CCNA Home Lab or GNS3?

I'm planning my attack for a CCNA Security cert in the next few months. I'm about 90% ready for CEH so I'm going to finish that first, and then get back into CCENT / CCNA. I studied for 3 weeks in June and watched all of the CBT Nuggets videos for CCENT. I don't feel ready though. I have a membership to INE and will watch their videos once through, and read the CCENT guide by Wendell Odom.

Anyway, I'm trying to determine if I should purchase some physical lab equipment or go virtual. The lab kits over at: Pre-Configured Lab Kits - CertificationKits look pretty good and it would be great to have some real hardware to touch. But the kit that fits in my budget doesn't support the latest IOS. I'm a little concerned that I may spend a lot of time with it, only to have IOS 15 questions come up that I'm not prepared for.

The other route of course is GNS3. I'm not sure which is the cheaper option or best way to learn.

Any suggestions? I am in this for the long haul, headed toward a CCIE security down the line, but don't want to purchase something overkill for now.

Thanks.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

MTciscoguy

Although all of the simulators will get you through the courses to get your certifications, there are just some things that the simulators can't do, so I recommend if you can afford the equipment to build at lease a basic lab, then do it, Cert Kits has great information, but you can purchase the equipment cheaper on ebay, look through their tutorials on what, when and why, then head over to ebay and pick the equipment up.

koz24

What I would do is get 3-4 switches(with 2 of them being L3) and connect those to GNS3. That's probably your best bet. The cheapest solution would be to use IOU with GNS3. You might need to do some research but I think the L2 IOU images might be able to do everything you need for CCNA.

theodoxa

Physical is preferable. GNS3 will not run IOS 15, except on the 7200, so you'll need either real gear or CSR-1000V (which requires a dedicated server) to do IOS 15. Packet Tracer might work for CCNA, but is missing a lot of commands at the CCNP level, doesn't support much outside R&S, and has some bugs.

If you don't plan on doing Collaboration, the Cisco 1841 is a good IOS 15.1 router at a reasonable price. If you plan on doing collaboration (voice and video), you'll need Cisco 2901 or 2911 routers with UC Licenses. The licenses are as expensive as the routers. For switches, most IOS switches will suffice for CCNA, but if you want to go on to CCNP, I would suggest going with Layer 3 switches, particularly the 3560 or 3750 series. They function as Layer 2 switches until you enter the "ip routing" command. The 3560-24/48TS will run IOS 15.0SE, which you will need if you go on to CCIE. The latest IOS 12.2SE (Any 3560 or 3750 Series switch) will suffice for switches at the CCNP level and below.

CCNA: Cisco 1841, Most IOS Based Catalyst Switches (2950, 2960, 3550, 3560, 3750, etc...)
CCNP: Cisco 1841, Cisco 3560 or 3750 Switches
CCIE: Cisco 1900/2900 Series, Cisco 3560/3560E/3560G/3560V2 or 3750G/3750V2 (Verify that the specific model has at least 32 MB of Flash as not all do)

[EDIT] The site you posted is way overpriced. I could throw together the economy kit for half what they're charging. You could build something equivalent to the Standard Kit for the price of the Economy kit.

HAMP

theodoxa wrote: »

If you don't plan on doing Collaboration, the Cisco 1841 is a good IOS 15.1 router at a reasonable price. If you plan on doing collaboration (voice and video), you'll need Cisco 2901 or 2911 routers with UC Licenses.

I haven't looked at the curriculum for the collaboration, but I was planning to go that route. I was wondering if you meant the 2801 or 2811, or are those obsolete for the collaboration?

koz24

HAMP wrote: »

I haven't looked at the curriculum for the collaboration, but I was planning to go that route. I was wondering if you meant the 2801 or 2811, or are those obsolete for the collaboration?

I'm pretty sure the CCNA Voice Lab Manual http://www.amazon.com/CCNA-Voice-Manual-Brent-Sieling/dp/1587132990/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1438267276&sr=8-2&keywords=ccna+voice reccomends the 2811. I have no clue about Video though.

HAMP

koz24 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the CCNA Voice Lab Manual http://www.amazon.com/CCNA-Voice-Manual-Brent-Sieling/dp/1587132990/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1438267276&sr=8-2&keywords=ccna+voice reccomends the 2811. I have no clue about Video though.

I believe that book is for the old Voice, but not the current/new collaboration cert.

koz24

HAMP wrote: »

I believe that book is for the old Voice, but not the current/new collaboration cert.

I'm still going to use it though, since Voice will be a huge part of Collaboration. As of the moment I can't seem to find a CCNA Collaboration Lab Manual on Amazon or CiscoPress so who knows if one will ever be released.

HAMP

koz24 wrote: »

I'm still going to use it though, since Voice will be a huge part of Collaboration. As of the moment I can't seem to find a CCNA Collaboration Lab Manual on Amazon or CiscoPress so who knows if one will ever be released.

CCNA Collaboration CICD 210-060 Official Cert Guide
Published Sep 18, 2015 by Cisco Press ---- Hard copy

CCNA Collaboration CICD 210-060 Official Cert Guide Premium Edition and Practice Test
Published Aug 12, 2015 by Cisco Press

Ebook + Practice test

koz24

HAMP wrote: »

CCNA Collaboration CICD 210-060 Official Cert Guide
Published Sep 18, 2015 by Cisco Press ---- Hard copy

CCNA Collaboration CICD 210-060 Official Cert Guide Premium Edition and Practice Test
Published Aug 12, 2015 by Cisco Press
Ebook + Practice test

Saw those, but I was referring to the CCNA Collaboration Lab Manual. I don't think those 2 books will be recommending lab gear because it's not their focus.

HAMP

My apologizes!!!

theodoxa

HAMP wrote: »

I haven't looked at the curriculum for the collaboration, but I was planning to go that route. I was wondering if you meant the 2801 or 2811, or are those obsolete for the collaboration?

The 2801 and 2811 are fine for Voice, but I'm not sure if they'll support the video requirements for Collaboration.

Mooseboost

I always push for real equipment over sims. I use both a physical lab and GNS3 though. For quick basic labs I throw them in GNS3 but for anything past that I will cable it up on the lab.

roninkai

Thanks for all the info. I bought the Book of GNS3 offered here via a banner a few weeks ago. Will probably spec out a cheap lab now and get the equipment.