CCNP Tutorial For The BSCI Exam

ISIS Fundamentals

Vital Reading And Watching For All Cisco Certification Candidates:

The July 2010 CCNP Changes (And How To Beat Them!)

To help you beat the July 31, 2010 deadline for the demanding BSCI exam (and this exam does count on the new track, too!), here's Part 1 of an exclusive ISIS tutorial that will help you master the fundamentals of ISIS!

There aren't many illustrations in the very first part of this tutorial, but hang in there - you'll see quite a few in the rest of the material, and you'll find links to the next few parts of this tutorial at the end of this section.

Be sure to check out our CCNP Guaranteed Pass offer, and enjoy the tutorial!

Chris Bryant

CCIE #12999

"The Computer Certification Bulldog"

chris@thebryantadvantage.com

As a CCNP candidate, you know how link state protocols work, and this gives you quite the advantage when it comes to learning ISIS.  When I was studying for the CCNP, I found the most difficult part of my ISIS study was learning the terminology. 

Once you get used to the terminology, you'll find ISIS relatively easy to work with, since much of its operation is similar to OSPF.

The terminology for ISIS is totally different from OSPF, however - ISIS even refers to routers and hosts with terms you probably haven't even heard unless you've been exposed to this protocol before.  Again, you're going to see many similarities between ISIS and OSPF -- it's just that the terms we use are different. 

ISIS was removed as a CCIE Routing & Switching lab topic in 2006, and that move led some people to refer to ISIS as "dead". 

ISIS is used often by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).  I'll be the first to say that you might not see much ISIS outside of ISPs, but it's hardly "dead" and is well worth learning.

Besides, it's definitely going to be on your BSCI exam!

ISIS was originally designed for the Open System Interconnection (OSI) protocol suite.  The Connectionless Network Service (CLNS) is used by OSI protocols, and the Layer 3 routing protocol used is Connectionless Network Protocol (CLNP). 

ISIS is one of two protocols defined by the OSI at the network layer. The other is the ESIS router discovery protocol. Of these two, the focus for your BSCI exam is ISIS. 

The form of ISIS running on Cisco routers is Integrated ISIS , which supports both CLNP and IP.

ISIS uses a two-level hierarchy, allowing a large domain to be subdivided into areas. (Sounds familiar!) Before discussing these area types, let's take a look at how OSI defines certain familiar network terms.

An OSI domain is very much like a domain with the other routing protocols you've studied - it's a segment of the network that's under a common administrative control. 

An area is a logical segment of the network that is composed of contiguous routers and their connecting data links.  

These are logical entities,  but there are two physical bodies as well.    An End System (ES) is a host device; an Intermediate System (IS) is a router.  Not a group of routers, a single router.

The next two parts of this tutorial are listed below in their recommended order of reading:

BSCI Tutorial: ISIS Router Types

BSCI Tutorial: ISIS Hello Types

I'll be posting more ISIS tutorials in March to help you pass this challenging exam, so bookmark the BSCI Exam Resource Page and visit every day for new study material!

Earn Your CCNP With The Personal Guarantee Of Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933:

“I GUARANTEE You'll Pass The Current CCNP Exams - BSCI, ONT, ISCW, and BCMSN - Before The July 31, 2010 Cutoff Date With My CCNP Study Packages ...

... And If You Don't Pass FOR ANY REASON Before That Time, I'll Give You a 100% Free CCNP Study Package Download For The New Exam Track!"

You Also Get A FREE CCNA Security Study Package, Valued at $67, With The Purchase Of Any CCNP Study Package!

Question 3:

BGP synchronization can be safely turned off in which of the following situations?

A. The AS is not a transit AS.

B. Only the DR is running BGP.

C. All routers in the AS are running BGP.

D. When a physical full mesh exists in the AS.

E. When both the DR and BDR are running BGP.

F. When the AS is a transit AS.

Question 4:

Which of the following is true regarding iBGP neighbors?

A. They do not advertise routes learned from one iBGP neighbor to another iBGP neighbor.

B. They must be physically connected.

C. They must be in the same AS.

D. They must use their loopback addresses to form the peer connection.

Question 5:

You have summarized routes in your BGP AS with the command aggregate address 10.8.0.0 255.248.0.0. What should you expect to see in the other routers' BGP tables?

A. The summary route only.

B. None, since this command is incorrectly used (a summary mask cannot be configured).

C. None, since the aggregator command is the correct one to use here.

D. The summary route and the routes being summarized.

E. Since the command is being used incorrectly, the routes will show up the same as before the attempted summarization.

 

The answers await you at the bottom of the page!

 

Earn Your CCNP With The Personal Guarantee Of Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933:

“I GUARANTEE You'll Pass The Current CCNP Exams - BSCI, ONT, ISCW, and BCMSN - Before The July 31, 2010 Cutoff Date With My CCNP Study Packages ...

... And If You Don't Pass FOR ANY REASON Before That Time, I'll Give You a 100% Free CCNP Study Package Download For The New Exam Track!"

You Also Get A FREE CCNA Security Study Package, Valued at $67, With The Purchase Of Any CCNP Study Package!