CUMULUS NETWORKS® — CUMULUS LINUX®

Cumulus open networking certification

EXAM BLUEPRINT AND STUDY GUIDE

Outline of Topics
I. Switching fundamentals
A. Describe and verify switching concepts
1. Frame switching, Frame flooding, MAC address table, MAC learning and aging
B. Interpret Ethernet frame format
C. Configure, verify, and troubleshoot inter-VLAN bridging
1. VLAN trunking
D. Describe Linux bridges concepts
1. Describe VLAN aware bridge
2. Describe traditional bridging concepts
E. Describe and verify ARP and Neighbor Discovery Need study help?
Much of this section
F. Configure, verify, and troubleshoot STP protocols is covered in our
1. Describe supported STP modes and interop techniques Linux 101 e-book.

G. Configure and verify Layer 2 protocols

1. MLAG
2. Describe ethernet bridging fundamentals
H. Describe & configure connectivity to the host
1. Describe common host attachment modes
a. Single attach
b. Bonding: active/standby, active/active
2. Describe the purpose of MLAG

II. Routing fundamentals

A. Describe BGP and how it is used
B. Describe the differences between AS Placements EBGP vs. IBGP
C. Describe how OSPF is used and LSA types Need study help?
This section
1. As a DC underlay is covered in the
2. As Area placement Linux networking
fundamentals series.
3. In Stub areas
D. Describe the components of FHRP
1. VRR, anycast gw and SVI
E. Describe the components of a routing table
1. Describe ECMP routing
2. Describe hashing
3. Define equal cost

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4. Comparing different sources like OSPF and BGP routes

F. Describe how a routing table is populated by different routing information sources
G. Compare and contrast static routing and dynamic routing
H. Compare and contrast different routing protocols
I. Configure, verify, and troubleshoot IPv4 and IPv6 static routing
J. Describe the basics of addressing fundamentals with IPv4 and IPv6
1. Unicast
2. Broadcast
3. Multicast
K. Describe the Linux theory on VRF
1. Describe MGMT VRF Theory
2. Configure VRF
L. mcast (no PIM)
1. Describe IGMP functionalities

III. Linux concepts
A. Describe the basics of GRUB
B. Display how to boot a switch, recover a password, and do manually booting
C. Installing software and package management
(.deb, source...etc)—High-level concepts Need study help?
This section
1. Understand how to use a change log
is covered in the
D. Display how to add and remove users, set permissions on files, password Linux networking
fundamentals series.
E. Describe the benefits and differences between password login and keybased
F. Describe the difference between userspace & kernel
G. Configure systemd Service architecture
1. Display Starting, enabling, disabling a service
H. Describe the purpose of BASH awareness
I. Stdin/out/err, utilities, pipes and redirection
1. Display how to change directories, create files, use sudo, use grep
J. Describe file system structure and where files are located
K. DHCP

IV. Overlay routing concepts

A. Describe and configure a VXLAN Need study help?
This section
B. Describe the difference between Asymmetric and symmetric routing is covered in the
C. Describe the basics of EVPN, a BGP EVPN control plane, and the Cumulus Core series.
different route types

V. Core Cumulus concepts

A. Describe Awareness & interaction between NCLU & ifupdown2
B. Configure interfaces

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C. Create a topology file and verify cabling with PTM

D. Configure, Describe, and troubleshoot BGP unnumbered operation
1. Describe how to manage FRR
E. Describe NCLU and display how to leverage help, add/remove config
F. Describe hardware Abstraction
1. Switchd
Need study help?
2. Netlink Interaction with kernel This section
a. Pros and cons of configuring user space vs. kernel is covered in the
Cumulus Core series.
G. Describe purpose of ONIE
1. Describe how a system boots, how to install an OS
H. Describe ZTP
I. Describe how to protect the control plane with cl-acltool
J. Configure SPANs with cl-acltool
K. AAA, ipv6, NTP, SNMP, DHCP Relay

VI. Design Concepts
A. Describe Clos design
B. Describe various modern architecture designs
1. Traditional Spanning Tree—Single Attached
2. MLAG
3. Single-attached hosts
4. Redistributed neighbor
5. ROH
6. Routing on the VM
7. Virtual Router
8. Anycast w/ Manual Redistribution
9. LNV w/ MLAG
C. Describe service leads
D. Describe ECMP
E. Describe oversubscription ratios
1. Describe port density, sizing of the DC

VII. Troubleshooting
A. Describe basic troubleshooting techniques
B. Validate layer 1
1. Verify link state, counters & bonding, NetQ & NCLU methods
C. Validate layer 2
1. Look at spanning tree, VLANs, NetQ, NetQ & NCLU methods
D. Validate layer 3
1. Route peering, route table, EVPN, NetQ, NetQ & NCLU methods

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E. Linux system
1. Display how to Check CPU, memory utilization & disc
F. System environmentals
1. Display how to check temperature, fan speed, power supply, psu

VIII. Automation
A. Identify potential automation templates
B. Describe the principles automation
C. Describe a library/module
D. Describe groupings
E. Describe Push v Pull. Agent v Agentless
F. Describe Idempotentcy
G. Name major automation vendors in the space
H. Articulate Linux Automation Strategy (Push file —› Restart service)
I. Enable and Use the NCLU API

If you’d like comprehensive training to get you prepped for the exam, sign up for one of the Cumulus live training
“bootcamps.” You’ll get personalized training from a Cumulus instructor and 50% off your certification exam.

Other Helpful Resources

Cumulus technical documentation Networking command cheat sheets

Automating Cumulus with Ansible How-to videos

How to operationalize Cumulus

About Cumulus Networks

Cumulus Networks is leading the transformation of bringing web-scale networking to enterprise cloud. Its network
switch, Cumulus Linux, is the only solution that allows you to affordably build and efficiently operate your network like the
world’s largest data center operators, unlocking vertical network stacks. By allowing operators to use standard hardware
components, Cumulus Linux offers unprecedented operational speed and agility, at the industry’s most competitive cost.
Cumulus Networks has received venture funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Peter
Wagner and four of the original VMware founders. For more information visit cumulusnetworks.com or
follow @cumulusnetworks.

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