CCNP,CCIE Enterprise: ENCOR 350-401 v1.2 Training

Update this course monthly to reflect Cisco syllabus changes, add new topics, and ensure students receive the latest content with no worry.

Master exam readiness by practicing the course labs, as the Cisco exam now includes four to six labs; use Packet Tracer, GNS3, or Cisco Modeling Lab to practice.

CCNP Encore v1.2 removes the wireless topic while exam codes remain the same. The course covers the small changes from v1.0 to v1.2, including SD-WAN and QoS.

Explore the ENCOR 350-401 blueprint and exam structure, detailing architecture, virtualization, infrastructure, network assurance, security, and automation, plus lab files and configuration notes.

Kick off CCNP part 2 with an overview of the ENCOR 350-401 syllabus, exam options, and course structure, including notes and lab files for self-study.

This lecture introduces routers as layer 3 devices enabling communication between different networks using IP addresses and gateways, with a basic router configuration demo in Packet Tracer.

Introduction to CCNP, CCIE Enterprise ENCOR 350-401 training; explains the two-exam path, compulsory core paper, optional papers, and a syllabus overview covering architecture, routing, virtualization, security, wireless, and automation.

Install and set up GNS3 with its all-in-one installer, GNS3 VM, and VMware Workstation, then integrate the VM and begin CCNP ENCOR labs using Wireshark for packet analysis.

Install eve-ng on VMware workstation, configure the community edition, download images, load switch and device images, and set up basic labs with virtual machines and IP addressing.

Demonstrate the address resolution protocol (arp) through two hosts using IP addresses 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2. Learn mac addresses via broadcast arp requests and build the arp table.

Learn how switches use arp to learn Mac addresses, populate Mac address tables, and broadcast packets when entries are missing.

Learn the 48-bit mac address structure and how switches dynamically build mac tables, with aging and static binding to reduce broadcasts and segment networks with vlans.

Learn to create VLANs on switches, assign ports, and configure trunks between switches using dynamic trunking protocol to carry VLAN traffic, reduce broadcasts, and enforce layer two security.

Explore process switching, fast switching, and Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF), comparing software and hardware forwarding and showing how the forwarding information base and adjacency table drive efficient routing on routers.

Explore trunking concepts using 802.1Q and ISL, and configure static and dynamic trunks. Set up uplinks between switches, create VLANs, and verify VLAN tagging in a lab.

Explore how dynamic trunking protocol (DTP) negotiates trunk links between Cisco switches, including dynamic auto, dynamic desirable, and no negotiation, with manual configuration recommended.

Conduct a DTP lab in GNS3 to verify trunk formation between switches using desirable and auto modes, and explore dynamic trunk negotiation, interface trunk, and trunk encapsulation.

In this tshoot lab, learners diagnose two hosts failing to communicate, verify IP configurations and switch ports, and correct a misassigned VLAN to restore connectivity.

Identify and fix a trunking misconfiguration between switch one and switch two, ensuring both sides use the same encapsulation (802.1Q or ISL) and automate configuration to restore host connectivity.

In troubleshooting lab 3, diagnose why two hosts in VLAN 100 cannot communicate; verify IPs, cables, and interfaces, then configure a trunk with dot1q on the switch.

Perform tshoot lab to verify IP connectivity, fix vlan 100 misconfig on trunk interfaces, and enable all VLANs on the trunks with correct encapsulation to restore communication.

Explore the spanning tree protocol (STP) fundamentals, root bridge election, BPDU propagation, and port roles, including designated and blocking ports, to prevent layer 2 loops and ensure redundancy.

Learn how spanning tree elects the king switch via priority and MAC address, configure trunks for VLANs, and analyze BPDU, topology change notification, and MST concepts in enterprise networks.

learn how spanning-tree protocol elects a root bridge, designates ports, and uses rapid spanning tree to converge quickly, preventing loops with listening, learning, and forwarding.

Learn how port fast bypasses listening and learning to forward traffic quickly on access ports, reducing startup delay; use it with caution to avoid loops and spanning three protocols.

Participate in a hands-on STP security mini project across five switches, configuring RSVP, portfast, BPDU guard, and root guard, and implementing proper trunk links to protect the root bridge.

Learn how to implement multiple spanning tree (mst) to manage many vlans efficiently, creating mst instances, region names, and root/king switches, and verify via show spanning-tree commands.

Explore how EtherChannel bundles multiple physical interfaces into one logical link to boost bandwidth and redundancy, using static or dynamic (PAgP/LACP) configurations with consistent speed and duplex.

Configure a three-switch GNS3 etherchannel lab using LACP, establish port-channel groups with active and passive modes, and verify layer two connectivity and future layer three routing concepts.

Explore static etherchannel via manual mode in eve-ng, configuring a channel group for trunked links using dot1q, and verify with show channel summary and spanning-tree checks.

Learn to configure a layer 3 etherchannel in EVE-NG, including converting interfaces to layer 3, using channel-group with LCP, and assigning IPs for routing.

Troubleshoot port-channel issues by ensuring every member interface uses identical settings (speed, duplex, trunk or access, and native VLAN) and fix native VLAN mismatches across switches.

Diagnose and fix a failed switch-to-switch channel by aligning the channel protocol on both sides (active vs passive), configuring a channel group, and correcting trunk settings.

Troubleshoot a suspended channel by verifying trunk configuration with show run and show interface trunk, ensure both sides use 802.1q with matching active lacp settings, and correct mismatches.

Explore the fundamentals of routing protocols, how they move traffic, and the differences between static, default, and dynamic routing, including interior and exterior gateway protocols and basic IP route syntax.

Learn how to configure floating static routes in a dual-ISP setup, designating a primary and a backup, and using administrative distance (daily value) to switch when the primary fails.

Explains the default route as a gateway of last resort that forwards unknown destinations to the ISP via a 0.0.0.0/0 default, reducing routing table size.

Configure a host route by specifying the complete IP and its subnet mask (IPv4: /32, IPv6: /128) and a next-hop, ensuring reverse routing so replies reach the source.

Explore RIP version 1 theory and lab in EVE-NG, comparing static and dynamic routing, and analyzing how distance-vector RIP advertises networks, uses classful addressing, and updates routes every 30 seconds.

RIP version 2 theory and a hands-on eve-ng lab, covering multicast, authentication, and VLSM. See how hop-count routing learns networks and builds the routing table.

Explore loopback theory and its use as an always-up logical interface for lab setups, enabling IP addressing and routing protocol connectivity (BGP, MPLS) without relying on physical links.

Calculate the wildcard mask from the global and given subnet masks, and apply it in spf and acl configurations.

Explore ospf, an open standard link-state routing protocol with area zero backbone, lsas, dr/bdr, hello timers, and cost-based inter-area routing for IPv4 and IPv6.

Set up a basic OSPF lab in EVE-ng, configure interfaces and loopbacks with IPs, enable OSPF on networks with area 0, and verify neighbors, routes, and topology.

Explain OSPF terminologies, focusing on area zero backbone, area borders, and how LSA flooding stays within each area to prevent disruption, with ABR and ASBR roles.

This lecture explains how the OSPF router ID is chosen and configured. It shows manual RID assignment, network commands, and automatic selection by interfaces, with verification steps.

Configure OSPF in a GNS3 lab using loopback interfaces for router IDs. Verify routing and router-id behavior with show ip route and show ip protocols, and practice clearing OSPF processes.

Identify OSPF terminologies, defining a link as an interface and detailing its state, and explain how link-state advertisements and the linguistic database store interface, routing data, and sequence numbers.

Explore the OSPF packet theory in a hands-on lab, detailing hello packets for neighbor discovery, DVD database description, LSR and LSU exchanges, and SPF-based routing concepts.

Learn the seven OSPF neighbor states—down, hello, two-way, exstart, exchange, loading, and full—and how hello exchanges enable DR/BDR election and master/slave database synchronization.

Discover the essential OSPF neighbor requirements for establishing adjacency, including matching hello timers, same subnet and area, non-passive interfaces, unique router IDs, and consistent authentication.

Explains DR and BDR election in OSPF, using interface priority to choose the designated and backup designated routers, and how updates propagate to all routers via multicast.

Configure and verify dr/bdr elections in a four-router GNS3 lab: assign ip addresses, enable spf, adjust priorities, clear processes, and observe dr/bdr role changes.

Explore how OSPF uses metrics, specifically cost, calculated as reference bandwidth divided by interface bandwidth, with default reference bandwidth of 100 Mbps and concepts like equal-cost load balancing.

Configure a three-router OSPF metric lab in GNS3, set up IP schemes across R1–R3, and compute path costs to demonstrate how interface costs shape routing.

Explore OSPF network types—broadcast, non broadcast, point-to-multipoint, and point-to-point—and how each affects neighbor formation and timers, including automatic versus manual configuration, in a hands-on lab.

Configure a non-broadcast OSPF network over frame-relay with serial interfaces, using manual neighbor configuration, frame-relay encapsulation, area zero, and verification with show ip ospf interface.

Configure point-to-multipoint OSPF on interfaces, enabling automatic neighbor discovery and verifying with show commands; compare broadcast, non-broadcast, and point-to-point topologies, ensuring correct interface addressing.

Learn to configure a point-to-point OSPF network between two routers over a serial link, assign IP addresses, and verify the point-to-point network type and neighbor discovery.

Learn how to implement an OSPF multi-area lab with backbone area zero, connect area one and area two, and use area border routers and virtual area to verify inter-area routing.

Learn how to implement OSPF multi-area with redistribution between OSPF and other routing protocols, configure area zero and additional areas, and verify route distribution across networks.

This lab demonstrates OSPF load balancing using equal-cost multipath (ECMP), configuring multiple links with identical costs, validating with show ip route and traceroute, and adjusting the maximum-paths setting.

Explore how OSPF route summarization minimizes routing tables by advertising a single summarized route for many networks, saving memory, bandwidth, and CPU while improving stability.

Explore how to implement ospf summarization on an abr by creating area zero and area one, configuring interfaces and loopbacks, and advertising a single summarized prefix (172.16.0.0/21) to optimize routing.

Demonstrates configuring OSPF summarization at an ASBR, using redistribution of connected networks, and advertising a summary to OSPF while distinguishing external type 1 and type 2 routes.

Block hello messages by configuring passive interfaces in an OSPF lab, preventing unwanted neighbors while configuring loopbacks and correct IP addressing.

Block specific routes in OSPF by using distribution lists and standard ACL, applying the filter inbound or outbound, and optionally using route maps or policy maps as alternatives.

Explore how OSPF path selection uses cost with the SPF algorithm, prioritizing intra-area routes, redistribution sources, and Nonso stubby areas (N1/N2) and external routes.

Explore OSPF address family concepts, comparing IPv4‑based OSPF version two with IPv6 OSPF version three, and configure using interface and network methods with IPv6 unicast routing.

Explore eigrp, the enhanced interior gateway routing protocol, now an open standard that blends distance-vector and link-state concepts, with a dual diffusing update algorithm, reliable transport, and ipv4/ipv6 support.

Configure EIGRP in a hands-on lab, remember protocol numbers 88 and 89, set up loopback and interfaces, and analyze routing, neighbour, and topology tables.

Calculate the eigrp metric by using bandwidth and delay to select the best route, and review the five components (bandwidth, load, delay, reliability, and mtu) and the minimum bandwidth concept.

Explore EIGRP path selection optimization by adjusting bandwidth and delay to influence equal-cost load balancing, demonstrating how interface changes reshape the routing table and advertised networks.

Explore eigrp packets and a lab setup, detailing hello, update, acknowledgement, query, and reply packets, neighbor discovery via multicast 224.0.0.10, and verifying traffic with show ip eigrp traffic and Wireshark.

Explore EIGRP FD and AD theory with a hands-on lab, distinguishing advertised distance, reported distance, and physical distance, and identifying feasible successors and the best routes.

Demonstrate auto and manual summarization in an EIGRP lab, explain disabling auto summary in production and creating manual summary routes to optimize routing and save CPU resources.

Explore equal-cost load balancing in EIGRP and how equal and unequal cost paths affect routing tables and metrics. Verify results with show ip route and trace route.

Explore unequal cost load balancing with EIGRP by applying a variance multiplier to bring multiple unequal paths into the routing table, contrasting with equal-cost behavior.

Examine quality of service concepts and lab-based practice, prioritizing voice and video traffic using class maps, policy maps, and DSCP/CoS markings to manage bandwidth, latency, and jitter.

Set up a basic quality of service lab to mark traffic, create class maps, and policy maps, and apply a service policy to an interface to observe QoS.

Learn to implement quality of service with traffic shaping and policing using class maps, policy maps, and service policies—classify and mark traffic, buffer excess, and manage ISP bandwidth.

Explore three-tier and two-tier enterprise network architectures, core, distribution, and access layers, along with capacity planning and data center considerations.

Plan fabric capacity and monitor network resources from a single view to safeguard critical applications. Explore campus fabric overlay vs underlay, and SD-Access SD-WAN with Cisco DNA Center automation.

Explore higher reliability techniques through redundancy and failover, including dual ISP gateways. Learn about HSRP-based virtual IPs that enable active and standby routers for zero-downtime networks.

Explore configuring hsrp in a packet tracer basic lab, assigning a virtual gateway ip, defining standby and active roles, setting group number and priority, and performing failover testing.

Demonstrates an hsrp lab in gns3, configuring track-based failover between gateway one and gateway two, adjusting interface priority, and validating rapid traffic failover with hello messages and virtual IP.

Configure gateway redundancy in an HSRP lab using a layer 3 switch, connect two ISPs, explore reverse routing and NAT limitations, and verify connectivity with ping and traceroute.

Learn how the open standard virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP) provides master and backup routers, uses hello messages and multicast, and supports IPv4/IPv6 in version three.

Learn to design and configure a VRRP lab in GNS3 with two gateways, track-based failover, and a virtual IP, establishing master and backup roles. Validate with ping tests and traceroute.

Learn gateway load balancing with GLBP, configuring active virtual gateways and forwarders to balance traffic across multiple routers, while understanding redundancy via HSRP/VRRP.

Explore how stateful switchover enables high reliability by synchronizing primary and backup control planes for seamless takeover. Recognize data, control, and management planes and their roles in a redundant architecture.

Explore inter-vlan routing concepts and why it reduces broadcast domains by comparing traditional separate-interface routing, router-on-a-stick subinterfaces, and layer 3 routing, demonstrated with HR and IT VLANs.

Learners explore router on a stick by configuring a single trunked interface, creating subinterfaces with dot1Q encapsulation for multiple VLANs, and assigning IP addresses.

Configure inter-vlan routing on a layer 3 switch using switch virtual interfaces (svi), enable ip routing, and assign svi ip addresses to connect subnets and provide gateways.

Learn the basics of access control lists (ACLs), comparing standard and extended ACLs, their source and destination rules, top-to-bottom processing, and hands-on lab practice applying ACLs on interfaces.

Learn to configure extended ACLs by blocking specific services through protocol and port filtering, with hands-on lab testing on Cisco interfaces using telnet and web server scenarios.

Build an extended named acl lab in eve ng, configure ip addressing, enable telnet, and apply an acl to permit pc1 to r2 while denying others.

Configure vlan acl in eve ng to filter traffic, build an access map, and apply a vlan acl in the lab to block specific hosts while allowing others.

Master NAT to translate private IPs to public IPs for internet access. Compare static NAT, dynamic NAT, and PAT, including inside local, inside global, outside local, and outside global mappings.

Configure a static NAT lab in eve-ng to map private 192.168.1.x addresses to public IPs, enabling internet access via gateway and ISP, while exploring dynamic NAT and port translation.

Configure a dynamic NAT lab in GNS3 using a public IP pool and access-list, facing pool exhaustion and exploring port address translation for sharing a single public IP.

Configure port address translation (pat) in gns3 to map multiple private IPs to a single public IP using dynamic pat, then verify with show ip nat translations.

Explore a PAT lab in GNS3, configure inside and outside interfaces, ACL-based traffic selection, and NAT overload to connect branch and head office networks to internet via ISP, using 8.8.8.8.

Explore enterprise network design and implementation with a two-ISP gateway topology, core-distribution-access layers, VLAN inter-VLAN routing, and discuss OSPF, DHCP, NAT, and the differences between provider-independent and provider-aggregate IP strategies.

Explore enterprise network design and implementation by configuring vlans, inter-vlan routing, dhcp pools, and ospf across distribution and access layers, with nat, default routes, and robust failover testing.

Compare on premises and cloud deployment, detailing advantages, disadvantages, and the pay-as-you-go flexibility offered by cloud service providers.

Explore virtualization theory, including physical versus virtual servers, type 1 and type 2 hypervisors, and virtual switches and networks using VMware, Hyper-V, and Open vSwitch.

Understand VRF theory and lab setup in GNS3, creating separate virtual routing tables to isolate customer networks, assign interfaces to VRFs, and simulate ISP MPLS-like routing.

Describe the network time protocol (NTP), its use for time synchronization via an NTP server, and concepts like master and client roles, stratum levels, and UDP transport.

PDP offers sub microsecond accuracy, a more precise version of NTP, for critical applications. It uses a grand master clock with master and slave roles and is configurable per interface.

Learn GRE tunneling and encapsulation to connect two sites, noting multicast support and the five-step configuration, with optional ipsec for encryption.

Define vpn as a virtual private network and explain how encryption, authentication, integrity, and anti-replay secure site-to-site and remote access connections; cover ipsec, aes, sha, and pre-shared key or certificates.

Learn to configure ipsec site-to-site vpn between head office and branch offices with ike phase one and phase two, crypto maps, and interesting traffic for confidentiality and integrity.

Explore the fundamentals of border gateway protocol (BGP), including internal and external BGP, autonomous systems, manual neighbor setup, and how BGP advertises routes with incremental updates to manage internet traffic.

Explore internal and external bgp concepts with a hands-on lab, configure ibgp neighbors manually, advertise networks, and verify routes using show ip bgp and show ip route.

Explore ebgp theory with a lab, differentiating ibgp and ebgp, direct-neighbor configurations, and route advertisements. Learn to verify neighbors, routes, and bgp tables with practical commands.

Learn how BGP neighbors form via a three-way TCP handshake and open messages, and follow the idle, connect, active, open, open confirm, and established states in a practical lab.

Explain the four BGP message types—open, update, keepalive, and notification—and how they establish neighbors, exchange routes, and handle timer-based session health.

Learn to configure a BGP active and passive lab with two routers, assigning one as the active client and the other as the passive server, using port 179.

Explore BGP timers, with keepalive 60 seconds and hold time 180 seconds, and verify or adjust them with show ip BGP neighbor and clear ip BGP.

Explore how EBGP to IBGP routes lose reachability due to unchanged next hops and apply the next-hop-self command to fix routing across a three-router lab.

Learn how to troubleshoot BGP neighbor issues using multihop and update source, enabling loopback-based sessions by increasing TTL and configuring update source loopback.

Learn to create a BGP peer group to configure and apply the same policy to multiple neighbors, reducing cpu usage and command repetition, with update-source loopback and multi-hop support.

Explore how BGP attributes - well-known mandatory, well-known discretionary, optional transitive and non-transitive - shape best-path decisions, with weight, local preference, origin, AS path, and MED guiding route selection.

Explore BGP weight attribute lab to steer traffic between two ISPs using policy maps and route maps, then verify best routes with show ip bgp.

Explore how to influence traffic with BGP local preference through a hands-on lab that builds loopback-based neighbor relationships, updates source loopback, and route-map driven policies.

Develop and validate BGP path control by building a route-map driven prepending lab, using access-list matching and sequence numbers to influence AS path length and traffic via two neighbors.

Explore BGP origin concepts and redistribution techniques by simulating routes, using network commands, and observing how origin codes and question marks affect best-path selection.

Configure bgp with med attribute across three routers, advertise networks, troubleshoot neighbor sessions, and use route maps to adjust med to influence path selection.

Learn network security design theory focusing on endpoint protection, antivirus and firewalls, zone-based and next-generation firewalls, DMZ and VLANs, and 802.1X with Cisco ISE authentication.

Explore ip sla theory and hands-on lab techniques to monitor network performance, measure isp service levels, and enable automatic failover between two isp connections using ip sla track.

Explore Lisp theory and its locator ID separation protocol, a mapping and encapsulation solution for ISP and data center networks to reduce routing table load.

Enable VXLAN to tunnel layer 2 traffic over an underlay layer 3 network, forming a scalable overlay that supports up to 16 million VNIs for data centers and ISP networks.

Configure local, remote, and encapsulated span on Cisco switches to monitor and capture traffic, forwarding to monitoring tools like Wireshark or Link Shadow for troubleshooting, security, and reporting.

Learn how to use the remote switchboard analyzer for RSPAN theory with lab, configuring trunks, monitoring sessions, and capturing traffic between switches in a multi-switch topology.

Explore ERSPAN theory with a lab that captures head office traffic using a monitor session and the shadow tool. Set source and destination interfaces and session id.

Explore multicast protocols and how they optimize bandwidth for video streaming, contrasting unicast and broadcast, and learn IGMP, PIM, and IGMP snooping for switch and routing configurations.

Learn about multicast reverse path forwarding (RPF) check to prevent loops by verifying source against unicast routing table and ensuring packets arrive on the correct interface with Pim flooding.

Learn how the eapol four-way handshake secures wireless connections by exchanges between supplicant and authenticator to establish a 256-bit pmk and derive the ptk for encrypted traffic in wpa2.

Explore rest api security: define api as machine-to-machine communication and cover rest constraints like stateless and uniform interface. Emphasize ssl and avoid exposing credentials in urls.

Learn to implement control plane policing (cop) with class maps and policy maps, and defend the router against udp dos attacks to protect the control and data planes.

Explore Cisco's zone-based firewall on iOS, contrasting stateless ACLs with stateful inspections that enforce traffic between inside, outside, and DMZ zones, including class-map and policy-map configurations.

Learn netconf and restconf theory with a hands-on lab, exploring netconf (network configuration protocol), xml encoding and rpc messaging, and restconf with json and key operations.

Configure and monitor a centralized syslog server to collect logs from routers, switches, and firewalls, and explore syslog theory and severities from zero to seven in a hands-on lab.

Explore debug and conditional debug for troubleshooting, and use ping, traceroute, telnet, packet tracer, and extended ping with ports to test connectivity amid firewall rules.

Master the AAA theory—authentication, authorization, and accounting—and implement it in a lab using radius and TACACS+. Explore identity management with Cisco ISE to enforce role-based access on routers and switches.

Strengthen network device security by implementing line password protection, upgrading from enable password to encrypted enable secret with SHA256, and avoiding Telnet in favor of SSH.

Learn how snmp enables network monitoring and management through an snmp manager and snmp agent, using mib data, read/write permissions, and traps over udp ports 161 and 162.

Understand net flow theory and lab configuration to monitor traffic, interface status, cpu load, and top talkers by exporting flows via udp 2054 using ip flow export.

Compare traditional one-device-at-a-time network management with automation using Python and open-source tools to configure, manage, and monitor networks via controllers like Cisco DNA Center.

Master JSON and XML data formats, REST APIs, and CRUD operations. Examine client-server, stateless design, code on demand, and data modeling with YANG for automation tooling.

Explore Python basics and automation for networking: variables, input, functions, conditionals, and using Python scripts to automate device configuration with Telnet.

Explore python-based automation on a Cisco switch by scripting VLAN creation, IP assignment, and interface configuration via telnet, with a practical lab using a switch and a PC.

Discover how software defined networking centralizes control with a controller-based architecture, replacing device brains and using northbound and southbound APIs to design, provision, and monitor networks.

Learn how Cisco IOS embedded event manager (EEM) automates tasks by detecting events and running commands, enabling automatic interface changes and configuration actions on routers and switches.

Discover the benefits and limitations of sd-wan, including centralized management, real-time visibility, cost efficiency, multi-connection options like MPLS and 4G, and challenges such as complexity and vendor lock.

Explore policy based routing (PBR) to change next hops for traffic using ACLs and route maps. See a lab routing across multiple ISPs to optimize bandwidth at the edge.