Which would be more helpful

We have a small network but we are picking up some brand new switching gear. I want to reorganize and redesign the network. I don't have a lot of time to study up as I have a few other projects on my plate. At any rate what I am wondering if I should pick up the CCDA or the SWITCH book to compliment the network warrior book or should the network warrior book and some of the online stuff be enough? How much does SWITCH go into design? I want to do that test any at some point but that is another story.

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Comments

BroadcastStorm

I recommend Foundation Learning Guide, it will give you everything you need to know about Cisco LAN switching for a small to medium size business, I think FLG has a pretty good portion of switching design and it also gives you the advantage/disadvantage of how you go about it.

chrisone

If you do not have a CCNP level of network understanding at least from a switching aspect, you probably will have a very difficult time understanding what you read in the CCDA book. CCDA is designed for engineers with a CCNA and CCNP/Switching level of understanding. I took the BCMSN module before the latest change to the CCNP exam, which is now the SWITCH test. I am not familiar with much design concepts in any of those CCNP tests, i am not sure if they do with the new exams either.

I would buy the switch book to learn how to configure your switches because in the end the CCDA will not show you how to, CCDA is just theory based. You can always look at the design guides for small networks on cisco's website. You might understand that a hell of a lot more than the CCDA book at this moment in time.

Bl8ckr0uter

Thanks. Do you guys think the old BCMSN learning guides would be enough? I say that because I could get a copy for significantly less than a SWITCH guide.

chmorin

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Thanks. Do you guys think the old BCMSN learning guides would be enough? I say that because I could get a copy for significantly less than a SWITCH guide.

I'd wager it would probably be enough. However, SWITCH is required for CCDP. So if you actually wanted to study for an exam, you could get your CCNP and CCDP started with the extra bucks for the SWITCH book.

mikej412

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

We have a small network

How small?

<fill in your favorite My network was soooooo small joke here>

You could just head over to the Design Zone/SRND - Main Page - Cisco Systems and use one of the Cisco Validated Designs [Cisco Validated Design Program] - Cisco Systems