How Much Space for a home lab?

Intend to work on my CCENT in the immediate future. Am finished wiring my new home with CAT6 cables an I have a short 14U Compaq brand rack that I'm going to use for my Cisco lab.

Haven't decided on what gear I need now for the lab, but am wondering if the typical lab would fit well in the 14u rack?

Do I have to worry about heat in a home environment?

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

bcall64

PPelfrey wrote: »

Intend to work on my CCENT in the immediate future. Am finished wiring my new home with CAT6 cables an I have a short 14U Compaq brand rack that I'm going to use for my Cisco lab.

Haven't decided on what gear I need now for the lab, but am wondering if the typical lab would fit well in the 14u rack?

Do I have to worry about heat in a home environment?

That should be plenty all the way through the CCNA even.

kalebksp

PPelfrey wrote: »

Haven't decided on what gear I need now for the lab, but am wondering if the typical lab would fit well in the 14u rack?

For CCNA that's definitely enough, CCNP it's probably enough. It depends on how crazy you want to go. My home lab (not just Cisco) is approaching 28U, but I'm slightly nuts.

PPelfrey wrote: »

Do I have to worry about heat in a home environment?

In terms of damaging the equipment? Not likely (unless you're Scott Morris). From a comfort perspective it can get pretty warm if you're sitting next to the equipment.

mikem2te

kalebksp wrote: »

unless you're Scott Morris

Awesome.

The thing that impresses me most with this lab is the bit of cardboard under his office chair to protect the carpet - a complete lab!!

Kaminsky

PPelfrey wrote: »

Intend to work on my CCENT in the immediate future. Am finished wiring my new home with CAT6 cables an I have a short 14U Compaq brand rack that I'm going to use for my Cisco lab.

Haven't decided on what gear I need now for the lab, but am wondering if the typical lab would fit well in the 14u rack?

Do I have to worry about heat in a home environment?

Heat can get a bit much at home but you can just open the window. My 16u rack will pump out far more heat than a radiator when it is all on. I used to keep the pc next to the rack but aftar an hour or so, the heat would crap it out.

Biggest problem is electricity.
1) Home electricity sockets are not designed to pull that many watts... If you are pulling too much from a single socket or daisy chaining multiple, multi-way extension sockets, you seriously need to consider the potential fire risk involved. Yes, very **** I know, but serously !!

2) Look at the manufacturer data sheets for each device you have in the rack to figure out the total watts your lab is pulling. Most network devices pull more power as the load on that device increases, so for a home lab, figure 50% or idle power ratings.

Thing about buying off ebay is that you can end up with kit that just chomps on electricity as some of it was never designed to be in a house and if you're labbing for a good few hours, you can find your meter whizzing away like the house is lit up for Christmas. People who leave their lab on during the day in case they want to connect from work must have enormous electricity bills.

Kaminsky

mikem2te wrote: »

Awesome.

The thing that impresses me most with this lab is the bit of cardboard under his office chair to protect the carpet - a complete lab!!

I was shocked he had those L3 Junipers sitting there doing nothing. He must have a very excellent skip where he works.

mikem2te

Kaminsky wrote: »

Biggest problem is electricity.
1) Home electricity sockets are not designed to pull that many watts... If you are pulling too much from a single socket or daisy chaining multiple, multi-way extension sockets, you seriously need to consider the potential fire risk involved. Yes, very **** I know, but serously !!

Very true, not sure about other countries but atleast in the UK we have fuses in the mains plugs to stop us drawing to much current.

Another risk is using mains extension cable reels. They are fine when fulling incoiled but if you use them when still coiled up they can get very very hot.