Post Your Lab (PICS)

Hey Everyone,
I couldn't find any other thread similar to this after searching for a while, so I wanted to get one going. It would be great if everyone could post pictures of their current home or work lab (Big or Small). Hopefully we can get the CCNP/CCIE folks to post in here as well.

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lildeezul

Nice lab, lets see a topology of it

kryolla

lildeezul wrote:

Nice lab, lets see a topology of it

I think it is on IE website I am not sure I can post their topology.

mgeorge

jbaello wrote:

mgeorge wrote:

Is that a concord fade pearl vision jbaello???

Yes.

Dang I'm good!!!!

Any who, found a picture of my old CCNA lab that I used years ago Figured I'd post that picture as well. I sold this lab over a year ago to make room for my CCIE LAB which I posted a picture of earlier in this thread.

DefendingNetworks

Here is mine. I need to add more to it.

dynamik

A lot of the 2500s are just 2501s that I got for dirt, so it's really not that much. The gray tower runs Open Filer, the black tower is a Vista machine with an E6600 and 4gb of ram. That handles various VMs, getting into dynamips/dynagen, file/media server, etc. Two HP DL360 G3s for VCP studies, and two old 12.1" Dell laptops that are used for random tasks (i.e. testing port security on the switches). It's amazing how much crap you can accumulate over a couple of years

Mishra

Starting from the top left... Cisco 2900XL, Rackable P3, Sun Sparc, Cisco 1711, 2 rackable single xeon P4s, 3 2501s, Rackable P3
Endian Firewall, Old Apache Server, P3, Dual Xeon VMware server
Old Server, Old Desktop, G/fs desktop

famosbrown

I'm going to have to take some pictures of my little cubby hole and post

phantasm

I finally bought a skeletek (small one) and racked my gear. I still need to pickup a term server. I'm slowing phasing out my 2500's.

Top to bottom:
Cisco 2620 w/ NM-4AS (frame switch)
Cisco 2610xm
Cisco 2610xm
Cisco 2501
Cisco 2501
Cisco 2960 LAN Image
Cisco 3550 PoE EMI

I know it's a bit much for CCNA but I use it for work related testing as well.[/img]

Panzer919

[/quote]

So is that hammer your ultimate reset button?

CaptainCharisma

I'll post pictures of my Cisco gear in a few days, I'm still buying equipment but I currently have 3 routers and 3 switches and a Skeletek rack that I need to put together.

My goal with my equipment is to study for CCNP in 2009. I attained my CCNA back in May, but haven't done much with it in regards to Cisco training or on the job since. Before I start on the CCNP though, I will be going back over my CCNA material to refresh seeing as its been a while. Also I hope to get a new job around February that puts my CCNA knowledge to use.

After the CCNA I had gotten a little burnt out on Cisco and decided to jump to the Microsoft track, but after starting the Microsoft track and continuing my current job (which is more in line with systems admin than network admin), I realized I missed the Cisco track and that I'd rather follow the Cisco path.

My current gear is:

2 x 2950T switches
1 x 3550 SMI switch with EMI image and POE
3 x 2610 routers
1 x Skeletek 24u rack

I plan to add some 1841's in there as my finances permit.

Kaminsky

None of you ever heard of cable management ?

http://www.shop.bt.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3H92&CategorySelectedId=11185&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11185

They're cheap as chips, allow good access to the equipment and also stop your cab looking like it's been disembowled. Two devices then a cable management arm the two devices and another arm, etc.

Also, get a roll of velcro and cut bits off it for use as adjustable cable ties similar to this.
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=161266

And label your cables at either end so you don't have to keep tracing cables to find the other end.

I know it's your own kit and I sound very **** saying this but if your going to invest all that time, hard earned money and a lot of effort in learning this stuff, a little extra practice in how to make your cabinets look professionally done will be the cherry on the cake.

Turgon

Kaminsky wrote:

None of you ever heard of cable management ?

http://www.shop.bt.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3H92&CategorySelectedId=11185&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11185

They're cheap as chips, allow good access to the equipment and also stop your cab looking like it's been disembowled. Two devices then a cable management arm the two devices and another arm, etc.

Also, get a roll of velcro and cut bits off it for use as adjustable cable ties similar to this.
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=161266

And label your cables at either end so you don't have to keep tracing cables to find the other end.

I know it's your own kit and I sound very **** saying this but if your going to invest all that time, hard earned money and a lot of effort in learning this stuff, a little extra practice in how to make your cabinets look professionally done will be the cherry on the cake.

The arms are good although my rack is a *little* short of space now for those. I do use velcro wraps and label my cables.

We have..

1x Compaq KVM
1x Proliant DL360 - Netware 5.1
1x Proliant DL360 - Windows 2008 Server
1 x Sun Netra - Solaris Jumpstart server
2 x Sun Netra - Solaris 10
1 x Xyplex Maxserver 1600 Terminal Server
1 x Cisco 4000 with 6 x Ethernet
1 x Cisco 4000 with ATM and 6 x Ethernet
1 X Cisco 4000 with ATM and 6 x Ethernet plus 4 x Serial
1 x Cisco 2520 Frame Switch with Ethernet and ISDN BRI
1 x Cisco 2521 Frame Switch with Token Ring and ISDN BRI
4 x Cisco 2503 for those ISDN situations
1 x Eumex 322 Pci ISDN BRI Switch emulator
5 x Cisco 2501
1 x Cisco 3550 with EMI VTP Server
1 x Cisco 3550 with EMI VTP Client

I may go wireless with the whole lot when I have some time. Noisy rack

dynamik

Kaminsky wrote:

None of you ever heard of cable management ?

People like you are the reason Mike won't post his lab pics

Slowhand

Kaminsky wrote:

None of you ever heard of cable management ?
...
I know it's your own kit and I sound very **** saying this but if your going to invest all that time, hard earned money and a lot of effort in learning this stuff, a little extra practice in how to make your cabinets look professionally done will be the cherry on the cake.

Sometimes it's laziness, and often times it's out of necessity that home-labs look messy. When you're changing the configuration of your lab on a daily basis, you're not going to go through the trouble of wrapping up the cables. It's true, sometimes you forget what cable leads where, but for those of us practicing on a regular basis, we already have map of the network in our heads. It's a great suggestions, and knowing how to manage cables properly is an excellent skill to have for a working environment, but it's simply not practical for a non-production network that would have to be re-labeled and re-organized on a daily or weekly basis.

CaptainCharisma

Well I finally put my Skeletek rack together after having got it a few weeks ago, now all I need to do is put my routers and switches in it.

Skeletek makes nice racks, but they can be a pain to put together. I bought the 24U rack for $115, it took me about 1-1.5 hours to put it together. I had a couple issues with it, one was that the top part of the rack (the part with Skeletek printed on it) on one end of it the metal had been bent somehow (either during shipping or before shipping) so I had to bend it back into shape. Also my rack has a small dent in one of the posts, and there were already some scratches in spots on the metal. The hardest part was getting the screws in that connect the base to the legs (not the ones on the sides, but the ones inside the base). I'm happy with my purchase of this rack though.

A tip for those that are planning to get a Skeletek rack or for those who still need to put their's together, instead of using the included 10mm wrench for holding the nuts in place, get a 1/4 inch ratchet and a deep wall 10mm socket. The ratchet makes putting the rack together alot easier.

Netwurk

Going to post new pics one of these days, but it sounds like I need to get my wires in order or I will be chided for cable mismanagement. Is it within forum guidelines to run fiber cables over top of cold water pipes?

Currently I have:

Switches:
3550-24 EMI/PoE
3550-24 EMI
2950-24
3524
2924 x2
2926 (CatOS)

Routers:
2620 w/extra FastEth & Serial
2514
2501 x2
2516 x2
2520

Misc:
VG200
7940 x2
CCM on VMWare
ISDN Simulator

Need to upgrade the routers at some point, but I can do a lot of labs with the gear I have. It's all been bought used, piece by piece, over the years.

dynamik

You're going to water-cool your Ethernet cables? I think that makes you the most hardcore network guy here

Kaminsky

mikej412 wrote: »

... Remember, we don't want to scare the CCNA hopefuls with things like this. ...

Just the thought of your electricity bill is enough to scare me.

tiersten

Kaminsky wrote: »

Just the thought of your electricity bill is enough to scare me.

mikej412 is small fry. Go look at Scott Morris' lab

mikej412

Kaminsky wrote: »

Just the thought of your electricity bill is enough to scare me.

It doesn't sound that bad when you think it just works out to about the cost of 1 12-pack of beer a day. The non-mass-market expensive imported kind of beer.

But my gas bill makes up for it a little bit. My budget gas bill has been $20 a month going on 2 years now. I used less than $100 of natural gas last month for heating (and cooking, hot water, and the gas clothes dryer) while my neighbor with less than 1/2 the square footage used $700.

tiersten wrote: »

mikej412 is small fry. Go look at Scott Morris' lab

Do you have a link? I've only seen the picture of his 5 racks in the basement -- never ones showing his complete data center.

Netwurk

Wow, Morris has a lot of gear (see mikej's link above)

Glad to see I'm not the only one who runs his lab out of his basement. Not that I would recommend it to all. We live on a hill in PA where even flash flood type rains stay out (knock on wood). Even so, I keep my "expendable" gear on the bottom of my rack and I try to keep it off and unplugged when not in use. When we go on vacation, it all gets shut down. Bad memories of Hurricane Agnes.

So far the kids, ages 9-27, haven't shown interest in the labs I've had through the years. They think I'm an uncool geek and the 21 year old calls me Bill Nye the Science Guy. At least they are all loyal Phillies/Eagles fans!

jbaello

If you have real expensive gadgets make sure to get a renters insurance they cost 20 - 30 $ a month.

Netwurk

phoeneous wrote: »

Full or express? Hows it working out for you?

Running 6.0.1 on Linux, installed from an ISO (which is usually the way to go for VM)

Going to post some more info in the CCVP forum once I get the lab fully running. Stay tuned.

Arr arr matey

runssh

Preparing for CCNA/CCNP

2501(2)
2509
2521
2612
2610
2620
2924xl-en

Still waiting for the 2610xm(3) and 2950T(2) to arrive.

3369972876_054c068d72.jpg?v=0

Netwurk

Nice rack runssh

But it looks too neat

You need to have so many cables running to so many places that you run out and buy wire markers to keep track of it all!

runssh

Netwurk wrote: »

Nice rack runssh

But it looks too neat

You need to have so many cables running to so many places that you run out and buy wire markers to keep track of it all!

LOL, thanks! I'm still waiting for the smart cables along w/ the switches and routers. It'll get messy real soon.

shmish

Here is an amazing lab. It'll knock your socks off.
Not.

consists of:
2610XM
2610
2x2950
1x Allen&Heath Xone:32 mixer
not shown: 2 turntables

IMG_0908.jpg

hypnotoad

Current Config:
Unmanaged Switch
3500XL
3640 (IPS, CBAC, VPN, etc...)
2610xm (VPN)
2610xm (CME)
2610
2514
2x 7960's (CCNA Voice)
Misc. Allied Telesyn Switch

WIP/not pictured: assorted VM servers & storage, 1812 router, 1242 AP, 1130 AP, 2950 switches, 20U Skeletek

img046.jpg

runssh

Installed an AP9212. I'll now be able to remote in and power off the devices after I complete the labs. Woot!

3388272606_5c38c701a5.jpg?v=0

hypnotoad

Nice APC controller