CCSA - Virtualisation Confusion!

Miikey87

Good mornign all,

I have decided that I would like to pursue the CheckPoint CCSA accreditation and to learn a bit more about them. This works well as part of my skillsoft training package I have the study material for the: 156-215.1 Check Point Security Administration NGX Exam. Looking at this training, I defiantely need to get some hands on with the software
Itself to learn how it all works and how to apply it.

I have heard of the VMWare SPLAT image but it seems as if Check Point have removed access to this file. I signed up for a trial with checkpoint and have downloaded the VPN-1 VE, I wanted to see if this can be used to study for the CCSA. Im not to sure if this is what I need or if it is another piece of software instead. Now that this is downloading, I also see that I need a VMWARE Server ESI, so that is on its way as well. Is this the way to go for learning the software?

I went to the checkpoint support group to see if there was any information on that website, but I couldn't see anything of any use.

I am very new to virtualisation itself, having only used VMWARE with various linux distributions while I was at university.Does anyone have a guide on how to set this all up, I am unsure on how I will set up many virtual machines to all interact with each other or requirements to set something up to try with the software.

I hope to have a fiddle with the VPN-1 VE, if its the right edition tonight and see if I can get it working So i can start studying.

Also can anyone recommend some good study guides as I would like to use another source as training/reference material, but from my books24x7 I dont see any books for the exam 156-215.1 they all seem to be about 5 - 8 years old and concentrate on 210. Not sure of the difference between these, but with IT i assume any book 5 - 8 years old is way behind the times.

Cheers,

Miikey