Buy lab or rent rackspace?

dynamik

I'm going to tackle the CCNA in a few months (once I finish my MCSE). I can round out my lab for that with a couple more pieces, but which route (no pun intended) do you think would be best for more advanced studies? I'm definitely going to move on to the CCNP, and I would like to attempt the CCIE after that. I've read that, especially for the CCIE, labs are extremely expensive and become dated quickly.

I'm interested in your opinions regarding the cost as well as your experiences with rack rental in general.

Thanks in advance.

dtlokee

You can use rack rentals to practice the commands that require more expensive equipment (For example voice with a 6500 or security with 2xASA, IPS and ACS) but for the more generic commands it is extremely helpful to have your own rack of equipment to work with. You can use Dynamips or live equipment, it's up to you. You don't need a rack full of the latest and greatest equipment either, you can study 80-90% of the CCIE R+S lab routing topics on a 2500 with 12.2(15) T17 IS feature set. Plus there are hundreds of commands that haven't been changed since 11.x or even 10.x so whatever you can get your hands on works for these.

It's would be very difficult to study for somthing like CCIE without having access to some type of rack 24x7. You don't want to be stuck into a block of 4-12 hours for a rental. What happens when you are reading a book and see an example that jsut doesn't sit well? You lab it up. If you are using remote racks you will end up waiting until you have a slot. If you have your own rack you can work thought it right away.

networker050184

Some of the more advanced equipment can be pricey. I would suggest getting at least a few routers and switches for a home lab and rent rack time for the more expensive stuff such as voice and security. You should be able to put together a lab for the CCNA and CCNP with out spending too much. Most of the rack rental I have looked into is geared for the CCIE anyway.

dynamik

Just for the record, this is what I have now:

Routers: 2501, 2520, 2520, 2511, and 2613

Switch: 2950 (12-port)

I'll always keep this, as well as add a couple more 2950s and maybe another router or two if I come across something else I need.

Turgon

dynamik wrote:

I'm going to tackle the CCNA in a few months (once I finish my MCSE). I can round out my lab for that with a couple more pieces, but which route (no pun intended) do you think would be best for more advanced studies? I'm definitely going to move on to the CCNP, and I would like to attempt the CCIE after that. I've read that, especially for the CCIE, labs are extremely expensive and become dated quickly.

I'm interested in your opinions regarding the cost as well as your experiences with rack rental in general.

Thanks in advance.

Honestly you want your own setup at home. Thousands of dollars get wasted on rack rental. With your own lab you can study whenever you want even for a hour. With rack rental you have to purchase lengthy slots in advance you may not even use. A home lab is convienience. Sometimes I find Im just too tired to get the most out of a slot I have scheduled in advance and abandon the session early which is a waste of money. With a home rack you can turn it on and work the hours you want when you want to.

Rack rental is fine for advanced features and special hardware though.

I can see myself looking at dynamips late next year once my CCIE studies are through. At the moment I want to let everyone else pull their hair out obtaining the right equipment for that and trying to make it work properly. I just don't have any free time right now to mess about trying to get it working. The same goes for Olive. I put a post on the Juniper forum about setting that up but it appears not too many folks on here have done so. So while I would like to have it running at home I really can't spare a couple of weeks on and off messing about trying to get something useful working.

Next year I will have more free time for that sort of thing and hopefully less buggy cookbooks on the web to get it all working fairly painlessly.

On that note, old cisco gear is great. No simulator. No linux. No linux drivers. No wierd commands. No wierd NICs to buy. It just works and its getting cheaper. Add to which you can build a great rack like Dtlokee says for relatively little money these days and it will do most of what you need to learn. Certainly the core things. That's what I have.

Crunchyhippo

I know on ebay that I've seen a person/company regularly offering a "CCIE package" with numerous routers, switches, cabling, etc., for around $2,000. It may be a lot of money up front, but it's a complete lab, even for CCIE studies.

Just a thought.

dynamik

Thanks everyone.