Post Your Lab (PICS)

Jasiono

2 questions

1. Where the heck are you guys getting all these great deals on routers? I have 4 switches but need a router or two and I keep looking in the wrong places.

2. Besides labs and learning, what else do you guys do with these little setups?

3. Bonus question. Is it really this addicting that you went out and set up your own cool little lab? Will my wallet end up hating me soon ?

MTciscoguy

When I was looking for stuff, I just cruised ebay until I found something I was looking for and set a upper limit and purchased, if you want to take the time to play the ebay game, you can get some really good buys on good equipment for study. Cisco routers are a dime a dozen on ebay for really good prices. I also look through craigslist once in a while, drop by the local second hand stores, you would be amazed at what you can find on a goodwill store shelf sometimes. If you are prudent, you can build a pretty good lab for this stuff, pretty reasonably.

LinuxRacr

Oh, and I also got new monitors, and a Synology RS814 NAS unit:

LinuxRacr

MTciscoguy is right. I found most of my equipment on Ebay and Craigslist as far as routers are concerned. I got real lucky with my timing on Craigslist though.

Jasiono

What do you plan on doing with 12TB of HDD space lol

I have to stop looking at this thread, my wife will kill me!

MTciscoguy

Jasiono wrote: »

What do you plan on doing with 12TB of HDD space lol

I have to stop looking at this thread, my wife will kill me!

I could find it real easy to use 12TB of HDD space, heck I have just upgraded my NAS to 2 4TB drives for backing up my home network.

HAMP

Jasiono wrote: »

2 questions

1. Where the heck are you guys getting all these great deals on routers? I have 4 switches but need a router or two and I keep looking in the wrong places.

At first I didn't know what to buy. I did know I needed or would like to have some switches and routers, but still was rather lost. I went to a cool site and ordered a package and upgraded that, and at the time, I thought I spent a good price. Since then, and now knowing what I want and need, I went onto craigslist and ebay and really saved some money. Since that first package, I have bought twice as many items, and saved half the money from that original order.

2. Besides labs and learning, what else do you guys do with these little setups?

That is the only reason I bought mine. I love hands on experience and there is nothing like the real equipment. I plan to just keep going with it all, and that is the other reason I bought them.

3. Bonus question. Is it really this addicting that you went out and set up your own cool little lab? Will my wallet end up hating me soon ?

I hate to say it, but it happened to me. It became a little addicting and I bought a few upgrades that I'm sure I wouldn't really have needed. Ebay provided some darn low prices for the upgrades and I jumped on them.

an example, I maxed out the memory on all of my routers, when what I had was sufficient. I found some memory on ebay for $4 a stick.
another example, I'm pretty sure Optical connections isn't on any test, but the add-ons I found we nearly free... lol

I can give more, but that is my testimony to a little addiction to it.

And yes, my wallet looks at me funny!

To me, my best add-on was my Digi CM-48. Without a doubt, it made my studying and learning with the equipment so much easier.

Jasiono

I would LOVE to set up a storage device and be able to access it outside my house.

MTciscoguy

Jasiono wrote: »

I would LOVE to set up a storage device and be able to access it outside my house.

That is not hard to do, the NAS I set up a couple of weeks ago, allows me to access it online.

Jasiono

MTciscoguy wrote: »

That is not hard to do, the NAS I set up a couple of weeks ago, allows me to access it online.

What is entailed?
Do you need to set up your own server with access being granted to it through certain credentials?
This is something I'm planning on doing just to do. I think it'll give me some great experience and learning.

MTciscoguy

Jasiono wrote: »

What is entailed?
Do you need to set up your own server with access being granted to it through certain credentials?
This is something I'm planning on doing just to do. I think it'll give me some great experience and learning.

Nope, no server involved, it is all built into the NAS, all I did was load it with the drives, then plugged it into my router, it went through its set up routines, then put me on the main page for the NAS, where I choose the online access options and set up username and password as and admin user.

Very simple and quick to get it set up.

Jasiono

Newegg is getting another order. Blah

MTciscoguy

I just purchase a cheap Lenovo unit for $59 with no drives, because I had a set of drives already, been one of the easiest things I have ever set up on the network.

Jasiono

Is there a brand you might recommend? I see so many and the prices vary greatly. It seems like the most common ones come with only 2 bays for HDDs.

MTciscoguy

Like I said, I picked up a Lenovo 2 bay without drives, the Model number is IX2-DL will handle two 4TB drives, which normally is more than enough for a home network, I am backing up 7 computers on it and it is working out great.

Jasiono

Woops, I didn't see your post, sorry about that. I will check them out and do more reading. My brain is just on overdrive right now studying for the ICND exams.

doctore

My Lab:

Deathmage

just purchased a lot of two 3750G switches with a offer bid of $350 off Ebay, so now I got 4 total along with the 3825 router, and the shlue of 3550's and 2950's and 2800's..

I got 4U of space left in my 24U Skeletek.

...look like once I get back to VCAP for the 3rd host I'll need to extend the rack

snadam

MY LAB! Figured I take a pic or two before I trash it very soon

Rundown (Top down):

- 2x SRX 100B
- 2x SRX 210H
- 1x J2330 (upside down)
- 1x SSG 100
- 1x ASA 5505
- 1x Digi CM32 (seriously awesome device)
- 2x Netbooks running Kali Linux (not pictured)

Everything else is from my old CCNA lab that I haven't touched in a long while.

DoubleNNs

You're trashing it? Why not sell it?

Cisco Inferno

snadam wrote: »

MY LAB! Figured I take a pic or two before I trash it very soon

Rundown (Top down):

- 2x SRX 100B
- 2x SRX 210H
- 1x J2330 (upside down)
- 1x SSG 100
- 1x ASA 5505
- 1x Digi CM32 (seriously awesome device)
- 2x Netbooks running Kali Linux (not pictured)

Everything else is from my old CCNA lab that I haven't touched in a long while.

Trash that Digi CM32 this way! No seriously, I'll buy it.

MTciscoguy

I will buy that Digi Cm32 from you if you are interested in NOT trashing it.

snadam

DoubleNNs wrote: »

You're trashing it? Why not sell it?

Ha, I should've used a better choice if words. "Trash it" (referencing my lab) as in make messy; e.g. use it. The Digi is not going anywhere

Cisco Inferno

snadam wrote: »

Ha, I should've used a better choice if words. "Trash it" (referencing my lab) as in make messy; e.g. use it. The Digi is not going anywhere

Then by all means, TRASH it!

ssnyderu2

I took a pic to show someone the 12u rack I was using, so I thought I would post it here as well.

3x Cisco 2811 Routers, 2x Cisco 2950 Switches and Cisco 3560 PoE Switch in a 12u rack with a 8 outlet rackmount power strip.

HAMP

ssnyderu2 wrote: »

I took a pic to show someone the 12u rack I was using, so I thought I would post it here as well.

3x Cisco 2811 Routers, 2x Cisco 2950 Switches and Cisco 3560 PoE Switch in a 12u rack with a 8 outlet rackmount power strip.

The one thing I would like to change in my rack/s is the power strips, to have mine like yours. Having the option to power which device on/off is nice. Sometimes when I am labbing, I don't want the entire rack on.

But, since I have what I have, I will have to deal with it.

ssnyderu2

I got it off of Amazon, its about $25.00. The only thing its missing is a master off switch, but thats not really a big deal.

Amazon.com: Eliminator E107 Control Center S-Switch/ 60: Musical Instruments

Xenomeow

I still need to figure out what modules to install, but not too bad for stuff just laying around the office.

x3 3550
x3 7200 vxr

http://i.imgur.com/9TrZsCZ.jpg

Jasiono

Bumping this thread

OfWolfAndMan

My home lab. I didn't include everything on here, so bear with me.

-R1-10: Cisco CSR1000Vs
-F5 BIG-IP LTM VE w/ license
-Windows server 2008/2012
-Centos (Radius server/python test environment) and Ubuntu (SDN controller environment) boxes. Also considering a Kali test box.
-Cisco ISE trial
-Checkpoint R75 firewall (Will be trashing this for a physical box soon. I'm in between either a Juniper SRX or a Fortigate box)
-3x IOS-XRv routers
-3x Arista EOS switches
-3x Juniper Olives 12.1 code
-Physical switches: 3560-12-PC-S, 3750, 2960s, 3850
-Physical routers: 2921 w/ SEC and UC license
-Physical console server: Digi CM-32

Here are computer specs:
-Mobo: Sabertooth X79
-Memory: 32 GB RIPJAWS DDR3 1866 MHz, quad channel
-CPU: Intel i7 3820 Sandy Bridge Quad CPU (3.6 GHz)
-Storage: 128 GB SSD primary boot, 1 GB WD 7200 RPM (I also have additional storage but it's for W7 on my separate boot. Using GRUB4DOS to separate, mainly because it's also a gaming rig).
-Power: 750 Watts
-Case: Aluminum, Full tower
-2x Realtek NICs
-2x Intel Gb NICs