Deploying a Cisco 1900 Series Router with a Security Bundle (CISCO1921SECK9): Part One

Recently, I was asked by a customer to find security appliances they could compare with their current firewall. A key point in the conversation was manageability. Their existing hardware was working out just fine but administration was somewhat of a headache. I know, I know…I am about to write about administering a Cisco Solution!

Even though we sell a large amount of Cisco equipment, I have had little hands-on time with the Cisco security features that can be added to a 1900, 2900 or 3900 ISR. Being a newbie to the security features I decided it would be nice to guide other newbies. Hopefully this will remove some of the fears that go along with deploying Cisco products. This series will discuss the deployment of a 1900 series router with a security license. This is an “open the box” to “in production” article. By no means is this an in depth deployment guide to all of the Cisco security features. I will try and steer clear of all of the CLI (Command Line Interface) commands but they will be necessary. I highly recommend learning the CLI to make your skillset even better.

To Reduce Intimidation (Hopefully Forever):

• ISR (Integrated Services Router): All routers can route but a Cisco ISR is not limited to what the name implies. An ISR can have added functionality like switching, voice, or security.
• WIC (Wan Interface Card): This is just a module that adds new features or expands the features of a router.
• Rollover Cable: This is a serial to RJ-45 connection. The connection is over a telnet client. For these examples we will be using Putty which is a freeware terminal client.
  

Please Take 3 Minutes to Read This and 15 Minutes to Try

Opening the Box

My Cisco router came in very typical Cisco Packaging. There was a box that held another Cisco box. This has to do with the different sizes of products. We take some blame because we sometimes box, boxes in more standard sizes. I will admit one time the boxes were identical size and it was nearly impossible to get the product out.

Included:

1. Box
2. Router
3. Compliance Document (In Plastic)
4. End User License Agreement
5. Power
6. Foam x2
7. Fedex Envelope
1. License Claim Certificate
2. CD

Where is the Rollover Cable? I will pause here to look for other ways to make the initial connection. If there is no other way I will make sure we send a rollover cable even if it is not included with the product.

Missing Rollover Cable Solution! The times they are a changing and I do not have to buy everyone a rollover cable. The rollover cable is no longer a requirement. This does not make this a snap but now a USB connection can be used to open a console session with the 1921.



If you can’t tell, I do work from home sometimes!

You will need one of these cables. I am sure you have one. Check your digital camera. Once you have the cable, the small side plugs into the router. Install this software.

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/software/release.html?mdfid=282774241&softwareid=282855122&release=3.1&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=&reltype=latest

This will require a reboot. After the reboot and after the cables are plugged-in there is now a new COM port on the computer.

Install Putty

It is hard to believe that in this day and age things still need to be done through a terminal session. Microsoft had hyper-terminal for many years, but I do not believe it is still installed with the OS. I think everyone in the know, knows PuTTY. It is a free Telnet/SSH/Terminal client software. If you did not know of PuTTY you are welcome! It can be downloaded from:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Once it is downloaded just click on the executable (PuTTY.EXE file). There are a few settings that are required to work with a Cisco device over a terminal session. Make sure COM1 is changed to COM3. That is at least the COM number I was given when I plugged in the USB cable. Make sure that Baud is 9600, data bits are 8, stop bits is 1, no parity, and no flowcontrol.

Comming Soon: Part 2 Installing a Cisco Management Graphical User Interface (Huh)!!

OCS Activation Failure

During the install of OCS R2 you might receive an error 0xc3ec796c. Look in installed patches. If KB974571 is installed remove it and the install will be a success.

Exchange 10 exchucutil.ps1 OS

Recently, I ran into an issue running exchucutil.ps1 on an Exchange 2010 server. After poking around I found the solution. From the Exchange Powershell browse to c:\program files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Scripts. Then enter .\exchucutil.ps1 !!!! I hope this helps someone because at the time I could not find anything.

Group Chat

I have written a document that covers a working group chat server installation. I have reproduced the success almost ten times. I had a hard time finding the smae4 type of data a few months ago. If anyone wants the data just email me at jaybrummett@hotmail.com and i will send the doc to you next week. I need to publish, but I am good at OCS, not blogging.

Prerequisites to Install for WSUS on Server 2008

Hello Again:
I hope you find this before pulling your hair out. To get WSUS installed on server 2008 make sure these additions are made.

Server 2008 requirements

Install IIS

Windows Auth
Static Content
ASP.Net
6.0 Management Compatibility


Then Install:
Report Viewer Redistributable 2005 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=70410

Exchange 2010 IIS Requirements

I admit! I recently wasted a bunch of my time!

I was installing Exchange 2010 Beta and ran into a lot of errors about IIS features not being installed. As I progressed through one error, another would pop up. I decided it would be nice to list all of the IIS settings needed to host the four Exchange server roles: Mailbox Role, Client Access Role, Hub Transport Role, and Unified Messaging Role.

I hope this saves you some time!

Web Server


Common Http Features
Static Content
Default Document
Directory Browsing
HTTP Errors
Application Developement
.Net Extensibility
Health and Diagnostics
HTTP Logging
Requist Monitor
Security
Basic Authentication
Windows Authentication
Digest Authentication
Request Filtering
Performance
Static Content Compression
Dynamic Content Compression


Management Tools

IIS Management Console
IIS Management Scripts and Tools
Management Service
IIS 6 Management Compatibility
IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
IIS 6 Management Console

Unified Communication All Begins With Presence……..

Unified Communication All Begins With Presence……..


the jellybean or whatever you want to call it. This feature is often overlooked, but to get to the heart of Microsoft’s Unified Messaging, you must start with presence. To an admin this is pretty much a black box, just don’t touch it and presence will work. To an end user this is a great feature. From standard office applications, to business critical servers, presence is the feature that unifies all of them. To expand on this, there is a software development kit (SDK) that can be used to integrate presence into homegrown applications.

You ask “What this has to do with anything?”. The answer is that the true defining characteristic of unified communications is presence. There would be no real time communication without knowing a person’s availability. In fact, communicating without presence is email.

Recently, I was doing a technical demonstration of Microsoft’s Office Communications Server R2. The audience was not the standard fair of IT decision makers, but instead it was a bunch of geeks. I can say this because I am one, just ask my wife, she shot down the idea of an f5 in my home lab. The attendees asked a lot of questions but not one about return on investment (ROI). The questions based around comparing features to other available products. Voice was compared to Vonage, Skype, and Cisco Call Manager. Instant Messaging was placed in the same bucket as MSN Messenger, AOL, and Yahoo. While some IM applications do have presence built in, it does not spill into other applications. Even twitter and Facebook were compared. Web conferencing was compared to a plethora of available services, including Microsoft’s own LiveMeeting. All of these different options could provide the abilities of the OCS suite, but no one can offer these features as a whole. They would have to be mixed and matched to create all the features of OCS. These products should not be confused with a unified solution.


I have to admit that I was caught off guard with the questions. Usually, my attendees are wowed by enterprise voice and on premise web conferencing. In this situation that was not the case. In the end I realized something, if I have to explain unified communications, I better focus on presence. You can lead with any of the OCS suite of features, Instant Messaging, web conferencing, and enterprise voice, but PRESENCE is the true hero of Office Communications Server. Unified Communications is Presence, and Presence is Unified Communications.

Jay