CCNP Router home lab, 2811 or 2821 ? how much Ram and Flash should i have ?

ciscofun

HI all,

i am planning to buy a home lab for my CCNP routing and perhaps make use of it for my future CCIE lab,
i am planning of buying 4 x Cisco 2811

below are my questions

1. is buying Cisco 2811 a good idea or should i go for 2821 instead ?

2. how much Ram and Flash do i need to have in order to run the latest IOS 15.x ?

3. besides 2811 or 2821, is there any better options ?

thanks for the advice !

azaghul

Both models use the same IOS image and I think the RAM id 512M for v15.x. Other than 1RU v 2RU size and a slight noise difference due to fan size, they are for all intents identical (apart from the voice module).
As an alternative, have a look at the virtual options of Unetlab or GNS3. They might miss some hardware only features due to vIOS/IOU limitations, but on the whole a low cost, quiet & portable solution. Only drawback (if you can call it that) is most labs are designed around the physical interface numbering and the virtual numbering is different, so you have to redraw the lab and modify the config files to suit.

ciscofun

Thanks Azaghul, but as the cost for 2811 or 2821 are very affordable , i think i am going for the hardware instead, do you know what flash size needed to run IOS 15.x ?

azaghul

Yeah I know...I've seen 2811's locally for as little as $50, almost costs more for shipping! I think I have 512M flash in all mine for adventerprisek9, that should do for almost everything (unless you have all the voice load files copied over).

Priston

cisco's website will tell you the requirements.

cisco.com - > support -> all downloads -> search for the device

c2800nm-adventerprisek9-mz.151-4.M10.bin has a requirement for DRAM/Flash 512 / 128

ciscofun

Thanks Priston