ccna lab equipment

jcamilo91

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this, and i have a couple of question that i am hoping people would give me their input on. I am currently building my ccna home lab. I have purchased 3 cisco 3560 switches from ebay. I found them for 40 dollars each, and they are working great. My question is, will these switches be enough? should i get another switch, like a cisco 2960? What cables do i need to get for my lab. I am planning on using Putty for configuration.

Which routers would you guys recommend, and how many in total?

DCD

The 3 switches are fine, Can they do IP routing? For routers the 1800 series they are quieter then the 2800 series.

jcamilo91

They should be able to do IP routing. They are level 3 switches. I just feel like i went a little overboard with the switches. I am hoping i could use them for my CCNP later on.

How about cables and GBICS?

DCD

Licensing for Cisco Catalyst 3650 Series Switches
The three feature sets available with all Cisco Catalyst 3650 Series Switches are:
● LAN Base: Enterprise access layer 2 switching features
● IP Base: Enterprise access layer 3 switching features
● IP Services: Advanced enterprise layer 3 switching (IPv4 and IPv6) features

GBIC are not necessary, 3560 are auto-sensing so Cross-over or Straight-through is fine. know you have some homework to do for the cables.

clarson

if you have a model such as ws-c3560-24PS-S, the "PS" stands for poe. poe models for the 3560 only have 16 mb of flash and being version 15 of the ios is practically 16mb in size, you can't load version 15 of the ios on those switches. The "TS" models come with 32 mb of flash and you can load version 15 of the ios on them.

But, other wise they are more then enough for the ccna exam. for the ccnp you'd prefer to have switches running version 15 of the ios, but they will probably do just fine for the ccnp for you also. You'll need 4 switches for the ccnp.

for the ccnp you want routers that run version 15 of the ios also. the least expensive ones that can are the 1841, 2801, 2811, 2821 and 2851.
1841 is small and lighter, costs less to ship
2821/51 are twice as big and twice as heavy, cost more to ship

you'll need serial wics with the appropriate interconnect cables. for the new ccna exam that doesn't include frame relay, you probably only need a serial interface in two routers to do ppp and chap. for the ccnp you will need 10 serial interfaces and 4 of those need to be on 1 router. some wic have a single interface, some have multiple. wic have different connector types, so you need to get the appropriate cables to interconnect them.

jcamilo91

2 of the switches are the 24PS model, and the third one is the 3560-48TS. For my CCNP, i plan on acquiring another switch that supports IOS 15.

I just passed by Network+ exam, and i am slowly building my lab for CCNA. I plan on having a complete lab by the end of the month, then hit the books. Is there a huge difference between ios 12.2 and 15. Will having 2 switches that only support IOS 12.2 hinder me for CCNA and CCNP?

clarson

3 routers are good for the ccna. you'll need 4 for the ccnp.

Is there a huge difference between ios 12.2 and 15? I've been studying for the ccnp switch lately and I didn't see anything that jumped out at me as requiring version 15. But, my switches all have version 15 of the ios. And, I'm not doing a comparison test. I think it is more that the exam is written for version 15 and that is what your going to see on the exam. So, the more practice you have using the same ios as the exam, the fewer surprises you will encounter on the exam and will score higher.

daan5000

Hello Clarson

I'm currently going for the CCNA as well. I scored 2 3560G's from my job, and they're great because they run IOS 15. It's not a huge issue if they're running 12.x but you'll notice some differences compared to the book if you're using Wendell's (for example, I noticed SSH behaves a little differently in 12.x).

For routing, make sure you buy a router that supports IOS 15. For example, the routing table looks differently in IOS15, which is a pretty important part of the CCNA exam.

For routing labs, GMS3 is actually all you need. It has one router (I think the 7200) that supports IOS 15. If you haven't worked with GMS3 yet, check it out, you'll thank me later.

Good luck!

jcamilo91

So i have finished getting all the equipment for my CCNA Lab. I am hoping some of my equipment will carry me through CCNA Security and CCNP r/s and CCNP Sec. Here is what i have.

3x Cisco 3560 48 ports switches --- I was able to contact the seller on ebay, and he exchanged my 24 port switches to 48 ports for same price
2x Cisco 1841 Routers
1x Cisco 2801 Router

Do you guys recommend anything else. I have seen people on Youtube add WIC-2T card to their routers. Do I need this?
Also, what racks do you guys recommend. I was looking at the Skeletek 16u racks, but I am wondering if i will have enough space to mount the additional equipment i will need when i go to CCNP R/S and CCNP security. Should i go for a 20U rack instead?

clarson

for the routers it more depends on the version for the ios and the feature set for that ios. Then the amount of memory to your upgrade options are.

you will probably need two serial interfaces. one in each of two routers for doing chap, ppp, and point to point connections.
4 would be better and you'll need 10 for the ccnp.

as far a rack size that depends on what you put into it. all the equipment you have are 1u in size. you have 6 pieces of equipment, that equals 6u.
add a router and a switch for ccnp that is 8u
add an asa for ccna:s, another for ccnp:s that is 10u
add an access server and a rack mount pdu that is 12.

So, if you stick with 1u height equipment, 16u is plenty. not much room for any 2u pieces of equipment. But, everything your looking to add is more than likely to be 1u.