Hard to get DC rack time!

I knew it was hard to get rack time for the CCIE-DC, but I didn't think it was this hard! These vendors are booked up pretty solid. I'm actually thinking about not going down the data center path ...okay that's just absurd, of course I will!!

It's just a little frustrating. Being that I had my own lab at home for the CCNP R&S, it feels weird to now struggle to get lab time, not to mention pay for rack rentals. This stuff isn't cheap! I guess most of my pay check will be going to tokens.I'm currently studying for the CCNA-DC, where I plan to then do the CCNP-DC. But I really want some exposure to the mock labs. I just feel the need to get some hands on experience, plus it will solidify my CCNP-DC studies. CCIE-DC is definitely in the books and I will strive to get it.All you DC study heads must have a lot of patience for those rack rentals or planned WAY ahead of schedule.

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Comments

gorebrush

This is the one thing that really puts me off pursuing the DC for the moment - I'm not sure I want to sink money in rack tokens for what little time the slots are available. However, having said that, I'd be interested to know just how much of the lab I can virtualise and get away with, but I have a feeling it won't be a lot.

i.e. UCSPE I believe covers the UCS, and I think you can get some good NX-OS coverage on the 1KV or VIRL or whatever, but ultimately I think tokens will have to be the way everyone goes, unless they are lucky enough to have very understanding employers who just happen to have spare Nexus kit floating about... I don't see that likely either, this stuff is not cheap, as you point out!

joelsfood

IPExpert has tech lab racks every day I've ever looked. It's just the mock lab rack that's hard to get. UCSPE definitely is a good way to start on UCS, and even when youg et rack rentals, most of the workbook stuff on UCS you can do just with UCSPE.

joelsfood

Plus a lot of DC gear available if you work for a partner. I'm busy clearing up a bunch of lab reserrvations in PEC and labgear righht now (replacing them with IPExpert bootcamp and rack rentals).

ninjaturtle

I think I'm going to purchase VIRL to get that little bit of NX-OS hands-on. Even though it can't do some stuff, like vPC I believe it will at least get my fee wet. I'll also fire up some 1KVs in the lab at home. The UCS piece can now be covered with UCSPE, as I have been told by a few people that it does a decent job to get you that exposure.

Now with the UCSPE piece, it actually helps me out. I noticed that on INE, when you add the UCS and SAN modules it really books up the time. But if you go just N7K and N5K, you can squeeze in some rack time. Can I still complete some of the labs, if not make my own utilizing just the N7Ks and N5Ks? I would think I could, but I've never done a rack rental with INE, so not sure how the topology would be using just those modules. Thoughts on that one guys?

joelsfood

I haven't worked through the INE workbook, but in the IPX workbooks, for instance, you can do the following labs with just the N5k/N7k in the tech lab rack:
2, 4, 8

Rest either require SAN (which is still in the readily available tech rack) or require the mock lab rack (either you need full vdc, or you need actual server hardware fvor n1kv, etc)

gorebrush

I keep forgetting about PEC. And I work for a partner. How much coverage of the blueprint can you get through the PEC labs?

ninjaturtle

joelsfood wrote: »

I haven't worked through the INE workbook, but in the IPX workbooks, for instance, you can do the following labs with just the N5k/N7k in the tech lab rack:
2, 4, 8

Rest either require SAN (which is still in the readily available tech rack) or require the mock lab rack (either you need full vdc, or you need actual server hardware fvor n1kv, etc)

That could definitely work for me, give me a good amount of hands on. Thanks for confirming mate!

ninjaturtle

gorebrush wrote: »

I keep forgetting about PEC. And I work for a partner. How much coverage of the blueprint can you get through the PEC labs?

I tell you I'm the only one that doesn't work for a Cisco partner and doesn't have access to PEC. Aaaah the misery ...come on new job!!!!

gorebrush

Heh, I've worked for my company for over 4 years and I only gained PEC access a few months ago and I never think to use it.

joelsfood

Yeah, I've been here almost 7 years this time around, and had never even heard of PEC until about 7 months ago, so even people who have access to PEC often don't know it.

ninjaturtle

I've been at my company for a little over 8 years ...we have absolutely no PEC!

Or a budget for that matter, and old toys. Hence my determination to get some rack time, on updated data center equipment!

Network_Engineer

Has anyone tried the UCS emulator? I tried installing a few months ago and failed. A successful install would avoid rack rentals. Tons of hits on google.

https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-37827

https://developer.cisco.com/web/unifiedcomputing/home

ninjaturtle

Failed how? Can you elaborate on the errror? Issue? Kind of vague here.

joelsfood

The only issues I've had with the UCSPE appliance were with the networking in VMware player. Even then, just changing the NICs to bridged mode (instead of private network mode) fixed that.

What issues were you having?

joelsfood

IPExpert just made mock lab rack slots available out through 12/20 (vs their previous 120 day schedule window). Schedule them quick though, they'll go fast!

inscom.brigade

did you try virl? are you saying that you don't think it does fabric interconnects, FCoE?

joelsfood

ViRL definitely doesn't do FIs, and I'm 90% sure oin FCoE. ViRL can give you a passing familiarity with NX-OS and basic L2/L3, but won't let you do OTV, Fabricpath, FCOE, etc, which of course are all key components of our study on the DC track.

For FI practice, UCSPE works well.