Wassim

Using Vmware Workstation is a nice tool to practice Cisco technologies. And sometimes you encounter errors that drives you nuts such as “The specified virtual disk needs repair” error message. This error could occur for example when you brutally shut down a virtual machine. But no worries, there is a solution. If you are running a Windows host machine, run a Windows command line and type this command: vmware-vdiskmanager -R “{path of the vmdk virtual disk}” In my case, here is how I solved the problem: d:\Program Files (x86)\Vmware>vmware-vdiskmanager -R "D:\Virtual Machines\ISE 2.0\ise2.0-000001.vmdk"The virtual disk, 'D:\Virtual Machines\ISE 2.0\ise2.0-000001.vmdk', was corrupted and has been successfully repaired.

In this article I am going to lay the important facts for doing a Cisco ISE upgrade, from version 2.0 to 2.1. These recommendations are also valid for other upgrade versions. My tools are: Vmware Workstation Pro 12 Cisco ISE 2.0.x virtual appliance software, as initial version Cisco ISE 2.1 upgrade patch ise-upgradebundle-2.0.x-to-2.1.0.474.SPA.x86_64.tar.gz 3Cdeamon TFTP server I used at first Filezilla FTP server. It sucks. The download process hangs and freezes often. I spent a whole sunday afternoon figuring what the problem could be. I switched to using the manual CLI command to copy the upgrad bundle from an FTP server. I got errors during the copy process too. By the way, when you use FTP as your copy process, the FTP server must be already declared as a repository in CLI in ISE, and the CLI command is: copy ftp://192.168.1.254/ise-upgradebundle-2.0.x-to-2.1.0.474.SPA.x86_64.tar.gz disk:\ this simply did not work on my lab. then found this link and followed the instructions: htt...

Eve-ng is probably the most notorious competitor of GNS3. I discovered it by accident. I am collecting below all my ramblings. Installing EVE-NG Here is what you’re going to need, in order to setup a EVE-NG home lab: OVA file EVE-NG client side software. I use a Windows machine so I downloaded the Windows client side. Vmware Workstation, preferably Workstation Pro Filezilla FTP client: will be used to transfer binary files into EVE-NG The following resources are useful: Link1 Linke2 and of course the EVE-NG project homepage Running Kali Linux with EVE-NG There are two ways to run Kali Linux on EVE-NG: running a liveCD version installing the full image of Kali I’ve tried both. I thought of running a VM version of Kali, which was the most stable option in my lab. Running Kali as a standalone VM and networking it with EVE-ng was not difficult. The VM image is already available free to download here . I added the VM as a template and connected it in Bridged mode with a ...

Down below you have a complete list of my GNS3 ramblings during my CCNP Routing and Switching journey. Useful Links to set up Cisco Switching Labs with GNS3 This lab will allow me to do most of the Cisco switching games of BCMSN exam. For example, I can enter the vlan database mode to configure VLANs. It’s a deprecated feature but we need to know it, for the exam and for any situation that may imply legacy cisco switches. Actually, I still don’t know which switching features aren’t supported in this “special” lab. But I’ll figure it out along the road. And I’ll keep you informed. This is what I have: latest GNS3 version latest VPCS version Cisco c3725-adventerprisek9-mz.124-15.xx.bin, with xx>= T5 (don’t ask me where I got it; Google is your best friend) Windows XP as a Vmware box Here’s the final result: I checked actual Cisco CCNP labs for sale. Here’s one I found on ciscokits.com: It’s 2,434$ only. two times my sal...