I recently moved my domains off of Rimuhosting and Dreamhost to Linode. They have by far the nicest dashboard I have seen for virtualized linux and great prices too.

Now to make great hosting better, they have started to roll their machines from UML (User Mode Linux) to the Xen virtualization platform.

Xen has less overhead compared to UML. Xen Linodes have 4 processors. They support kernel modules. They support 32 and 64 bit kernels. We’re running the latest Xen version (3.2.1) which means we can support paravirt_ops kernels (pv_ops), which means we can have kernels newer than 2.6.18 (which a lot of our competitors force you to use). In short, Linodes will be much, much faster under Xen.

I am thrilled with these guys, their service, and their commitment to improving their platform.

http://blog.linode.com/2008/03/28/linodes-in-xen/

In the previous post, I got my new Cisco 871W Integrated Services Router attached via serial cable to my laptop and changed the factory default username and password. Next step, set the router hostname and get the new box talking on my internal network.

First step is to make sure I can recover if something goes wrong. I found instructions on backing up my config through HyperTerminal or TFTP on Cisco’s site.

Next we set the hostname and domain.


yourname# configure terminal
yourname(config)# hostname fw
fw(config)#


Notice the hostname change took effect immediately.


fw(config)# ip domain name domain.com
fw(config)# exit
fw# copy running-config startup-config


Now the new hostname and domain name are saved to the startup configuration. Next up, setting the network information.

fw#show ip interface
FastEthernet0 is up, line protocol is down
  Internet protocol processing disabled
FastEthernet1 is up, line protocol is down
  Internet protocol processing disabled
FastEthernet2 is up, line protocol is down
  Internet protocol processing disabled
FastEthernet3 is down, line protocol is down
  Internet protocol processing disabled
FastEthernet4 is administratively down, line protocol is down
  Internet protocol processing disabled
Dot11Radio0 is administratively down, line protocol is down
  Internet protocol processing disabled
Vlan1 is up, line protocol is down
  Internet address is 10.10.10.1/29
  Broadcast address is 255.255.255.255
  -- Cut --
Virtual-Dot11Radio0 is administratively down, line protocol is down
  Internet protocol processing disabled
fw#

fw#show vlans 

No Virtual LANs configured.

fw#

Wait a second! “No Virtual LANs configured”? The interfaces show Vlan1 is up?

fw#show vlan-switch
VLAN Name                             Status    Ports
---- -------------------------------- --------- -------------------------------
1    default                          active    Fa0, Fa1, Fa2, Fa3
1002 fddi-default                     active
1003 token-ring-default               active
1004 fddinet-default                  active
1005 trnet-default                    active    

VLAN Type  SAID       MTU   Parent RingNo BridgeNo Stp  BrdgMode Trans1 Trans2
---- ----- ---------- ----- ------ ------ -------- ---- -------- ------ ------
1    enet  100001     1500  -      -      -        -    -        1002   1003
1002 fddi  101002     1500  -      -      -        -    -        1      1003
1003 tr    101003     1500  1005   0      -        -    srb      1      1002
1004 fdnet 101004     1500  -      -      1        ibm  -        0      0
1005 trnet 101005     1500  -      -      1        ibm  -        0      0   

fw#

Aha! Vlan1 is the default Virtual LAN and all ports are assigned to it. Since I do not have the Advanced IP Services Cisco IOS Software Image I cannot add more Virtual LANs. With Advanced IP Services I can have up to four VLANs on the 871W. Looks like I need to configure the default VLAN.


fw#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
fw(config)#interface Vlan1
fw(config-if)#ip address 192.168.138.1 255.255.255.0
fw(config-if)#no ip route-cache
fw(config-if)#exit
fw(config)#exit
fw# copy running-config startup-config
fw#


Now all the internal interfaces on my router are configured to the 192.168.69.0/24 network. Next up, setting up the DHCP server!

I just bought a Cisco 871W Integrated Services Router for home. This is an attempt to add to my mad skillz by adding IOS and having a little fun learning in the process.

The box arrived today. Inside were the router, a power supply, serial and ethernet cable, manuals, and antenna for the back of the unit.

I plugged the 871 into the wall and used the serial cable to attach it to my laptop. Boot up hyperterminal and set the serial settings to 9600 baud, 8 bit, no parity, 1 stop bit and no flow control. The router shows a splash screen telling you to log in with the username cisco and the password cisco. Since factory passwords are bad, that is the first thing I wanted to change.

I logged in with the credentials provided and then floundered about for a bit trying to remember my ancient IOS skillz.

First I needed to get the machine into configuration mode. Since the account (cisco) that I logged in with was already at privilege level 15 I did not need to enable privileged EXEC mode.


yourname# configure terminal
yourname(config)#


There we go! Now I was in configuration mode. Now I needed to add my new administrative user and password to the config.


yourname(config)# username admuser privilege 15 secret 0 secretpasswd
yourname(config)#


Now I could log out of the cisco account and into the admuser account.


yourname(config)# exit
yourname# exit
Press RETURN to get started.
User Access Verification
Username: admuser
Password:
yourname#


We have access as the admuser account, however the cisco account still exists. Need to fix that…


yourname# configure terminal
yourname(config)# no username cisco
yourname(config)#


Much better. Now, as you may know, when you have made a change to a Cisco IOS config, you are editing the running configuration. This means that we need to save the running configuration. Prompt more floundering on my part until I realize that you cannot save the configuration in config mode.


yourname(config)# exit
yourname# copy running-config startup-config
Destination filename [startup-config]? ENTER
Building configuration…
[OK]
yourname#


Woohoo! Got my first configuration change saved in the startup configuration. Now for some more floundering before my next post.