CCIE Routing and Switching v4.0: Troubleshooting Lab 1 (The Warm-Up)

Date: Dec 12, 2011

This troubleshooting lab has been timed to last for 2 hours and be representative of the format and difficulty of the tasks you are likely to encounter on your CCIE lab exam.

The CCIE exam commences with 2 hours of troubleshooting “tickets” followed by 5.5 hours of configuration and then a final 30 minutes of additional questions. This troubleshooting lab has been timed to last for 2 hours and be representative of the format and difficulty of the tasks you are likely to encounter on your CCIE lab exam.

Ideally, you should work on this exercise for 2 hours and score yourself at that point. Of course, you may continue until you believe you have met all the objectives, but you will need to increase your speed as you near your lab exam.

You now are going to be guided through the equipment requirements and pre-lab tasks in preparation for taking this troubleshooting lab.

If you do not own seven routers and three switches (which have been used to create this troubleshooting lab), consider using the equipment available and additional lab exercises and training facilities available within the CCIE R&S 360 program. You can find detailed information about the 360 program and CCIE R&S exam at the following websites, respectively:

Equipment List

For this troubleshooting lab, you need the following hardware and software components:

Seven routers loaded with Cisco IOS Software Release 12.4 Advanced Enterprise image and the minimum interface configuration, as documented in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1. Hardware Required per Router

Router	Model	Ethernet I/F	Serial I/F
R1	3825	1	1
R2	3825	1	1
R3	3825	1	1
R4	3825	1	2
R5	3825	—	2
R6	3825	—	2
R7	3825	1	2

Three 3560 switches with IOS 12.2 IP Services.

NOTE

The initial configurations supplied should be used to preconfigure your routers and switches before the lab starts.

If your routers have different interface speeds than those used within this book, adjust the bandwidth statements on the relevant interfaces to keep all interface speeds in line. Doing so ensures that you do get unwanted behavior due to differing Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) metrics.

Consider asking a like-minded colleague or friend to load the configurations onto your equipment on your behalf; this will ensure that you do not spot any of the potential configuration issues before beginning the exercise.

Setting Up the Lab

Feel free to use any combination of routers and switches as long as you fulfill the requirements within the topology diagram, as shown in Figure 1-1. However, it is recommended to use the same model of equipment because doing so will make life easier should you load configurations directly from the supplied configurations into your own devices.

Figure 1-1. Lab 1 Topology Diagram

Lab Topology

This troubleshooting exercise uses the topology outlined in Figure 1-1, which you must re-create with your own equipment or by using lab equipment on the CCIE R&S 360 program.

Switch Instructions

Configure VLAN assignments from the configurations supplied or from Table 1-2.

Table 1-2. VLAN Assignment

VLAN	Switch 1	Switch 2	Switch 3
4	Fa0/46, Fa0/47	—	—
14	Fa0/47	—	—
20	—	Gi0/1, Gi0/2	Gi0/1, Gi0/2
27	—	Gi0/1, Fa0/7	—
37	—	Gi0/1	Gi0/1

Connect your switches together with fiber small form-factor pluggable (SFP) connectors or RJ045 Ethernet crossover cables, as shown in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2. Switch-to-Switch Connectivity

Frame Relay Instructions

Configure one of the routers you are going to use in the troubleshooting lab as a Frame Relay switch, or have a dedicated router assigned solely for this task. This troubleshooting lab uses a dedicated router for the Frame Relay switch. A fully meshed environment is configured between all the Frame Relay routers. Pay attention in the lab as to which permanent virtual circuits (PVC) are actually required.

If you are using your own equipment, keep the DCE cables at the frame switch end for simplicity and provide a clock rate to all links from this end.

The Frame Relay connectivity will, after configuration, represent the logical Frame Relay network, as shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3. Frame Relay Logical Connectivity

IP Address Instructions

For this exercise, you are required to configure your IP addresses, as shown in Figure 1-4, or load the initial router configurations supplied.

Figure 1-4. IP Addressing Diagram

Pre-Lab Tasks

Build the lab topology as per Figure 1-1 and Figure 1-2.
Configure your Frame Relay switch router to provide the necessary data link control identifiers (DLCI) as per Figure 1-3.
Configure the IP addresses on each router, as shown in Figure 1-4. Alternatively, you can load the initial configuration files supplied if your equipment is compatible with that used to create this exercise.

General Guidelines

Do not configure any static/default routes unless otherwise specified.
Use only the DLCIs provided in the appropriate figures.
Your own routing metrics do not need to match exactly those shown in the incidents (unless specifically indicated).
Tackle questions sequentially. You might find that one trouble ticket needs to be resolved before moving on to the next ticket. (This might not be the case in your real lab exam, however, which will have a much higher number of devices.)
Get into a comfortable and quiet environment where you can focus for the next 2 hours.
The incident questions list symptoms, explicit validation tests to confirm you have rectified the incident correctly, and any optional constraints ensure you follow these items correctly to maximize your score.
When resolving an incident, do not remove any configured feature. You must resolve the misconfiguration instead of removing a whole configuration. (The only exception to this rule is when there is no other choice than removing the faulty configuration to resolve the incident.)
Have available a Cisco Documentation CD-ROM or access the latest documentation online from http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/psa/default.html?mode=prod.