Ping Test on 3550/60 Switches

A simple TCL script can be invaluable for testing connectivity in the CCIE lab.  It turns out that the 3550 and 3560 series of switches do NOT support TCL scripting:

3550:
sw3#sh ver | i IOS
Cisco IOS Software, C3550 Software (C3550-IPSERVICESK9-M), Version 12.2(25)SEE2,
 RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
sw3#t?
telnet  terminal  test  traceroute  tunnel <-no tcl
 
3560:
sw1#sh ver | i IOS
Cisco IOS Software, C3560 Software (C3560-IPSERVICESK9-M), Version 12.2(25)SEE2,
 RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
sw1#t?
telnet  terminal  test  traceroute  tunnel <-no tcl

Since the switches used in the CCIE lab do not support TCL scripting, is it possible to set up an automated ping test similar to a TCL script on these devices?  The answer is yes.  We can use a macro to get the same functionality as a simple TCL ping script:

3550:
sw3(config-if)#do sh ip int br | e ass
Interface              IP-Address      OK? Method Status                Protocol
Loopback0              100.0.0.100     YES manual up                    up
Loopback1              100.0.1.100     YES manual up                    up
Loopback2              100.0.2.100     YES manual up                    up
sw3(config-if)#macro name PING
Enter macro commands one per line. End with the character ‘@’.
do ping 100.0.0.100
do ping 100.0.1.100
do ping 100.0.2.100
@
sw3(config)#macro global apply PING

Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 100.0.0.100, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/4 ms
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 100.0.1.100, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/4 ms
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 100.0.2.100, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/2/4 ms

3560:
sw1(config-if)#do sh ip int br | e ass
Interface              IP-Address      OK? Method Status                Protocol
Loopback0              10.0.0.100      YES manual up                    up
Loopback1              10.0.1.100      YES manual up                    up
Loopback2              10.0.2.100      YES manual up                    up
sw1(config-if)#macro name PING
Enter macro commands one per line. End with the character ‘@’.
do ping 10.0.0.100
do ping 10.0.1.100
do ping 10.0.2.100
@
sw1(config)#macro global apply PING

Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.0.0.100, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/1 ms
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.0.1.100, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/2/8 ms
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.0.2.100, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/2/8 ms

---

Cisco Documentation:

macro command (3550)

macro command (3560)

Status Update: 20 – 26 August

Well, it was bound to happen.  This week I fell off of the CCIE study horse.  I had planned to do the following:

My goals for this week are to get 20 hours of labs done as well as reread the RIP chapter in Routing TCP volume 1 as well as review the IEATC RIP video. I’ll try to start on EIGRP as well.

This week was a mess because of the continuing painting, upgrading, moving crap going on at my house.  Plus, I had relatives in town.  But I still had enough downtime that I could have easily met my goals for this week.  Instead, I put off firing up Dynamips and labbing away because I was feeling lazy and because I had deluded myself into thinking that I need a block of at least four hours in order to do any “significant” labbing.  I went into the weekend with a big fat zero hours of lab time completed.

I did manage to get in a lot (for me) of lab time (16 hours) over the weekend.  I am proud of that.  Much like working out or dieting, it becomes really easy to completely blow off studying when you know that you are not going to meet your self-prescibed goals.  Much like one missed day at the gym quickly becomes a week, so it is with keeping up with CCIE studies.  I still managed to avoid the temptation to just fly through the labs just to put some numbers on the board.   I did manage to complete RIP and 90% of EIGRP this week(end).  Not the most difficult of topics, but still good to hammer home the easy stuff before tackling the harder technologies.  And even though RIP and EIGRP are easy in comparison to OSPF and BGP, I never touch either protocol at work, so I still need the practice.

I am really wanting to get started on full labs, but I still have a ton of labs and reading to get under my belt before I start to tackle full labs. 

This week will I plan to finish up EIGRP.  I have a set of EIGRP labs from CCBootcamp, so I’ll probably spend most of my the weekdays plowing through that material.  Then I plan to start on OSPF.  This is going to require going over the OSPF lessons in the IEATC.  There are probably a good 12 – 18 hours of lessons, so this week is going to be pretty video heavy.   I may just read my notes on the first week’s OSPF lessons, but I’ll definitely need to review the more advanced topics.

So here are my goals for this week: 20 hours of EIGRP/OSPF labs and 8 hours of reading/videos.

Days Until Lab:	218
Readiness (1 to 10):	1
Lab Hours This Week	16
Study Hours This Week (estimate):	4