Home Lab Setups

Bad_Request

Hello Every one! Just finished setting up my own Cisco home lab for studies (taking my ICND1 September 17th). Just curious what you guys have setup for your home labs! Post Pictures if you can!

My Set-up currently consists of 3x 1841's 2x 2950's and 1x 3350

The whole setup cost me just over $200

I do have a quick question though. After completing ICND1 and 2, I plan on taking CCNA security. Would my current set up suffice? If not what, else would you recommend?

I'd love to see what my fellow networking guys are working with!

clarson

The hardware is good. You'll need the right ios though. advanced security or advanced enterprise ios. and the ios needs to be version 15. and you'll need to install ccp on the routers or on a computer. And you might need a firewall device such as a asa5505.

MTciscoguy

You might want to take a look through this thread:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/15235-post-your-lab-pics.html

There are over 1400 messages posted with pictures of labs, going all the way back to 2006

koz24

I have only 4x 3560e and 1 7962 phone so far

james43026

Good setup for CCNA studies. I would suggest a different layer 3 switch for anything past the CCNA R&S, as the 3550 doesn't do private VLANS, and I believe those are covered in the CCNA security. The 3560 or 3750 both cover private VLANS.

kohr-ah

koz24 wrote: »

I have only 4x 3560e and 1 7962 phone so far

Google how to hook switches into GNS3 routers and you can still do just fine with that by emulating the routers on your PC.

koz24

kohr-ah wrote: »

Google how to hook switches into GNS3 routers and you can still do just fine with that by emulating the routers on your PC.

That's exactly what I'm doing I didn't have room for 4 PCIE QUAD Nics so I bought 2 14port USB HUBs and a bunch of USB Nics. Works like a charm.

theonetrueace

clarson wrote: »

The hardware is good. You'll need the right ios though. advanced security or advanced enterprise ios. and the ios needs to be version 15. and you'll need to install ccp on the routers or on a computer. And you might need a firewall device such as a asa5505.

I'm wondering how much I'm gonna wish I had gone with v15 equipment when it's all said and done. I'm still getting mine put together, but see what ya think. A 2960, 3560, 3550, and 4x 2821.

clarson

well, you pretty much can run ios version 15 on all that equipment, except the 3550

theonetrueace

clarson wrote: »

well, you pretty much can run ios version 15 on all that equipment, except the 3550

I learned something new. I dunno why I assumed otherwise. I guess a lack of research. Apparently Google agrees with you.

Alceo

About the 3550, I've just foud out that it does not support auto-MDIX
Now I have to find some crossover cables.

theonetrueace

Yea I figured that out when hooking my equipment up too. Another snag is while the later versions can run v15, my 16mb flash 3560 can not. So I'll have to replace two of my switches in the future probably.

koz24

Yeah, if you buy the 3560, try to get at least the "E" model as those have 32MB flash

theodoxa

theonetrueace wrote: »

Yea I figured that out when hooking my equipment up too. Another snag is while the later versions can run v15, my 16mb flash 3560 can not. So I'll have to replace two of my switches in the future probably.

The Non-PoE models (3560-24TS and 3560-48TS) have 32 MB of Flash and will unofficially run IOS 15. Much cheaper than a E, G, or V2.

Deathmage

This is my thought on a upgraded home-lab. Since I don't use Cisco at work, I want to keep my home-lab as close to the real deal as possible within cost limits of course, ebay love!

Thinking of replacing the 2950's with some Gigabit layer 2 switches like a 2960G or just using my 3550G's as glorified L2 switches since My core and Distro layer is 3750G's. Going to make heavy use of EtherChannel for rapid speed at the core and distro layers plus incorporate RSTP into the mix with the 2821 as the root bridge. Of course I'm applying all of the ICDN1 stuff to the mix and making it a single area OSPF.

However since I got 2 2600's, 1 3550, and 3 more 2950's I'm not using I may add them to the 2821 via serial and make like 3 more OSPf's areas purely for testing of Multi-area OSPF for ICDN2 but once that's done it will have no direct impact on the VMware home-cluster.

Made this drawing at work of the revamped home-lab network.



Thoughts?

theonetrueace

theodoxa wrote: »

The Non-PoE models (3560-24TS and 3560-48TS) have 32 MB of Flash and will unofficially run IOS 15. Much cheaper than a E, G, or V2.

Was actually looking at some of those on ebay last night. It seems like they are in the 100$ range. I might get two, which will give me enough switches for virtually any config, but what to do about the fact that I now won't have enough room in my rack.

clarson

I think theodoxa posted this info in a prior thread
16 MB Flash (IOS 15 Won't Fit) --

3560-24PS
3560-48PS
3750G-12S
3750G-24T
3750G-24TS
3750G-24WS
3750-24PS
3750-24TS
3750-48PS
3750-48TS
3750G-16TD

32 MB Flash --

3560-8PC
3560-24TS
3560-48TS
3560G-24TS
3560G-24PS
3560G-48TS
3560G-48PS
3750-24FS
3750G-24PS
3750G-24TS-1U
3750G-24WS
3750G-48PS
3750G-48TS

theodoxa

clarson wrote: »

I think theodoxa post this info in a prior thread

Yes. Any switch in the second group (32 MB of Flash) should support IOS 15. I didn't list them, but the 3560v2 and 3560E per Cisco all come with either 32 or 64 MB of Flash and should also support IOS 15. The 3560-24TS is usually the cheapest option.