I have some experience in the Cisco CLI. I just got a call about a job, and it was hinted that being familiar with the HP command set would 'be valuable' if I made it to an interview. (they want a person to start Monday, so the timeline is very compressed) From what I've googled so far, they look somewhat similar.

I've found some quick & dirty cheatsheet style references (see below) but am looking for a more complete 'For Dummies' style reference. Little details, like how to get into and out of privileged mode, interface configuration mode, etc.


https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/85991-hp-procurve-cli-cheat-sheet

http://blog.petrilopia.net/info/hp-procurve-cli-cheatsheet-2/

http://www.sysadmintutorials.com/tutorials/hp/hp-procurve-advanced-cli-commands-reference/


It appears that I can't import/run an HP image into GNS3 to play around. Is there a better simulator available that doesn't require corporate subscriptions or the finding of restricted software? I've seen references to some official HP sims, but the links I've found all seem to be obsolete.

Is Comware V7 any good?

That could be good, but the links from those searches all appear to be dead, and the one that looks like a current reference does not have Networking listed as an option like the referring page states.
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/networking/dropbox/index.html




Wait one... from this page:



http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/networking/products/simulator/resources.aspx?jumpid=reg_r11944_usen_c-001_title_r0001#.VrJO2vkrKM8






I think I found the right download page....



http://www8.hp.com/us/en/networking/simulator/index.html




 


... which leads to a Not Found error page. Damn HP, you really mucked up your page relationships when you split off into Consumer Crap and Enterprise.




Hmmm... Maybe THIS one?


http://h20565.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=7107838&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4132


 

OK, that appears to be a legit download site... but the bastards hid it in a .rar instead of a .zip, and it apparently runs in VirtualBox. Grrr...

LMAO damn you HP

I love Comware 7.  I like many aspects of Provision, the Procurve OS, as well..  I also have a fondness for IOS as I spent many years with it.

If you know your stuff, they are all pretty much the same.  You just have variations in terminology, command syntax (sometimes not even that), and whatever proprietary features or protocols the maker bakes in that you might have to use.  You'll see the proprietary stuff in use a bit more often with Cisco.  HSRP being a good example (vs. VRRP).

My personal preference is Comware/H3C for core and distribution infrastructure and the HP ProCurve/ProVision products at the edge.  That can vary a bit depending on some factors with SDN/OpenFlow being the biggest one.

Of course, I'd be fine with Juniper, Cisco, or Hell for that matter Force10.  

I wouldn't worry about having to add Comware and ProVision to your skill set.  Comware in particular is close enough to IOS in syntax and structure that they got sued for it a while back. ProVision trips Cisco folks up the most.  This mainly revolves around describing VLAN traffic as being tagged or untagged and the method of CLI configuration.  

Other things that drive Cisco adherents batty is HPE's use of the term "trunk".  In HP parlance, a trunk is an aggregation of links (link aggregation group/LACP/802.3ad) to increase available bandwidth between devices, provide redundancy, and some other use cases.  Cisco would refer to that as an EtherChannel and a trunk as a link carrying traffic from multiple VLANs between devices.  ETA:  Comware uses trunk the in the same manner as IOS within the CLI if not in the documentation.  Again, Comware (to me) is very similar to IOS.  There isn't much in the way of even quite advanced configuration that judiciously used ? CLI help and RTFM can't get you through.

Again, that opinion does assume a fairly high degree of networking knowledge and experience.

Eh, I'm tired and I did this stuff for 13 hours today.  There's a lot more to it and I've over-simplified some things.

If you have specific questions about Comware or Provision vs. IOS feel free to hit me up.  




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The split into HP (Printers, PC's, laptops) and HPE (Enterprise Networking and technologies) mucked up a lot of the links and pages.  It's a HUGE website and I'm amazed they did as well as they did.

There is a Comware simulator out there but I've never had any need to use it so I can't speak to its quality.  I'm not aware of anything similar for ProVision.

If you need the hands on you can get switches cheap on eBay.  Something like an HP 5130 (Comware) and an older 3800 would do nicely.

ETA:  NVM, I just checked eBay on a lark for 5130's and 3800's..... Disregard my comment on price....



You're Welcome - Comware/Provision/Cisco CLI reference




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Thanks guys.

I checked with the recruiter and they went with other candidates that have current HP switch/router experience. I'll still be checking this out, but it just went several notches down my priority list.


Since most of the references I found in my initial search go down dead-end rabbit holes, I'll be writing up a little summary of where you can find their current offerings. Arf tends to place high in Google searches, so maybe that summary will help others.

All the more reason to check out the reference I linked above.  Every additional toolset you have access to is a differentiation between you and the competition.

If nothing else, looking at the way other major networking vendors approach layer 2 and 3 networking will make your concepts stronger and your flexibility greater.




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I totally agree, and I appreciate everything you posted.

Knock out the CCNA.  That's always a good one to have as it is strong on core concepts.  

Get experience anywhere you can.  I'm not sure if you are in the field for a living or not.  If not, volunteer, offer to intern, anything that gets you hands on.

Experience was, is, and always will be king.

"kind of" in the industry -- more like the read headed step-kid that looks like the mailman

I've come to understand that direct support and service desk types, while technically being "in IT" are not really counted as being "Real IT" types. We don't do advanced scripting or Java coding or firewall & routing rules or.... We have the curse (and in rare cases, the benefit) of being Jack of All Trades kinds of folks. Based on past events, I can do mid+ level IP troubleshooting, but getting the security access can be a real bitch. I can work out useful reporting, but it will take me a while compared to someone who does it regularly, assuming I can get access to the reporting systems. I can do some basic SQL queries, but I'm in no way qualified to be a DBA. I can work out software deployments and some level of pushed configurations, but lack proper automation experience. I've coordinated my part of complex corporate initiatives, but an not a PM. I can whip up pretty damn functional process and policy documentation, but I'm not seen as a technical writer. I can train on various topics, but there's no resume checkbox for that either.


Please forgive the rant. I've been looking for a job for a while now, and all the items above have been disqualifiers for interesting positions.


Now, on the interesting side, despite having relatively light Linux and SQL skills, AT&T has contacted me about a Tier3 Linux support job. Apparently communication, troubleshooting and crisis management skills are harder to teach than VIM commands and scripting syntax. Its likely the same thing for the job I'm going to be phone-interviewing for tomorrow. I am doing my best to have no less than a functional clue about Splunk, Nagios, PHP and Bash scripting by 10am tomorrow. All things I can be completley functional in - given a week each.


BUT - back to the thread topic and your comments:


Yes, I'm looking at the CCNA next. I have a friend who did the boot camp recently who wants to study with me and be mutual support towards getting the cert. Its both widely recognized even by those who don't have a clue what it really means, and hones your mastery of logic puzzles. After that, it will be a matter of seeing what appeals to me most and what will provide a good progression path.


Thanks for your links and comments. I will be digging deeper into them.

Keep at it and good luck.  You'll break the help-desk barrier before you know it.

I've always found that the velocity at which a tech breaks through the Helpdesk barrier is directly proportional to the size of and time spent in their personal lab at home.  I will hire/promote the guy who's done X six times in his home lab over the guy who passed the exam that covers X every time.  Bonus points if he/she can remote in and show me in the interview.

For some reason I thought you were past that stage Amish_Bill, smash that CCNA and it will take you places.


My first network job was on a NOC, got my CCNA a week after being hired... then within a year I was bumped up to Tier 2, then a few months later I was the tech lead for the group. Literally two months after that I was promoted to a Tier 3 Network Engineering position and from then on it has been one raise/promotion after another.


 

ETA: Just don't tell anyone I bombed switch on my first attempt

I have a wide set of knowledge and skills, just not a lot of depth in anything... and being supervisory at an international corporate/enterprise helpdesk/servicedesk, you get quite a wide range of exposure. Couple that with personal interests that lead one to use a Cisco 2611xm, 2960t, and (1132?) AP mixed with a redundant domain controller/DNS/DHCP server setup when a $35 Netgear box would do, and I can see where you might not perceive me as an average checklist following script wonk.

Cross your fingers for me, for I have a call with a hiring manager in the morning. While I am light on the experience side, I've used a test lab to get a java app server installed for a different company's interview, and for this one I've worked a Nagios install and a Puppet install. I thought the Nagios would have been easier, but I haven't been able to figure out why its not seeing the other 3 systems. Puppet, while having somewhat contradictory sets of instructions on the internet, actually sent a config update to a test box. Once I figured out that the firewall settings on the latest Cent7 were a little wonky, at least.


I'd really like time to knock down the test VMs and run through things again, this time with chef and splunk... but his availability was today or tomorrow morning. Not enough time to really do exploratory tech work, but enough for me to work on soft skills and the behavioral interview items this company loves.

Yep.  As I always say, experience is king.  The lab counts and is a really good way to spot enthusiastic talent vs. the rest of the pack.





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And like I said, if you whip out your tablet and remote right in and show it to me, to me that sets yup up a bar from the regular enthusiastic talent pack.

So if I can remote into and manage my CoLo and Vm's, all end user devices, Exchange server, etc. from my phone I'm good to go?

If you have a colocation for a lab, that's raising the bar.  (says the guy with an IMS cluster hosted in Seattle)

 
And here I was, thinking that I would be all spiffy and modern if I setup low cost AWS hosting for a virtual lab space.






The price of the 32g i5 box I have in my office is quite attractive (already paid for + electricity usage) but no special VPN connection would be needed to show off an Amazon config in the outside world.... Hmmm.... And I can pretty much get the first year free if I keep to moderate usage on low tiers.






(not to mention that AWS experience is another checklist item on some interesting jobs)



 
 

My shit can replicate itself to Azure automatically.  But that's expensive.

Learn Junos. Then learn how to make Cisco and
juniper work together.

 
Now you're just bragging.

 
I taught myself how to use the Juniper admin console to build client autoconfiguration files for PCs. That's about as far as I got though. Security tends to get a little testy when you poke around too deeply in their (live, production) sandbox.

You had to know that Microsoft would build solid and tight integration between SCCM and Azure.  I mean come on man.

 
A few posts up you said something about having an IMS cluster in Seattle, with the implication that it was your home lab. As best I can tell, IMS is IBM mainframe related, not MS. Auto replication of hosted VMs from IBM big iron to Azure, yeah - that has a definite cool factor.


SCCM and Azure? Of course... but my opinion is tempered by How well </sarcasm> MS was able to keep our hosted email up and running. I would have assumed that 15-17k mail enabled AD entities would be a big enough contract that they'd bother caring. But, that's a different rant for a different case of beer.

God damn man, you must be a terror in the interview room...

Intel Modular Server, aka Intel's blade chassis.  I have three chassis' with 9 compute blades and old NetApp 3040 with 3 shelves hidden in a data center in Seattle off the books, I share the lab space with a Sales Engineer that works for Citrix, and one of the Sr Infrastructure Engineers at AWS.

Candidate: "Well I've setup <Insert Technology> on my home lab"

Me: "Can you show it to me?"

Candidate: "What, like right now?"

Me: "Yes, right now."

 
I wish I would get guys that even had a lab in interviews. Usually I can tell they are not the most skilled, so I default to my favorite way to rank how proficient they are in the Linux world.




"Write out all the commands you can think of  typically found on a Enterprise linux server, A through Z, go!"




Its pretty fun to watch and it gives a pretty decent insight into the level and type of knowledge they have. Basically human tab completion.


 

Do you dock points if they don't order them [A-Z] like you ask, or give bonus points if they return an empty sheet of paper because Linux commands don't start with capital letters?

lmao I would just get up and walk out.

You would be doing yourself a favor to build an esxi host and mess around with vSwitch and resource configuration.  Once you do that deploy Unified Networking Lab.  This will give you some real experience in multiple disciplines.  Another thing that you need to do is start narrowing your focus.  

You state wanting to leave the Jack of All Trades client support role but then you list out technologies you need to study like a kid having an AD/HD fit.  It is perfectly normal and healthy to have a technologist's interest in different aspects of the industry but remember that most employers want someone who is excellent at their chosen discipline.  Otherwise they end up at the help desk.

I've found myself being open to multiple paths because I don't know which one will get me employed again sooner. The spectre of still being unemployed when my severance runs out has me a bit spooked.

I chose to ad Linux to my resume because it interested me and was also a good differentiator skill. Networking is similar, and has the lowest cost for me to (eventually) add a basic cert / CCNA.  Despite the push several respected friends have given me, I don't see a security cert being on my priority list, unless it becomes intertwined with the previous two topics.


I've started focusing on Service Desk/Troubleshooting and Troubleshooting/Linux as my target jobs. Sticking to my major strengths just makes sense.


That's an interesting site you linked to. I have a decent ESXi server up and running. It was a Hyper-V server, but since VMWare is a more common platform where I'm looking, I rebuilt it. How much VM ram does it require? I can allocate about 20-25g, but do need some RAM for other uses.

Some of the most sought after and highly paid individuals are infrastructure architects and engineers.  These are individuals who have an expert or better level of skill and knowledge in all the major aspects of enterprise IT.  They are rare and extraordinarily valuable.

Specialists have their place for sure but they are not nearly as hard to find.  There are some exceptions but they are not very common at all.  Further, you will often find that the very best specialists are often so because they have a high degree of experience in the broader scope of IT.  This gives them perspective and insight that others simply won't have.

I won't even get into where automation is going as far as IT staffing.....




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Automation, Orchestration and Software Defined <noun> will eventually replace all the junior specialists.  Which will make the helpdesk wall thicker.

I agree with both responses here.  I was speaking more to the thought process that as a foot in the door I need to have certs in all of these different disciplines.  That tells me you know how to study and take tests.  For someone to become an architect or engineer position they will have typically worked as a specialist in many different positions at different times throughout their career.  This enables a holistic view of the environment.  

Someone who understands how the TMG server interfaces with AD for user authentication via PKI for activesync vs. OWA while at the same time understanding the firewall rulesets which are required to allow this, either learns it by working in each of those roles or really has a love for learning and labbing stuff up.  Or a healthy combination of the two.  I wouldn't never discourage someone from pursuing an interest in technology, but I would caution them when they are making decisions based on the belief that this results in employ-ability.

I wouldn't discount security either, except it typically requires a deep understanding of technologies used as well as human processes to implement effectively.

Reading about 802.1x and then following a step by step to turn it on isn't the best way to get your foot in the door.  Understanding the 802.1x design and packet flow while implementing it in a monitor mode initially, then transitioning to a low-impact mode or closed mode is the correct way to implement identity based security.  Of course you are going to need a working knowledge of managed wireless access as well as an understanding of MDM to fully implement guest access and mobile access.  You will also need to be close to your UC design so you will know in what scenarios you use phones as a passthrough for user workstations or other devices that will rely on MAB.  Enforcing a single device policy on those interfaces will break things.

I don't believe in my working career there is going to be enough automation built to handle all of those intricacies.  I am not naive enough to believe it won't impact my current career knowledge path, but it isn't going to bump me back to client support.