EEET-2624

RMIT University
School of Science, Engineering &
Technology

Laboratory Guidelines
COURSE: Network Engineering
EEET-2624

Semester 2, 2024
Learning Outcomes:
1. The art of experimentation.
2. Experimental and analytical skills.
3. Conceptual learning of theoretical concepts.
4. Understanding the basis of Juniper Routers and Switches.
5. Developing collaborative learning skills.

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Lab 1: Lab Infrastructure Configuration and Verification

Lab place 8.1.002
Lab duration 2 sessions (week 1 and week 2)
Lab assessment • Group report to be submitted after you complete Lab 2.
• Please take necessary records and screenshots that may help
write your reports.

1. Objective
The objectives of the lab 1 are to:
▪ Understand the lab setup in terms of equipment.
▪ Understand the lab setup in terms of software.
▪ Get familiar with the Junos Command Line Interface.
▪ Setup basic configuration for collecting logs.

The purpose of this document is to provide general information and details of RMIT network
engineering lab environment. This document contains general information about how the RMIT
lab is organized. RMIT network engineering lab equipment is in 8.1.002.

2. Methodology and Exercises

The best way to learn about any new piece of equipment is to try it out. This section will instruct
you how to interact with the hardware and software of the labs.

Section 1: Interacting with the Junos Hardware

Exercise 1.1: Examine the router and draw the physical interface of the router and provide the
detailed explanation for each of the ports on the routers and their associate features. You may have
to do a search on the internet for this information.

Exercise 1.2: Access the initial configuration from Juniper website (provided by your instructor)
to set up the physical access into the router.

Open the document “J-web-User-Guide-SRX” in module 1 on canvas and do Part 1 (page 1 to

page 19). The root account password is “juniper” and the non-root account is “juniper user”. Make
sure that you follow the instructions in the user guide, if you are not clear about anything, please
ask the instructor.

What is your reflection about the process? What would you like or dislike about J-web? Justify
your argument.

Note: The J-web-User-Guide-SRX document is a very good manual, you are strongly encouraged to refer to it for in-
depth configurations for your SRX devices.

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Exercise 1.3: Wait for instructions of your tutor, each group will visit the physical lab for
completing the following questions:
• What is a console port?

• What is the console port used for?

• Which cable are used to connect the console port?

• Is there any other way to manage the equipment?

Section 2: Interacting with the Junos Software

Once connected to the router (one router per student), you will have the opportunity to explore the
Junos operating system.

Exercise 2.1: Explore the different commands that Junos CLI provide by typing “?” and answer
the following questions:
• Which commands are available? Here is an example:
Router@user> ?
Possible completions:
configure Manipulate software configuration information
file Perform file operations
help Provide help information
monitor Show real-time debugging information
mtrace Trace multicast path from source to receiver
op Invoke an operation script
ping Ping remote target
quit Exit the management session

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request Make system-level requests

set Set CLI properties, date/time, craft interface message
show Show system information
ssh Start secure shell on another host
start Start shell
telnet Telnet to another host
test Perform diagnostic debugging
traceroute Trace route to remote host

• Select one specific command and investigate more options.

• Try (>show interfaces). What displayed?

• Try (>show interfaces terse). What displayed?

• What is the difference between the above two command lines (“>show interfaces”
and “>show interfaces terse”)?

• Why the ge (Ethernet) interfaces have admin up and link down?

Exercise 2.2: Explore the different options of help command by using the following command
lines:
• >help
• >help ?
• >help topic interfaces ?

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Answer the following questions?

• Which options are available under help command?

• List at least four help topics?

Exercise 2.3: Take some time to get familiar with Junos CLI, ask your tutor for any question you
may have. We are here to help you!

Exercise 2.4: Let’s interact with the log section and answer the following questions?
• What are the logs available by default? What are those logs recording?

tip: you visualize the logs using “> show log <file name log>”. For example:
studentedux@EDUxRx> show log messages
Feb 23 22:00:00 EDU1R1 newsyslog[50735]: logfile turned over due to size>100K
Feb 24 04:10:44 EDU1R1 login: Login attempt for user studentedu1 from host
[unknown]

• Enter configuration mode and create a log file that allows you to record any change on
configuration files, naming the log file config-changes. What are the command lines to
do it?
TIP: use configuration or edit to enter in configuration mode and use set command
for setting up a new parameter.

• Commit all you change, exit the configuration mode by typing # exit
• Check what is inside the log file by typing # show log config-changes

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• Enter configuration mode again and set localization of the router by typing (# set
system location building 10 floor 10)
Commit all you change, exit the configuration mode by typing # exit

• Check what is inside the log by typing # show log config-changes, can you
visualize the changes?

• Are you allowed to modify or edit login and main system sections? If not, why?

Congratulations! You have now completed lab 1.

3. Assessment: Group Report
The goal of this first lab was primarily to introduce the network engineering lab. It will be assessed
together with Lab-2 by a group report submitted on the Saturday of the week after you complete
Lab-2 (indicatively, in Week 3). You may need to take necessary records and/or screenshots during
the labs for your reports.

Lab report is prepared in groups; a template and the marking rubric are available on Canvas. Your
report should be submitted by uploading a PDF in Canvas and should be no more than seven pages.
You are strongly recommended to use the template provided on Canvas.

To ensure the fairness for all students, if you don’t want to use the provided template, please
comply with the following formats.
• White A4 size paper with at least 2 cm margin on each side and at top and bottom.
• Please use font type Arial or Times New Roman and size your words to 10 point.
• The report must include
o the title of the lab.
o a table that indicates the contribution percentages of all your group members.
o five sections: Abstract, Objective and Introduction, Results and Discussion,
Conclusions, and References.

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• The entire report should be no more than seven pages. More precisely, Abstract should be no
more than 7 lines, Objective and Introduction should be within half a page and Conclusions
should be within half a page. There is no specific length limit for other sections, but the total
length of the report is subject to three pages.

Note: The report is for students to have a summary about your lab exercises, highlighting your own
understanding and ideas about the lab exercises. You can have your own discussions and use the most
representative evidence to support your discussions. You are the authors of your reports, so you can
decide how to present the things that you are most proud of. What the teaching team expects to see is
that the students can learn something from the lab exercises and have your own understanding about the
lab exercises. It is quite appreciated if students’ discussions can reach beyond what we provided in the
lab guidelines. The exercises listed in the lab guidelines are presented as examples that are used to help
students understand and think more about the relevant knowledge.

4. References
[1] RMIT Juniper Courses Material, Available at: http://www.juniper.net/courses

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