Key CCNA terms and concepts

This post focuses on key CCNA terms and concepts. This is a CCNA glossary for Cisco IT professionals.

You may also be interested in How to get CCNA certification.

CCNA glossary

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and REST APIs: APIs are published instructions to interface with a product or service. APIs enable developers to assemble a command or request for a service or data, to submit it, and to receive any output. They are published and maintained by the vendor.

Attack surface: A collection of all the possible paths a hacker or a malware application might follow to compromise protected data.

Authentication (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting [AAA], Radius): Authentication is how you control access to your network and prevent intrusions, data loss, and unauthorized users.

Continuous Integration/Continuous Development (CICD): A CICD system provides automated builds and tests for creating software, making configuration changes, or completing other deployment tasks. When using a CICD pipeline, coders can continually merge their changes to a main branch of an existing application, run integration tests on changes, keep changes small, and minimize the potential for problems due to multiple, gated test result requirements.

Data formats: (XML, JavaScript Object Notation [JSON], YAML Ain’t Markup Language [YAML]) Common data formats that are both machine-readable and human-readable for providing input to programs and applications using interfaces (APIs).

DevOps: A combination of Development (Dev) and Operations (Ops), DevOps focuses on automation, regularly allowing failures that can be automatically fixed with mitigated risks, as well as connecting business outcomes to the availability goals for a given system. The DevOps movement makes developers responsible for deployment and also has teams use coding workflows and tools to manage infrastructure.

DNS: The Domain Name Service (DNS) is like a phone book that translates IP addresses into human readable form. For example, www.facebook.com is 157.240.22.35 (IPv4), or 2001:558:feed::1.

Infrastructure, containers, and virtual machines: Infrastructure is a generic term for the underlying devices, physical or virtual, that provide computing power or storage capacity or networks, used to deliver software or applications. Virtual machines can emulate a computer system and are typically built as images, providing the same functionality as the physical computer. Containers package up software and dependencies into one descriptive file that contains everything to run an application, regardless of the underlying systems.

IP address (IPv4 and IPv6, classes, Open Systems Interconnection [OSI] and TCP/IP networking stack): IP Addresses are like street addresses. Every service or server on the internet has a unique address where it can be accessed.

Malware analysis: The process of determining the functionality, origin, and potential impact of a given malware.

Network Address Translation (NAT): IPv4 is limited to approximately 4 billion unique addresses. NAT is a scheme that allows a single address for a network (such as a small business) to be shared by all the users and devices on your network.

Network data models (YANG, RESTCONF, NETCONF): YANG is a data modeling language for configuration and state data for network devices. It stands for Yet Another Next Generation. RESTCONF and NETCONF are protocols defined by a standards body, so that you can manage configuration of network devices modeled with YANG.

Packet: A unit of data that can be sent from one network endpoint to another. A packet has headers, footers, and a data payload, or some other information that it carries. The headers encode details about how to route the packet.

Python: A general-purpose, interpreted programming language. Python emphasizes code readability with whitespace requirements, so it is approachable and powerful. Many network automation applications and tutorials are centered around Python.

Role-based access control: Access to data given to a person based on their job function or role.

Router: A router connects different networks together, providing a route between two computers (or servers) in different networks. Routers build the internet.

Routing protocols such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF): Routing protocols provide the overall map and directions for a packet to find the proper destination.

Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM): An approach to security management that gathers data from multiple sources (such as syslog, device events, and error logs), processes the data (including correlation to identify potential threats), and raises an alert or ticket for further investigation if the threat is deemed to be real.

Security Orchestration and Automation Response (SOAR): An approach that enables SOC teams to manage tickets raised through SIEM for threat response. SOAR enables automated workflows for responding to the threats.

Software Development Kit (SDK): A platform for writing programs and applications targeting an API. It often includes documentation, configurations, and tools (such as compilers or linkers) to write and execute the code to interface with the API.

Subnet: Subnetting is a scheme for efficiently apportioning or assigning your IP addresses to systems in your organization.

Switch: A switch is a component that is used to build a network and to connect hosts and servers within a network. A switch cannot route packets or data between networks.

Threat intelligence: Evidence-based knowledge, including context, mechanisms, indicators, implications, and action-oriented advice about an existing or emerging hazard to assets.

Threat hunting: The process of proactively and iteratively searching through networks to detect and isolate advanced threats.

Time-based access control: Temporary access to data given to a person on a need basis for a period of time.

VLAN: A Virtual Local Area Network is a simple scheme to build in access control and restrictions within a network. It allows you to keep “Sales” separate from “Engineering,” for example, and to prevent inappropriate access to data.

Key references

CCNA Certification Guide 2022 (Cisco.com)

CCNA glossary

Key references

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