Recommended setup for CCNP home lab?

[Antoneo]

Hey guys, I am planning to study for my CCNP over the next six months or so and need some help on lab equipment selection. I will begin my studies in several weeks, during which I would like to make my purchases. My old CCNA lab equipment (2500 series) was sold shortly after passing my CCNA, so I am starting fresh here.

What routers and switches should I buy? I wish to stay under $1000 on equipment alone.

Should I purchase a kit or buy piecemeal? I wouldn't mind spending a few minutes everyday on eBay looking to snap something up for a decent price. However, if there is a recommended kit seller, I would like to know!

And if I were to take an interest in network security, should I have my eye out on a particular Cisco product(s)? Thanks in advance; I hope that this post will be of use for others as well.

 

[drebo]

www.cablesandkits.com has some pretty decent deals on some of their Cisco equipment.

I have a 2611, a 2621, and three 2501s. With that, I can do pretty much everything I need to...EIGRP, IS-IS, OSPF. IPv6 support is limited to the 2611 and 2621, but I'm looking at expanding for future exams. If your budget allows, stick with 1700, 2600, and 3600s. Mine didn't, so I had to settle for 2501s, but I was able to get them for $20ea with back-to-back cables and transceivers. The deal was just too good to pass up.

My recommendation would be to get serial connections for them. With a frame relay setup, changing your topology is very easy. NM-4A/S cards are fairly inexpensive, and if you set all the DLCIs on the switch initially, all you have to do is change your frame relay mappings on your routers...instant point-to-point links to any of your routers from any of your routers. www.pimfg.com (don't know if the public can buy from there) for DCE-DTE cables.

For switches, 2900, 2950, or 3500 switches should get the job done.

 

[Brovane]

I recommend that you purchase the Boson NetSim simulator software $500. I used this software a couple of years ago to pass my CCNP and you can setup very sophisticated networks without having to spend a lot of money on gear not to mention powering it all etc. Remember on the CCNP tests you will be using simulator software. Unless you intend to jump right into pursuing CCIE just use the simulator and save yourself the money.

 

[jlazzaro]

boson netsim is crap, dont waste the $$$. dynamips with gns3 should be all you need...for switching, either buy what you can (3550s arent cheap) or rent some online rack time.

 

[Antoneo]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I prefer to buy actual hardware since there is a slight edge in the learning experience. When I was preparing for my CCNA last year, I bought a kit from eBay and didn't know much despite spending time researching the web. I looked around as much as I could and decided to go for it. It arrived poorly packaged as a result, the equipment was slightly warped and cracked.

I didn't think anything of it until I got deeper into the material. As it turns out, I had to hard clear the 2900xl as it came with the secret enabled and no one could tell me what it was. Not to mention that the reset switch was broken and I used a screwdriver to touch the solder points. One of the routers also came with incompatible flash memory installed, so it took me a while to figure out why the IOS wouldn't install.

I like seeing the hardware and getting hands-on experience. Like many things, I think it is good to become familiar with both the physical and logical aspects of the entire system.

Hrm, I am unfamiliar with the CCNP exam structure. I won't ask about the test topics here, since I can find that easily, but what and how many of each router or switch will I need? And in what hardware configurations (for example memory requirements and cards)?

 

[drebo]

For routing, the BSCI exam covers EIGRP, BGP, OSPF and IS-IS as your routing protocols. Depending on how you want to set them up, you could probably get away with 4 routers.

 

[Brovane]

Originally posted by: jlazzaro
boson netsim is crap, dont waste the $$$. dynamips with gns3 should be all you need...for switching, either buy what you can (3550s arent cheap) or rent some online rack time.

Worked fine for me and I have no issues with the software. Opinions are like Assholes, everyone has one.

 

[Brovane]

Originally posted by: Antoneo
Thanks for the replies so far.

I prefer to buy actual hardware since there is a slight edge in the learning experience. When I was preparing for my CCNA last year, I bought a kit from eBay and didn't know much despite spending time researching the web. I looked around as much as I could and decided to go for it. It arrived poorly packaged as a result, the equipment was slightly warped and cracked.

I didn't think anything of it until I got deeper into the material. As it turns out, I had to hard clear the 2900xl as it came with the secret enabled and no one could tell me what it was. Not to mention that the reset switch was broken and I used a screwdriver to touch the solder points. One of the routers also came with incompatible flash memory installed, so it took me a while to figure out why the IOS wouldn't install.

I like seeing the hardware and getting hands-on experience. Like many things, I think it is good to become familiar with both the physical and logical aspects of the entire system.

Hrm, I am unfamiliar with the CCNP exam structure. I won't ask about the test topics here, since I can find that easily, but what and how many of each router or switch will I need? And in what hardware configurations (for example memory requirements and cards)?

Good luck. From what I have seen you are not going to be able to stay under $1k and purchase all the hardware that you need to pass your CCNP. The routers are not expensive however the switches that will do layer 3 can be pricey. For me it was different since I get to play with the hardware at my job I only needed the simulator to easily help me setup labs for the skills that I needed to pass the test.