Setting up a Lab with 3 Cisco 1750 1

[tmcmahon33]

I have 3 1750 cisco routers and I would like to simulate the following environment.

From site to site I would like to have my primary link a frame relay and my secondary a DSL (VPN). I want to send my business critical data over the frame and my non-business critical data over the DSL.

If the frame fails I want to move all data over the DSL and vice-versa.

Any good references?

 

[JohnJohn]

In what why will the router know critical and non-critical data? QoS? Layer 4 switch? I'm not sure. I have seen using the DSL as a backup that works. You could also say use the DSL for Web browsing and point the proxy that way and setup workstations to go to the proxy. Seting up a lab for simulated DSL? I guess you can setup a VPN tunnel through an ethernet port, not sure. Frame with three routes, what kind of cards are in the 1750's?

 

[tmcmahon33]

The router will differentiate between data by instead of routing by the destination address, policy-based routing allows me to determine and implement routing policies to allow or deny paths based on the following:Application, protocol, or size of packet.

The 1750's will have WIC-1-ENET for Broadband.WIC-1DSU-T1 for the frame. Software will be 1700 IOS IP/FW Plus IPSec3DES Feature Pack 12.0.5

My frame will have T1 access with a 64 Kbps port and 32 Kbps CIR. The DSL I'm thinkning at least 300 Kbps becasue anything above this would require a VPN module.

Is there a way to simulate my bandwidths in a lab and run the apps I need to run for testing: My Buiness critical apps are:
Citrix, DCOM, NetBios-IP (Over the frame)
All other traffic....Email...etc over the VPN..

Thanks,

 

[wybnormal]

Are you looking to sim the actual traffic? or just the cummulative load on the link? Solarwinds has a app called WAN Killer which will allow you to load down the test circuit. You could capture real traffic using Sniffer and play it back on the test bed.. There are a few shareware/freewware load apps out there for the taking. SOme of the over head can be calculated using various standards. Citrix is interesting.. the marketing hype says only 28K needed.. in a sense, thats a lie. Citrix has smartdraw and caching of bitmaps which really helps the traffic BUT.. local printing from the citrix app sends the print job to the server and back to the local station for printing via a redirector. That has bitten more then one sysadmin give the piggy sizes of almost any Window file.. worse when the files are very large. As you can imagine.. sending a 8-30 meg print file ( pretty average with any kind of graphics or high res) can toast your frame connection for a short while assuming other people want to use it

Email is not bad by itself.. until you factor in the attachments and/or pretty additions people like to add to their mail ( outlook is ver bad about this). I would highly recommend something like WebMail which is exchange aware and browser based.. or it can standalone as it's own server. Exchange has it's own version of webmail which is not bad.. but requires IIS to be installed and is a fairly large security risk unless you are very good about patching it.

http://www.nwfusion.com/best2000/best-design/best-design.html

VPN design notes

http://www.networkmagazine.com/article/NMG20010125S0013

THere is a book I would recommend, but I will to get the title tonight when I get back.

MikeS
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[tmcmahon33]

I would like to know how to setup the actual environment on a test-bed "in-house" that will simulate real-world. Hooking the routers (physically) together? Do I use cross-over cables or other cables with specific pinouts?

How can I simulate my bandwidth for the frame (T1 access, 128Kbps port and 64 Kbps CIR? Is this possible?

How can I simulate the bandwidth for the DSL 384K?(On the interfaces? Is there a way to test out the VPN or do I just wait for the actual line.

We are currently running MS Exchange...

Thanks for the feed-back very helpful.

 

[wybnormal]

Bandwidth is bandwidth and *most* times, the apps dont care if it's DSL, Frame, SMDS or two cans with a tight string between them. More bandwidth, pull the string tighter

You can hook the serial port back to back without much trouble.. then set the bandwidth(speed) on the ports. What you wont get is any latentcy that the real world links always have so you need to factor that into the equation. Each router on a frame for example is worth roughly 5mS of delay all things being equal. The real worlds sees something around 10-20mS.. I have a line back to the East coast and it's roughly 80mS of delay. SMDS has a nasty habit of slowing down in response time when you toss a load on it.. from 20mS to over 150ms without any other change. Bad SMDS!!

The back to back cable can be a custom job for 40 bucks or a DTE and DCE V.35s tied together. We have a FAQ here that details it and the configs. The VPN would take a bit more work but I dont see why it's not doable given enough of a budget .. You can even simulate ISDN for about 2K for you dialback up testing.

If your routers have the builtin T1 links with the DSU/CSU on it, then a back to back T1 made from a length of cat5 cable, 2 RJ45 jacks is in order. Pins 1-5 and 2-4 will get it going. Even if the DSU/CSUs are external, this trick works well. Then you can toss out bit patterns and all sorts of fun things depending on the DSU.

You have not said how many users will be on the 64K link but 64K wont go far. The min I spec on any frame circuit is 128K anymore.

MikeS
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[wybnormal]

BTW.. I just found this tip in the Citrix forum.. very interesting idea about printing..

http://www.futurelink.ca/products_services/uniprint.asp

MikeS "Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin