IT Certification and Training Blog

By Josh E.

Being able to implement first hop router redundancy protocols is one of the objectives listed for Cisco’s 642-813 SWITCH exam. Cisco supports three first hop redundancy protocols: Gateway Load Balancing Protocol (GLBP), Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), and Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP). This article provides an overview of each of these protocols.

GLBP is a router redundancy protocol that also provides load balancing. GLBP enables you to configure multiple routers as a GLBP group; the routers in the group receive traffic sent to a virtual IP address that is configured for the group. Each GLBP group contains an active virtual gateway (AVG) that is elected based on which router is configured with the highest priority value, or with the highest IP address if multiple routers are configured with the highest priority value. The other routers in the GLBP group are configured as primary or secondary active virtual forwarders (AVFs). Up to four primary AVFs can be configured in a GLBP group, and the primary AVFs can participate in forwarding traffic. Consequently, multiple routers can be used simultaneously to provide load balancing for the GLBP group.

By Bryan Baize, CCIE #16139

Cisco has recently announced a revamp of the CCNP program. To begin this process, Cisco ordered a Job Task Analysis (JTA) to discover what the marketplace really expects from a CCNP certified professional. The participants in the JTA included subject matter experts from all over the world.

The results of the JTA indicate that it is time for the CCNP to get back to the basics of routing and switching and also bring back troubleshooting. Overall, the marketplace would like the CCNP professional to be a more a self-sufficient and freethinking network engineer. The IT professionals surveyed indicated that the CCNP job role would include three items:

• planning
• network maintenance
• troubleshooting

Cisco developed the new program around several goals, including: