Practise interpreting routing-table output, route selection, administrative distance, metrics, next hops and longest-prefix match.
Start Scenario PracticeA network engineer is configuring EIGRP on a router that connects to a service provider network. The engineer wants to advertise a default route to internal routers. The engineer configures 'ip default-network 0.0.0.0' and redistributes a static default route into EIGRP. However, internal routers are not receiving the default route. The engineer checks the EIGRP topology table and sees the default route with a metric of 1. What is the most likely reason?
Explanation: The engineer's configuration includes both 'ip default-network 0.0.0.0' (which is an IGRP command, not EIGRP) and redistribution of a static default route. The appearance of the default route in the EIGRP topology table with metric 1 indicates that redistribution occurred, but the route is not being advertised to internal routers. The most likely reason is that the static default route itself is not correctly configured. For EIGRP redistribution to succeed, the static route must point to a valid next-hop IP address using the syntax 'ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 <next-hop>'. If the engineer used an interface instead of a next-hop, or the next-hop is unreachable, the static route may be invalid or not installed in the routing table, preventing its advertisement to EIGRP neighbors.
An organization uses Ansible to manage network device configurations. They have a playbook that uses the ios_command module to execute 'show ip route' on multiple routers and then uses the 'debug' module to print the output. Recently, the playbook started failing with 'Timeout (12s) waiting for privilege escalation prompt'. The routers are reachable and SSH credentials are correct. What is the most likely cause?
Explanation: The error 'Timeout (12s) waiting for privilege escalation prompt' indicates that Ansible successfully connected to the routers via SSH but failed to escalate privileges to enable mode. For network devices like Cisco IOS routers, when using the 'network_cli' connection type, the 'ansible_become_method' must be explicitly set to 'enable' to send the 'enable' command and handle the privilege escalation prompt. Without this setting, Ansible does not attempt to enter enable mode, causing the timeout when the module requires higher privileges to execute commands like 'show ip route'.
A network administrator is troubleshooting a BGP routing issue where routes from an eBGP neighbor are not being installed in the routing table. The 'show ip bgp' output shows the routes are received but not valid. What is the most likely cause?
Explanation: For a BGP route to be considered valid and installed in the routing table, the next-hop IP address must be reachable via an IGP or a static route. If the next hop is not reachable, the route will appear in the 'show ip bgp' output but will be marked as not valid (often with a 'r' for received but not valid). This is the most common cause when routes are received from an eBGP neighbor but not installed.
A network engineer is configuring a PPPoE client on a Cisco router for a DSL connection. The engineer configures the dialer interface with the correct PPPoE profile and authentication credentials. The PPPoE session establishes, but the router cannot ping the ISP's gateway IP address. The engineer checks the routing table and sees that a default route is present via the dialer interface. What is the most likely cause?
Explanation: In a PPPoE setup, the dialer interface typically obtains its IP address dynamically from the ISP via IPCP (IP Control Protocol) during PPP negotiation. If IPCP fails or is not configured to negotiate an address, the dialer interface remains unnumbered or without a usable IP address. Even though the PPPoE session is established and a default route exists, the router cannot route traffic because it lacks a valid source IP address on the dialer interface to send packets to the ISP's gateway.
An engineer is troubleshooting multicast performance issues. The network uses PIM sparse mode with a static RP. The engineer notices that the multicast traffic from a source to a group is taking a suboptimal path, causing high latency. The engineer checks the multicast routing table on the last-hop router and sees that the (S,G) entry has an incoming interface that is not the shortest path to the source. What is the most likely reason for this suboptimal path?
Explanation: In PIM sparse mode, the last-hop router initially receives multicast traffic via the shared tree (RP) and then switches to the shortest path tree (SPT) toward the source once the traffic rate exceeds a threshold (default 0 kbps in Cisco IOS). If the (S,G) entry shows an incoming interface that is not the shortest path to the source, it indicates the router has not yet performed the SPT switchover, so it is still using the RP-based path, which may be suboptimal.
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Practice all Show IP Route Output Practice QuestionsPractise interpreting routing-table output, route selection, administrative distance, metrics, next hops and longest-prefix match. These appear throughout the 350-401 and require you to apply your knowledge, not just recall facts.
Cisco doesn't publish an exact breakdown, but scenario-based questions (especially exhibit and command-output formats) make up a significant portion of the 350-401. Practicing each scenario type ensures you're ready for any format.
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