CCVP Home lab

smaharjan

I am plannin on building my own CCVP/CCIE voice lab. can some one list down equipments so that I can build my lab in a cheaper way.

mgeorge

You should check into some of the cheeper servers for CCM and Unity.

Cisco approved servers that are ibm and hp. I personally use 2 IBM 306m's for
ccm6 and unity.

gonna needa get a poe switch, 3550-poe will work great. Get a few gateways or if you like
use 2600's with NM-2V's and use FXS's and FXO's.

Also buy a 2650XM for call manager express, you can pick one of thee up for about 200-300 bucks.
just make sure it has has 12.2(8r) bootrom on it so you can upgrade it to 256MB RAM 48MB flash.
you can get away with a 3640 as well for cme, but you cant run 4.0 on 3640's

and of course ya cant forget the voip phones 7960's are typically what you find in the field.
You can probably get away with 7940's if you need to save money.

snowbhoy

Guys,

Got a question on this. I'm a CCIE R&S and still got my home lab, minus my switches (3 3640,s 2 * 2610XM and some other routers).

Is it possible to do the CCVP using online vendors (I was planning on selling the rest of my lab), or should I keep some of my routers and buy the voice cards and some Cisco phones?

mikej412

snowbhoy wrote:

Is it possible to do the CCVP using online vendors (I was planning on selling the rest of my lab), or should I keep some of my routers and buy the voice cards and some Cisco phones?

I find it convenient to have the hardware to practice on and try things out on while studying -- but the cost of the equipment for some people is prohibitive. This is true for both the CCVP and CCSP Certificaitons which require more specialized (and expensive) equipment.

I'd suggest the "build what you can, and rent the rest" approach.

NLI (ccbootcamp.com) has their voice rack equipment and layout on their website here -- along with a PDF for their rack access instructions. I think they may have a site-to-site VPN option that could let you use some physical phones at your location rather than the software SoftPhones. Should be a good starting point to start researching the online rack options.

smaharjan wrote:

I am plannin on building my own CCVP/CCIE voice lab. can some one list down equipments so that I can build my lab in a cheaper way.

If you look at some of the previous Voice Lab/CCVP Lab threads you'll see that it can get expensive. There were some hints and tips about some older voice routers that are good to start with, but since rebelrat and I may be fighting over the few cheap good ones available on eBay right now, you'll have to excuse me if I don't want to mention them again right now

mgeorge27 wrote:

gonna needa get a poe switch, 3550-poe will work great.

I went with a couple of 3524-XL-EN-PWR for the voice side of my home lab to power the phones -- I figure that will still be cheaper than firing up my 2nd 6509 just to power some phones for my lab "branch offices." If something 3550/3560 specific ever comes up (while my 3550s and 3750s are configured for my R&S Lab studies), I'll just activate the trunk links over to them.

dtlokee

You really don't need a PoE switch at all, the power bricks work just fine.

mikej412

dtlokee wrote:

You really don't need a PoE switch at all, the power bricks work just fine.

From a cost viewpoint, that is cheaper

I already had the 3550 PWR when I did my CCVP, so I didn't worry about the power bricks.... but 3 of the phones I bought on eBay came with them. One brick seems like a Cisco Original. A 2nd brick seems like a solid 3rd party "mystery brick."

The 3rd brick was a smaller form factor and marked similar to the "original" and seemed fine when I got it, but it just fell apart on its own a few months later (with no use) when I was moving it to another storage spot. I think it was a "knock off" someone had bought for use in their lab -- and once it was open, it seemed very shoddy and low quality.

If you go the power brick route to save some money, try to avoid the cheapest ones -- or at least make sure your smoke detectors work and your house insurance is paid up.

mgeorge

mikej412 wrote:

A 2nd brick seems like a solid 3rd party "mystery brick."

Wow a mystery brick!!! Wonder if you could sell it on ebay for like $122,000 !!!

I remember the Mystery Box sold for like $122,400 or somthing on ebay and had a
picture of jesus in it...

Personally I thought that was a high price for finding jesus

Addison

I am going for Cvoice but still have 2 months left... I started with my home lab, but its bit expensive teh equipment. can i knwo is renting out cheaper ? or home lab is better? Rit now i am practicing with my company stuff.. but i want be able to get that exposure for long as i am shifted to another project. bit small scale, leaving me some space to study , but other hand i want get much exposure.. two way road...

dtlokee

I thin it is best to invest in some of the more common equipment and leave the rack rentals to get time with the more expensive gear. I would have at least a couple voice enabled routers with FXS, FXO and T-1 interfaces, a switch that can do voice vlans and QoS features (2950 is good here for some of it but a 3550 would be better, if you have more money a 3560 is also good). Of course some random analog phones, a couple modems/fax machines, 3 VoIP phones, and 2 callmanager servers and you should be set for alot of it.

Addison

Thanks...


How much would be 3560 series, is there any other places i can buy apart from ebay at a lower rate?

have you worked with 6500?

dtlokee

The 6500 would be one to save for rack rentals, they are expensive. The 3560 is a good choice but still they are expensive (not as much as the 6500's). For a lower price you can look at a local Cisco reseller or maybe newegg.com, people have ordered gear from them.