CEF – A topic in disguise
Been reading about CEF yesterday. It doesnt take up much of the exam blueprint, nor CBT nuggets coverage of it. However, it seems that theres more to this than what meets the eye.
I also need to figure out what CEF is doing in routers. My assumption is that its being implemented in IOS and where support for hardware is available, it downloads the FIB and adjacency tables from the control plane to the data plane for fast switching. I doubt all routers have asic hardware, capable of CEF operations, and i know CEF is running on some of my IOS 3640 dynamips boxes.
Anyways, finally got another 2960 (I just found out this one was a G model (all gigabit ports)), so i can set up full scale labs (well, almost), consisting of 2 access-layer switches (my 2950’s), 2 distribution-layer switches (the 2960’s) and my dynamips box which is able to physicall hook up 2 3640’s with the NM 16sw module for L3. The 2960’s are pretty cool L2 switches, which ill be sorry to return after im done borrowing them from work. I now know for a fact, that if I had 95 friends, I would be able to hook them all up to my home rack 🙂
On another note, I just found out that Cisco charges $80 for a mounting-bracket pack (2 pieces of metal). Thats just insane. Ill order some noname ones, which will do the same job, but without the Cisco logo, but for $5 instead.