Foundations of the MTCRE (MikroTik Certified Routing Engineer)

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Topics Covered


Module 0 – Foundations & Lab Setup

  • What is the MTCRE?
  • How does the MTCRE differ from the MTCNA?
  • Benefits of getting an MTCRE and what can I do with it?
  • Course orientation & exam format
  • EVE-NG installation & setup
  • Adding MikroTik CHR images
  • Building base lab topology (3 routers + 2 PCs)
  • CHR basics: access, licensing, first configs

Module 1 – Static Routing

  • Route selection & longest-prefix match
  • Administrative distance & scope/target-scope
  • More specific routes
  • ECMP (Equal Cost Multi-Path): per-packet vs per-connection
  • Forcing gateway over specific interface
  • Gateway reachability check (recursive static routes, ping targets)
  • Blackhole routes
  • Recursive next-hop resolution
  • Routing marks & policy-based routing (PBR with mangle)
  • Labs: static routing chain, ECMP failover, recursive routes, PBR dual-ISP

Module 2 – Point-to-Point Addressing

  • Point-to-point addressing using /30 and /31
  • Benefits of efficient IP allocation
  • Labs: configure /30 vs /31 inter-router addressing, test routing

Module 3 – VPNs & VLANs

  • VPN overview (site-to-site vs remote access)
  • Tunnel protocols: IPIP, GRE, EoIP, L2TP, PPTP, SSTP, PPPoE
  • Running routing protocols over tunnels (OSPF over GRE/IPIP)
  • VLAN theory (802.1Q tagging, trunk vs access)
  • QinQ (802.1ad VLAN stacking)
  • VLAN configuration:
    • RouterOS bridge VLAN filtering
    • Switch-chip VLANs (hardware offload, if supported)
  • Labs:
    • Site-to-site IPIP tunnel with static routes
    • GRE tunnel running OSPF
    • EoIP bridging two LANs (DHCP broadcast test)
    • VLAN trunk with multiple access ports
    • QinQ to simulate ISP delivering customer VLANs

Module 4 – OSPF (Open Shortest Path First)

  • OSPF fundamentals: Hello, LSAs, neighbor states
  • OSPF network types (broadcast, NBMA, P2P)
  • DR/BDR elections
  • Areas & router types: backbone, ABR, ASBR
  • Multi-area OSPF design
  • Stub & NSSA areas, totally stubby
  • External route distribution: LSAs
  • OSPF costs & interface types
  • Route summarization with area ranges
  • Virtual links (when & how to use)
  • Route filtering (prefix-lists, in/out filters)
  • OSPF over tunnels
  • OSPF with multicast & NBMA challenges
  • Labs:
    • Single-area OSPF across 4 routers
    • Multi-area OSPF with ABR
    • Stub & NSSA areas with default route injection
    • DR/BDR election on broadcast segment
    • Redistribute static routes into OSPF
    • Apply prefix filtering & summarization
    • Virtual link to connect discontiguous areas

Module 5 – Redundancy & Load Balancing

  • ECMP revisited (multi-link redundancy)
  • Recursive routing with failover (ISP availability check)
  • Backup routes with higher administrative distance
  • VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) for LAN gateway resilience
  • Labs:
    • ECMP load balancing across 2 ISPs
    • Recursive failover using public reachability target (e.g., 8.8.8.8)
    • VRRP master/backup failover test on LAN gateway

Module 6 – Final Integrated Lab (Mock Exam)

  • Build full scenario with:
    • Two ISPs
    • Recursive static routes + failover
    • ECMP load balancing
    • Point-to-point addressing
    • VLAN trunk with QinQ
    • GRE/IPIP tunnels carrying OSPF
    • Multi-area OSPF (stub, NSSA, summarization, redistribution)
    • VRRP for LAN redundancy
  • Troubleshoot missing OSPF neighbors, failover routes, VLAN misconfigurations
  • Verify end-to-end connectivity between all LANs