Cisco Discovery Protocol CDP

Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) is a proprietary protocol designed by Cisco to help administrators collect information about both locally attached and remote devices. By using CDP, you can gather hardware and protocol information about neighbor devices, which is useful info for troubleshooting the network.

CDP messages are generated every 60 seconds as multicast messages on each of its active interfaces.
The information shared in a CDP packet about a Cisco device includes the following:

• Name of the device configured with the hostname command
• IOS software version
• Hardware capabilities, such as routing, switching, and/or bridging
• Hardware platform, such as 2600, 2950, or 1900
• The layer-3 address of the device
• The interface the CDP update was generated on

CDP allows devices to share basic configuration information without even configuring any protocol specific information and is enabled by default on all interfaces.
CDP is a Data link Protocol occurring at Layer 2 of the OSI model.
CDP is not routable and can only go over to directly connected devices. 

CDP is enabled, by default, on all Cisco devices. CDP updates are generated as multicasts every 60 seconds with a hold-down period of 180 seconds for a missing neighbor. The no cdp run command globally disables CDP, while the no cdp enable command disables CDP on an interface. Use show cdp neighbors to list out your directly connected Cisco neighboring devices. Adding the detail parameter will display the layer-3 addressing configured on the neighbor.

How could CDP help you?

Kartik has just been hired as a senior network consultant at a large bank in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He is expected to be able to take care of any problem that comes up. No problem at all here—he only has to worry about people possibly not getting the right money transaction if the network goes down. Kartik starts his job happily.

Soon, of course, the network has some problems. He asks one of the junior administrators for a network map so he can troubleshoot the network. This person tells him that the old senior administrator (who just got fired) had them with him and now no one can find them. Cashiers are calling every couple of minutes because they can’t get the necessary information they need to take care of their customers. What should he do?

CDP to the rescue! Thank God this bank has all Cisco routers and switches and that CDP is enabled by default on all Cisco devices. Also, luckily, the dissatisfied administrator who just got fired didn't turn off CDP on any devices before he left. All Kartik has to do now is to use the show cdp neighbor detail command to find all the information he needs about each device to help draw out the bank network .

Cisco Discovery Protocols Configuration commands

Router#show cdp	Displays global CDP information (such as timers)
Router#show cdp neighbors	Displays information about neighbors
Router#show cdp neighbors detail	Displays more detail about the neighbor device
Router#show cdp entry word	Displays information about the device named word
Router#show cdp entry *	Displays information about all devices
Router#show cdp interface	Displays information about interfaces that have CDP running
Router#show cdp interface x	Displays information about specific interface x running CDP
Router#show cdp traffic	Displays traffic information—packets in/out/version
Router(config)#cdp holdtime x	Changes the length of time to keep CDP packets
Router(config)#cdp timer x	Changes how often CDP updates are sent
Router(config)#cdp run	Enables CDP globally (on by default)
Router(config)#no cdp run	Turns off CDP globally
Router(config-if)#cdp enable	Enables CDP on a specific interface
Router(config-if)#cdp enable	Enables CDP on a specific interface
Router(config-if)#no cdp enable	Turns off CDP on a specific interface
Router#clear cdp counters	Resets traffic counters to 0
Router#clear cdp table	Deletes the CDP table
Router#debug cdp adjacency	Monitors CDP neighbor information
Router#debug cdp events	Monitors all CDP events
Router#debug cdp ip	Monitors CDP events specifically for IP
Router#debug cdp packets	Monitors CDP packet-related information

Facts Of Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Fact Sheet

Microsoft^® Windows Server^® 2008 is the next-generation Windows Server operating system that will help IT professionals achieve more control, greater flexibility and increased protection. Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 is publicly available for download today at http://www.microsoft.com/getbeta3. The final version of the operating system is on track for release to manufacturing in the second half of 2007.

Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 builds on the improved reliability and security of Windows Server 2003 R2 to help organizations create an optimized, more dynamic IT infrastructure by addressing the automation of daily management tasks, tightening security, improving efficiency and increasing availability. Windows Server 2008 will help IT professionals achieve the following:

·         Simplify administration tasks with a single Server Manager console, integrated task scheduling, enhanced remote management, and the powerful scripting capabilities of Windows PowerShell™

·         Improve security and reliability by helping reduce the server footprint and potential attack surface with the new Server Core installation option and by providing ongoing health monitoring and compliance through improved event logging and auditing

·         Maximize use of network resources while reducing costs with Windows Server Virtualization, which will help customers progress toward self-managing dynamic systems

·         Provide ready access to business data from virtually anywhere with Terminal Services enhancements and new branch office management features to keep businesses productive and connected

·         Increase the availability, reliability and performance of their infrastructure with simplified failover clustering, dynamic partitioning and auto-tuning networking features to automatically manage system resources

New Technologies

Microsoft Windows PowerShell. Windows PowerShell is the new command-line shell and scripting language designed to increase IT professionals’ productivity and control by allowing them to more easily automate system management tasks. Windows PowerShell does not require a background in programming, nor does it require that customers migrate their existing scripts; it will work with existing command-line tools. Windows PowerShell can be deployed in production in a customer’s current infrastructure because it runs on Windows^® XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista™ and the upcoming Windows Server 2008.

Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0. IIS 7.0 provides a more secure, extensible platform for efficiently managing and reliably hosting Web applications and services. With the availability of the IIS 7.0 Go-Live License, customers can host Web applications and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Web services on Windows Server 2008 in production environments today.

Network Access Protection. Built on network security standards such as IPsec and RADIUS, Network Access Protection provides a new framework allowing an IT administrator to establish health requirements for the network and restrict network access for connecting computers that do not meet those requirements, and to provide ongoing compliance checking to help ensure the network remains healthy.

Server Core Installation Option. Administrators can choose to install Windows Server 2008 by using the new Server Core installation option to deliver full server functionality for select server roles without extra overhead. This option can improve security and reduce management because fewer components are installed, requiring less maintenance and fewer updates, improving security, and reducing demands on management. Seven server roles are available in the server core installation option, including Active Directory^® Domain Services, Active Directory, Lightweight Directory Services, file server and print services.

Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC). Windows Server 2008 RODC is designed to be installed in remote locations that may lack physical security such as branch offices. It enables local user authentication through unidirectional replication from the global Active Directory, while ensuring that sensitive information is not cached. It also allows administrative permissions to be delegated to local users to manage the RODC without allowing them any additional permissions on the domain.

Server Manager. Server Manager simplifies and centralizes server management through a single administrative console, allowing IT professionals to view and operate all the tools related to server productivity in one location. This includes the easy addition or removal of server roles and associated system tracking. The new Server Manager command line interface in Beta 3 also provides a means for scripting server configuration tasks across the server infrastructure.

Windows Server virtualization. Windows Server virtualization is Microsoft’s new hypervisor-based virtualization technology, and will be a feature of Windows Server 2008. The Windows hypervisor is a thin software layer between the hardware and Windows Server 2008 operating system that allows multiple operating systems to run, unmodified, on a host computer at the same time. It provides simple partitioning functionality and is responsible for maintaining strong isolation between partitions to increase flexibility, reliability and manageability.

Enhanced Technologies

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security is now on by default for enhanced server protection, and greater integration with IPsec allows for easier definition of computer connection rules and isolation policies.

Failover clustering, dynamic partitioning and auto-tuning networking features automatically manage system resources that include memory and traffic to ensure that customers have uninterrupted and faster access to the company network.

Terminal Services now includes remote access features such as Terminal Services Gateway, Terminal Services Easy Print and Terminal Services RemoteApp to provide users with dramatically improved experiences and more scalable remote access to centralized applications and server resources.

Windows Server 2008 Server Core Basic Networking Settings

Like any other server, Server Core machines must be properly configured to be able to communicate on your network. Some of these settings include:

• Configuring an IP address
• Configuring an administrator's password
• Configuring a server name
• Enabling remote MMC snap-in management
• Enabling remote RDP connections
• Enabling remote Windows Firewall management
• Enabling remote shell management
• Activating the server
• Joining a domain
• Configuring Windows Updates
• Configuring error reporting
• Adding server roles and features

And other tasks.

Before you start, you need to configure the server's IP address.

To set the server with a static IP address

1. At a command prompt, type the following:

netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces

2. Look at the number shown in the Idx column of the output for your network adapter. If your computer has more than one network adapter, make a note of the number corresponding to the network adapter for which you wish to set a static IP address.
3. At the command prompt, type:

netsh interface ipv4 set address name="" source=static address= mask= gateway=

Where:

• ID is the number from step 2 above
• StaticIP is the static IP address that you are setting
• SubnetMask is the subnet mask for the IP address
• DefaultGateway is the default gateway
3. At the command prompt, type:

netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="" address= index=1

Where:

• ID is the number from step 2 above
• DNSIP is the IP address of your DNS server
4. Repeat step 4 for each DNS server that you want to set, incrementing the index= number each time.
5. Verify by typing ipconfig /all and checking that all the addresses are correct.

To set the administrative password in Windows Server 2008

1. At a command prompt, type the following:

net user administrator *

2. When prompted to enter the password, type the new password for the administrator user account and press ENTER.
3. When prompted, retype the password and press ENTER.

Next, you might want to change the computer's name, as the default name is a random-generated name (unless configured through an answer file)

To change the name of the server

1. Determine the current name of the server with the hostname or ipconfig /all commands.
2. At a command prompt, type:

netdom renamecomputer  /NewName:

3. Restart the computer by typing the following at a command prompt:

shutdown /r /t 0

To manage a server running a Server Core installation by using the Windows Remote Shell

1. To enable Windows Remote Shell on a server running a Server Core installation, type the following command at a command prompt:

WinRM quickconfig

2. Click Y to accept the default settings. Note: The WinRM quickconfig setting enables a server running a Server Core installation to accept Windows Remote Shell connections.
3. 3. On the remote computer, at a command prompt, use WinRS.exe to run commands on a server running a Server Core installation. For example, to perform a directory listing of the Windows folder, type:

winrs -r: cmd

Where ServerName is the name of the server running a Server Core installation.

4. You can now type any command that you require, it will be executed on the remote computer.

To activate the server

1. At a command prompt, type:

slmgr.vbs –ato

If activation is successful, no message will return in the command prompt.

To activate the server remotely

1. At a command prompt, type:

cscript slmgr.vbs -ato

2. Retrieve the GUID of the computer by typing:

cscript slmgr.vbs -did

3. Type

cscript slmgr.vbs -dli

4. Verify that License status is set to Licensed (activated).

To join a Windows 2008 server to a domain

1. At a command prompt, type:

netdom join  /domain: /userd: /passwordd:*

Where:

• ComputerName is the name of the server that is running the Server Core installation.
• DomainName is the name of the domain to join.
• UserName is a domain user account with permission to join the domain.

Note: Entering * as the password means you will be prompted to enter it on the command prompt window in the next step. You can enter it in the initial command, if you wish to. Note: Note that the word "passwordd" has 2 d's in it…

2. When prompted to enter the password, type the password for the domain user account specified by UserName.
3. Restart the computer by typing the following at a command prompt:

shutdown /r /t 0

To remove the Windows 2008 server from a domain

1. At a command prompt, type:

netdom remove

2. Reboot the computer.

To configure automatic updates

1. To enable automatic updates, type:

cscript C:'Windows'System32'Scregedit.wsf /au 4

2. To disable automatic updates, type:

cscript C:'Windows'System32'Scregedit.wsf /au 1

BTW, in order to view your current settings you can type:

cscript C:'Windows'System32'Scregedit.wsf /au /v

To configure error reporting

1. To verify the current setting, type:

serverWerOptin /query

2. To automatically send detailed reports, type:

serverWerOptin /detailed

3. To automatically send summary reports, type:

serverWerOptin /summary

4. To disable error reporting, type:

serverWerOptin /disable

Windows Server 2008 Core machines need to be properly configured for communication across your network. While most of the Server Core settings need to be configured via the local Command Prompt, some settings can also be configured remotely.