Setting Up IPS Lab

RS_MCP

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone could assist me with setting up a lab environment so I am able to get some experience with IPS?

What is the best way to do it and get the tools from?

mikej412

The quickest and easiest way to get some experience and practice with Cisco IPS devices is to use some of the CCIE Rack Rental websites.

Proctor Labs, Graded Labs, and CCBootcamp are the popular rack rentals for the 3rd Party CCIE workbooks. Gigavelocity (which I've never used) has 3 hour slots for under $12 (could be their holiday special). And there's a few others smaller places that might be cheaper or more flexible in their start times and end times.

I think 6.1 is the current software version in the CCIE Security Lab, so most rack rental sites should be running at least a 6.x version.

People with access to the software have gotten it to run under under VMWare (5.x IPS) or Qemu or GNS3 using Qemu (6.0 IPS) -- but the time and effort you put into getting this to work doesn't count as study time.

The problem with buying an IPS from eBay is that most won't be running the latest (or even recent) IPS software -- and in fact may still be on the old IDS versions (which don't work inline). If you want to go the real hardware route, see if you can at least a cheap 4235 (or maybe 4215) on eBay running at least 5.x

RS_MCP

Thank you for your help.