How To Setup a Cisco Switch from SCRATCH, Chapter 3:

Chapter 3

Express Setup

First time users will find this useful to get up and running quickly and hassle free.

So now you took your serial cable from chapter 2 got it hooked into your switch and pc or notebook and your ready to go. Now after you use hyper terminal or PuTTY to access your switch via COM port you will most likely be greeted with a command prompted "Wizard" (depending how old your switch is) this is not a bad way to jump start your switch quickly to get it barebones settings and working.

The setup will probably look like the picture below:

Click picture to Enlarge

Our first look at the cisco IOS

Once you click the image you can see that I went ahead and filled out most the settings as they should be. Let me cover the setup and answers in depth.

0) If you are NOT prompted with this express setup and want to try loading it here is how..
Type
Switch> enable
Then type
Switch#> setup
Simple eh?? :)

1) Would you like to continue with the setup dialog? yes
This is obviously telling the switch you want to use the express setup wizard to continue.
For advance users you can click "NO" if you prefer to everything manual and by hand, though I do not recommend that if you are reading this :P



2) Enter IP Address: 192.168.X.X
This is the IP you want to assign your switch, this is extremely helpful so in the future you can access the switch without having to use the serial cable. You can simple use Telnet or PuTTY. Since this is a switch and not a router the IP address is not too important of what you choose. If your not sure of your IP range just do an IPconfig.



3) Enter IP NETMASK: 255.255.255.0
This is the Subnet mask of your network... for most home or small networks you will use 255.255.255.0... if your not sure of your subnet just do an IPconfig.



4) Would you like to enter a Default Gateway Address: YES
Yes this is the IP of your router AKA gateway... This is how your switch will route traffic.. Meaning.. If you are plugged into your switch and your computer sends a request to go out on the Internet the switch will attempt to send that request to the Gateway (router), Therefore if the switch does not know where your router (gateway) is you won't be getting out anytime soon ;)~~~

Most gateways are .1 or sometimes .254

Your gateway if "Linksys" Router: 192.168.1.1
Your gateway if "Dlink" Router: 192.168.0.1
Your gateway if "Netgear" Router: 192.168.0.1


5) Enter Host name: Home-SW-1
This is the name you want to give your router, this is not too important in less you are on a bigger network and have a proper naming scheme to track your equipment. Feel free to put whatever you want... Call it Douche bag, Your going to access your switch via IP anyhow.



6) Enter Enable secret: *********
This is your password to access configuration items inside your switch.. Make this password something you will not forget. it can be whatever you want...

DO NOT MAKE THIS PASSWORD "cisco"

"cisco" is the default password for most the cisco's equipment making it this would be a stupid idea :P~



7) Would you like to configure a telnet password: YES
Telnet is how you will access your switch in the future also other people could access your switch threw telnet so you better put a password.



8) Enter your telnet password: ********
Some people will tell you not to make it the same password as your enable password but I keep my enable and telnet password the same to make life easier.

If you get prompted that you can not use the same password twice just retype your same password again (yes a second time even though it said NO), it will go threw this time and allow you to use the same password!! Vola !! stupid software is not going to tell us what to do!!!




9) Would you like to enable as a cluster command switch: NO
Switches in cluster use the switch clustering so that you can configure and troubleshoot a group of different cisco switch's through a single IP address. This could be helpful but not in our situation.




10) Use this Configuration?: YES

This will give you a brief overview of the setup and settings we picked. Cisco understands you are not like them - meaning you are not perfect, so they allow you a chance to go back and make some changes. Confirm everything is OK then click YES!!!! If not click NO and redo the setup, LOSER!!! ;)



DONE!! - You should now be able to access your switch via TELNET and IP address. You should also be able to access your network and internet now by being plugged in to your switch.



Next chapter we go more in depth setup, configuration and IOS commands.

Coming soon Chapter 4

How To Setup a Cisco Switch from SCRATCH, Chapter 2:

Chapter 2

Connecting to your Switch

There are a couple ways you can connect to your switch, let me elaborate.



1) Serial Cable to AUX Port: "Console Cable" (RECOMMENDED)



This is the most "secure" connection you can have to your switch just for the pure fact that someone has to Physically be in front of the switch with a notebook or PC to connect in this fashion, Thus it is the most secure because nobody would be able to access your switch from outside using this method.

Your Cisco switch should come with a light BLUE Serial to CAT5 cable. You take the 9PIN side of this connection and plug it in to your notebook on your COM port, The other side will go in the SWITCH there should be a RJ45 port on the switch that is labled "CONSOLE" this is most likely located on the BACKSIDE of the switch as shown below and the port might even be colored the same as the cable.


Talk about idiot proof!!

Once you have connected to the switch with the cable, you need to create a COM session. There is a couple programs to do this, I myself use "PuTTY" a small and free program that is great, download it by clicking the link. Another popular way for windows users (not vista) is to use "Hyper Terminal". In either of these progams the settings are simple and as follows.
Port: COM1 (depending on your hardware, could be COM2 or COM3)
Speed (Baud): 9600

After you enter the correct settings you should be prompted for a USER name and Password.



2) IP Address (TELNET or SSH): (RECOMMENED AFTER SETUP WITH IP)

Another common way is to connect to the switch VIA IP Address, if the switch is brand new it then it will NOT have an IP Address for you to connect to. This is mainly for switches that have already been configured in the past and was assigned an IP. Once your switch is setup this becomes the more COMMON way to access a switch. This way lets you connect to your switch from anywhere inside your network.

Telnet: Telnet is one way to connect to the switch. The settings you need are:

IP ADDRESS: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX The IP Management IP for your switch
Port: 23 (Default TELNET port is 23) After you enter the correct settings you should be prompted for a USER name and Password.


SSH: SECURE Shell. How is this secure?? We'll it works very very simular to telnet with but this encrypts your password when entered, that way there is no risk of someone logging or sniffing out your password over the network. SSH will secure the connection to your switch by encrypting it. The settings you need are:

IP ADDRESS: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX The IP Management IP for your switch
Port: 22 (Default SSH port is 22)

After you enter the correct settings you should be prompted for a USER name and Password.

HTTPs: Web Interface. (NOT Recommended in less manditory)

A couple cisco switch models can be managed via HTTP. This is a little more easy on the eyes because it comes with a more user friendly GUI for you to play with and change settings, the two major issues with this is it is Not a very secure method to connect to your switch, Also the more advance and comforable you get with the Cisco IOS you will find the web interface to be a pain in the ass to be honest. Also you loose some functionallity when using the GUI because only the options presented are the options you can configure, Unlike the Cisco IOS where you have a more vast range of options. The settings you need are:

Go to: Https://your.ip.of.switch (example https://192.168.1.2)

After you enter the correct settings you should be prompted for a USER name and Password.




Congrats you have sucessfully connected to your Cisco switch and you are ready to start setting it up!!!

Coming Soon Chapter 3!

How To Setup a Cisco Switch from SCRATCH !!!

We had a new guy start at our work last week and we asked him to setup a Cisco 2960G from scratch. I decided to search the internet real quick and find him a decent guide to help him BESIDES the PDF you can get from Cisco.com because I find those not very useful for setting up switches or routers... Well it turns out I could NOT find a all in 1 basic Cisco Switch setup guide or How To, There was bits and pieces like how to setup vlans here, how to setup trunking on another site but no 1 site had a complete walk through or guide... That's when I knew I would have to write something up something that everyone could understand and reference to whenever they needed to setup a Cisco switch!!! So here we go!!!

How To Setup a Cisco Switch from SCRATCH

Chapter 1: The Differences
There are a few different types of switches. Here are the most common and important things to look for.

a) PoE - "Power Over Ethernet" - PoE can be used with various devices that can be powered over Ethernet. For example a lot of VoIP phones can be powered over Ethernet, What does this mean? This means if you plug your device into the switch with an Ethernet cable such as cat5e cable the device will get power. So if you had a Cisco VoIP phone you would notice there are a couple ports on the back - one if for an AC adapter to give the phone power - that's normally what you see on EVERYTHING electronic is a good old POWER cable and AC power brick.. Well NO MORE!! No need for those power bricks anymore - if you had a PoE switch and you plugged in the phone it would start up and get power over the Ethernet without plugging the phone into the power outlet or supplying any other power source you would normally have to use...

b) G - Gigabit Ethernet - Cisco switches will have a model like, 3560PoE, 2960 and 2960G. The "G" in the model name means the switch is FULL Gigabit, Now does that mean if it has no "G" that the switch is NOT Gigabit, Well that's not always true either because some 10/100 switches still have 2 or 4 ports that are Gigabit. Normally it is used to be an Uplink to another switch to provide faster connection between the two or sometimes the switches will even have fiber connections as well while the other 10/100 ports are for End Users. Some switches have slots where you can pop in cards to fit your needs or as your company grows.

c) IOS - Internetwork Operating System - IOS is a command based interface made by Cisco, This is your bread and butter with almost ALL cisco switches. There different versions of Cisco IOS but for the most part they are still very similar so don't be afraid because most the stuff is the same. Some Cisco siwtches also have an HTTP interface where you can setup and control the switch using a website GUI, For beginners this may feel a lot more comfortable but there is some lack of features and full control that you would have if you were using Cisco IOS, The Cisco Catalyst 500 Express PoE switch is a good example of using HTTP to setup the switch. There tons of commands to remember inside the IOS and it might seem overwhelming at first but once you get comfortable and more familiar with all the commands it really really becomes easy and makes setting up a switch quick and easy once your an expert with IOS.



Next, Chapter 2

Cisco Call Manager Attendant Problem

The Story:

I got a call while I was sleeping early about 6AM. The IT Director was calling to tell me that the operators at the hospital could not log in to the Cisco Attendant. First thing I thought of was the user name and passwords were wrong that is the most common issue when they can not log in. The Cisco Call Attendant reflects off the users Active Directory account - they use their regular domain account to log in but this time that was NOT the issue... The user names and passwords were correct. Turns out the Attendant service needed to be restarted on the Call Manager server, this time it was not just a password problem...

The Problem:

Users can not log in to the Attendant.

Example: PBX (operators) the users there log in to the Attendant to call and organize calls. If they get errors and can NOT login

The Solution:

1) Account Problem :

Reset password. The logins are based off the AD accounts. Sometimes users might have the wrong password, the account could be locked in Active Directory or they might just be trying the wrong user name.

2) The service has failed:

There is a “Cisco Call Manager Attendant Console Server” service inside the call manager. Sometimes this service can fail and will need to be restarted. Here is how to restart it.

Login to call manager http://XXXXXXXXX

Navigate to “Cisco Unified Serviceability” and click GO (top right of the screen)

From the menu go to Tools and “Control Center –Feature Services”

Select server “192.X.X.X” from the drop down menu and click GO

Under “CTI Services” Select the –Cisco CallManager Attendant Console Server- button, scroll down to the bottom of the left screen and click “RESTART”.

This is a good thing to note because you can also restart other critical services from here as well.. Also when I spoke to cisco they told me secretly it is good practice to restart any services that have been running for over 60 Days. Of course they would not advertise that with their products but thats what they honestly do recommend.