CCNA 200-125 Study Plan

bym007

Howdy all fine folks,

I just paid for my CCNA 200-125 exam for 2nd March '17, and now getting in the groove.
I already have an MS in Computer Networks (circa '05) and loads of work experience, however, I never sat down to attempt a certification previously. In 2017, we will change this and finally make it happen.

However my weakening is that for past 6-7 years, I have been working mainly in IT Management/Team Management, and lately (4 years now) in Systems Solution Design. So I feel far away from hand-on work, protocols etc.

So the plan is to start from the ground up, hence I would like to tackle CCNA first. I want to do a bit of labbing as well, so I am looking into VIRL. I already have a HP Microserver (Dual Core, 16GB memory) at home for labbing.

My question is without investing too much in physical hardware, is investing in Cisco VIRL sensible or should I go traditional route and acquire used boxes off eBay for labbing ? After CCNA, I will continue onto CCDA, CCDP and hopefully CCDE.

Thanks for reading my long post.

atippett

Physical equipment is not necessary to pass the CCNA. I used Packet Tracer for my studies. I know quite a few people that has done the same. But if you can buy physical equipment, why not? You can't get any better than physical equipment.