Foundation learning for the CCNP TSHOOT 642-832

Introduction

This book’s content is based on the Cisco Systems TSHOOT course that has recently been introduced as part of the CCNP curriculum; it provides troubleshooting and maintenance knowledge and examples in the area of Cisco routing and switching. It is assumed that the reader possesses as much Cisco routing and switching background as that covered in the Cisco ROUTE and SWITCH courses. The content of this book is enough to prepare the reader for the TSHOOT exam, too. Note that the e-learning content of the Cisco TSHOOT course has been integrated into this book.

Teaching troubleshooting is not an easy task. This book introduces the reader to many troubleshooting methodologies and identifies the benefits of different techniques. Technical routing and switching topics are briefly reviewed, but the emphasis is on troubleshooting commands, and most important, presenting many troubleshooting examples. Chapter review questions help readers evaluate how well they absorbed the chapter content. The questions are also an excellent supplement for exam preparation.

How This Book Is Organized

Although this book can be read cover to cover, it is designed to be flexible and allow you to easily move between chapters to cover only the material with which you might need additional remediation. The chapters can be covered in any order, although some chapters are related and build upon each other. If you do intend to read them all, the order in the book is an excellent sequence to follow.

Each core chapter covers a subset of the topics on the CCNP TSHOOT exam. The chapters cover the following topics:

• Chapter 1, “Planning Maintenance for Complex Networks”: This chapter presents and evaluates commonly practiced models and methodologies for network maintenance, introduces the processes and procedures that are fundamental parts of any network maintenance methodology, and identifies and evaluates tools, applications, and resources that support network maintenance processes.

• Chapter 2, “Troubleshooting Processes for Complex Enterprise Networks”: This chapter explains the benefits of structured troubleshooting and how to implement troubleshooting procedures. Furthermore, the generic troubleshooting processes and their relation to network maintenance processes are analyzed, along with the role of change control and documentation.

• Chapter 3, “Using Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tools and Applications”: This chapter reviews the built-in Cisco IOS tools and commands, plus some specialized tools and applications used for network troubleshooting and maintenance.

• Chapter 4, “Maintaining and Troubleshooting Campus Switched Solutions”: This chapter reviews prominent campus multilayer switching technologies such as VLANs, Spanning Tree Protocol, inter-VLAN routing, and first-hop redundancy protocols, and it focuses on resolving problems related to these technologies.

• Chapter 5, “Maintaining and Troubleshooting Routing Solutions”: This chapter’s focus is on troubleshooting network layer connectivity. Troubleshooting EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, and route redistribution are presented in sequence.

• Chapter 6, “Troubleshooting Addressing Services”: This chapter consists of two parts. The first part discusses how to identify and correct common IPv4 addressing service issues (NAT and DHCP specifically), and the second part does the same for common IPv6 routing issues.

• Chapter 7, “Troubleshooting Network Performance Issues”: This chapter has three main sections. The first section presents troubleshooting network application services, and the second and third sections focus on troubleshooting performance issues on routers and switches.

• Chapter 8, “Troubleshooting Converged Networks”: This chapter discusses troubleshooting topics that relate to proper operation of wireless, unified communications, and video applications.

• Chapter 9, “Maintaining and Troubleshooting Network Security Implementations”: This chapter starts by explaining the troubleshooting challenges in secure networks. Next, troubleshooting the management plane, control plane, and data plane are discussed in sequence. Troubleshooting branch office connectivity is the final topic of this chapter.

• Chapter 10, “Review and Preparation for Troubleshooting Complex Enterprise Networks”: This chapter reviews the key maintenance and troubleshooting concepts and tools, and concludes with a brief discussion about applying maintenance and troubleshooting concepts and tools.

There is also an appendix that has answers to the “Review Questions” questions found at the end of each chapter.

642-832 TSHOOT Exam Topics (Blueprint)

Exam Description

Troubleshooting and Maintaining Cisco IP Switched Networks (TSHOOT 642-832) is a qualifying exam for the Cisco Certified Network Professional CCNP® certification. The TSHOOT 642-832 exam will certify that the successful candidate has important knowledge and skills necessary to (1) plan and perform regular maintenance on complex enterprise routed and switched networks and (2) use technology-based practices and a systematic ITIL-compliant approach to perform network troubleshooting.

Exam Topics

The following information provides general guidelines for the content likely to be included on the exam. However, other related topics may also appear on any specific delivery of the exam. In order to better reflect the contents of the exam and for clarity purposes the guidelines below may change at any time without notice.

Maintain and monitor network performance

• Develop a plan to monitor and manage a network
• Perform network monitoring using IOS tools
• Perform routine IOS device maintenance
• Isolate sub-optimal internetwork operation at the correctly defined OSI Model layer

Troubleshoot Multi Protocol system networks

• Troubleshoot EIGRP
• Troubleshoot OSPF
• Troubleshoot eBGP
• Troubleshoot routing redistribution solution
• Troubleshoot a DHCP client and server solution
• Troubleshoot NAT
• Troubleshoot first hop redundancy protocols
• Troubleshoot IPv6 routing
• Troubleshoot IPv6 and IPv4 interoperability
• Troubleshoot switch-to-switch connectivity for the VLAN based solution
• Troubleshoot loop prevention for the VLAN based solution
• Troubleshoot Access Ports for the VLAN based solution
• Troubleshoot private VLANS
• Troubleshoot port security
• Troubleshoot general switch security
• Troubleshoot VACLs and PACLs
• Troubleshoot switch virtual interfaces (SVIs)
• Troubleshoot switch supervisor redundancy
• Troubleshoot switch support of advanced services (i.e., Wireless, VOIP and Video)
• Troubleshoot a VoIP support solution
• Troubleshoot a video support solution
• Troubleshoot Layer 3 Security
• Troubleshoot issues related to ACLs used to secure access to Cisco routers
• Troubleshoot configuration issues related to accessing the AAA server for authentication purposes
• Troubleshoot security issues related to IOS services (i.e.,finger, NTP, HTTP, FTP, RCP etc.)