Router and Switch Configuration Essay Example for Free

Router and Switch Configuration Essay When installing, setting, and configuring a switch it is important to know what kind of switch is needed and installed in the network. For this purpose I have chosen the Cisco switches main line, which is the Catalyst Switches, which is one of the popular series and models. They include fixed-configuration desktop models, configurable plug-and-play modular chassis models and packages with high-speed buses into which many cards can be inserted. To configure the Cisco Catalyst switch I will use the Visual Switch Manager, which is an IOS command line interface, or I can use the management console. The VSM is tool operated through a web browser interface and the management console is a simple, menus based interface. To access the CLI, the switch’s console port, which is at the back of the switch, must be plugged into a computer terminal or modem with an RJ-45 rollover cable and the appropriate adapter. Then one runs a terminal emulation program, which can be HyperTerminal that comes with Windows, to specify the port to communicate with. It is imperative that the settings of the switch console port and the management station or modem match or you cannot communicate. Assuming the switch and the settings are connected and match you will be shown a User Interface Menu. To move into the CLI, you press the [K] key. When you want to configure the switch using menus you would then press the [M] key (for menu). There are three categories of information which make up the console interface: configuration, statistics, and diagnostics. The configuration menu contains information on the current setting of the switch parameters. Many of these parameters are also configurable through the console interface. The second category contains switch statistics information. Through the statistics screens, users can monitor switch performance. The third menu set contains diagnostic/troubleshooting commands enabling field engineers and knowledgeable network administrators to perform simple troubleshooting functions. A factory-configured switch has no password assigned. To add or change the password, use the Password Menu. The Ethernet switch console can be accessed by establishing a telnet connection to port 6 of the terminal concentrator, which is long distance managing. Telnet is a utility used for remotely login to a device. The Cisco switch IOS have different EXEC modes with distinctive prompts. You can use these modes for executing different Cisco switch commands. The Cisco IOS user interface is divided into many different modes. The commands available to you depend on which mode you are currently in. Enter a question mark (? ) at the system prompt to obtain a list of commands available for each command mode. When you start a session on the switch, you begin in user mode, often called user EXEC mode. Only limited subsets of the commands are available in user EXEC mode. For example, most of the user EXEC commands are one-time commands, such as show commands, which show the current configuration status, and clear commands, which clear counters or interfaces. The user EXEC commands are not saved when the switch reboots. To have access to all commands, you must enter privileged EXEC mode. Normally, you must enter a password to enter privileged EXEC mode. From this mode, you can enter any privileged EXEC command or enter global configuration mode. The following are commands and their uses; User EXEC begins the session with the switch and the user prompt looks like this, Switch, use this mode to change terminal settings, perform basic tests, and display system information. Privileged EXEC, while in user EXEC mode enter enable command and the prompt will look like this, Switch#, use this mode to verify commands that you have entered. Use the password to protect access to this mode. Global configuration, while in privileged EXEC mode enter the configure command, the prompt will look like this, Switch (config) #, you use this mode to configure parameters that apply to the entire switch. Config-vlan , While in global configuration mode, enter the vlan vlan-id command, the prompt will look like this, Switch(config-vlan)#, you will use this mode to configure VLAN parameters. When VTP mode is transparent, you can create extended-range VLANs (VLAN IDs greater than 1005) and save configurations in the switch startup configuration file. VLAN configuration, While in privileged EXEC mode, enter the vlan database command, the prompt will look like this, Switch (vlan) #, you will use this mode to configure VLAN parameters for VLANs 1 to 1005 in the VLAN database. Interface configuration, while in global configuration mode, enter the interface command (with a specific interface), the prompt will look like this, Switch (config-if) #, you will use this mode to configure parameters for the Ethernet interfaces. Line configuration, while in global configuration mode, the prompt will look like this, Switch (config-line) #, this will specify a line with the line vty or line console command, you will use this mode to configure parameters for the terminal line. A VLAN is a switched network that is logically segmented by function, project team, or application, without regard to the physical locations of the users. VLANs have the same characteristics as physical LANs, but you can group end stations even if they are not physically located on the same LAN segment. Any switch port can belong to a VLAN, and unicast, broadcast, and multicast packets are forwarded and flooded only to end stations in the VLAN. Each VLAN is considered a logical network, and packets destined for stations that do not belong to the VLAN must be forwarded through a router or bridge. A VLAN comes appears when a local port is configured to be associated with the VLAN, when the VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) learns of its existence from a neighbor on a trunk, or when a user creates a VLAN. A trunk port carries the traffic of multiple VLANs and by default is a member of all VLANs in the VLAN database. To do this one must switch to global configuration mode. To add ports to the VLAN, change to the Interface Configuration mode and use the vlan-membership static vlan# command. When done, you can view the VLANs by typing the show vlan command. To build redundancy and eliminate the creation of multiple broadcast packets, spanning tree protocol (STP) must be configured on the network switches. Spanning tree protocol allows a switch to recognize which switch on the network is handling broadcast requests from other devices on the network. STP is a Layer 2 link management protocol that provides path redundancy while preventing loops in the network, but you can enable STP on only 128 VLANs. Before you configure STP, select a switch to be the root of the spanning tree. This switch does not need to be the most powerful switch, but choose the most centralized switch on the network. All data flow across the network is from the perspective of this switch. Also, choose the least disturbed switch in the network. The backbone switches often serve as the spanning tree root because these switches typically do not connect to end stations. Also, moves and changes within the network are less likely to affect these switches†. You should type show command to show the version of the software for the switches, and then type the set spantree root vlan_id command, in order to set the priority of the switch to 8192 for the VLAN or VLANs that the vlan id specifies. Then you should type the set, spantree portfast mod_num/port_num enable command, in order to configure the PortFast setting on Switches 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17. Issue the show spantree vlan_id command in order to verify that Switch 15 is the root of all the appropriate VLANs.