From: Clay K Auch (clauch) (clauch@cisco.com)
Date: Mon Dec 03 2007 - 01:14:58 ART
Hello Mike,
I have been using a method for which I am unable to take credit for, but has worked like a champ in helping me figure out what the heck is going on in any given topology that I may encounter. Bob Sinclair with NMC is the person who helped me learn the fine art of organizing my L2/L3 information. If you ever have the opportunity to meet and work with Bob, you are certainly in for a treat.
The way I approach drawing my own diagrams begins with the physical connectivity (no rocket science yet). I generally begin with four switches (or whatever number of L2 devices is applicable to your practice or real lab) in a window-pane kind of format.
- draw very very light lines for connectivity between the switches
- draw your six routers on either side of the quadrated switches
(3 on either side)
- look at the diagrams that are provided to get your VLAN information
- next to each connection for each router, I usually write a very small
number for each given VLAN and then put a fairly tight circle
around it for visual organization.
- once you have all of your VLANs placed in relation to the interfaces
that connect to each router, you can then begin to figure out exactly
which VLANs need to traverse the trunk links.
- when you go to take your lab, you are provided color pencils. I highly
recommend using one color per VLAN when mapping things out on your
scratch sheet (which they also provide). In the heat of the moment, you
would be surprised at the things you overlook.
At this point, you should have a very good understanding of who needs to talk to who. The other factors that come into play are:
- what are my requirements for trunking (etherchannel, tuning, etc.)
> VLANs (extended range possibly)
> VTP (modes, version, password)
> STP (802.1s/w [MST] or 802.1d or rapid-pvst [aka: 802.1w])
> SPAN/RSPAN (knowing where both src/dst sessions will reside)
> ROOT Orientation (per VLAN or MST Instance)
> Lastly, any other technologies that may impact your configuration.
I would definitely read through the lab to make sure you do not
overlook one small tid-bit of information that causes you to
need to scurry toward to end of the lab to fix something that could
have been caught early in the game.
Once I have my switches mapped out, I usually go directly to the Frame Relay piece of the puzzle to see what the requirements are. Again, get the base of the topology set before introducing other factors into the equation.
> Consult Frame diagram
> Consult any other diagrams that may pertain
> Once you have figured out which protocol will be run over the FR
piece of the puzzle, you can then begin to map out all of the
secondary / tertiary requirements that could possibly bite you
in the end if missed or considered too late in the game.
So, the end result of what I have for a diagram is both the switches as well as the FR connectivity on the same diagram. Having both the FR and the Switches on one diagram can also aid in one's ability to work through QoS, Security filtering, etc.
I will usually make a very quick logical diagram with a regular no. 2 graphite pencil and then use colored pencils to lay out the IGP / BGP domains. A couple of methods that have helped me with respect to this diagram are:
- Write router/switch numbers large on the device for quick reference.
You do not want to be halfway through the lab and realize you applied
your configuration to the wrong router/switch.
- Write cidr notation for each particular segment BIG in your choice
or color. This also forces you to verify the information once more.
- Write filtering details directly to this logical diagram. This serves
two purposes:
1) Reminds me that I need to make sure I perform the filter(s)
2) Helps me not get confused as to which element I am dealing
with at that point in time. Again, it does not take much to
throw candidates off when actually in the hot seat.
Please, all, ... Chime in if I have left something out or if you have additional/another perspective/approach.
HTH
Clay
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of ccie ccie
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 8:56 AM
To: Cisco certification
Subject: Best way to draw own Diagram....
Hi Techcy,
What best way do you guys suggest to draw the own diagram. Do guys create own your diagram as Physical, L2, L3 etc or just add things in given diagram. If this is answered before i will do my search in GS more extensively.
Regards,
Mike
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