Here's some of the techniques I've picked up so far,
mostly from Bruce Caslow, Bob Sinclair, Scott Morris,
and from Brian Dennis, however I might have a few
other tricks sprinkled in that I just like a bit.


1. Read the Lab - Yes the Whole Lab. - Now just
reading it is great, since we are excited and all but
what are we looking for?

- Diagrams
- IP Addressing
- Physical Loops
- Logical Loops
- Issues with Split-Horizon

2. Read the Lab again - Yes I know the clock is
ticking. But I can promise you'll find something you
didn't see before and besides the more familair you
are with the layout the better your performance will
be later when you have that headache, yours eyes are
sore, and you are wondering what you came for...

- Again look closely
- Draw your diagrams
- Switch Layout VLANS/TRUNKS
- Spanning-Tree Topology
- Physical Diagram (Link-to-Link and IP's)
- Watch those IP Addresses - Anything wrong?
- Frame Relay Map - P2P, P2M, Phy.
- IGP Diagram per-IGP (note where they meet i.e
Redistribution (Y/N))
- BGP Fiagram
- Mcast Diagram
- Make a Diagram for your points/section

Task Points Y N ?
===========================
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
2.1
2.2
2.3
3.1
3.2
3.3


OK, So you spent about 20 minutes on item number 1 and
another 25-30 minutes on the items in number 2. You
still have not touched your pod.

3. Setup your icons. Now I'm kinda weird here, I work
off of Notepads and I label each one per Device, ie.
R1, R2, R3, S1, S2, S3, etc. I also prefer to work on
one session and only use other sessions when I need
them for testing. However you may like 1 session or
tab per device. You decide.

As you are setting up your icons, you should log into
each device. For a few reasons:

- To be sure you can.
- To do a sh ver - Check the ver AND config-registers
or if on a switch - look for env_vars and in any case
look for other configs that may be there - you don't
need them and they could hurt you.
- To do a sh cdp neigh
- To do a sh ip int brief
- To setup housekeeping commands and/or aliases
- TO VERIFY WHAT IS ON YOUR WORKBOOK IS WHAT IS ON
YOUR RACK - If I yelled it any louder the glass would
break.
- Oh yes, and a quick sh run might be valuable to
determine if any extra configuration is present or
not.
- Sometimes, I may also check anything that is
pre-configured for me. If there are vlans, I might do
a sh vlan, or if there are trunks, I might do a sh int
trunk. If there were pre-configured etherchannels,
I'd perform a cursory sh channel-group command, etc.

What I am really doing is carefully inpsecting
anything that they gave me... Not that I do not trust
the proctors, but hey...

- config cdp on eveything - even frame, especially
frame - I like visibility.
- turn on multicast and IPv6 where required -
afterthought but it helps and besides - you did script
it right?

4. Work on your layer 2 configuration and as you do so
- verify link layer connectivity on a per-Link basis.
Here I do things like config my VTP, Trunks,
EtherChannel, assign ports to trunks, config my frame
relay, bridging, fallback bridging, virtual-templates
etc.

Here are the tips for this section.

- Shut down interfaces before configuring things like:
trunks, frame interfaces followed by no fram inv,
interfaces used for etherchannels, etc.

- Create vlans before assigning ports.

- Verify L2 etherchannel, before moving to L3
Etherchannel which we verify as well.

- Verify connectivity to the Backbone. - We may have
to filter here one way or the other. But we need
connectivity first. Hah!


debug is our friend here for anything that even think
it looks out of place.

5. Start configuring my IGP AS's one at a time, and
verify connectivity per AS. router-id's (yes, I use
them for eigrp and ospf).

6. Now configure Redistribution if and where required.

7. OK - Time for a TCL Script.

sh ip alias, notepad, and copy/paste are the tools of
the trade.

Verify connectivity - should not have problems. And
if you do you would fix them here and now.

Run the Switch Macro too...

8. Repeat steps for IPv6 if required.

- Intermission - Might as well reboot - Ensure things
are going great. Ping script.

Note: Some people say before lunch - I say after IGPs.
Just me - I like to make sure things are the way I
want them and I tend to watch the order of the boot as
well and watch for things that are not like I might
like and then I fix them.

9. Quickly complete BGP Connectivity (bgp router-id,
no auto, no sync or not)

10. Quickly enable PIM interfaces.

11. Quickly perform any authentication on a per-link
bassis, adhere to order of operations and then verify
on a per-link and per-AS basis.

13. Ping scripts are working? Right? Try again. Fix
any discrepancies.

14. Pick off easy tasks, SPAN/RSPAN, AUTOINSTALL, NTP,
SYSLOG, RMON, FTP, SSH, CRASHDUMP, NAT/PAT, DHCP,
VRRP, IRDP, GLBP, HSRP, MENU, BANNERS, etc. The fun
and misc stuff.

15. Get Multicast working and testing.

16. Get BGP Advanced Tasks working

17. Get QoS Tasks working - would anything even
remotely filter or break anything - Check anyway. The
Scripts were working before they work now. Only takes
a few minutes.

18. Security - Let's get these guys in place.

19. I know you may have questions. You have
everything you know how to work working. So take a
step back and breathe. Look at your work. Run the
Scripts - BTW some labs may not require full
reachability.

Tunnels, DHCP, NAT, or FHRP may be done earlier if you
think you need them to work.

Ask the proctor any mind-numbing questions.
Go back and work any sections you found difficult or
you skipped or that were ambiguius.