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Tag: networking

Cisco Express Forwarding (2023 Edition)

Cisco Express Forwarding (2023 Edition)

CEF Deep Dive (commands) for IOS-XE C9300 used as example Model: C9300L-24UXG-4X Control Plane (CP) = R0 Data Plane (DP) = F0, UADP/ASIC CEF Background:  Why Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF)?  “Necessity is the mother of invention” -proverb Let’s take a trip in the networking time machine back to simpler times (late 80s, early 90s). I’m going to start with the fundamentals of software-based forwarding and all the pipeline steps involved. We didn’t have fancy ASICs like we do today, so everything was done…

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It’s the Network…

It’s the Network…

“It’s the network…” The statement and all its derivatives are as timeless as STP and OSPF. I recently had an interesting experience in my personal life that I feel compelled to share with my fellow network engineers. There are MANY stories we can tell from the perspective of technology specialists that work in IT.  I have tons of stories from working in operations for 10 years to pre-sales with enterprise customers throughout my career. However, what if we were to…

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CCDE: “The Journey”

CCDE: “The Journey”

I promised an update on my CCDE journey last week on Twitter, so here we go… I’ve been preparing for the practical for about 4 months and finally took it for the first time on 5.30.18. So, here’s my story… In preparation for the practical, I attended a CCDE bootcamp by Jeremy Filliben and it was awesome. Several of my study buddies from Cisco also attended, so we were able to collaborate during and after the bootcamp which was cool….

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The Road to Network Engineering

The Road to Network Engineering

          I was inspired to document my career journey after reading a post by Packet Pushers @ecbanks. Circa 1997 I was working in a local computer shop called Circle Computer in Ephrata, PA. We were a Commodore Amiga shop, but Commodore went bankrupt and had to start pushing x86 PC’s. The Intel Pentium MMX processors were hot at this time and Duke Nukem 3D was the FPS of choice. I was mostly responsible for building PCs…

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Catalyst 9300: Hands-On Review

Catalyst 9300: Hands-On Review

Cisco Catalyst 9300 (First Impressions) I received an email from our awesome lobby ambassador about two packages that arrived in the Malvern office. I didn’t remember what I ordered and quickly forgot about the packages because, it was such a chaotic week. When I finally made my way to the office, I saw the boxes in the mail room and thought “NO! That can’t be them already…”. Upon closer inspection, they were in fact the Catalyst 9300’s I had ordered….

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The Network. Intuitive.

The Network. Intuitive.

A New Network for a New Era Well, the cat is finally out the bag… I’ve been biting my lips for the last several months working on campus designs with customers. That’s because internally at Cisco, all the buzz was around bringing SDN and most importantly intent driven networking to the campus in a BIG way. This is very much akin to how Cisco transformed the data center with ACI. In fact, I’ve heard verbatim from customers “why doesn’t Cisco…

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