RSP platform installed on Riverbed allows to run VMware virtual machines on it. THat gives very powerful environment as Riverbed might become the only appliance deployed for branch office and with WAN optimization we can also provide basic services/systems to site. That gives us huge flexibility and same time no need to deploy additional systems for site can be placed on Riverbed as virtual machines. Of course that reuires special license and also additional RAM would be recommended, so we won’t suffer performance issues (additional memory can be purchased with Riverbed appliance and RSP license, so we get ready to go environment).

But it is not enough to create VMware cityual machine on PC and upload it to Riverbed. Few more steps is involved in the process and here we will go through all steps to see how to prepare virtual machine for Riverbed on Windows 7 PC with VMware Workstation 9 installed.

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Quick config snippet to setup external NTP server to synchronize time on Cisco IOS router.

labisr-01(config)#ip name-server 4.2.2.2
labisr-01(config)#ntp server 0.europe.pool.ntp.org
Translating "0.europe.pool.ntp.org"...domain server (4.2.2.2) [OK]
labisr-01(config)#clock timezone GMT 0
labisr-01(config)#

Once NTP server is set we can check status of it:

labisr-01#sh ntp associations
address         ref clock     st  when  poll reach  delay  offset    disp
*~88.191.227.26    82.197.188.130    3    37    64  377    38.7    2.04     1.4
* master (synced), # master (unsynced), + selected, - candidate, ~ configured
labisr-01#

labisr-01#sh ntp status
Clock is synchronized, stratum 4, reference is 88.191.227.26
nominal freq is 250.0000 Hz, actual freq is 250.0000 Hz, precision is 2**18
reference time is D442C30E.7A93ED17 (22:58:22.478 GMT Mon Nov 5 2012)
clock offset is 2.0449 msec, root delay is 71.69 msec
root dispersion is 61.25 msec, peer dispersion is 1.36 msec
labisr-01#

One thing which came handy for me was list of timezones I can use on Cisco devices. That came very useful during NTP deployment. So, here is is… timezones available for use on Cisco platform.

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In order to enable SSH access to Cisco Nexus 1000v (if it’s not enabled yet) followign commands have to be issues from Console or Telnet connection:

Nexus 1000v Switch
login: admin
Password:
Cisco Nexus Operating System (NX-OS) Software
TAC support: http://www.cisco.com/tac
Copyright (c) 2002-2012, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
The copyrights to certain works contained in this software are
owned by other third parties and used and distributed under
license. Certain components of this software are licensed under
the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.0 or the GNU
Lesser General Public License (LGPL) Version 2.1. A copy of each
such license is available at
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.php and
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.php
nexus1000v# conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
nexus1000v(config)# ssh key rsa 2048 force
deleting old rsa key.....
generating rsa key(2048 bits).....
.
generated rsa key
nexus1000v(config)# ssh server enable
nexus1000v(config)#

Now you can use SecureCRT or PuTTY to connect to Cisco Nexus vis SSH of course if IP address is configured on the device and it is connected to network 🙂

Previous article about Riverbed covered RiOS upgrade process. In this post I will show how to install Riverbed Service Platform (RSP).

First let’s see how to get RSP image and what is RSP and how this can be used.

RSP can be downloaded from Riverbed Support page (https://support.riverbed.com/software/rsp.htm), where appropriate version for particular RiOS and Steelhead model can be downloaded.

Best source of detailed description will be RSP User’s Guide, so I did use it as source of information.

RSP offers branch-office-in-a-box services with the following benefits:

• A VMware-based virtualization platform that provides the benefits of the most commonly deployed and advanced virtualization tool set
• Support for running up to five different additional services simultaneously on a single Steelhead appliance, depending on the service and Steelhead appliance model
• Support for more services and types of services, including in-band packages located in-line with optimization such as the Universal Threat Management (UTM) security services, proxy solutions such as video or network monitoring services, and improved support for out-of-band packages  such as Windows Active Directory, DNS and DHCP management software, and print services.
• A comprehensive, integrated user interface that provides granular control of RSP, including setup, reporting, and the definition of the data flow between services

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When you need to connect to ShoreTel ShoreGear via console cable (MAINT port on devices) set PuTTY Serial Line setting as follows:

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