Introduction

Overview

For many years I have been a consultant for different companies and have written books on switch and router configurations and troubleshooting. During my years as a consultant I have had to either install, administer, or troubleshoot switching problems and configurations for switches without a good handbook. I have constantly gone through bookstores looking for a book on Cisco switch troubleshooting and configurations that didn’t deal with a Cisco curriculum. Guess what? I couldn’t find one!

I have written books related to the CCDP and CCNP curricula and always thought about writing a book that concentrated on Cisco switches. One day I was walking through a bookstore and noticed a book from The Coriolis Group called Cisco Routers for IP Routing Little Black Book. I immediately thought to myself that a Cisco Switching Little Black Book would be a great configuration handbook for many people. After contacting Coriolis and pitching them the idea for the book, I received a call from Steve Sayre, the publisher at Coriolis, who was excited about publishing a book of this nature. As I pondered and started putting my idea into an outline, I realized that I could not place everything that an administrator needed in a Little Black Book.

To make a long story short, a few months later, with a great big outline and help from Albert Ip and Hanson Nottingham, the book became this Black Book—the most feature−packed handbook for Cisco switching an administrator can buy. Not only do we cover the Cisco Catalyst switching line but we also cover the LightStream ATM switch series, Gigabit Switch Router Series (GSR), and the IGX and MGX WAN switch series.

Thanks for buying the Cisco Switching Black Book.

Is This Book for You?

The Cisco Switching Black Book was written with the intermediate or advanced user in mind. Among the topics that are covered, are:

∙Cisco Catalyst switch configuration and troubleshooting

∙Cisco IGX and MGX switch configuration

∙Cisco GSR switch configuration

∙Cisco switch troubleshooting

∙Cisco switch features

∙ATM LightStream switch configuration and troubleshooting

∙Switched network design issues

How to Use This Book

The examples in the Immediate Solutions are intended to teach you the basic steps in configuring Cisco Catalyst switches and their interfaces. Primarily, the Immediate Solutions will cover the information discussed in the In Depth section of each chapter. When we explain each scenario we will use the following notations:

∙<Italics in angle brackets> will be used to denote command elements that have a specific value that needs to be input, such as characters or numbers. Occasionally some other entry will be needed, which will be explained in each individual instance.

∙[Text in square brackets] is used to denote optional commands that can be configured.

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∙Words in brackets that are separated by bars are used when indicating that there are multiple choices of commands. For example, when configuring VTP you can enable the trunk port to choose one mode: on, off, desirable, or auto mode. This will be shown like this: [on|off|desirable|auto].

Knowledge of what configuration mode you are in and how to enter each configuration mode on the Cisco Command Line Interface is important. Knowing what each mode configures will aid you in using the proper configuration mode. The Set/Clear command−based IOS CLI uses similar command modes as the Cisco CLI used on Cisco routers and switches, but uses mainly the enable, set, show, and clear commands. Chapter 1 will cover the different CLI command modes.

The Black Book Philosophy

Written by experienced professionals, Coriolis Black Books provide immediate solutions to global programming and administrative challenges, helping you complete specific tasks, especially critical ones that are not well documented in other books. The Black Book’s unique two−part chapter format—thorough technical overviews followed by practical immediate solutions—is structured to help you use your knowledge, solve problems, and quickly master complex technical issues to become an expert. By breaking down complex topics into easily manageable components, this format helps you quickly find what you’re looking for, with commands, jump tables, and step−by−step configurations located in the Immediate Solutions section.

I welcome your feedback on this book. You can either email The Coriolis Group at ctp@coriolis.com or email me directly at sodom@rcsis.com. Errata, updates, information on classes I teach, and more are available at my Web site: http://www.thequestforcertification.com/.

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