CCIE Quest

An overview of FlexVPN

Tariq Ahmad — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:57:25 +0000

If you are studying for CCIE Security v4 Lab Exam or written for that matter, you need to brush up your skills & learn to test & deploy FlexVPNs. Not only in Lab studies, in production enviroment, FlexVPN is the cisco’s way of integrating all major VPNs into one Umbrella i.e FlexVPN or Unified Overlay [...]

Cisco Secure ACS 5.X Deployment/Lab Guide Preview Available

Tariq Ahmad — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 09:27:09 +0000

In response to several queries about the Product – Cisco Secure ACS 5.X Product Deployment/Lab Guide , a product preview SAMPLE is now available on the website. This sample is a sub-set of the Original Detailed Product ( ~ 700+ pages ). For those preparing for CCIE Security Version 4 LAB exam, CS-ACS5.X Guide will [...]

Understanding FlexVPN IKEv2 Smart Defaults

Tariq Ahmad — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 07:34:09 +0000

IKEv2 Smart Defaults feature minimizes the FlexVPN configuration by covering most of the use cases. IKEv2 smart defaults can be customized for specific use cases, though this is not recommended.The following rules apply to the IKEv2 Smart Defaults feature: A default configuration is displayed in the corresponding show command with default as a keyword and [...]

ACS 5.x: How to create Software Repository & Install Latest Patches

Tariq Ahmad — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 15:46:08 +0000

This post will address process to install Latest Patches to your Cisco Secure ACS 5.X installation. Refer to ACS Release notes for information on new patches & bugs/issues fixed in current release.Before beginning, It is highly recommended that you you backup the Cisco Secure ACS 5.x configuration data in timely fashion in order to restore [...]

GNS3 : How to emulate ASA 8.4(2) under QEMU

Tariq Ahmad — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 12:53:56 +0000

In this blog post, i will cover in detail how you can setup QEMU settings under GNS3 to emulate ASA 8.4(2). It has been made possible by a user “dmz” from 7200emu.hacki forum. Credit goes to him . Basically we will be using a patch which will automatically extract the kernel and initrd of ASA [...]

ASA 8.4 : Migrating IKEv1 VPN Sessions to IKEv2

Tariq Ahmad — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:09:19 +0000

If you are running ASA 8.4 code & have existing IKEv1 VPN sessions (Remote Access VPNs or Site to Site Tunnels) , you might want to take advantage of benefits offered by IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange version 2 – RFC 4306) & migrate those existing sessions for better network resiliency / improvements in SA negotiation [...]

CCIE Security v4 is now official

Tariq Ahmad — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 10:32:45 +0000

BIG Changes Announced !!! CCiE Security v4 Lab is now official here. For those who haven’t scheduled v3 lab yet, do it before November 18,2012 as there is a laundry list of changes in equipment list & blueprint for lab exam. Cisco Secure ACS 5.X, Cisco Identity Service Engine ISE) 1.X, ISR G2 , new [...]

ACS5.X : Configure Role Based Access Control (RBAC) using TACACS+

Tariq Ahmad — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 02:58:51 +0000

In this tutorial, we will configure Cisco Secure ACS 5X to return a TACACS attribute defining the role a user should be placed into an IOS device using Role Based Access Control (RBAC).RBAC enables access restriction based on each user’s role and function within the organization. This feature is very useful when you an ACSAdmin [...]

ACS5.X : 802.1x Port Based Access Control via RADIUS attributes

Tariq Ahmad — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:21:00 +0000

In this tutorial , I will discuss IEEE 802.1X Port-Based Access Control Using Authentication from Cisco Secure ACS 5.X using dynamic VLAN assignment.The basic idea behind the standard is to authenticate and authorize before a user can connect to the physical or logical port of a Layer 2 device in order to gain access to [...]

New CCIE Certification : CCIE Data Center is now official

Tariq Ahmad — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:51:47 +0000

Cisco has taken the lid off by announcing CCIE Data Center certification, which will validate expert knowledge of implementing and troubleshooting Data Center Technologies. Initially, this exam will be available in Beta version . Here is the snippet from original announcement : The beta version of the CCIE Data Center Written Exam v3.0 (351-080) will [...]