This is a strange one? I was deploying FirePOWER to a pair of ASA 5550-8-X firewalls in Active / Standby failover last week. After each SFR was updated (via ASDM.) I could no longer ‘ping it’, the SFR itself could ping everything on the same VLAN, APART from its own default gateway, (which was an SVI on the Cisco 3750 switch it was connected to).
This happened every time I updated the SFR, (or re-imaged it.) Then after an hour or so it was fine?
Solution
If I connected to the switch that the SFR, (and firewall) was connected to, I could NOT ping the SFR. The interface was up/up on the switch, and the firewalls Management interface was also up/up.
[box]
Petes-3750#ping 10.2.1.252
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.2.1.252, timeout is 2 seconds:
.....
Success rate is 0 percent (0/5)
[/box]
I did notice it was in the ARP table though, (with the correct MAC address), So I manually removed it;
[box]
Petes-3750#clear ip arp 10.2.1.252
[/box]
Then it was fine?
[box]
Petes-3750#ping 10.2.1.252
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.2.1.252, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/1 ms
I’ve been rebuilding some Hyper-V hosts over the last few weeks, and one thing I learned rebuilding VMware ESX hosts is, ‘make sure you know what all the network cards are doing before you flatten it!’
The same is true of storage as well but here I’m just concentrating on networking.
List Network Cards and MAC Addresses
If you have these documented you can rename the network card correctly after the rebuild and the mac addresses ensure you have the right names assigned to the right NICs. (Without having to go and check all the cabling afterwards!)
From the names of the network connections above we can see we are using network teaming, but even if yours dont have sensible names, you can get the team names and the NICs that are a member of each team with the following command;
[box]Get-NetLbfoTeam[/box]
List NICs and IP addresses
To see what IP addresses are in use on which NICs, (physical or virtual) use the following;
To apply a license to your NetScaler you need the supply the Host ID to the licensing portal. A quick internet search yielded the commands, but the were not working?
Solution
Note: If this is a new installation, the username and password will both be set to nsroot.
Whatever I was reading, didn’t tell me I needed to drop to shell mode!
[box]
shell
lmutil lmhostid
[/box]
As you can see this ones 0050569d5a96, (which I saw listed elsewhere are the appliances MAC address, however pinging the device yelled a different (similar) MAC address.
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
After not touching one for a couple of years, I was back on HP switches recently, and I had to map out a clients switches. Now I could have used some software, but they didn’t have SNMP enabled so, I had to ‘re acquaint’ myself with LLDP.
For a More Detailed LLDP View of attached devices.
Note: This command will NOT show up in the help menu!
[box]
HP-Switch-1# show lldp info remote all
LLDP Remote Device Information Detail
Local Port : 10
ChassisType : local
ChassisId : Cisco1.petenetlive.com
PortType : local
PortId : GigabitEthernet0/15
SysName :
System Descr : Cisco IOS Software, C2960 Software (C2960-LANBASE-M), Ver...
PortDescr :
System Capabilities Supported : bridge
System Capabilities Enabled : bridge
Remote Management Address
Type : ipv4
Address : 111.222.111.222
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Port : 10
ChassisType : mac-address
ChassisId : 00 1c f6 c8 55 8f
PortType : inte...
PortId : || PeteNet || 10Mb ||...
SysName : Cisco1.petenetlive.com
System Descr : Cisco IOS Software, C2960 Software (C2960-LANBASE-M), Ver...
PortDescr : GigabitEthernet0/15
System Capabilities Supported : bridge, router
System Capabilities Enabled :
Remote Management Address
Type : ipv4
Address : 111.222.111.222
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Port : 13
ChassisType : local
ChassisId : Cisco1.petenetlive.com
PortType : local
PortId : GigabitEthernet0/18
SysName :
System Descr : Cisco IOS Software, C2960 Software (C2960-LANBASE-M), Ver...
PortDescr :
System Capabilities Supported : bridge
System Capabilities Enabled : bridge
Remote Management Address
Type : ipv4
Address : 111.222.111.222
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Port : 13
ChassisType : mac-address
ChassisId : 00 1c f6 c8 55 92
PortType : inte...
PortId : || PeteNet || Previou...
SysName : Cisco1.petenetlive.com
System Descr : Cisco IOS Software, C2960 Software (C2960-LANBASE-M), Ver...
PortDescr : GigabitEthernet0/18
System Capabilities Supported : bridge, router
System Capabilities Enabled :
Remote Management Address
Type : ipv4
Address : 111.222.111.222
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Port : 23
ChassisType : mac-address
ChassisId : c0 91 34 dd 3b c0
PortType : local
PortId : 23
SysName : HP-Switch-2
System Descr : HP J9145A 2910al-24G Switch, revision W.15.13.0014, ROM W...
PortDescr : 23
System Capabilities Supported : bridge, router
System Capabilities Enabled : bridge, router
Remote Management Address
Type : ipv4
Address : 192.168.1.221
Poe Plus Information Detail
Poe Device Type : Type2 PSE
Power Source : Unknown
Power Priority : Unknown
Requested Power Value : 0 Watts
Actual Power Value : 0 Watts
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Port : 24
ChassisType : mac-address
ChassisId : c0 91 34 dd 3b c0
PortType : local
PortId : 24
SysName : HP-Switch-2
System Descr : HP J9145A 2910al-24G Switch, revision W.15.13.0014, ROM W...
PortDescr : 24
System Capabilities Supported : bridge, router
System Capabilities Enabled : bridge, router
Remote Management Address
Type : ipv4
Address : 192.168.1.221
Poe Plus Information Detail
Poe Device Type : Type2 PSE
Power Source : Unknown
Power Priority : Unknown
Requested Power Value : 0 Watts
Actual Power Value : 0 Watts
[/box]
To find what Port an IP address is on
First ping the IP address, to make sure that the switch has the MAC address you are looking at, in its ARP cache.
[box]
HP-Switch-1# ping 192.168.251.2
192.168.251.2 is alive, time = 3 ms
[/box]
Then look for it in the ARP cache;
[box]
HP-Switch-1# show arp
IP ARP table
IP Address MAC Address Type Port
--------------- ----------------- ------- ----
192.168.251.1 e8b748-c757b0 dynamic 13
192.168.251.2 005056-a61c1c dynamic 5 << It’s on port 5
192.168.251.5 005056-a606d9 dynamic 7
[/box]
Or if you already know its MAC address;
[box]
HP-Switch-1# show mac-address 005056-a61c1c
Status and Counters - Address Table - 005056-a61c1c
Port
-------
5
[/box]
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
Kiosk mode is quite useful, if you have some machines that you want to put in a public area for visitors to use, or for machines that are used in displays etc. Or if you have some older PC’s that you just want to repurpose as internet terminals or ‘point of sale’ box’s.
Essentially it’s a system that delivers a virtual VMware View desktop to a PC or Thin client without the need to authenticate to the connection server. Kiosk authentication is disabled by default, so you need to run a few commands to get it enabled.
Solution
Before starting you will need a Virtual Machine ready to be used for the Kiosk machine. You might want to create this machine with a “nonpersistent” disk.
Note: Alternatively you can create a user that matches the MAC address of the client machine and auto generate a password like so, (this assumes the thin client or PC’s MAC addresses is 3C:4A:92:D3:12:1C).
4. Then allow this connection server to accept kiosk connections with the following command;
[box]vdmadmin -Q -enable -s PNL-CS[/box]
Note: Where PNL-CS is the name of my VMware Connection Server.
5. You can view the settings configured on this connection server with the following command;
[box]vdmadmin -Q -clientauth -list[/box]
6. While still on your connection server open VMware View Administrator, and create a ‘Pool’ for your Kiosk machine.
7. Manual Pool > Next.
8. Dedicated > Next.
9. vCenter virtual Machines > Next.
10. Next.
11. Give the pool an ID and Display name > Next.
12. Select the machine you are using as the source for the Kiosk machine > Next.
13. When the pool is created > Entitlements.
14. Add in the group that you created in step 1 > OK.
15. Just check on the ‘desktops’ tab and make sure the machine is listed as ‘available’.
Step 3: Connect to the Kiosk Machine
16. Now from your client machine or thin client, you can execute the following command to open the kiosk session.
Note: In a live environment you may want to make the host machine or thin client automatically log on and put this command in the ‘startup’ folder, or call it from a startup/logon script so the machine will boot straight into the kiosk virtual machine.
17. All being well you should be presented with the kiosk VM machine, note you no longer get the normal VMware View tool bar etc, it will behave as if the machine is in front of you.
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
For such a ‘baby’ switch this has a LOT of features, I had to lock down the speed and duplex settings on one of the switch ports today. The main details you will be looking for are,
Default IP address = 192.168.2.10
Default Password = blank
Solution
1. Put yourself on the same network: Windows Key+R > ncpa.cpl {enter} > Right click your network connection > Properties > Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP) > properties > Set yout IP to 192.168.2.11 and set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 > OK > OK.
2. Open a web browser and navigate to http://192.186.2.10 log in with a blank password.
3. To Change the Switches IP: Setup Network
4. To change Speed/Duplex Settings: Switching > Port Configuration
5. To change the password: Maintenance > Password Manager.
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
I networked some gear this afternoon, and I made a mental note of the ports I patched into on the switch. On the way back to the office I got side-tracked. By the time I got back to my desk I could not remember what port I had used, and I wanted to add a description to the port.
This is not my server room 🙂
So I knew the IP address but not the port number, how can you find that out?
Solution
1. My IP address is 192.168.1.141, let’s ping that from the switch.
[box]
Petes-Switch#ping 192.168.1.141
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.1.141, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/5/17 ms
Petes-Switch#
[/box]
2. Well I can ping it so, there must be an entry in my ARP cache, and I can find the MAC address for that IP.
[box]
Petes-Switch#show ip arp 192.168.1.141
Protocol Address Age (min) Hardware Addr Type Interface
Internet 192.168.1.141 5 0080.a394.e2de ARPA Vlan100
[/box]
3. Armed with the MAC address I can take a peek in the MAC Address table.
[box]
Petes-Switch#show mac address-table address 0080.a394.e2de
Mac Address Table
-------------------------------------------
Vlan Mac Address Type Ports
---- ----------- -------- -----
40 0080.a394.e2de DYNAMIC Gi0/40<<Boom! there it is!
Total Mac Addresses for this criterion: 1
Petes-Switch#
[/box]
Note: I knew that my device was a single device plugged into a port, but if you don’t know this, there is a chance that the physical port you track down, might just be the uplink to another switch, that your device is plugged into. Or you’re at the end of a lot of switches, this is just the next step towards your device). If that is the case you would have several MAC addresses on that physical port, like so;
[box]
Petes-Switch##show mac address-table interface GigabitEthernet 0/48
Mac Address Table
-------------------------------------------
Vlan Mac Address Type Ports
---- ----------- -------- -----
40 6412.25ea.ca80 DYNAMIC Gi0/48
40 d072.dcac.becc DYNAMIC Gi0/48
120 6412.25ea.ca80 DYNAMIC Gi0/48
120 d072.dcac.becc DYNAMIC Gi0/48
122 6412.25ea.ca80 DYNAMIC Gi0/48
122 d072.dcac.becc DYNAMIC Gi0/48
121 6412.25ea.ca80 DYNAMIC Gi0/48
121 d072.dcac.becc DYNAMIC Gi0/48
Total Mac Addresses for this criterion: 8
Petes-Switch#
[/box]
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
