ASA Learning Curve?

adam220891

Hi all,

As I continue looking for a new opportunity, the requirement for configuring ASAs comes up quite often.

I have used WatchGuards and SonicWALLS, and am familiar with access policies, NATs, and VPN setup on both. I also know a little about configuring an ASA from the CCNA: Sec but it was all virtual (I did not have a physical appliance to lab on) and that was awhile ago.

Is there a significant learning curve to configuring an ASA? One of the job opportunities used them and had over two dozen site-to-site VPNs with clients, and I would be one of the people creating new tunnels and policies and ensuring maximum connectivity and uptime. I try to communicate my experience and skill set as clearly as possible and would hate to get into a situation where I was unable to add value.

I have less than 2 years experience in the IT field, if that matters.

Thanks

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Comments

kohr-ah

Minor command syntax differences are what you will learn in time.

It will be a small learning curve but you'll pick it up as you go .

GUI is like any other GUI. Will have the options you seen before through sonic walls just in a new place.

docrice

All firewalls operate on the same principles and have a very rough equivalent of feature sets. The difference is in their syntax and occasional processing logic (such as where filtering ACLs, VPNs, and NATs are involved along the same packet path). Getting the syntax correct is what takes up the most time as it often involves some trial-and-error for those unfamiliar to a new platform.

One advantage of using Cisco products is that you can Google up things you're not sure of and there's likely to be a discussion somewhere (with examples which aren't always necessarily accurate).

ccnpninja

adam220891 wrote: »

I have less than 2 years experience in the IT field, if that matters.

It will be a bit difficult, sure. But it won't matter in the end, if you really want it and are dedicated to it.

adam220891

Thanks for the replies.

I'm reviewing some material from the CCNA: Sec and referencing tutorials on Youtube to help familiarize myself for now.

creamy_stew

Since you have firewall experience and CCNA.Sec, I'd recommend you jump into the CCNP:SEC curriculum. I think you will benefit more from this.

Get a month's subscription to CBTnuggets and start by watching these:

Cisco CCNP Security Firewall:

1-6
18 (GNS3)

Cisco CCNP Security VPN v2.0:
----
1-3
11
16
20 (GNS3)

These are from the old track, but are tried and true. They have reorganized the CCNP:SEC and I haven't tried the new videos. The new track isn't completely done in Nuggets yet.

If you have more time after watching these, spend time on getting ASA running on GNS3 for insta-labbing awesomeness!

Good luck!

/creamy