Accessing ProctorLabs Devices

From time to time, we have our students ask us what is the best way to access ProctorLabs equipment? How do you guys (instructors) do it? What should I do, etc. As with many other things, the answer is, of course – it depends! Many people have different styles and use different software and operating systems. I will explore several popular methods, operating systems and terminal programs here.

Please Note: In these example, we are using ProctorLabs Pod #111. Please, use Pod assigned to your session to try things out.

Using The Terminal Server

Picture 1 below shows the portion of your ProctorLabs user interface from which you can initiate connections to various devices.

On the top of the selection is the link called “Terminal Server”. Clicking on this link should open the the link using your operating systems’ Telnet URL handler and connect to ProctorLabs terminal server, allocated for your session. Take note here that Windows 7 doesn’t have Telnet installed by default. Quick search online should help you enable both Telnet client and Telnet URL handlers in Internet Explorer. The remainder of this text assumes that both work.

When you click on the Terminal Server link, you should see the connection open to the Terminal Server. Log in with your ProctorLabs username and password.

Connected to pod111ts1.proctorlabs.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: username
Password: password

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#

You are now connected to Terminal Server. You can see devices connected to it by typing “show hosts”

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#show hosts
Default domain is not set
Name/address lookup uses static mappings

Host                      Port  Flags      Age Type   Address(es)
BB3                       2013  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
BB2                       2012  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R9                        2009  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R8                        2008  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R7                        2007  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R6                        2006  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R5                        2005  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R2                        2002  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
Cat4                      2016  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
Cat3                      2015  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
Cat2                      2014  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
Cat1                      2010  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
BB1                       2011  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R4                        2004  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R1                        2001  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1

If we take the example of R1 above, we can see that you can connect to it by telnetting to port 2001. You can do so from the server, by just typing “R1″.

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#r1
Translating "r1"
Trying R1 (10.1.1.1, 2001)... Open

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: username
Password: password

            You are on line number: 1

Router>

We are now connected to R1. We can configure it or do whatever we like. We can go back to the Terminal Server, by typing escape sequence <ctrl><shift> 6 followed by x. We are now back to terminal server, BUT – we are not yet disconnected from R1. Let’s connect to R2.

Router><ctrl><shift>6 x
PL-POD-111-TS-RS#r2
Translating "r2"
Trying R2 (10.1.1.1, 2002)... Open

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: username
Password: password

            You are on line number: 2

Router#

Let’s go back to R1. Press the escape sequence to go back to terminal server. There, type “show sessions”.

Router#<ctrl><shift>6 x
PL-POD-111-TS-RS#show sessions
Conn Host                Address             Byte  Idle Conn Name
   1 r1                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r1
*  2 r2                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r2

We can see two active sessions. One is connected to R1 and the other one to R2. We can also see small “*” next to R2. If we just press <enter>, we will return to the active session – marked by a star! Note the session numbers just before host name. We can use that to resume some other session. If we want to resume our session to R1, we can type “resume 1″, or simply “1″. Give it a try.

If you wish to destroy the session, type “disconnect <num>” on the terminal server, to disconnect the session <num>. Let’s disconnect our session 1.

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#disconnect 1
Closing connection to r1 [confirm]
PL-POD-111-TS-RS#show sessions
Conn Host                Address             Byte  Idle Conn Name
*  2 r2                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r2

Session 1 is gone. It will come back when we connect to, say, R4:

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#r4
Translating "r4"
Trying R4 (10.1.1.1, 2004)... Open

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username:<ctrl><shift>6 x
PL-POD-111-TS-RS#show sessions
Conn Host                Address             Byte  Idle Conn Name
*  1 r4                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r4
   2 r2                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r2

Beware of this session number reuse, especially when time-pressed. You may want to open your devices in logical order and use them that way. If you decide to do so, it may be a wise idea to configure “exec-timeout” appropriately on destination hosts, otherwise your sessions may time out.

Once you get the hang of the idea, using Terminal Server is really quick and powerful way to access all your Proctor Labs devices.

However, some of use think there are more efficient ways. Read on for few suggestions.

Direct Sessions to Devices

Remember when we looked at Terminal Server and we connected to port 2001 for R1? You don’t have to connect to terminal server to open that session. You can telnet directly to port 2001 from your own computer, using any telnet client, or by clicking on the appropriate device from your ProctorLabs Web GUI! Let’s connect to R1 by clicking on it.

Connected to pod111ts1.proctorlabs.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: username
Password: password

            You are on line number: 1

Router>

We are now directly connected to R1! If you click on some other router or other device, you will be connected directly to it!

You should note that you cannot have more than one connection to the same device. In a case you are getting “Connection Refused” message, you need to telnet to Terminal Server and clear the existing session to the device you wish to connect to.

Using direct sessions to devices is an efficient method. Using built-in telnet client in Windows (and some other operating systems) on the other hand is not. Many of them lack features like increased scroll buffer, resizable windows, etc. For that reason, there are other clients that can be used instead. Here are some of the more popular ones.

SecureCRT (Windows)

SecureCRT is the terminal application available you in the CCIE lab. Newer versions of it support some options not available during the exam (for example, tabs), but those advanced features may prove to be useful during studies, when you are not trying to replicate the exact environment in the lab.

The most efficient way to use SecureCRT is to utilize its built-in bookmarks, called Connections. This system can be accessed by choosing File->Connect menu, or <alt>-c keyboard shortcut. Screenshot below is an example of bookmarks created for ProctorLabs Routing and Switching Pod 111.

Double-clicking on any of the bookmarked devices will open a new tab (or window) with the connection to the appropriate device. What’s nice with this approach is that the title bar of the window will be automatically set to the name of the device.

Of course, the most difficult and time consuming bit is actually building bookmarks. Well, I have special treat for you here. We’ve already done it for you – for all our pods in all our tracks, you can get them here: ProctorLabs-SecureCRT.

Installing IPexpert’s Bookmarks to SecureCRT

Now that you have the bookmarks, it’s time to install them. Please, follow this step-by-step procedure for an easy install.

1. Download the ProctorLabs-SecureCRT.zip above and save it to temporary folder
2. Open SecureCRT and find Options -> Global Options menu
3. Open the above menu and select General from the tree on the left. Copy “Configuration folder” path to clipboard. See picture below:



4. Close SecureCRT, find and open that folder in Windows Explorer. Go to subfolder called Sessions. If one does not exists, please create it.
5. Extract the contents of the ProctorLabs-SecureCRT.zip file into this folder. You should now have subfolder called ProctorLabs.
6. Start SecureCRT and select File->Connect.

You should have all of our bookmarks in your SecureCRT now!

Putty and Putty Connection Manager (Windows)

Putty is a free terminal application for Windows, which is proving to be very popular. By itself, it provides cumbersome bookmarks management, however, there is 3rd party add-on, called Putty Connection Manager. If you happen to be Putty user, look for this one online – you will be pleasantly surprised. To see it in action, just watch our Routing and Switching Video on Demand or a screenshot below.

Just as with SecureCRT, most of the work is to create bookmarks for your Pod. If you take a look at the screenshot above, you will notice that it shows many pods. Yes, you guessed it right! You can get database file here: ProctorLabs-PuttyCM.

Installing IPexpert’s Bookmarks to Putty Connection Manager

This operation is a little bit different than the one with SecureCRT. Especially so because there are two ways in which it can be done (CCIEs love alternative solutions, don’t we?). After you have downloaded the ProctorLabs-PuttyCM.zip file above, extract the contents to a temporary folder.

If you don’t already have any bookmarks in your Putty Connection Manager, you can copy the file to more permanent location and change extension from XML to DAT. Next, from File menu, select Open and navigate to your ProctorLabs-PuttyCM.dat file. When you open the database, make sure that Connection Manager option in View menu is enabled. You should now have nice ProctorLabs bookmarks tree on the right.

If you already use Putty Connection Manager, using another database may or may not be the thing you want. Another approach is to import the entries from XML. You can use the same file, but in order to import bookmarks, you need to have an open database. To initiate import process, go to Database menu, select Import and Export menu. Chose option to import and in the next step navigate to ProctorLabs-PuttyCM.xml file. When you have finished, your existing bookmarks should be updated with new ProctorLabs ones!

Whatever step you used, you can make the database as the default one to open every time you open Putty Connection Manager and you are all set.

But… what if you are using some other operating system, say, Mac or Linux? Stay tuned, that’s coming soon!

–
Marko Milivojevic – CCIE #18427
Senior Technical Instructor – IPexpert

Mailto: markom@ipexpert.com
Telephone: +1.810.326.1444
Fax: +1.810.454.0130

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