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I have some hints on getting started with Expect, organized into 5 sections:   Reference Material Downloading and Installing ActiveState TCL with Expect Extensions Create Your First Script Regular Expressions Limiting Script Output

I just passed my CCIE recertification exam, so my number will be active for two more years.  Like last time, I used the CCIE written test at NetMaster Class (netcraftsmen.net), [...]

Here is a recap of articles I posted in June to my blog at Netcordia: “Reachability SLA and SNMP Data Collection” looks at using SNMP data collection instead of pings [...]

One of the strongest features of Cisco NCM is the capability to create scripts to be executed against any number of devices. These scripts can be as simple as running a sequence of Cisco IOS commands or as complex as a multi-page Expect script. In this blog I'll show how…

I’m surprised by people who don’t understand how they could create routing loops with static routes.  These people seem to be really surprised that it happened.  Upon investigation, they don’t [...]

Every once in awhile there are instances where you need information about a Microsoft Windows XP computer that you think should be easy to find but seems impossible to uncover. The tool to find the information is a built-in command line tool call wmic.exe. This command has a slew of…

Cisco Network Compliance Manager (NCM) is a powerful tool that can ease network and security management by automating many of the more tedious aspects. This is all on top of the policies that can be used to ensure compliance with various compliance standards such as SOX, PCI, COBIT, ITIL, COSO,…

One feature with CUPS and CUPC is the ability to consume and aggregate presence information from Microsoft Exchange.  CUPS uses this information to (a) present meeting information to the IP Phone Messenger application on CiscoIP phone and (b) to provide status information to presence consumers (like CUPC) based on Calendar…

Recently I have been updating some custom utilities to take advantage of the Cisco SOAP API for gathering real time information about devices configured in a Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) system.  I came across an interesting feature in the response that could lead to pitfalls if one is not…

Some Applied Infrastructure blog under

NetFlow is a powerful tool for exploring the data flows passing through a Cisco router or switch. Even if you do not own a commercial tool for collecting and reporting on NetFlow data, you can enable NetFlow on a device, enable it on selected interfaces, and use show commands to…

COBRAS is a set of object-oriented import/export tools for Unity and Unity Connection.  They allow you to selectively export (i.e., backup) specific application objects (e.g., Subscribers, Call Handlers, etc.) and [...]