Note: If you are not familiar with the concepts of the data plane and control plane on network devices, I highly recommend reviewing my Understanding the Data, Control, and Management Planes of ...
Understanding the Data, Control, and Management Planes of Network Devices
While troubleshooting connectivity issues and packet loss in computer networks, network engineers often misunderstand the difference between the data plane and control plane. This can lead to fault...
Understanding Load Balancing on Network Devices
A common misunderstanding engineers have about Equal-Cost Multi-Pathing (ECMP) and port-channels is that they increase the bandwidth that can be used between two network devices. This can be true, ...
Normalizing JSON Data Structure Output on Cisco NX-OS with Python
Earlier this year, Ivan Pepelnjak wrote a blog post on how the way network operating systems (including Cisco’s NX-OS) convert XML-based data structures to JSON can cause certain keys to be either ...
Windows 10 OpenSSH Equivalent of ssh-copy-id
At the moment, Windows 10’s implementation of the OpenSSH client does not have the ssh-copy-id command available. However, a PowerShell one-line command can mimic the ssh-copy-id command and allow ...
Quick Lab - RIPv2 Auto Summary
RIPv2’s automatic network summarization feature is easy to misunderstand, which can be a recipe for disaster in a production environment or on the CCIE R&S lab exam. Let’s analyze the exact beh...
Deep Dive - IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Topology Change
While reviewing the IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol Topology Change Notification mechanism, I felt some confusion as to the exact behavior that each bridge exhibits when a topology change occurs...
Quick Mystery - Spanning Tree Priority
One aspect of Spanning Tree Protocol I became curious about during my CCIE studies was the exact behavior behind how Spanning Tree bridge priorities are modified using the spanning-tree vlan {vlan-...
Bringing The Gap - Frame Relay
When the ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA R&S composite exams were updated to their latest versions on August 20th, 2016, Frame Relay technology was removed from the exam topics. However, network enginee...
Basics of IOS XR Software
This article highlights the basics of IOS XR software, with the end goal being the education of an individual who desires to understand and upgrade the software of an IOS XR device. Topics that are...