Cisco Official IOU labs for CCNA CCNP CCIP

tomaifauchai

An email i received this morning, does the website work for anybody?

Cisco Announces a Networking Education Breakthrough with Cisco Learning Labs
Cisco announces a networking education breakthrough with Cisco Learning Labs. For the first time, IT learners can now access real Cisco labs with both routing and Layer 2 core switching features.
Cisco Learning Labs are powered by Cisco IOS® Software on UNIX and enable critical, hands-on lab experience for future networking engineers interested in attaining Cisco certifications.
Elevate your study program with Cisco Learning Labs today and enjoy the variety of lab bundles for Cisco CCNA®, Cisco CCNP®, and Cisco CCIP® certification preparation.
Cisco Learning Labs are available exclusively on the Cisco Learning Network Store.

Review all lab bundles and pricing information now.



An article from M Wendell Odom who seem to explain it very well

http://www.networkworld.com/community/CLL-1

keenon

nope not for me

ehnde

It has layer 3 switching o_0 ....but no way am I paying $75 for 25 hours. I guess it's not a bad deal, but the lab I have in my living room cost nothing but electricity. I suppose you are paying for the labs as well, though. Maybe it is worth considering.

mikej412

tomaifauchai wrote: »

does the website work for anybody?

Even following the direct link to the Store from The Learning Network Website isn't working.

I'll guess that someone didn't consider the traffic this would generate.

If anyone get's through, post a synopsis of the pricing (or confirm Wendell's info on the pricing).

IOU works fine for the 25+ router CCIE R&S Lab Troubleshooting section. And the L2IOU seems to be working well enough that Cisco has added L2 problems to the scope of the CCIE R&S Lab Troubleshooting section. I'll definitely want to check it out if it includes access to L2IOU (switches).

tomaifauchai

ehnde wrote: »

It has layer 3 switching o_0 ....but no way am I paying $75 for 25 hours. I guess it's not a bad deal, but the lab I have in my living room cost nothing but electricity. I suppose you are paying for the labs as well, though. Maybe it is worth considering.

I think this is a good deal from Cisco, especially if they bring this to the CCIE level. You're lucky to have a lab at home and i would certainly prefer my own lab if i had one but for 75$ i think it's a great middle. I hope they release CCIE exercises!

But it is only version 1.0 and nobody knows how it is, exept Mr. Odom!

millworx

Kinda shame about the pricing structure. I heard nothing about this internaly, I wonder how this affects my NDA for IOU and L2IOU. I use both unrestricted, and they work great, but I still prefer real hardware. Another bummer that they are restricted according to the certification you are studying, one of the joys of having real equipment is being able to solve problems outside of the box. But regardless this is cool news.

mikej412

ehnde wrote: »

I suppose you are paying for the labs as well

According to Wendell's article:

The labs exercises themselves come from the authorized Cisco courses. Cisco then modifies the lab exercises to make sense in the context of the self-study environment.

If they've implemented all the Labs from the official course's Lab Guide then it's worth the price just for those.

But the pricing structure seems kind of funny that adding on a 5 hour increment costs more per hour than the per hour cost of original package.

networker050184

I think its a pretty good idea for Cisco to offer this. Bring in some of the money that would be going to the rack renters of their gear.

burbankmarc

networker050184 wrote: »

I think its a pretty good idea for Cisco to offer this. Bring in some of the money that would be going to the rack renters of their gear.

That makes a lot of sense. Since they, you know..uh..make the equipment, they should be able to put together a lot of lab racks fairly easily.

mikej412

Firefox wouldn't get past the certificate error so I shifted to IE9 -- and I did finally get something new trying to access The Cisco Learning Network Store
-- a Server Error (Could not connect to JRun Server) and now a Page Not Found. Looks like someone is working on the access issue.

DPG

This has been in the works for a while. I'm glad they finally released something.

mikej412

The thing's hollow—it goes on forever—and—oh my God—it's full of Cisco Virtualized Lab Bundles and Extensions!

CCIEWANNABE

I can see how it will help out some people, but I have to say this would have been a great idea about 5 years ago

tomaifauchai

I guess the service will be more functional in the next few days.
I never seen the official webpage yet...it takes ages and timeout

pitviper

I too gave up clicking on the link in the email. Pretty interesting though. Nothing wrong with giving people more options.

mikej412

I got into the website -- but I'm going to let someone else enter their credit card information first... unless, I forget. Do they have a paypal option?

Edit: Well, after a bit it completed it's "Product added to your cart" attempt -- but the shopping cart is empty. The third try with a 3rd product is still attempting the shopping cart add.

viper75

I'll have to pass...

Panzer919

My netacad had something similar to this. It was a unix/VM setup that attached to an actual rack of equipment. If this is anything like that lab it will be worth it. especially if they provide xp machines to test with.

mikej412

I'm in the SWITCH Lab Bundle....

It's....

It's....

IT?S BEAUTIFUL - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?


Or at least it will be when there is actually a start lab button visible.....


IE is working somewhat better.... I'm at the point where:

Click the "Start Lab" button on the menu bar above when you are ready to begin your session.
Click Help to learn about the Cisco Learning Labs before your timed lab begins.
Once you move past this screen the time will automatically start counting down.

Unfortunately the only options on the menu bar are:
Restart Lab Devices, which comes back a bit after you click it
FAQ


I'll compare the lab list against the Official Courseware Labs -- if I can find someone with the official courseware at work (Tokyo conference in about an hour and a half).

I'm currently trying to get into Cisco CCNP SWITCH Lab 1-1: New Hire Test!


I did the Cisco Terminal Installer download and install (Putty) -- maybe I need to reboot.... I'll try again later. So far I still have 1500 minutes listed in my account for the SWITCH Labs.

Ron Brandt

mikej412 wrote: »

Firefox wouldn't get past the certificate error so I shifted to IE9 -- and I did finally get something new trying to access The Cisco Learning Network Store
-- a Server Error (Could not connect to JRun Server) and now a Page Not Found. Looks like someone is working on the access issue.

This is typical of trying to log in and write a chapter exam or study from them online..."frustrating" is an understatement.

tomaifauchai

Correct me if i'm wrong, but they only recommend IE 7-8-9

I will buy the MPLS bundle tonight! 3 months is more than enough and i plan to sit the 691 exam before May ends.

chmorin

I look forward to Mike's posts about the material and experiences, if it ever gets working. I'm sure purchasing the lab time through cisco has lots of perks compared to outside sources.

mikej412

I got into the first Lab!!

And it's working as well as the CCIE Lab Exam!!

And by that I mean the one I refer to as The Abomination!!

The lab ran for 11 seconds then froze. It took me 3.1 minutes to get to the Exit Lab button. It's not taking me about 15 minutes and I'm almost in task manager on the laptop that's now working in "slow motion."

Hopefully it's the fact I didn't reboot that's causing the issue and not the fact that this software is working as well as the screwed up software Cisco gave Pearson Vue to use for that pre-alpha ****fest that was the CCIE Lab offered at the Pearson Vue Professional Test Centers about a year ago.

I'm logged out of the site and closing IE -- and there are weird 1/2 windows with blank title bars flashing down near the right corner of my screen..... Wow. Just like the ABOMINATION.

Video is blanking. Mouse is not responding -- oops, now it's an hourglass....Video blanked again.

After I reboot the laptop attached to the 26" monitor, I'll RDP to this 64 bit Windows & laptop and try the lab again.

mikej412

Wow!! At least 14 cascaded "phantom windows" just flashed on the 26" monitor. This is EXACTLY like the ABOMINATION so far.

The lab did look good though. 2 PC, 2 Access Layer Switches, 2 Distribution Layer Switches, 2 Core Switches, 2 Routers, and a Cloud.

Closing the apps I also had stacked up -- saw the phantom windows again.

The mouse is still very unresponsive, but the keyboard shortcuts are working slooooooooooooowly. If I can close a Word doc and a remote session I'll blow the rest of the open apps (and FireFox where I was logged in here).

ehnde

Doesn't sound like it's going to be worth the money till Cisco gets the bugs ironed out.

mikej412

I'm reading the tasks without maximizing the window -- which is the last thing I did before it froze before. I'm still on the 32 bit Windows 7 Laptop -- with just IE 9 running after the reboot.

So far task 3's description just cuts off with

But I'm into the Implementation Policy now which seems complete -- so I may be able to give it a shot in a bit.

tomaifauchai

Does the NDA prevent you to share us some screenshots?
Can you print the lab description + the lab topology and then Close lab (timer) to save time? And study the whole thing before attempting anything
Wendel said in his paper it was possible but a second opinion always appreciated

mikej412

It seems to be working. I've got my config in notepad and have 1 switch configured. Just need to get use to the Putty paste. I've logged out and it shows that Lab 1 is suspended. Got some work to do tonight but I'll hopefully slam the configs into the other switches sometime tonight.

The reason I got SWITCH was because I wanted to see how the range command works with these interfaces.

Forsaken_GA

mikej412 wrote: »

I got into the first Lab!!

And it's working as well as the CCIE Lab Exam!!

And by that I mean the one I refer to as The Abomination!!

Oh hell, Mike's about to go hulk on us again.

MIKE SMASH!

mikej412

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Oh hell, Mike's about to go hulk on us again.

I'm pretty sure I started with the Access switch, but when I went back in to finish pasting in my configs, a Core router had the ASW1 config -- and ASW1 was was blank.

I'm thinking that Cisco was just screwing with me as payback for the number of FBombs I used on the followup calls after the ABOMINATION. If I recall correctly, at least every 3rd word of mine started with F. And as it turned out they hired contractors to make the calls -- but I hope someone responsible for the Abomination got to listen in....

Or they were just caught by surprise and finally have the A-Team spinning up enough virtual instances in THE CLOUD to support all the users

After the reboot everything seems to be okay -- except I lost my mouse pointer at one point while I was in IE (and the Lab). Good thing I had the control key set to "ping" the mouse so I could use that to zero in on the devices and menu to exit. Mouse is working fine in all the other applications -- and IE after I close out of the IE Lab interface and reopened IE.

I made it through the lab and have end-to-end connectivity -- but I'm not sure if I actually have to do all the verification step on each and every device to get a grading script to run.... or if I just have to manually grade it myself. It shows as suspended and I have the option to resume.

tomaifauchai wrote: »

Does the NDA prevent you to share us some screenshots?

Um.... now you've got me wondering what it was that I did agree to. I didn't read it.

I'll have to go back and see if I can find it. A couple of screen prints and some terminal output could be useful to help someone determine the usefulness.

But I'll say that anyone doing the R&S CCIE Lab with the IOU troubleshooting section probably would want to spend at least $75 to see the IOU switches and routers before the lab.

tomaifauchai wrote: »

Can you print the lab description + the lab topology and then Close lab (timer) to save time? And study the whole thing before attempting anything

I did copy the table with the device names and address information from the lab task/topics to MS Word. I didn't try to copy the diagram -- but I'll try it next time I go into the IOU SWITCH Lab.

I didn't see a print option -- but I didn't look (not that there are many places to hide. There were the "forms" to fill out as part of the lab, so it would make sense that the IE print should work.

It will take a bit to get used to the switches -- I think 3 modules with 4 ports each. On the Abomination I can't remember how many modules there were, but I think they only used port 0 on each module -- it's quite a shock when you expected 3560s and get a Solaris switch (and no access to Notepad or Copy & Paste).

Let me go see if I can track down someone in AP who has the SWITCH lab guide and compare it with the labs in this IOU SWITCH Bundle.

Even with the initial flashbacks to the Abomination, I'd say that it's definitely worth the $75 I paid just to see those Solaris Switches outside of a CCIE Lab Abomination Environment. I'll probably grab the ROUTE and maybe even the MPLS bundles and run through the labs just so that I'm comfortable with the Single Click Interface. If you double click a menu item with multiple choices, it opens the first item rather then displaying the flyout menu -- so you may waste some time as you hunt and peck (and double click) looking for the missing diagrams/tasks.

QHalo

tomaifauchai wrote: »

Does the NDA prevent you to share us some screenshots?
Can you print the lab description + the lab topology and then Close lab (timer) to save time? And study the whole thing before attempting anything
Wendel said in his paper it was possible but a second opinion always appreciated

Wendel posted a video on his site demoing how it works.

YouTube - Demo: Cisco Learning Labs

Overall it looks interesting. Maybe I'll check it out later down the line when they add more improvements and labs.