Just starting out... any input VERY much appreciated!
I've been a CCNP for many years and I've recently decided to take the plunge towards a CCIE. (*gulp*) I'm trying to map this out and it's a bit daunting to say the least.
Obviously one significant expense is the practice lab (whether physical, rack rental, or some combination thereof). My work place has quite a bit of gear lying around after several hardware refreshes, enough to potentially cobble together most of the lab for the INE prep path based on what I've read at their site. (**I've made a very general list of the equipment below**).
My questions are:
- for those of you that have tried to use an on-site physical *work* lab, was this a successful arrangement for you? Or did you find it limiting because it was not as convenient as a physical home lab?
- for those of you that cobbled together the pieces for your a physical lab, was the process pretty straightforward? )or did you find it frustrating having to track down different pieces and parts?)
- for those of you that have used the dynamips + physical 3550s/3560s combination, have you found that to be adequate? Or did you find this limiting at any point?
Many, many thanks in advance for any input any of you might provide. I'm sure this will start to feel a bit better as I make progress, but right now this all feels kind of overwhelming...
David
**list of work equipment available for on-site work lab below**
(2) 2511s
(12) 3600 series routers (mostly 3640s)
(3) 3700 series routers
(5) 2600 series routers
(3) 2500 series routers
(1) 3750 switch
(2) 3550 switches
(1) PIX 515
Comments
Hi David,
You basically already have 90% of the equipment you need for you lab. The big issue is availability to the lab. Is it possible for you to get remote access to the lab when you’re not at your office? This could be via telnet, ssh, vpn, etc., it just depends on your corporate network policy. If you can get access then really the only thing you need is another switch, a remote power controller or two, and the various cables/modules. I think the key deciding factor is if you can get remote access to the lab to start. If you can then I can recommend further how you can actually piece the stuff together. Feel free to email me directly too.
Good luck in your studies!
Brian McGahan, CCIE #8593 (R&S/SP/Security)
[email protected]
Internetwork Expert, Inc.
http://www.INE.com
Online Community: http://www.IEOC.com
CCIE Blog: http://blog.INE.com
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of lillloyd
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 9:49 PM
To: Brian McGahan
Subject: [hardware] Just starting out... any input VERY much appreciated!
I've been a CCNP for many years and I've recently decided to take the plunge towards a CCIE. (*gulp*) I'm trying to map this out and it's a bit daunting to say the least.
Obviously one significant expense is the practice lab (whether physical, rack rental, or some combination thereof). My work place has quite a bit of gear lying around after several hardware refreshes, enough to potentially cobble together most of the lab for the INE prep path based on what I've read at their site. (**I've made a very general list of the equipment below**).
My questions are:
Many, many thanks in advance for any input any of you might provide. I'm sure this will start to feel a bit better as I make progress, but right now this all feels kind of overwhelming...
David
**list of work equipment available for on-site work lab below**
(2) 2511s
(12) 3600 series routers (mostly 3640s)
(3) 3700 series routers
(5) 2600 series routers
(3) 2500 series routers
(1) 3750 switch
(2) 3550 switches
(1) PIX 515
INE - The Industry Leader in CCIE Preparation
http://www.INE.com
As Brian already set, thats a good start. Do you have Serial interfaces in the routers? Which Modules do you have? Another Switch is definitely needed here.
Yes it is adequate and a good cost efficient solution but with some drawbacks. Multicast for example does not work properly and some rare other technologies (EOMPLS for example, but this is part of the CCIE SP).
Regards!
Thanks for the response Brian.
I'll have to check our security policy on what's allowed. I have my doubts (our firm recently went through a security audit and we now have a much more stringent security policy). That said I think we have a couple of lines in that are strictly for testing; I might be able to work something out here if I can demonstrate that the lab is completely physically isolated from the production network.
That's a really good point though. I was thinking that I'd just stay late, come in early, and/or come in on weekends...but I'm guessing that might get tiresome after a few months.
Curiously (suspiciously? lol) the majority of the router equipment seems to have had their card bays stripped. (I wonder if our previous CCIE didn't help himself to a few cards during his studies?) There is a smattering (4?) of WIC T1 cards, that's about it. So I already know that I'll have to budget for a lot of cards and cables if I go this route.
I won't bother you guys too much with the details until I figure out whether remote access is a legitimate option, as Brian suggests.
But I am curious to know whether folks consider a full-blown physical home lab (or phyiscal work lab, for that matter) to be categorically superior to a hybrid dynamips approach (switches + dynamips). I'm sure the ideal scenario is to have full-blown, physical labs BOTH at home and at work, but I'm guessing most people don't have the scratch for that, which means they're picking one or the other...and that means either working out a remote access solution (which may not be possible) or simply living with the fact that they won't have easy, 24/7 access to the lab equipment.
The dynamips approach, whatever warts it may have, seems extremely portable at the very least, which could translate to many more potential hours of study in a given time frame. So I'm curious about how people have weighted that portability/convenience against the more technically accurate (but maybe less accessible) 100% physical solution.
LOL it probably bodes extremely poorly for my CCIE chances that I wasn't able to properly work the "QUOTE" function into my replies...but my first response was to Brian, the second to zool85.
Thanks again for the responses.
Hi!
I entered my personal positives and negatives for RealGear vs. GNS3 in my blog. Here it is:
(Well actually this is HomeLab vs. RemoteLab but a little bit below there is my opinion regarding GNS3)
+++ positives for a home lab+++
So here are the good things about an own LAB:
- independence (time and slot reservations)
- gaining hands-on experience with cables etc.
- learn about gns3/dynamips
- topology can be changed to whatever you want
- scalable
- the possibility to build in real pcs/voip phones etc.
- the strange look in your friends faces saying “what the hell is this? are you sure this is legal?”
— negatives against a home lab —
Here are the drawbacks of a LAB:
- it costs more or less money (depending on how big you want to set it up), but it costs money
- takes time to install
- requires some space in your room
- can usually not be deployed in your living room as it is noisy and heating up the room
- for comfort you would need a 19″ rack
- depending on how often you use it you thin that the electricity bill has been sent to the wrong receiver
- you got to keep the lab intact when using it
Positives of GNS3:
- scalable, many routers. You can add and remove the topology as you like
- when it configured, it runs good
- comparing to real gear its a lot cheaper
- the software is free
- you just need to pay attention to the server and the software, with real gear, lets say 12 devices you have to take care of 12 power supplies, 12 machines and so on.
- an access server like the 2511 is quit eexpensive, with GNS you dont need it
Negatives of GNS3:
- multicast doesnt work
- eompls doesnt work correctly
- so spend much time to cinfigure it until it runs smoothly
- some IOS dont work
- you dont get hands on experience, you have nothing to touch, no cables, no cards
- remote support is abolutely recommended
I dont think you bother us with that, Everyone in this forum is free to answer or not!
Regards!
I am slowly but surely getting this lab together. I do have a means of getting remote access, so I'm good there.
I've attached the revised equipment list below. My main questions currently are:
Hi lillloyd,
all in all, your lab setup will enable you to practice most CCIE topics. Therefore some of the following comments are only relevant if you aim for 100% coverage.
With 128 MB RAM, requirements for running 12.4T Advanced Enterprise Services won't be met.
Hi
!My experience: On big machines like C6500 or 7600 you cannot start IOS thats needs 1024MB RAM with 512MB RAM. On the smaller machines you can, depending on what you run. A machine that serves lots of routes, BGP, MPLS, OSPF, VPN, CBAC etc. needs more RAM than a machine that only uses OSPF or EIGRP. At home I am running a 1841 with 128MB of ram and use it only for SSL VPN. For that you need the adv.ip.services image that "needs" 256MB RAM. It works fine as I only use SSL vpn. I am sure that when you get into more technologies though, the machine will crash.
Usually the follow up IOS with the same feature set contains the same possibilities in configuration as the version before. Maybe you can find the IOS under deferred releases or so. As long as you hit the same train and feature set you should be okay. To get a better view of how the IOS are organized (even cisco tac engineers get into trouble with that) you can check this: http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le21/le34/downloads/689/academy/2005/BRK-101.pdf
HTH
Regards!
Markus
128 MB will work for you without performance issues. CCIE lab practice won't push your device to its memory limits. In fact. as Cisco dimensions the memory requirements for production deployment, it could be the other way round, e.g. Cisco says 256 MB is required, but the device boots and works with 192 MB (wouldn't recommend this for production, but for a lab it's fine),
OK, so I think I'm extremely close now...thanks for the responses.
I am going to be using WIC-2Ts on most routers in the INE R/S configuration, except for R3 (where I will use the NM-4A/S) and BB1/FR (where I will use the NM-8A/S).
Is the following correct regarding what serial cables I should order?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3FT-SMART-SERIAL-CABLE-FOR-CISCO-WIC-2T-back-to-back-/310379218841?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48440b0799#ht_2506wt_1163
For WIC 1T (NM-4A/S or NM-8A/S) <-> WIC 2T connections I would use:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3FT-CISCO-WIC-2T-CABLE-DB60-DCE-SMART-SERIAL-DTE-/310377685749?_trksid=p4340.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC.NPJS%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUA%26otn%3D5%26pmod%3D310300175817%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6687784640536221504#ht_2606wt_1163
or
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3FT-CISCO-WIC-2T-DB60-DTE-SMART-SERIAL-DCE-CABLE-/310382689655?_trksid=p4340.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC.NPJS%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUA%26otn%3D5%26pmod%3D310300175817%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6687784640536221506#ht_2522wt_1163
Based on what I've seen in the threads here, am I correct to say that it doesn't really matter which end you put the DCE (clocking) on, for the NM-4A/S<->WIC2T or NM-8A/S<->WIC2T connections?
I understand BB1--BB3, but the other two cables should be between R1--R3 and R2--R3 according to http://www.ine.com/topology.htm. If you populate R1 and R2 with WIC-2T, (2) SS/DB60 cables are needed instead.
Hmm. OK, here's what I ordered (hopefully this is right LOL): (3) db60/db60 cables; (1) SS/SS cable; (7) db60-DCE/SS-DTE cables.
See below; does this look okay?
3 total db60/db60 (1T to 1T) connections required:
--BB1 S9 (NM-8A/S) WIC1T to BB3's S0 WIC1T (NM-8A/S)
--BB1 S2 (NM-8A/S) to R3 s1/0 (NM-4A/S)
--BB1 S3 (NM-8A/S) to R3 s1/1 (NM-4A/S)
1 total SS/SS (2T to 2T) connections required:
--R4 s0/1/0 (WIC-2T) to R5 S0/1/0 (WIC-2T)
7 Total db60/DCE-to-SS/DTE (1T to 2T) connections required (DCE always on db/60 side):
--R3 S1/2 DCE (NM-4A/S) to R1 S0/1 (WIC-2T)
--R3 S1/3 DCE (NM-4A/S) to R2 S0/1 (WIC-2T)
--BB1 S0 DCE (NM-8A/S) to R1 (WIC-2T)
--BB1 S1 DCE (NM-8A/S) to R2 (WIC-2T)
--BB1 S4 DCE (NM-8A/S) to R4 (WIC-2T)
--BB1 S5 DCE (NM-8A/S) to R5 (WIC-2T)
--BB1 S6 DCE (NM-8A/S) to R6 (WIC-2T)Looks good; my comment above is obsolete. This threw me off:
In fact, only 5 cables are for BB1 connections, 2 are for R3. But you summed it up correctly.