I’ve just completed this lab and here’s some feedback from me. I wanted to share these as I did notice some mistakes in SG. I know this may frustrating for some of you, but I enjoyed the extra challenge.
Task2.1 – switchport nonegotiate
Nonegotiate disables sending of DTP frames on the port. I wouldn’t normally use this unless specified to do so. Also I would normally use this when you’re neighboring a non-cisco switch. As we’re using ISL trunk protocol at both ends which is Cisco proprietary therefore I wouldn’t implement “switchport nonegotiate”.
Task 2.1 – shutdown unused ports
Shutting down unused trunking ports – best practice. Is this such a good thing when doing the labs. You are shutting ports down when not asked to do so and this may have an impact to your future scenarios. I have mixed feeling on this one. Personally I wouldn’t unless told to do so. Be interesting to hear your opinion on this.
Task 2.2 – channel-group 1 mode on
The scenario states “This link should be negotiated via PAgP”. Using “on” mode forces the link into permanent trunking without any negotiation therefore I used “channel-group 1 mode desirable”.
Task 2.4 – password on solution is incorrect
The password should be CCIE, not CISCO.
Task 3.2 – no frame-relay inverse-arp
Why would you implement this on R4 when the scenario states “Do not use Frame Relay Inverse-ARP on R3 or R5”. What I did was, I implemented “no frame-relay inverse-arp on R3 and R5” with mapping and left R5 using dynamic mapping with frame relay inverse arp turned on.
Task 4.3 – ip ospf priority
No need for this as it was not requested. Simply an error. You cannot change OSPF broadcast on R3 as stated in the scenario however you can change the default point-to-point on R4.
Task 4.4 – no router-id
I would recommend using loopbacks as OSPF router ID even though the solution doesn’t specify them.
Task 4.8 – EIGRP Authentication
Ignore the EIGRP authentication as the scenario did not specify this. No points if you did apply this.
Task 4.10 – IGP Redistribution Metrics
I’m not sure for the reason for the redistribution metrics RIP 120 and EIGRP 90. Works fine with default metrics. As someone mentioned before this may be used to identify where the routes are being learnt from (R2 or R4/R5) in the OSPF table. However if this was the case I would have used different metric for R4 and R5. I’ll be interested to hear others comments on this.
Task 5.4 – No Scenario
I wouldn't worry about this. There are many labs to come.
I was only 15 minutes over, I made a couple of silly mistake in task 2.4 - did not specify the correct Vlan on one of the access ports and also forgot to apply a vlan to BB3. Lesson learnt is to take your time on layer 2 activities as this will kill time later on if not done right!
Moving onto Lab3 on Saturday. Doing Vol2, Lab 4 this week.
Cheers for now.
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