IP Services: DHCP, DNS, NAT, NTP and Network Management

Configure and verify the services every IP network depends on, from DHCP, DNS and NAT to NTP, syslog, SNMP, SSH and configuration backups, on Cisco routers in Packet Tracer.

Intermediate · Networking · about 10 hours · 4 modules · certificate on completion

Taught by Carlòs Ramirèz, Mouhamadouù Bâ, AI Learning Companions.

About this course

Every IP network leans on a handful of services that nobody notices until they break. This course takes you through them one at a time on Cisco routers and switches in Cisco Packet Tracer, following the IP Services topics of Cisco's CCNA (200-301) exam. You'll make a router hand out addresses with DHCP, relay requests across routers and take its own address by DHCP, and run DNS so hosts find each other by name. You'll translate private addresses with static NAT, a dynamic pool and PAT, and read the translation table to see exactly what the router did. Then you'll make the network manageable: one clock for every device with NTP, time-stamped logs collected on a syslog server, SNMP queries from a management station, SSH instead of Telnet, and configuration backups on a TFTP server. A lesson on QoS explains how routers decide which traffic waits when a link is busy.

Every module ends with a Packet Tracer lab, with starting configurations to paste in, which you submit for your instructor's review. The course finishes with a capstone that brings every service together in one branch office network.

What you'll learn

  • Configure a Cisco router as a DHCP server, a DHCP relay and a DHCP client, and verify the leases
  • Explain how DNS resolves names, and set up name resolution for a small network
  • Translate private addresses with static NAT, dynamic NAT pools and PAT, and read the translation table
  • Synchronise clocks with NTP, collect time-stamped logs on a syslog server and monitor devices with SNMP
  • Describe how QoS classifies, marks, queues, polices and shapes traffic
  • Manage devices over SSH and back up their configurations to a TFTP server

Skills you'll gain

DHCP, DNS, NAT and PAT, NTP, Syslog, SNMP, QoS, SSH, Cisco IOS, Cisco Packet Tracer

Tools

Cisco Packet Tracer, Cisco IOS

Before you start

Basic Cisco IOS configuration: moving between modes, addressing interfaces and checking them with show commands, plus IPv4 subnetting. Install Cisco Packet Tracer (free with a Cisco Networking Academy account) on Windows, macOS or Linux.

Aligned with: Cisco CCNA (200-301) exam topics: IP Services

Modules

  1. DHCP and DNS: addresses and names for every host

    How hosts get their addresses and find each other by name: DHCP from the first broadcast to the lease, relays that carry it across routers, routers as DHCP clients, and DNS.

    • How DHCP works: DORA, leases and relays (10 min)
    • DHCP on Cisco IOS: server, relay and client (14 min)
    • DNS: turning names into addresses (12 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Addresses and names for two LANs

  2. NAT and PAT: sharing public addresses

    Why private networks need address translation, and how to configure and verify static NAT, dynamic NAT with a pool, and PAT on a Cisco router.

    • Private addresses and the four NAT addresses (10 min)
    • Static NAT: publishing an inside server (10 min)
    • Dynamic NAT pools and PAT (12 min)
    • Hands-on lab: NAT for a small office

  3. Time, logs and monitoring: NTP, syslog and SNMP

    Give every device the same clock, collect their logs in one place with the right timestamps, and let a management station read their state with SNMP.

    • NTP: one clock for the whole network (10 min)
    • Syslog: severity levels, facilities and log servers (12 min)
    • SNMP: managers, agents and MIBs (12 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Time-stamped logs and SNMP monitoring

  4. Managing devices: QoS, SSH and configuration backups

    How routers decide which traffic waits when a link is busy, how to manage devices over SSH instead of Telnet, and how to back up and restore configurations with TFTP and FTP.

    • QoS: classification, marking, queuing, policing and shaping (14 min)
    • Remote management with SSH (12 min)
    • Backing up configurations with TFTP and FTP (10 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Manage a router and a switch securely, and back them up

Project: Bring IP services to a branch office

Build a branch office network in Cisco Packet Tracer and give it every service in this course. The branch router, a 2911, connects a staff LAN and a guest LAN to an internet provider's router. A services server in the staff LAN runs DNS, NTP, syslog and TFTP, and is the DHCP server for both LANs, so the guest LAN's requests must be relayed. Inside hosts reach a server on the provider's side through PAT on the router's outside address, and the services server's web page is published to the outside with static NAT. The router takes its time from the services server, sends it time-stamped logs, answers SNMP queries from a management PC with a read-only community, accepts management over SSH version 2 only, and its configuration is backed up to the TFTP server. Choose your own addressing, using private ranges inside and documentation ranges (such as 203.0.113.0/24 and 198.51.100.0/24) outside. Finish with a short QoS plan for the day the branch adds IP phones.

Part of

Cisco, CCNA, Cisco IOS and Cisco Packet Tracer are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. This course is independent: Cisco hasn't made or endorsed it, and it doesn't give you a Cisco certification.

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