This Case Study will require you to
- Build a small network using three switches and one router
- One switch will run as a distribution layer switch, the other two will run as access layer switches
- A router will be connected to the distribution layer switch using 802.1Q trunking to route between subnets
- The switches will be connected with two Ethernet links using Ether-channel bonding
- The distribution layer switch will be configured as the STP root bridge
Your Lab Supervisor will provide your group with your:
Company/orgnaisation name
Allocated network address information
Subnetting requirements for four LANs to operate within your organisation VLAN numbers and VLAN names for each of the four LANs
Network Management VLAN to use in your network
These details will be provided once you have registered your group within ESP and provided those details to your supervisor.
You are required to configure all switches and routers with the following information:
Device names
Message of the Day Interface descriptions
Console and Enable passwords ssh Access
All router interfaces are to have the lowest usable IP address of their allocated subnet Further, all switches should be configured such that:
Unallocated ports are disabled
Appropriate switch-port security is configured
In your report you will need to justify your switchport security decisions and configurations.
Vii. Advanced Network Configuration
You will be required to configure 802.1Q trunking connections between the switches. Each switch will be connected to another switch via two trunking connections where the second connection is used for redundancy purposes.
You will be required to configure your network Spanning Tree Protocol to PVST+ and to ensure that the distribution layer switch is the Root Bridge.
Network traffic has grown since you first built your network. The Ethernet trunking channels are no longer capable of carrying the offered load on their own. A decision has been made to change the redundant trunking connections between each switch into a bundled EtherChannel to double the maximumum throughput.
You must reconfigure your network such that the two links connecting the switches now form an EtherChannel. You must ensure that the distribution layer switch remains the Root Bridge for the Spanning Tree Protocol.
Sub-netting
In our group the task was to design a network for ‘Many Tongues LTD’ with various hosts’ requirements. This company network was then allocated network address 133.3.0.0/24.
In this task there will be configuration of the network devices which will be a router three switches which will be used to link the computers as the end devices in their respective VLANS.
Various concepts are used in this task which will include the spanning-tree protocol, routers on stick, Ethernet channel bundling, security configuration on the network devices and the various skills used to troubleshoot network.
|
VLANS |
VLAN -NAMES |
Number of hosts |
Network IP address |
IP Range |
Broadcast |
|
10 |
English |
2000 |
133.3.10.0/22 |
133.3.10.1-133.3.10.254 |
133.3.10.255 |
|
20 |
Hindi |
500 |
133.3.20.0/23 |
133.3.20.1-133.3.20.254 |
133.3.20.255 |
|
30 |
Mandarin |
100 |
133.3.30.0/25 |
133.3.30.1-133.3.30.254 |
133.3.30.255 |
|
40 |
Thai |
28 |
133.3.40.0/27 |
133.3.40.1-133.3.40.254 |
133.3.40.255 |
|
50 |
SwitchMge |
10 |
133.3.50.0/28 |
133.3.50.1-133.3.50.254 |
133.3.40.255 |
The company is allocated the 133.3.0.0/24 ip address where there are four departments that are linked using the 4 VLANS and below is the calculation of each VLAN ’s number of hosts.
- VLAN 190 is the English VLAN that has 2000 hosts and the IP addresses are allowed for future growth as shown in calculations below.
Number of Host = 2000
2n = 2000 + 2
210 = 1024 > 2002
Network-bits = 32 – 10 = 22
Network IP Address: - 133.3.10.0/22
Broadcast IP Address: - 133.3.10.255/22
- VLAN 191 is the Hindi VLAN that has 500 hosts and the IP addresses are allowed for future growth as shown in calculations below.
Number of Host = 500
2n = 500 + 2
29= 512 > 502
Network-bits = 32 – 9 = 23
Network IP Address: - 133.3.20.0/23
Broadcast IP Address: - 133.3.20.255/23
- VLAN 192 is the Mandarian department VLAN that has 100 hosts and the IP addresses are allowed for future growth as shown in calculations below.
Number of Host = 100
2n = 100 + 2
27= 128 >102
Network-bits = 32 – 7= 25
Network IP Address: - 133.3.30.0/25
Broadcast IP Address: - 133.3.30.255/25
- VLAN 193 is the Thai VLAN that has 28 hosts and the IP addresses are allowed for future growth as shown in calculations below.
Number of Host = 28
2n = 28 + 2
25= 32 >30
Network-bits = 32 – 5= 27
Network IP Address: - 133.3.40.0/27
Broadcast IP Address: - 133.3.40.255/27
- VLAN 238 is the Finance SwitchMge VLAN that has 10 hosts and the IP addresses are allowed for future growth as shown in calculations below.
Number of Host = 10
2n = 10 + 2
24= 16 >12
Network-bits = 32 – 4= 28
Network IP Address: - 133.3.50.0/28
Broadcast IP Address: - 133.3.50.255/28
Switch Port Allocation
The switch port allocation is done in order to allow the network administrator note the ports allocated to various VLANS and for easy documentation and future network expansion.
However there are ports on the upper side that mainly for trunks creation, PVST, rapid spanning tree and Ether-channels bundling.
However the other ports in the devices are used to link the network hosts as listed below.
- Distribution switch (dist_Switch)
Fa0/1 – Fa0/5 allocated to the trunks connections.
- Access layer switch (access_switch1)
Fa0/1 – Fa0/4 allocated to the trunks connections
F0/5 – F0/8 allocate to departments –VLAN (s)
- Access layer switch (access_switch2)
Fa0/1 – Fa0/4 are allocated to trunk links.
F0/5 – F0/8 allocate to departments –VLAN (s)
- Switch access_switch1
|
Device |
Ports |
Interfaces Descriptions |
VLANS |
VLANS Names |
Network-IP Address |
Subnet Masks |
Assignments |
|
SW_Access1 |
F0/1 |
Ether-channel Port1 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
Trunk Ether Channel (access_switch1-dist_Switch) |
|
F0/2 |
Ether-channel Port1 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
||
|
F0/3 |
Ether-channel Port3 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
Trunk Ether Channel (access_switch1- access_switch2) |
|
|
F0/4 |
Ether-channel Port3 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
||
|
F0/5 |
Carries VLAN 190 traffics |
190 |
English |
133.3.10.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
Access VLAN 190 Port- Security Enabled |
|
|
F0/6 |
Carries VLAN 190 traffics |
191 |
Hindi |
133.3.20.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
Access VLAN 191 Port -Security Enabled |
|
|
F0/7 |
Carries VLAN 190 traffics |
192 |
Mandarin |
133.3.30.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
Access VLAN 192 Port -Security Enabled |
|
|
F0/8 |
Carries VLAN 190 traffics |
193 |
Thai |
133.3.40.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
Access VLAN 193 Port-Security Enabled |
- Switch dist_Switch
|
Device |
Ports |
Interfaces Descriptions |
VLANS |
VLANS Names |
Network-IP Address |
Subnet Masks |
Assignments |
|
Dist_Switch |
F0/1 |
Ether-channel Port1 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
Trunk Ether-Channel ( dist_Switch — access_switch1) |
|
F0/2 |
Ether-channel Port1 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
||
|
F0/3 |
Ether-channel Port2 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
Trunk Ether Channel ( dist_Switch — access_switch2) |
|
|
F0/4 |
Ether-channel Port2 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
||
|
F0/5 |
ROUTER connection |
None |
None |
None |
None |
To the Trunk |
- Switch access_switch2
|
Device |
Port |
Interface Description |
VLAN |
VLAN Name |
Network |
Subnet Mask |
Assignment |
|
access_switch2 |
F0/1 |
Ether-channel Port2 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
Trunk Ether Channel (access_switch1-dist_Switch) |
|
F0/2 |
Ether-channel Port2 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
||
|
F0/3 |
Ether-channel Port3 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
Trunk Ether Channel (access_switch1- access_switch2) |
|
|
F0/4 |
Ether-channel Port3 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
||
|
F0/5 |
Carries VLAN 190 traffics |
10 |
English |
133.3.10.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
Access VLAN 190 Port- Security Enabled |
|
|
F0/6 |
Carries VLAN 190 traffics |
20 |
Hindi |
133.3.20.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
Access VLAN 191 Port -Security Enabled |
|
|
F0/7 |
Carries VLAN 190 traffics |
30 |
Mandarin |
133.3.30.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
Access VLAN 192 Port -Security Enabled |
|
|
F0/8 |
Carries VLAN 190 traffics |
40 |
Thai |
133.3.40.1 |
255.255.255.0 /24 |
Access VLAN 193 Port-Security Enabled |
The interfaces that range between Fa0/1-Fa0/4 is configured in the packet tracer simulation tool and this is to enable them work in trunk mode, and also do configuration of the PVST+ and Ether-channel bundling (William, 2014).
Design Discussion
The interfaces on the routers and the switches that remain unused are then disabled that prevents the un-authorized users access to the network.
However the VLAN 1 is then disabled and it is allocated to the VLAN 9 which is the ICT department LAN to eliminate use of default devices and eliminate any network vulnerabilities and therefore the port security is already enabled only to all access ports in the three network switches and in every VLAN only two MAC addresses are allowed.
Below are the various ports securities that were configured to the various ports:
- Enabling the Switch ports securities on the interfaces.
- Switch-port- security: where maximum of two MAC addresses were allowed in the VLANS.
- Switch-port port-security violation restrict: This is where the packets from unknown source are denied access to the network.
In the network design two links are used to implement the network redundancy to ensure that the switches in the network are able to support the redundancy protocol that are essential in the elimination of the problems that are encountered in the creation off the Ethernet network loops and ensure in case of network faults the data paths are switched to alternative path.
Therefore the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is used and since in this network there are multiple departmental VLAN (s) the Rapid-Spanning-Tree is used as our (STP).
The Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol is used in the network to sense any addition of network devices using various phases which includes the listening phase, learning phase and the forwarding phase.
In this case the listening stage lasts for approximate 15 seconds then proceed to learning stage to analyse the device MAC addresses, finally after 15 seconds in the learning stage the target port is made to be forwarding phase.
However the Rapid Spanning tree moves direct to the forward stage where the listening and learning are skipped and thus Rapid Spanning tree is best technology to adopt in the cases where the networks carries large traffics volumes.
The dist_switch is configured to act as the root bridge in the topology and thus providing best paths of the network data, however this switch is centrally placed in the network and acts as the bridge of the entire network VLANS.
The access_switch1 and access_switch2 are configured as the secondary root bridge and thus and if the root switch (dist_switch) goes down the two primary switches take charge to prevent network failure.
The network redundancy is configured in order to give provision of alternative paths in the network and thus in case one link between the network devices fails the redundant link is then turned on automatically and prevents the network failure and therefore in the network configuration the redundant links between the devices are provided .
Switch Port Allocation
Below are various ways to overcome redundancy problems:
- The redundancy allow the making of copies by the enabled multiple frames loops and this is overcome by use of Spanning Tree Protocol that usually block the highest cost link and in case the primary link fails it automatically turns on the secondary link hence solving the looping problems.
Therefore the redundancy is achieved using the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
This is the technology for aggregating the port links, this is by grouping of various physical Ethernet links that are used in creating logical Ethernet links and this provides the faults tolerance and high speed links that are between the network devices like switch, router and server.
This Ether-channel usually is created using two up to eight active and fast Gigabits Ethernet ports and other 1-8 extra inactive (Failover) ports and thus the Ether-channel is mainly used networks’ backbone or in connection of the end users devices.
|
Ether Channel |
One end of link |
Another end of Link |
|
Port1 |
Dist_Switch F0/1-2 |
access_switch1 F0/1-2 |
|
Port2 |
Dist_Switch F0/3-4 |
access_switch2 F0/1-2 |
|
Port3 |
access_switch1F0/3-4 |
access_switch2 F0/3-4 |
The LACP is s standard based negotiations protocols that is most proffered to other types of protocols and is known as IEEE 802.1ax. This is simple in building of the Ether-Channel between the network switches from various vendors and thus it is used by most of the vendors.
The Ether-Channel on the stack switches is formed using the LACP due to its nature of supporting the cross-stacks Ether-Channel which uses many switches.
Therefore in case the expansion in future will be done using some network devices from other vendors apart from the Cisco Company it is advisable to use the LACP to create the Port-channels.
Test Plan for overall Network Functionality
The testing of the network devices is achieved through the use of the ping commands where the various network devices are pinged from one network devices and thus will test the entire network functionality as shown below.
|
Purpose |
Plan |
|
End to end devices connection |
This is achieved using the ping using one network device and ping the other connected devices. Below is the list of the ping commands that will be used. · ping 133.3.10.1 · ping 133.3.10.2 · ping 133.3.20.1 · ping 133.3.20.2 · ping 133.3.30.1 · ping 133.3.30.2 · ping 133.3.40.1 · ping 133.3.40.2 |
The Rapid spanning Tree configuration is done in order to do prevention the loops in the Layer2 Bridge and allows the highest output.
Below is the spanning tree testing plan.
|
Purpose |
Plan |
|
The Rapid spanning tree protocols testing |
i. Done through use show spanning-tree command in the three network switches. ii. Then run the show running-config|include spanning-tree mode command on all switches. iii. Run debug spanning-tree events command on the two access switches. |
To do this tests various commands are run in order to check the connection, below are the various test commands used.
|
Purpose |
Plan |
|
Ether-Channel |
i. This is done by running show etherchannel summary command various switch ii. Then run the show interface trunk command to verify switch port trunk |
The network redundancy enable the network to be fault tolerant between the interconnected switches and therefore all the three switches are redundantly connected through use of the Ether channel bundling in order to provide highest throughput and thus in case one link is down the other link is turned on automatically preventing any disruption in network connectivity.
The ssh and port security is tested as in below test plan.
|
Purpose |
Plan |
|
Port securities |
This is done by running show port-security and show port-security interface commands on each switch |
|
SSH access |
This is done by use of devices command prompts and run this command ssh –l For instance run ssh –l FoodManager 133.3.10.1 command on PC-1-20 cmd.. |
Sub-netting
The sub-netting is a process of allocating the highest possible hosts addresses, in this there are two reserved addresses which include the first and last ip address which are meant for the subnet-id and broadcast-id.
Addresses
In the network design the initial useable ip address in each VLAN is assigned as the gateway address that enables the inter-subnet communication and the configuration is done on the routers’ interfaces.
VLAN and Port Allocation
The VLAN 1 as the default VLAN is disabled and the unused ports are assigned to VLAN 238 and this is to maintain network security.
In the three switches some ports are used for trunk purposes and the connection of network devices and the other are then linked to the end devices including the computers, then in each switch there are four ports for connecting the respective VLANS (Forouzan, 2014).
In the various routers the Fa0/0 is now used in connecting Dist_switch; however it is configured to 4 sub interfaces assigned to each VLAN as in table below.
|
VLAN |
VLAN Name |
Sub Interface Name |
|
VLAN 190 |
English |
f0/0.10 |
|
VLAN 191 |
Hindi |
f0/0.20 |
|
VLAN 192 |
Mandarin |
f0/0.30 |
|
VLAN 193 |
Thai |
f0/0.40 |
|
VLAN 238 |
SwitchMge |
f0/0.50 |
Network Diagram
(Douglas, 2017).
|
Device |
Interface |
IP Address |
Subnet Mask |
Default Gateway |
|
Router |
f0/0.10 |
133.3.10.0/22 |
255.255.255.0 |
None |
|
f0/0.20 |
133.3.20.0/23 |
255.255.255.0 |
None |
|
|
f0/0.30 |
133.3.30.0/25 |
255.255.255.0 |
None |
|
|
f0/0.40 |
133.3.40.0/27 |
255.255.255.0 |
None |
|
|
f0/0.10 |
133.3.10.0/28 |
255.255.255.0 |
None |
|
|
Dist_switch |
VLAN 238 |
133.3.50.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.50.1 |
|
access_switch1 |
VLAN 238 |
133.3.50.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.50.1 |
|
access_switch2 |
VLAN 238 |
133.3.50.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.50.1 |
|
PC1-10 |
N.I.C |
133.3.10.2 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.10.1 |
|
PC2-10 |
N.I.C |
133.3.10.3 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.10.1 |
|
PC1-20 |
N.I.C |
133.3.20.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.20.1 |
|
PC2-20 |
N.I.C |
133.3.20.2 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.20.1 |
|
PC1-30 |
N.I.C |
133.3.30.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.30.1 |
|
PC2-30 |
N.I.C |
133.3.30.2 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.30.2 |
|
PC1-40 |
N.I.C |
133.3.40.1 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.40.1 |
|
PC2-40 |
N.I.C |
133.3.40.2 |
255.255.255.0 |
133.3.40.1 |
The network devices are configured using some password to ensure better security as below.
All networking devices were configured with passwords listed in table below.
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