.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/cisco-overtakes-hp-in-data-center-market-62303222.htm

In a report released Wednesday, the research firm said worldwide data center infrastructure market grew 2.7 percent from US$25.5 billion in second-quarter 2011. Data center virtualization and consolidation, as part of efforts to migrate to private cloud, data center refresh and optimization project helped drive overall growth.

Industry standard servers remained the biggest part of the market in the third quarter, accounting for 39 percent of total investment, followed by storage at 25 percent, and Ethernet networking at 21 percent, Canalys said.

On an annual basis, industry standard server revenue increased by about 9 percent, but the strongest growth was in server virtualization which rose by approximately 30 percent.

Delving into vendor analysis, in the third quarter, Canalys said Cisco overtook HP to take pole position in the data center infrastructure market, followed by IBM in third position, Dell in fourth and EMC in fifth. In the x86 blade server market segment, Cisco is currently third but is expected to be second to HP by the end of 2012, the research firm predicted.

Cisco UCS-C Servers Rack Mounting Adapter Kit

The Cisco UCS-C Series servers come with a terrific tool-less slide rail kit. The rail kit is compatible with 3/8" square hole and 1/4" round hole racks. The rail kit does not work with 2post racks and threaded hole racks.

I found two adapter kits from The Server Rack.

The Threaded Hole Rack Adapter Kit

The 2Post Rack Adapter Kit

http://www.server-racks.com/ciscos-slide-rail-kit-for-ucs-c200-c210-c250.html

That is all...

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VMware ESXi 4.1 Optimizations for Cisco UC on UCS

In my previous post I discussed the importance of installing the latest version of VMware Tools on UC virtual servers in a Cisco UC on UCS deployment. A second and equally important VMware 'tweak' is disabling Large Receive Offload (LRO) on VMware ESXi hosts.

VMware Knowledge Base Article 1027511 addresses some Linux TCP/IP stacks perform poorly when handling LRO-generated packets. This results in poor TCP performance.

1. Log into the ESXi host or its vCenter with vSphere Client.
2. Select the host > Configuration > Software:Advanced Settings.
3. Select Net and scroll down slightly more than half way.
4. Set the following parameters from 1 to 0:
1. Net.VmxnetSwLROSL
2. Net.Vmxnet3SwLRO
3. Net.Vmxnet3HwLRO
4. Net.Vmxnet2SwLRO
5. Net.Vmxnet2HwLRO
5. Reboot the ESXi host to activate these changes.

Your guest VMs should now have normal TCP networking performance.

References:
http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Disable_LRO
VMware Knowledge Base - KB Article 1027511
Cisco UC on UCS - Don't Forget VMware Tools

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Cisco UC on UCS - Don't Forget VMware Tools

Recently we upgraded a Cisco Unified Communications system running on physical HP servers, to Cisco UCS C-Series rack mount servers. Three days after the upgrade, all of the UC applications slowed down.

When users picked up their phone handset, there was a noticeable delay before dial tone. Delayed dial tone is a classic symptom of an overworked CallManager.

The Cisco UCS C210M2 servers were more than adequate for the load. Each UCS-C210M2 hosted VMware VMs of CallManager, Unity Connection, and UCCX. All of the VMs were deployed using the Cisco prescribed OVA templates.

Cisco UCS C210M2

So what is “VMware Tools”?

According to docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/VMware_Tools:

VMware Tools are specialized drivers for virtual hardware that is installed in the UC applications when they are running virtualized.

Now I understand Drivers. Up to date drivers are a good thing. Docwiki goes on to state:

It is very important that the VMware tools version running in the UC application be in sync with the version of ESXi being used.

Anyone who has read Cisco documentation before should realize, Cisco doesn’t often use the phrase “it is very important”. This is as close as Cisco gets to saying “you have to do this”.
So we installed VMware tools on all of the VMs and the Cisco voice system has been stable ever since.

Cisco has 3 methods for installing VMware Tools on Unified Communications Application VMs dependent on the UC Application version. Visit DocWiki-VMware Tools to find the appropriate method.

Please Note: VMware Tools will have to be re-installed anytime VMware ESXi is patched or upgraded.

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How I passed the CCIE R&S Lab on my 1st Attempt

I am studying for my CCIE Re-Certification. This has re-kindled my interest in many of the “CCIE Lab” study materials out in the Internet. With all of this material available, I wanted to share what I did to pass the CCIE R&S Exam.

I passed the CCIE Routing and Switching Lab 12 years ago on August 26, 1999. I took my lab exam in the beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia. This was one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. I took my exam on a Monday and a Tuesday (yes, back then it was a 2 day exam). My wife accompanied me; we arrived on Saturday and spent a day and a half being tourists.

When people in the “know” realize I am a CCIE I am often asked, “How many attempts until you passed”. My response is “one”. I say this, not to brag, but to give some credibility to what I am sharing.

When I started to study there was no study guides. People who had taken the exam would not talk about the test, even the number of routers they saw. The big rumor was there was a major Frame-Relay component, but no one would talk about this.

I found Bruce Caslow’s book “Cisco Certification: Bridges, Routers and Switches for CCIEs”. This was not a “how to pass the CCIE Exam”; it was a structured road map for preparing for the lab. From this book I discovered and learned how to study technologies inside and out.

I put together my CCIE lab rack. I quickly realized there was no need to constantly change the cabling. I needed a configuration that gave me a Frame-relay Point-to-Point connection and a Point-to-Multipoint connection. If I needed additional interfaces I could use Loopback interfaces. Quick tip, If you have an Ethernet interface, but no switch/hub to plug it into, “keepalive 0” will make the interface come up.

Combining the Caslow book with my own plans I did a couple of things structurally that helped:

• Lab Time
• Monday – Thursday 7:00pm-Midnight
• Saturday or Sunday – 8hr
• Stop Time
• On Monday – Thursdays I had a hard stop time of midnight.
• If I completed my tasks with lots of time to spare, I erased the configurations and did it again
• Otherwise, I used the hard Midnight stop time to pressure me to get it done
• This way I built in the time factor every day
• Typical Study Week
• Each week I had a “topic”
• One week would be OSPF, the next IS-IS, the next IGRP/RIP redistribution into OSPF/EIGRP/RIP/IGRP, the next week BGP
• For the week, I would spend the first two days on the easy stuff.
• The next three days would be “advanced topics
• On Saturday or Sunday for the 8hr session, I would configure the advanced scenarios from the week and add on other topics to fill out my time

To summarize what it took me to pass the CCIE Lab…

• From day 1, I followed a regime that enforced timed deadlines. Every day I was pressured by time
• Each week I focused on a topic learning each and every the nuance
• I didn't have study guides that gave me a long string of “sample” test questions
• I studied each of the protocols in detail to learn how they worked
• I had a relaxing day and a half before my test

-Billy

Comcast, Skype announce partnership - Does this kill Cisco umi?

I found this article by Larry Hettick at Network World. Comcast, Skype announce partnership

Comcast and Skype announced a strategic partnership that will bring HD video calls, audio calls, and messaging to Comcast customers' television sets. The announcement was timed to coincide with the annual National Cable & Telecommunications Association's "Cable Show" held in Chicago.

Under the arrangement, Comcast subscribers will be able to connect to each other and to the global base of Skype users. Video calls from the television using Skype will be able to connect to other TVs, PCs, compatible smartphones or tablets...

The service will be delivered to the HDTV through an adapter box, and it comes with an HD video camera and microphones that sit atop the TV set, along with a specially designed remote control that combines a keyboard for texting, TV controls and audio/visual communication controls. The other calling party does not need any special equipment beyond what is needed to use Skype.

My Networking, Virtualization, Storage, Wireless, et al. Google Custom Search Engine

When I started this blog it had a single purpose. I had discovered the Google Custom Search Engine and I needed a web site to host it. I had become very proficient in structuring Google search to get the results I wanted. However, was primarily limiting these searches to vendor sites.

I found Google Custom Search rand realized I needed a website to host the search engine. So I created my blog billyc5022.blogspot.com

I am now up to 107 sites indexed. I use the Google CSE, everyday, all day. I find great results in my searches without obscure, meaningless sites.

I would like to do two things. #1 invite everyone to try it out. #2 solicit from you which sites I should add.

Please try it out and give me some feedback.

-bill




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Telex Radio Dispatch System Integration with Cisco Unified Communications. Part 3

A reader has asked about our progress with this and it reminded me I haven't talked about our results.

I want to just reiterate what the Telex Radio Dispatch System is.

Telex provides an integration with multiple communications systems. This is commonly used in an environment where dispatchers communicate on multiple communications systems. The Telex C-Soft console provides dispatchers a point and click interface to interact with the various communications systems. Dispatchers can increase or decrease audio volumes from a specific radio system. They can also click on a specific radio system and, through their headset, talk on a particular radio system. The Telex Radio Dispatch System also allows for a phone system integration.

For example, consider an ambulance company. Their ambulances provide services for town A, town B, town C. All these towns communicate on specific radio channels. The ambulance company has radio towers and systems that connect to each radio channel/network. For each radio channel/network/town, Telex has a VoIP adapter that converts the radio communications to VoIP. The Telex system multicasts the audio from the radio system to the dispatchers.

For Cisco centric people, think Cisco IPICS.

We were brought in to integrate a Cisco CallManager phone system with the Telex system.

The primary problem we had was the integration between the physical phone and the Telex C-Soft Dispatch console. The physical integration is provided via in-line adapter connected to the phone (See Part 1). Often a NENA compliant phone is used. Cisco, as well as most other vendors, do not have NENA compliant phones (We later learned NENA compliant phones can cost several thousand dollars a piece). When an inbound call is presented to the dispatcher, they can answer the call by clicking on the appropriate icon on the dispatch console.

We connected a Cisco IP Phone to the Telex in-line adapter. On an inbound call, the dispatcher had to physically press the appropriate button on the phone to answer the call. This would not work, the customer wanted to use the C-Soft Dispatch Console to click and answer the call.

We tried removing a physical phone all together and use the C-Soft SIP phone. This worked ok for receiving calls. The C-Soft SIP phone was configured as a basic SIP phone in CallManager. To place outbound calls, dispatchers had to append @10.1.1.1 (CallManager's IP Address) to every outbound call, either internal or external. I held out hope the SIP client would work, but it looked to me like a freeware no frills SIP softphone. For the customer, this was a no go.

We found a small company in California which produces a box which connects to a physical phone (pretty much any phone) and provides the proper signalling to integrate with Telex (Sorry I don't have the companies name right now, but I can find it on request). With this box, dispatchers could click to answer the call, however C-Soft didn't pickup the audio.

After much troubleshooting we found the phone system needed to generate a tone or a beep when the call was answered to cause C-Soft to "hear" the call and mix the audio. After banging our heads together a co-worker suggested enabling the "call recording tone" on the dispatchers phones. This is normally used to play a tone to callers indicating the call is being recorded. We were not using a call recording system, but playing this tone caused the C-Soft console to recognize the call and mix the audio.

Telex Radio Dispatch System Integration with Cisco Unified Communications. Part 1

Telex Radio Dispatch System Integration with Cisco Unified Communications. Part 2

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