Above is the lab that this post turns into pretty fast once the MPLS is live and installs itself around on EIGRP routers, lots of good info, I advise trying to make through this post if you are rusty on EIGRP Path Selection configuration! 🙂 How EIGRP Calculates Metrics, Topology Table, and Feasibility Condition By … Continue reading EIGRP – Metric review, random “offset-list” lab for Path Selection, Feasibility Condition and Variance discussion, and will PBR config override offset-list?
No PE to CE Adjcancencies, we are getting this entire lab rocking, tonight! 🙂 I don't usually blow away labs as I learn along the way, as I essentially turned all customer into 1:1 mappings across the MPLS, and its just not worth your time reading (you can refer to here for 1:1 Customer mappings). … Continue reading MPLS – Re-Engineering a 1:1 Customer MPLS L3 VPN Tunnel to serve entire company, tons of ENARSI Topics included in lab, including gotchas for exam day! 🙂
I have a confession to make - While studying MPLS I largely overlooked the configuration of the Provider Edge because of its complexity and ease of breaking all routing (and probably reversing time). I intentionally used my MPLS Lab for ENARSI 300-410 study with new IP Schemes / CE Protocols to challenge my knowledge of … Continue reading MPLS – A necessary closer look at the PE Router settings (VRF / BGP / VPN / Address Family) to see how to setup for new lab!
While both AToM and EoM are Point-to-Point Layer 2 MPLS Protocols, and L2TP is NOT related to MPLS (but a Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol all the same), VPLS is meant to be a Point-to-Multipoint or Multipoint-to-Multipoint Protocol to extend L2 across the MPLS. Some Terminology and random points on VPLS TLS - In VPLS terms … Continue reading MPLS – VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) review, another Layer 2 Cloud Transport solution, details inside!
I've added a couple of Routers to my current MPLS Lab, as the concept to my understanding is that with minor configuration on the PE / CE devices, it should just use the MPLS Network for Transport and that will be that! I have no training material or instructor led training on this, so this … Continue reading MPLS – EoM (Ethernet over MPLS) deeper review, attempted configuration, never worked with it before but lets give it a go!
So this is getting pretty out of bounds of what I know / have worked with at all, however IÂ wanted to make a quick note on these technologies so I have reference to them, those two being AToM (Anything over MPLS) and EoM (Ethernet over MPLS). From my understanding AToM is for more dated … Continue reading MPLS – AToM (Any Transport of MPLS) and EoM (Ethernet over MPLS) overview, very high level review of technology, some configuration examples as well!
After giving this some thought, I really can't in good conscience cap off an MPLS Fundamentals sessions without dipping our toes into the intermediate waters of "Route Leaking" with MPLS, as a Network Engineer you will some day run into two companies under the same Umbrella with two different MPLS rings that need to leak … Continue reading MPLS – Route Leaking Lab, as well as “Extranet” configuration to allow two separate MPLS Customer subnets to chat!
Above is a graphic of my own Meraki stack at my home, however this will only be reviewed in discussion of network "Planes" before we close out MPLS discussion 🙂 In this final MPLS post I wanted to first get a very clear understanding of Management Plane vs Control Plane vs Data Plane, then take … Continue reading MPLS – Detailed look at “Planes” in the network, MPLS L3 VPN traffic flow reviewed through Wireshark, and how Import / Export VRF functions work!
After taking a step from this lab to think about what is logically needed to make this work, I realized there is no "Redistribution" propagating routes over the L3 VPN between Customer A Site 1 / Customer A Site 2, so they have no idea how to respond to each other. The confusion in this … Continue reading MPLS – Finishing up Redistribution / Connectivity between Customers over the MPLS / L3 VPN, a review of everything learnt up to this point, and all running configs published for future review!
Above is the full scope of the Topology that will be configured by the end of this, utilizing all different protocols for CE to PE, mainly to demonstrate it flexibility with accepting IGPs for all walk of life which is what this blog is all about 🙂 NOW, I had went ahead and used Keith … Continue reading MPLS – Now to apply the Network Ninja troubleshooting to get these CE Routers talking across the MPLS Network!
This will be sort of the beginning of the end of the this MPLS series I am going through, Layer 3 VPN is really the last piece of "Cisco Magic" happening on the Provider Edge routers at work, segregating customer traffic on the same device using VRF instances along with MBGP to forwarding them across … Continue reading MPLS – Layer 3 overview, mBGP Configuration, and VRF Configuration reviewed (and how it all works together!)
The main point above I didn't illustrate real well is R3 has a new loopback9 Interface with 9.9.9.9/32 that is NOT in the OSPFv2 Domain, so its fellow R2 and R4 will not be able to reach it. Honestly I don't plan to spend a lot of time on this topic (famous last words), as … Continue reading MPLS – Transport-Address vs LDP Router-ID (RID), how they are tied together, and how to configure them to differ, and how that can help “engineer” the network!
The above Topology is how traffic say from Customer site Looped 1 would Label Switch traffic over to Looped2 on the right hand side of the Topology, and I will review exactly how the LSR's know where to send a packet when it arrives with a local label but multiple neighbors advertising label bindings for … Continue reading MPLS – LSP Path Selection, LIB, LFIB, RIB, FIB, and CEF forwarding reviewed, how to view the tables, and how they all work to get traffic to its destination network!
I will be primarily looking at this through the lens of R3 to R4 when reviewing the below material, this is very heavy into MPLS verification commands / debug output / WireShark capture screen snips, so this will not be for anyone looking for a light read. I was planning on fitting LDP and … Continue reading MPLS – LDP Session Initialization, Active / Passive LDP Neighbors, Verification Commands for LDP, and lots more LDP!
Will be doing a very simple IGP setup using OSPFv2, MPLS, and doing some verification commands to demonstrate different ways to verify MPLS Bindings / LDP in action / Labels through the LSP (Label Switched Path). However first upon booting up my lab I saw my Layer 3 VPN tunnel throw a console message, so … Continue reading MPLS – Layer 3 VPN configuration review on PE Routers, configuration of Provider Routers, and verification commands!
The DEVNET GRIND! 