Cisco CCNP Switch 300-115 : Full Course And Lab Exercises

Explore the shift from a flat network with a single broadcast domain to a hierarchical model with core, distribution, and access layers, including access-layer security and core switching.

Explore Cisco switch types for campus and data center, and how layer 2 switching uses the MAC address table, cut-through, and store-and-forward methods.

Explore VLANs and trunking in campus networks, including access and voice VLANs, 802.1Q encapsulation, and best practices for secure, scalable network segmentation across buildings.

Explore VLAN trunking protocol (VTP) through server, client, and transparent modes, examining domain name, password, and configuration revision numbers with advertisements.

Combine multiple gigabit links into a logical link with etherchannel, requiring matching interface types on both ends, enabling load balancing, redundancy, and bandwidth up to eight gigabits per second.

Spanning tree protocol builds a loop-free topology by blocking ports to prevent broadcast storms and unicast floods, selects a root bridge by priority and MAC, designates root and designated ports.

Modify the spanning tree protocol by adjusting STP priority and path cost to influence the root bridge and route selection, and tune hello, delay, and max age timers for convergence.

Discover how rapid spanning tree protocol speeds convergence with root, designated, alternate, and backup ports. Explore Cisco improvements like port fast and uplink fast that enhance STP performance.

Explore spanning-tree stability mechanisms such as uplink fast, backbone fast, and portfast to speed STP recovery and prevent loops with loop guard and unidirectional link detection.

Configure spanning tree with rapid pvst, identify the root bridge, force a switch to become root by lowering its priority, and verify using show spanning-tree without changing priority.

Explore the MSDE multi spanning-tree protocol concepts, configuring MSDE with instances and regions to create multiple routing paths, enable load balancing, and achieve faster convergence on a multi-switch topology.

Learn inter VLAN routing using layer 3 switching and trunk link setup, configuring subinterfaces and encapsulation with IP addresses to route between VLANs. Validate with PC tests and show commands.

Explore Layer 2 and Layer 3 EtherChannel configurations, assigning an IP address to the port-channel interface and configuring channel-group mode (active or passive) to improve link performance and fault tolerance.

Configure a layer-3 etherchannel between two switches by creating a port-channel, assigning ports to channel group 1, and setting active/passive modes. Then verify with show etherchannel summary and show etherchannel.

Learn how DHCP works on a multi-layer switch by configuring an IP pool with an excluded range and default gateway, and using DHCP relay to reach a remote server.

Explore how HSRP provides gateway redundancy by designating active and standby routers, using a shared virtual IP, fast switchover on failure, preemption, hello timers, and interface tracking.

Configure hsrp on routers by assigning ip addresses to interfaces, setting a standby ip and gateway, and enabling preemption to ensure the active router handles traffic.

VRRP is an industry-standard protocol that automatically assigns available virtual IPs and selects a master for default gateway failover, with basic configuration and terminology such as master and backup.

Glbp is a Cisco proprietary gateway load balancing protocol using an active virtual gateway and up to four virtual forwarders to share a virtual ip and mac among group members.

Explore aaa security: authentication, authorization, and accounting using tacacs and tacacs+ to secure device access, define user levels, and log activities, with practical configuration and verification steps.

Explore identity-based networking, including authentication, access control, and user policies that grant or restrict services. Clients authenticate to an authentication server; authenticators enforce VLAN-based access.

NTP uses a hierarchical stratum system to synchronize time from atomic clocks and GPS clocks, configure NTP with a server IP over UDP, and verify associations.

Explore how snmp collects data from managed devices via mib, using get requests, responses, and traps. Review snmp versions 1-3, community strings, and read-only or read-write access.

Learn how CDP and LLDP share information about directly connected devices, enable CDP globally or per interface, and verify neighbors with show cdp neighbors detail: IP, platform, and capabilities.

Explore power over ethernet, delivering data and power over a single cable to IP phones and wireless access points, and configure PoE on switches with inline power and class levels.

Master span and rspan by mirroring traffic from source ports to a designated destination or remote span, enabling a network analyzer to capture traffic.

Configure IP SLA to measure real-time network performance by sending ICMP echo packets, setting frequency and schedules, and verifying results with show IP SLA statistics.

Explore stackwise technology that links multiple switches into a single stack with master switch, sharing configuration and bandwidth; verify with show switch, show switch stack port.

Explore how the virtual switching system (VSS) combines a pair of Catalyst switches into one virtual switch, improving efficiency and enabling a loop-free layer-2 topology.

Demonstrate redundancy in Cisco modular switches with active and standby supervisors, enabling seamless failover and uninterrupted traffic through nonstop forwarding and RIB to FIB updates.

Learn practical switch security configurations, including enable secret, service password encryption, ssh over telnet, strong console credentials, and shutting down unused ports to deter attackers.

Learn how to configure port security to restrict access by MAC addresses, set a maximum number of secure MACs, and enforce violation modes—shutdown, protect, and restrict—with logging.

Configure storm control on Cisco Catalyst layer 2 interfaces to suppress unicast, multicast, and broadcast traffic using thresholds in bps, pps, or percent, typically on port-channel.

Enable dhcp snooping, ip source guard, and dynamic arp inspection on switches to mitigate spoofing, using a bindings database and interface filters to validate ip and mac addresses.

Practice dhcp snooping configuration in a packet tracer lab, configuring a trusted port and untrusted access ports, enabling globally, and applying a 10-packet rate limit with dhcp snooping options.

Configure access ports with port security to limit four MAC addresses and shut down violations, enable broadcast storm control at level 10, and enable spanning-tree protections for access ports.

Explore VLAN trunk security by preventing spoofing and double tagging, disable DTP, shut down unused interfaces, and apply access lists to filter traffic at Layer 2.

Explore private VLAN concepts, including isolated and community PVLANs, promiscuous and host ports, and step-by-step configuration to implement PVLAN isolation across a network.