AI, ML, Development + Cisco Learning Blog Learning about Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, related devlopment topics and formerly Routing and Switching, Datacenter, Security and other topics, CCIE #23664, Frank Wagner

14. Juni 2013

„Blame on Lenovo“, Windows 8 license only in the BIOS available

Filed under: Allgemein — ocsic @ 13:31

 

What a shame, not only that you have to by the OEM Windows 8 License for your new lenovo notebook, also you will not get the license. Normally i would be a sticker under your notebook, that would reveal this number. But this license is only in the BIOS of your notebook. So you are not able to get the license. Lenovo does also not react on license requests. Even after opening a ticket and a complaint, it was not possible to get the license. So i do not use Windows 8 Professional on my new notebook. And i was forced to buy a windows 8 professional license and now i even can not use it on another pc, because i won’t get the license from lenovo.

What a shame on customer treatment and user rights. Lenovo was not answering questions, also you are not informed during your order of this handling of licenses. Even after your order, they have not been able to show you some paper, where it is said, that you would not get the actual license. As a customer, you will be just ignored and no questions will be ansered upon your request, regarding the license.

Also there will be no Software CD delivered with your new notebook. You have to order a recovery CD for extra money. So you might ending up 2000-3000$ and have to pay extra for the software you have already payed.

14. Mai 2013

Home Lab for Data Center? A new notebook is a good start …

Filed under: Allgemein,Data Center — ocsic @ 17:34

I was shortly thinking about building a home lab for the data center path, but when i looked at the price list for the nexus 7000 i thought, maybe not. You can get quickly in ranges, where someone would buy a house for that price.

Here is the hardware list for the lab equipment:

From https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-13968

  • Cisco Catalyst Switch 3750
  • Cisco 2511 Terminal Server
  • MDS 9222i
  • Nexus7009
    • (1) Sup
    • (1) 32 Port 10Gb (F1 Module)
    • (1) 32 Port 10Gb (M1 Module)
  • Nexus5548
  • Nexus2232
  • Nexus 1000v
  • UCS C200 Series Server
    • vic card for c-series
  • UCS-6248 Fabric Interconnects
  • UCS-5108 Blade Chassis
    • B200 M2 Blade Servers
    • Palo mezzanine card
    • Emulex mezzanine card
  • Cisco Application Control Engine Appliance – ACE4710
  • Dual attached JBODs

Altogether that you easily come to more than 100.000$. If you will get as NFR (Not for Resale) you will get a 70% discount from the global price list, but it will still be above 100.000 $.

 

So i redefined my requirements upon that and thought about a data center lab with regard to vmware and microsoft. Many new products also have been virtualized like the Cisco 1000V Router and the ASA Cloud Firewall.  The ASA Cloud Firewall is currently available as a promo and you can quote it freely to get a license for e-delivery.

So after nearly exactly 6 years i decided to upgrade my old T60. So not really upgrade, but exchange it into an W530 from lenovo. It took me quite some time to decide weather to go for apple or a remote solution, but after all, i decided to get real horsepower and a notebook, that i can use with 32GB RAM.

This has been my old one for a long time. Did not had problems with it and it had been very good quality and it lasted very long now. I think six years in IT is like an era. My old setup had about 3 GB RAM max. Now i can use 32 GB at max. The main reason for the W530 was the ability to upgrade to 32 GB RAM and the processor with enough power. And i like the idea to keep the hardware for some time and not to renew it every year or two. Maybe my wife can use my „old“ one still for surfing. 🙂

Link to my old T60.

Here is my current and new setup:

  • Intel Core i7-3740QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.70 GHz)
  • 15,6-Zoll FHD-Display (1900 x 1080)
  • NVIDIA Quadro K2000M Graphics with 2 GB DDR3 RAM
  • Colorsensor
  • 8 GB PC3-12800 DDR3-RAM (2 DIMMs) (currently)
  • Keyboard with backlight
  • Samsung Pro SDD 540 GB
  • Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
  • Mini-dock

I had to get a win 8 license also, but i have planned to install ubuntu. There should be enough place for vsphere and two esxi. Currently i have „only 8GB“ of RAM installed, but after i have tested things a bit, i will update when necessary.

I will follow up with an installation and how things have worked out. Most things should do this out of the box.

There are also plans to integrate an Synology box. Currently i have a DS212 and another one might join the lab. There is only connectivity with iSCSI or NFS / SMB and no fibrechannel, but anyway a start.

 

 

9. April 2013

Plan …

Filed under: Allgemein,Data Center — ocsic @ 20:09

I’m currently not able to catch up with my aim. I have been in setting up partnership with cisco for a company and now i start to get again more into the technical topics. As for the partnership there are a lot of tools and other things you might have been never come along as a ccie. But they are also needed and definitely necessary, when you want at least to reach a partner status up from premier. You will have to complete all points from an audit list and that is not little, especially for a first time audit.

But i will catch up and want to stick again more in writing here to also catch up with technologies, as they are changing.

I have been to Cisco Live in the beginning of this year and there have been many new topics around. Some of them what is quite new are still UCE, but also Cloupia, OpenStack, SDN (Software Defined Networking) as these are some examples about things developing at cisco. Still UCS and Nexus is currently the part, that catches up and customers getting more and more into it, as HP is loosing market shares, maybe, they do not have invested that much in new developments and also have the problem to support all the old stuff. Cisco has started with a new product and does not have these problems. There are many improvements in comparison to cisco. Cisco does have stateless computing, has much more settings in their service profiles

25. Oktober 2012

The Plan: The way ist the path or the path is the way?

Filed under: Allgemein,Data Center — ocsic @ 13:28

Anyway, it up to you how you start or how you go for it. What you should do is to organise your studies. That would probably take some burden from your shoulders and could be a great chance for your future be be solid enough for upcoming tasks. Take the time to plan your path. So first might be to make a timetable where you roughly plan your way. It might look like this:
1: Collect Basic Informations, Plan your Study, make a timetable.
2. Study design and product and technologies on a high level
You need to understand what would be where and why at first
3. Go for Labs, train and look at the details and at least mybe to some labs

So what is that for me. Currently there seems to be like many vendors doing starting with datacenter. You should take the one, that best matches to you.
Ask yourself how you can learn the best and what would be a good way to learn about new stuff.
Make a list of books, you would need to read or for reference.
Labs are still not available from the different vendors. Seems like, it could take still some months for them. In the meantime it would be nice to focus on technologies to know them really well.
So that could be a plan:
October: Basic Informations
November: Technology studies
December: Technology studies
January: Lab details, maybe written
February: Lab details
March: Some complete labs –
April: Might be neccessary to take a bootcamp before the lab also
April: take the lab

9. September 2011

Wireless Control System (WCS 7.0.172) on CentOS 5.6

Filed under: Allgemein — ocsic @ 15:10

How to install on a not Red Hat Distribution Enterprise Linux Server. I used CentOS 5.6, as a i386 and 32-Bit version. I had to also add libXp after installalling everything by default from the netinstall.

Ininstalled everything on a vmware machine with the following settings:

CentOS 4/5 32-bit

1 CPU

2000 MB RAM

50 GB disk

and everything else with default settings. You could maybe just use smaller values, but i used just the smallest settings for a minimal installation advised by cisco installation guide.

After the default installation of CentOS i had to adjust the following settings or add the following things:

I had to install libXp from the software center

I changed the hostname, cause you have to enter the hostname in later on for the testing license. There you have to change the hostname in:

/etc/sysconfig/network
and you have to add additional entry in /etc/hosts for the 127.0.0.1

Then you should also change the Release name:

/etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5

Afterwards i also changed the updater, so that it would not check for updates periodically.

You have also to enable HTTP or HTTPS in the firewall. You could enable these ports or you can also disable the firewall.

Then you can start the installation via:

./WCS-STANDARD-K9-7.0.172.0.bin

Get your license from:

https://tools.cisco.com/SWIFT/Licensing/PrivateRegistrationServlet?DemoKeys=Y

14. April 2010

Starting my journey all over again

Filed under: Allgemein,Security — Schlagwörter: — ocsic @ 18:47

Long time no update. I have done different things and also just came from a holiday. My son is now nearly 2 years old on he is about to make great steps further into the future.

In my current job i have done some migrations and audits for example. Also i made my Prince2 (project management) certification in the meantime.

Time to go deeper again. Time to go in depth with the current sec lab.

In two weeks i will be at the INE bootcamp end of april near london for a week. Currently i’m still trying to setup my lab alltogether. I’m still not having a IDS/IPS solution. I’m hoping the cisco aset lab will open soon to be able to train mor on this equipment.

I was in trouble motivating myself for the next path. But i’m starting again. Currently looking at ACS and IOS authentification.

I still haven’t booked my sec lab yet. But i think this will be at the end of august/september. So here we go.

Glad having gns3 on my side. There have been numerous changes since version 3 and 4. I use it quite often while travelling for example. Great work guys.

24. Juli 2009

New high level certification „Cisco Certified Architect“

Filed under: Allgemein — ocsic @ 12:30

I have overslept this one a bit, but i will catch up quickly from now on again.

In the past, there have been several new certifications around. Seems like Cisco is doing a lot to set new goals apart from CCIE. Formerly this has been the highest level of certification. But seems like Cisco is setting higher goals or new high goals to be reached by individuals.

It’s the Cisco Certified Architect which has been new to the top level available certifications. As a prerequisite you need a valid CCDE certification. To get started with a more detailed view about the Certifed Architect you could start reading this article by Scott Morris, he is sharing his insights. Price to start here is 15.000 $ for the new cert. You will have to pass the CCDE also first. This has been a privilege to only some people. Thinks it’s a good idea to read Scotts article, to form your opinion.

In fact Cisco has announced also three more new certs:

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Wireless

Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist

Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist

Any comments on this are welcome. See you soon.

Source:

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/cisco_certified_architect/index.html

https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/community/certifications/ccde

https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/docs/DOC-5483

22. Mai 2009

R&S updates for Written and Lab to v4

Filed under: Allgemein — ocsic @ 19:32

Updates to the Lab and Written Exam for the CCIE R&S. Cisco is currently doing a lot for the CCIE. some great changes are introduced starting from the 18.10. 2009. After this date, Cisco might be testing also on new equipment, updating to 1800/3800 on 12.4(T) IOS images. Mayor new topic will be MPLS and Layer 3 VPN’s. I was wondering, while this topic was still missing in today’s labs, but starting from the end of the year, this be a valid one. Think this is a good idea. Also testing for core topics again, to keep your cert special.

Source:

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/ccie/rs/index.html

https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/docs/DOC-4605

https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/community/certifications/ccie_routing_switching/written_exam?tab=1

16. Mai 2009

Changes to the CCIE Security Lab

Filed under: Allgemein — ocsic @ 20:22

Like for the R&S Lab, Cisco has now introduced the 4 Open-Ended Questions also for the Security Lab. If you are prepared and now your major topics well, this should not be a problem. I have seen them already in the R&S Lab exam. Starting to change from the 15th of June this year. You will have up to 30 minutes to complete these questions. Maybe these questions will be added to all other CCIE tracks.

13. Mai 2009

Have done my CCIE Written for security now …

Filed under: Allgemein,Certification,Lab,Security — ocsic @ 20:55

As i was looking for something i could do next, after passing my ccie r&s, i took the security path next and last week, i did the written as a first step. It have been 105 question with a 790 points passing score. I managed to pass the test. It was quite close, i didn’t expect to pass. I was feeling i would fail, but tried my best and the last 10 – 15 questions and there must have been some correct answers.

With the new written in security i also recertified my r&s ccie for nearly the next 4 years now. The next time until i had to recertify is the 26.2.2013. Cisco just adds the new Written at the end of the first ending period. So that will take some time.

Since i read that the Security ASET Labs have been a great help for preparation, i have already booked some ASET Labs at the end of may until june. I know that for r&s they have been absolutly helpful and one of the best resources.

I still will look for some PEC courses for security. I found some for r&s with have been at least interesting. But the PEC www.cisco.com/go/pec was reorganized and the website changed a lot. I found it very difficult to get to the courses i have seen before.

I have to look again at the PEC. Might have been changed again. 🙂

I have booked the lab at the end of October in Brussels. But I’m unsure if this will be enough time for preparation. I will see. I had to decide until end of July. So until then, i will probably know more about, if it will work.

Currently i reorganize my testing environment also. Still was using a OpenSuse installation on my notebook. But i feel moving to another distribution. Might be Fedora or Ubuntu. Shouldn’t be a problem with dynamips on both. I have ordered a new HD with about 320 GB, so i will have more space available for my vmware installations. Still using my Lenovo T60 though. Have 3 GB of main memory, but i’m already looking for notebooks with more than 4 GB. I’m still waiting for.
But first I will be on holiday with my now 1 year old son for some time. 😉

If you wounder how often i could go on holiday, that nice time will shortly be over. I’m still on parental leave until midst of June and until then it have been 7 months altogether for me. My wife did the other 7 months before. Since 2007 in Germany it’s possible to parents sharing the time. And if one of them is taking at least two months, i will be 14 altogether, instead of only 12. It’s a great time with my son. He develops so quickly, for me it’s absolutely to quick. A few months ago, he was so small and now he is close to being able to walk already. It’s fantastic to see him every day and to experience his presence.

Have a nice time.

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