Lab ideas for Cisco ASA firewall?

Lab ideas for Cisco ASA firewall?

I have been asked to master Cisco ASA as soon as possible

and my work environment requires such knowledge [intermediate to advance knowledge of Cisco ASA].

Question for All Cisco ASA Expert:
How/where did you practice your skill and what material did you use?

I did some research on home lab idea, but the cost of used Cisco ASA 5512-x or 5515-x is untouchable. I also tried to run Cisco ASA 5520 using GNS3! Very unreliable... crashed all the time [at least that is my experience]

Any recommendation for a reasonable price rack rental company/org is much appreciated.

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Comments

fredrikjj

I think it's kind of screwed up that your employer expects you to learn something for work, but then doesn't give your the tools necessary to do that. That said, your options are pretty much:

a) Rent rack time. You can get a CCIE security rack for a few dollars an hour.

or

b) Use the ASAv virtual appliance in VIRL, or as a standalone VM.

jelexy

Fredrikjj,

Thanks for the quick reply. I like the rack rental idea better than the ASAv ! I'm not sure if it is even possible to interconnect two or more ASAv and practice high availability [in active/active or active/standby mode]

Do you have any experience with rack rental company ( INE or iPexpert) ?

iPexpert rack rental seems ok!

5(4)-Hour sessions for 100 USD <

if I'm not mistaken this is 20 hours of practice or 5 USD p/h ? sounds good to be true!

I will probably going to need many...many hours of practice though!

fredrikjj

jelexy wrote: »

Fredrikjj,

Thanks for the quick reply. I like the rack rental idea better than the ASAv ! I'm not sure if it is even possible to interconnect two or more ASAv and practice high availability [in active/active or active/standby mode]

I haven't used ASAv, but I don't see why you wouldn't be able to do those things. The real question is if there's a demo licence for standalone ASAv, or if you have to use VIRL.

Do you have any experience with rack rental company ( INE or iPexpert) ?

I've only used INE, and it worked fine for the most part when I used it, but that was a while ago.