[c-nsp] Learning the internals of an NSP

[Sami Joseph]

Hello,

I got a new job at an NSP, its a mid sized one, but coming from an
enterprise experience, this seems huge for me, i've done alot of reading/lab
stuff on bgp,ospf,mpls, but now its the real deal.

My major problem is that i need to be very familiar with the network and
there's just alot to learn, what would you guys do to do that, i want to try
to have it all in my head in the shortest time by looking at configs and
show commands, i dont think anyone will explain much here, so i was thinking
of an idea to document the network for myself, going to each PE router and
learning how its IGP, BGP is configured, and the trunks interfaces, same at
P and putting all that on a piece of paper, maybe visio, then going for the
internet part, Internet here is in a VRF and then an internet gateway,
there's another router with BGP(multihomed) customers, alot of BGP configs
there.

What do you guys think of the above, i'd really need you help understanding
stuff, i cant of course paste configs to the list, so please send me your
opinions/suggestions if you have been in my place once and if anyone is
ready to help understanding the configs, that would really be appreciated.

Thanks for listening,
Regards,
Sam