In another move that shows everything is moving rapidly to the cloud. Cisco has acquired ClearAccess. They are makers of software that allows service providers to easily provision and manage residential and mobile devices. It will be interesting to see how this integrates with everything else that Cisco is offering.

Awhile back I took the CCNP-SWITCH exam. I know everyone is always looking for what other people studied and what worked for them so I thought I would share.

First off I used CBT Nuggets. Here is the link:

http://www.cbtnuggets.com/it-training-videos/it-nuggets-library/series/cisco-ccnp-switch-642-813

It is definitely on the pricey side, but Jeremy is amazing and the way he explains concepts is great. I know without watching this I would not have passed.

After watching the videos I then read the Cisco Press 642-813 Official Certification guide.

http://www.amazon.com/SWITCH-642-813-Official-Certification-Guide/dp/1587202433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333213840&sr=8-1

This was helpful in that it went into a bit more detail in some areas then Jeremy did. Without Jeremy explaining the concepts first though it would have been difficult to understand.

Last thing I did was use Packet Tracer to practice with. If you have a copy of Packet Tracer here are some great pre-made labs to help you practice. These are also good if you are practicing for the CCNA.

http://www.packettracernetwork.com/packettracer53labs.html

Hope this helps and good luck!

I just took and passed the Cisco CCNP-ROUTE exam. It was difficult, but fair. I just wanted to share two items that without I would not have passed.

I used the GNS3 router emulator which is amazing. It uses an actual Cisco IOS and allows you to simulate connections between different routers and switches. It allowed me to create and practice setting up different routing topologies. Here is a link to the website to download it:

http://www.gns3.net/

In addition I purchased the CCNP-ROUTE Lab Manual Companion. It has router configs and instructions on how to setup and practice everything that is on the exam. Here is a link to it:

http://www.amazon.com/CCNP-ROUTE-Lab-Manual-Companion/dp/1587133032/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1333213294&sr=8-8

Hope this helps and good luck!

Right now IT departments have a lot on their plate. As companies are looking to expand their capabilities and boost productivity, it is falling on those in IT to provide the end users these abilities. From migrating to Windows 7 (Soon to be Windows8), desktop management, data protection, business continuance, device proliferation such as tablets and smart phones, anywhere access, voice and video, to rapidly deploying applications and devices. IT has to manage all these things while maintaining a good user experience, security, and keeping costs under control. Not an easy task for anyone.
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When you go to set up a server in the data center it usually requires planning and coordination between independent teams such as the network, server, storage, and application teams.   Depending on the size of the company and how the internal organization is set up this can become a huge hassle and take weeks to accomplish the simplest items.  Also, when you go to move a server to a different location, usually this means changing its IP address.  And as we all know changing an IP address on a server is usually not simple or fun (Huge understatement).  It can affect applications that point to it, you might need to change rules on a firewall, etc.  Cisco FabricPath gives you the foundation for building highly scalable datacenter network and moving server locations with none of these issues.  It does this by making the network look like a single virtual switch when looking from the outside in.
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VMware has released several patches that address vulnerabilities in older ESX and ESXi versions. These patches should be installed as soon as possible to preserve the security of VMware installations.

• ESX 3.5-4.1 and ESXi 3.5-4.1 should install available patches to address a ROM Overwrite vulnerability that allows privilege escalation in Windows 2000 through 2003 R2 guests (CVE-2012-1515).
• ESX 4.0 should install available patches to update the service console to kernel-400.2.6.18-238.4.11.591731 and fix multiple inherited vulnerabilities (
  CVE-2011-2482, CVE-2011-3191, and CVE-2011-4348). The patch for ESXi 4.1 is still pending.
• ESX 4.0 should install available updates to patch Kerberos vulnerabilities (CVE-2011-4862).

As always, the easiest way to patch your VMware hosts is with VMware’s vSphere Update Manager. Update Manager, combined with VMware vMotion, lets you safely patch your critical virtual hosts without maintenance windows, service interruptions, or costly downtime.

To be alerted of security advisories as they are released, you can sign up for email notifications. Advisories are also published on the VMware website.

A common complaint I hear when working with customers who deploy applications and shared desktops in a Windows Server environment is the long length of time it can take for a user to log into the environment.  When troubleshooting, most administrators verify that all of the Citrix policy settings are correct, and even investigate the servers hardware for possible issues.  While all of these could cause this problem, something that most technicians fail to check are the Windows Group Policy settings that control the user’s profile.

Most Citrix environments with this problem use roaming profiles to manage their employees files and folders.  While this is a good practice, using folder redirection along with roaming profiles typically yields the best results.  Folder redirection settings in Windows Server 2008 can be found in User Configuration\Polices\Windows Settings\Folder Redirection.

When using folder redirection along with roaming profiles, be sure to exclude the redirected folder from roaming by enabling the setting User Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\User Profiles\Exclude directories from roaming profile.  In the Prevent the following directories from roaming with the profile box type the list of folders that were set in the Folder Redirection policy.