New to Cisco, need new cert info for home lab

Hello all, I am new to the world of Cisco and looking to get my CCNA and possibly CCNP. I am looking at buying a kit or putting together a home lab. I know there is virtual and I will probably use that as well, but want to get my hands on real hardware. I know that most of the cheaper equipment out there sold as kits use 1841s or 26x1XMs for routers and either 2950s or 2960s for switches. I know before the recent update to the new certs that usually students would use the older 12.4 vs 15.1 due to cost, etc and would still be able to pass the certs.

Going with the new certs will we need to start using 15.1 rather than 12.4 now or can we still use 12.4 for the foreseeable future?

Thank you!

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clarson

as a rule of thumb, for the ccna, 12.4 is still good enough. For the ccnp, anything that isn't running a version 15 isn't good enough.

GDaines

aodfan wrote: »

Going with the new certs will we need to start using 15.1 rather than 12.4 now or can we still use 12.4 for the foreseeable future?

Thank you!

A lot of what you buy will come with IOS 12 unless you buy wisely. As long as you buy the right kit, much of it can be upgraded to IOS 15. You'll probably install 15.0 as I believe (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong) that 15.1 uses universal images that require licenses to activate additional features, and if I've read replies by other members correctly concerning this, some licenses are time limited and so features that exist at time of purchase might well expire. I also believe you can buy licenses that last forever, so they are the types you want to ensure you have. If you stick with 15.0 then there are different IOS files for each feature set, and the ones you want are either advipservices or adventerprise.

See this thread (in particular post 14) for some additional useful info.

pinkiaiii

Gdaines is correct,material that i have:

[h=1]Licensing Overview[/h] Beginning with Cisco IOS Software release 15.0, Cisco modified the process to enable new technologies within the IOS feature sets. Cisco IOS Software release 15.0 incorporates cross-platform feature sets to simplify the image selection process. It does this by providing similar functions across platform boundaries. Each device ships with the same universal image. Technology packages are enabled in the universal image via Cisco Software Activation licensing keys. The Cisco IOS Software Activation feature allows the user to enable licensed features and register licenses. The Cisco IOS Software Activation feature is a collection of processes and components used to activate Cisco IOS software feature sets by obtaining and validating Cisco software licenses.
Figure 1 shows the technology packages that are available:

IP Base

Data

Unified Communications (UC)

Security (SEC)

The Evaluation license process has gone through three revisions on the ISR G2 devices. The latest revision, starting with Cisco IOS Releases 15.0(1)M6, 15.1(1)T4, 15.1(2)T4, 15.1(3)T2, and 15.1(4)M Evaluation licenses are replaced with Evaluation Right-To-Use licenses (RTU) after 60 days. An Evaluation license is good for a 60 day evaluation period. After the 60 days, this license automatically transitions into an RTU license. These licenses are available on the honor system and require the customer’s acceptance of the EULA. The EULA is automatically applied to all Cisco IOS software licenses.
The license accept end user agreement global configuration mode command is used to configure a one-time acceptance of the EULA for all Cisco IOS software packages and features. After the command is issued and the EULA accepted, the EULA is automatically applied to all Cisco IOS software licenses and the user is not prompted to accept the EULA during license installation.
Figure 1 shows how to configure a one-time acceptance of the EULA:
Router(config)# license accept end user agreement
In addition, Figure 1 shows the command to activate an Evaluation RTU license:
Router# license boot module module-name technology-package package-name
Use the ? in place of the arguments to determine which module names and supported software packages are available on the router. Technology package names for Cisco ISR G2 platforms are:

ipbasek9 - IP Base technology package

securityk9 - Security technology package

datak9 - Data technology package

uck9 - Unified Communications package (not available on 1900 series)

Note: A reload using the reload command is required to activate the software package.
Evaluation licenses are temporary, and are used to evaluate a feature set on new hardware. Temporary licenses are limited to a specific usage period (for example, 60 days).