CCNP Voice Lab Router Modules

jobinjv

Hi

I'm trying to kick start my CCNP Voice again. I'm almost done getting the hardware for my lab. My present list includes:
Cisco C3560G 24 Port
Cisco C3560 PoE 24 ports
Cisco C3560G 48 Ports
Cisco C3560 PoE 48 Ports
Cisco 2911 ISR with HWIC-1FE
Cisco PIX 515E
Cisco 1841 with 64 MB x 2
Unified Communication PAK for Cisco 2901-2951 x 1

I am hoping to do CCNP and if possible CCIE in Voice. I got a AMD Phenom II X6 with 16 gig for GNS3. 3 Cisco 2911 ISR are also on way. I also have an ESXi that would be having the CUCM, CUC, CUPS servers. The servers will be running 9.1.2.

What all modules would I require for the ISR ?
Would I be needing Unified Communication PAK for the other three 2911 as well ?
I believe I will be requiring phones as well, in such case 7940 or 7960 and How many ?
Do I need the 3 2911 ISR or the GNS3 is sufficient ? I have USB NIC if I have to utilize the GNS3
What IOS should I be running on the Switches and Routers ?

Between, which lab manuals would you prefer

Thanks

theodoxa

The CCNP: Voice is being replaced by CCNP: Collaboration in October. I don't know what's going to be on the new exams, other than that they will also be covering video and per one site CUE (Unity Express) is being dropped, which will save you some money as you might not need an SME module. The 2911s should be good for the new exams, though you will need the UC PAK for any that you intend to use for voice. You'll probably also need some video capable phones such as the 9971 with a USB Camera.

theodoxa

Other than Cisco absurdly expecting you to be able to configure a $45,000 (not counting any extra blades) server that I seriously doubt more than a few companies even have --

4.5 Configure MSE 8000 chassis, supervisor blade and media blade

- the exam topics don't look too bad. The MSE 8000 exam topic is from the new CIPT1, so you should be able to avoid it by passing the current CIPT1 before the October cutoff (assuming Cisco doesn't sneak it onto CIPT2) and then taking the new CIPT2 and whatever other exams you still have left.

There's some additional servers I've never heard of before --

Cisco TelePresence Conductor
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite (TMS)
Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms (CMR)
Cisco TelePresence Video Communications Server (VCS)

BTW, the site that said CUE was gone is wrong. It is 10% of the new CAPPS exam. So, you'll need an ISM-SRE-300-K9 or SM-SRE-XXX-K9.

negru_tudor

Hi,

In regards to modules, I'd say you need these (seems like the 29XX and 39XX also support VIC2s):

- 2 x VWIC3-1MFT-E1/T1 or VWIC2-1MFT-E1/T1 (to simulate a PSTN ISDN link; one router acting as the NET the other as USER)
- 1 x VWIC2-2FXS for some good old analogue phones
- PVDM2 or PVDM3 modules for transcoding / voice termination; If doing E1 ISDN channels you'll need a 32 channel PVDM2 (ex. PVDM2-32) if you add in the FXS ports as well, then you'll need another one but you can tweak DSP allocation through the router

As theodoxa said, the CCNP:Voice track is being retired on the 20th of Oct. this year. However, having CIPT1, CAPPS, TVOICE still count towards achieving the Collaboration cert. If you get these exams and then take the CIPTV2 300-075 exam you'll have gained the Collaboration cert.

IOS 15 was preferred in CCNP:Voice so am guessing that's the case with CCNP:Collab (newest releases preferred). You can run IOS 15 in GNS3 but only on 7200 type routers and it's kind of iffy (router freezes, crashes etc).

1 x 7940 and 1 x 7960 should do the trick. I don't see any benefit in buying anything more than this especially since you can run CIPC in some Win. XP VMs.

I for one, used the "real kit" (1 x 2801 router and 1 x 3550 PoE switch) through CVOICE and CIPT1 just to get hands on with the kit and for an ISDN lab link to a Nortel PBX simulating the PSTN but for CIPT2, CAPPS I just moved over to GNS3, CIPC softphones, CUPC 8 and Virtualized servers. This way I could still do SIP trunks to an external system and was also able to carry my lab around with me (trusty ol' Clevo P150EM notebook) if needed

Suggestion: if you decide to skip CVOICE and go for the CCNP Collaboration goal, I strongly advise you come back and look over the CVOICE stuff when you're done with the exams. Also another good read would be the QoS 642-642 and the GWGK 642-453 courses...they're very good for QoS, Gateways, Gatekeepers and POTS/ISDN stuff..

Best of luck!

theodoxa

negru_tudor wrote: »

Suggestion: if you decide to skip CVOICE and go for the CCNP Collaboration goal, I strongly advise you come back and look over the CVOICE stuff when you're done with the exams. Also another good read would be the QoS 642-642 and the GWGK 642-453 courses...they're very good for QoS, Gateways, Gatekeepers and POTS/ISDN stuff..

Best of luck!

Looking over the exam topics, which Cisco finally released, it looks like QoS (to a very limited degree) has been moved to CIPT1. It is only 8% (QoS was 29% of CVOICE) of the exam and doesn't include any "configure" topics, whereas CVOICE required you to be able to configure LLQ, L2 to L3 Mappings, and AutoQoS. I cannot imagine why Cisco thinks QoS isn't important for Voice Engineers to know. Maybe, they expect companies to hire a CCIE to do all their QoS.

shodown

theodoxa wrote: »

Other than Cisco absurdly expecting you to be able to configure a $45,000 (not counting any extra blades) server that I seriously doubt more than a few companies even have -- - the exam topics don't look too bad. The MSE 8000exam topic is from the new CIPT1, so you should be able to avoid it by passing the current CIPT1 before the October cutoff (assuming Cisco doesn't sneak it onto CIPT2) and then taking the new CIPT2 and whatever other exams you still have left.

There's some additional servers I've never heard of before --

Cisco TelePresence Conductor
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite (TMS)
Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms (CMR)
Cisco TelePresence Video Communications Server (VCS)

BTW, the site that said CUE was gone is wrong. It is 10% of the new CAPPS exam. So, you'll need an ISM-SRE-300-K9 or SM-SRE-XXX-K9.

I agree with you that its pretty expensive gear to have for a lab exam, however with that said, I have deployed more than a "few" myself, and I'm only 1 engineer, so I can imagine that there plenty of them out here.

negru_tudor

theodoxa wrote: »

Looking over the exam topics, which Cisco finally released, it looks like QoS (to a very limited degree) has been moved to CIPT1. It is only 8% (QoS was 29% of CVOICE) of the exam and doesn't include any "configure" topics, whereas CVOICE required you to be able to configure LLQ, L2 to L3 Mappings, and AutoQoS. I cannot imagine why Cisco thinks QoS isn't important for Voice Engineers to know. Maybe, they expect companies to hire a CCIE to do all their QoS.

This! Can't imagine why QoS is getting left out to such a degree... people will miss out on Jeremy Cioara's funny "sugar cookies" story

jobinjv

negru_tudor wrote: »

- 2 x VWIC3-1MFT-E1/T1 or VWIC2-1MFT-E1/T1 (to simulate a PSTN ISDN link; one router acting as the NET the other as USER)
- 1 x VWIC2-2FXS for some good old analogue phones
- PVDM2 or PVDM3 modules for transcoding / voice termination; If doing E1 ISDN channels you'll need a 32 channel PVDM2 (ex. PVDM2-32) if you add in the FXS ports as well, then you'll need another one but you can tweak DSP allocation through the router

VWIC3-1MFT-E1/T1 seems quite costly compared to VWIC2-1MFT-E1/T1. Think will go with VWIC2-1MFT-E1/T1. Think that PVDM2-32 will do the job for now and future purposes.

negru_tudor wrote: »

As theodoxa said, the CCNP:Voice track is being retired on the 20th of Oct. this year. However, having CIPT1, CAPPS, TVOICE still count towards achieving the Collaboration cert. If you get these exams and then take the CIPTV2 300-075 exam you'll have gained the Collaboration cert.

In the event that I take CVOICE (642-437), CIPT1 (642-447), CIPT2 (642-457), CAPPS (642-467), it seems I would have to take CIPTV2 (300-075) & CTCOLLAB (300-080) for CCNP Collaboration.

negru_tudor

Yeap, if you do CVOICE, CIPT1 & 2 along with CAPPS you'd need to take an additional 2 exams to get the CCNP:Collaboration. However, I think you'd be more efficient if you would do CIPT1, CAPPS and TVOICE then just do CIPTv2 and you'll have gained the Collab. cert... doing things as you posted works as well (very well from a knowledge point of view) but you'd be loading yourself up with 2 additional 2 exams. Up to you though

jobinjv

negru_tudor wrote: »

Yeap, if you do CVOICE, CIPT1 & 2 along with CAPPS you'd need to take an additional 2 exams to get the CCNP:Collaboration. However, I think you'd be more efficient if you would do CIPT1, CAPPS and TVOICE then just do CIPTv2 and you'll have gained the Collab. cert... doing things as you posted works as well (very well from a knowledge point of view) but you'd be loading yourself up with 2 additional 2 exams. Up to you though

That seems a much better option

cisco_nerd

negru_tudor wrote: »

Yeap, if you do CVOICE, CIPT1 & 2 along with CAPPS you'd need to take an additional 2 exams to get the CCNP:Collaboration. However, I think you'd be more efficient if you would do CIPT1, CAPPS and TVOICE then just do CIPTv2 and you'll have gained the Collab. cert... doing things as you posted works as well (very well from a knowledge point of view) but you'd be loading yourself up with 2 additional 2 exams. Up to you though

If you go down this path - wont you need the CCNA Collab cert as well to get the CCNP Collab issued ?? or would a CCNA Voice still be valid pre-req

negru_tudor

cisco_nerd wrote: »

If you go down this path - wont you need the CCNA Collab cert as well to get the CCNP Collab issued ?? or would a CCNA Voice still be valid pre-req

Hmm...good question..maybe if you bag these 4 until the CCNA Voice expires? Might be worth asking on the Cisco Learning Network site though; moderators usually address these things quickly.

UglyBoy

I did my CCNP Voice Certification last year, its all theory based on books. CCIE is where you need practice a lot.