From: Eric Phillips (ephillips@squick.cc)
Date: Mon Dec 03 2007 - 13:41:01 ART
Clay,
Thank you for describing your method of diagraming your lab. I am a very
visual person, and am having a bit of a difficult time seeing what your
final diagram might look like.
I looked through the NMC online sample of a lab, and the diagram they show
is much more similar to what I draw, which is similar to the IE or the
IPExpert's diagrams.
Do you happen to have an example of the diagram you are talking about online
anywhere?
Thanks,
Eric
*
*
Eric Phillips
Senior Network Consultant
*LTI Information Technology
501 Avis Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone: (734) 929-1400 Fax: (734) 929-1401
On 12/2/07, Clay K Auch (clauch) <clauch@cisco.com> wrote:
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4
: Tue Jan 01 2008 - 12:04:28 ARST
*http://www.ltiit.com
>
> 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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