Preface

Implementing and Administering Cisco Solutions: CCNA 200-301 Exam Guide is an excellent book that focuses on a range of Cisco technologies that will help you gain a firm understanding of networking, IP connectivity, IP services, security, network programmability, and automation.

Throughout this book, you will be exposed to various networking components and discover how they all work together in an enterprise network. You will also learn how to configure Cisco devices using the command-line interface (CLI) to provide network access, services, security, connectivity, and management.

During the course of this book, you will come across different hands-on labs with real-world scenarios that are designed to help you gain essential on-the-job skills and experience. Furthermore, this book will guide you and teach you networking technologies and solutions to implement and administer enterprise networks and infrastructure using Cisco solutions.

By the end of this book, you will have gained the confidence to pass the CCNA 200-301 examination and be well-versed in a variety of network administration and security engineering solutions.

Who this book is for

This guide is targeted at every IT professional looking to boost their network engineering and security administration career. Users interested in certifying in Cisco technologies and starting a career as network security professionals will find this book useful. Readers with no knowledge about Cisco technologies but some understanding of industry-level network fundamentals will have an added advantage.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction to Networking, introduces various network protocols, devices, and components, and network topology architectures.

Chapter 2, Getting Started with Cisco IOS Devices, introduces Cisco Internetwork Operating System (Cisco IOS). You will learn how to access the device, perform initial configurations, and learn how to verify the device's settings. Additionally, you will learn how to build your personal learning environment to reduce your expenditure in terms of purchasing expensive equipment.

Chapter 3, IP Addressing and Subnetting, covers different classes of IP addresses and their assignments. The second half of the chapter will teach you how to use subnetting to break down a large network into smaller subnetworks.

Chapter 4, Detecting Physical Issues, Wireless Architectures, and Virtualization, covers various Layer 1 issues and takes a deep dive into understanding Cisco Wireless Architectures and deployment models. Additionally, this chapter covers the concept of virtualization and virtual machines.

Chapter 5, Implementing VLANs, Layer 2 Discovery Protocols, and EtherChannels, introduces you to Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs), configuring and troubleshooting VLANs on a Cisco network, setting up inter-switch connectivity by configuring Trunk links, and configuring inter-VLAN routing to allow multiple VLANs to inter-communicate. Additionally, you will learn how to use various Layer 2 discovery protocols to map devices on a network and use EtherChannels to perform link aggregation.

Chapter 6, Understanding and Configuring Spanning-Tree, covers the importance of designing a proper switch network showing devices should be interconnected to ensure redundancy. Furthermore, the chapter introduces you to a Layer 2 loop prevention mechanism known as the Spanning-Tree Protocol (STP). You will learn about the operations, configurations, and troubleshooting of STP in a Cisco environment.

Chapter 7, Interpreting Routing Components, focuses on the importance of routing and discusses how routers make their forwarding decisions. You will learn all about the components of the routing table and the factors that help a router to choose a preferred path for forwarding packets to their destination.

Chapter 8, Understanding First Hop Redundancy, Static and Dynamic Routing, continues the discussion on routing but takes a more technical approach, such as demonstrating how to implement static and dynamic routing protocols to ensure IP connectivity between multiple networks in a Cisco environment.

Chapter 9, Configuring Network Address Translation (NAT), focuses primarily on Network Address Translation (NAT). The chapter will take you from an introduction to use cases onto the configuration of various types of NAT and troubleshooting techniques.

Chapter 10, Implementing Network Services and IP Operations, introduces you to various network and IP services that are required on almost all enterprise networks and are required knowledge for network engineers. This chapter covers technologies such as NTP, DHCP, DNS, Syslog, and QoS.

Chapter 11, Exploring Network Security, discusses various topics, such as cybersecurity threats and issues many professionals face each day, such as threats, vulnerabilities, exploits, user training, security awareness, and countermeasures.

Chapter 12, Configuring Device Access Control and VPNs, focuses on securing your Cisco switches and routers and configuring secure device access. Additionally, this chapter introduces you to remote access and how to configure Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

Chapter 13, Implementing Access Control Lists, covers ACLs, which are a mandatory topic for everyone who is starting or is already in the field of networks or security. ACLs are Layer 3 security controls. When implemented on a route, they create a firewall-centric device to filter unwanted traffic.

Chapter 14, Implementing Layer 2 and Wireless Security, introduces you to various Layer 2 attacks on an enterprise network and explains how to implement countermeasures to create a secure network environment.

Chapter 15, Network Automation and Programmability Techniques, broaches the fact that the world of networking is moving toward automation and network engineers will now need to learn how automation can improve efficiency in network deployment and management. This chapter introduces you to network automation techniques and programmability.

Chapter 16, Mock Exam 1, includes a simple mock test containing questions that will help you to prepare for the Cisco CCNA 200-301 examination and will help you identify any topics you need to spend additional time learning about and practicing.

Chapter 17, Mock Exam 2, includes another mock test containing questions that will help you to prepare for the Cisco CCNA 200-301 examination and will help you identify any topics you need to spend additional time learning about and practicing.

To get the most out of this book

All configurations were done using a Windows 10 operating system running Cisco Packet Tracer version 7.3.0.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code via the GitHub repository (link available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

After completing this book, using your imagination, attempt to create additional lab scenarios using Cisco Packet Tracer. This will help you to continue learning and further develop your skills as an aspiring network engineer.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Implementing-and-Administering-Cisco-Solutions. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Code in Action

Code in Action videos for this book can be viewed at https://bit.ly/30fYz6L.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781800208094_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "If you use the show flash: command in privilege mode on a Cisco IOS switch, you will see the vlan.dat file."

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

Branch-B(config)#ip route 10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 10.2.1.5

Branch-B(config)#ip route 172.16.1.0 255.255.255.0 10.2.1.10

Branch-B(config)#ip route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 10.2.1.20

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

SW1(config)#interface...