Virtual Lab

bcall64

So after hours and hours.... and hours...and hours of fighting with Ubuntu, GNS3, and Virtualbox...:drumroll:... I have a virtual lab!! Wooooott!

A lot of job descriptions I see mention network management and network monitoring software. I would love to run some sort of software to monitor my lab and get familiar with tools I would be using in a NOC.

I would also like some sort of web interface that I can login to and see everything on the fly from anywhere.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

hiddenknight821

bcall64 wrote: »

So after hours and hours.... and hours...and hours of fighting with Ubuntu, GNS3, and Virtualbox...:drumroll:... I have a virtual lab!! Wooooott!

A lot of job descriptions I see mention network management and network monitoring software. I would love to run some sort of software to monitor my lab and get familiar with tools I would be using in a NOC.

I would also like some sort of web interface that I can login to and see everything on the fly from anywhere.

It's either you are sh*t out of luck or you can try using RDC (for Windows) or LogMeIn to connect to your machine remotely to play around with your ...:drumroll:... virtual lab.

bcall64

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

It's either you are sh*t out of luck or you can try using RDC (for Windows) or LogMeIn to connect to your machine remotely to play around with your ...:drumroll:... virtual lab.

I actually can remote into my desktop already so that part is taken care of. For the router I suppose I could just forward port 22 to a router on the network.

As far as a remote NOC monitor type software I have yet to figure that out.

hiddenknight821

bcall64 wrote: »

I actually can remote into my desktop already so that part is taken care of. For the router I suppose I could just forward port 22 to a router on the network.

As far as a remote NOC monitor type software I have yet to figure that out.

Oh. You weren't clear to begin with. To be honest, from what I read, I thought you wanted to know if there is a way for you to access your virtual lab remotely from anywhere, but I had no idea you are asking if there are such networking monitoring program you can use to connect and monitor your lab remotely. For that part, I dunno about that one, and that's out of my specialty. In my honest opinion, I think you should leave this to your prospective employers once you get the NOC job you wanted. Learning new thing is a great experience, and plus it gives you a chance to settle down rather than having them throwing stuff in your face, expecting you to know everything. Not everyone who get hired at the NOC was familiar with the softwares/tools there beforehand.

bcall64

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

Oh. You weren't clear to begin with. To be honest, from what I read, I thought you wanted to know if there is a way for you to access your virtual lab remotely from anywhere, but I had no idea you are asking if there are such networking monitoring program you can use to connect and monitor your lab remotely. For that part, I dunno about that one, and that's out of my specialty. In my honest opinion, I think you should leave this to your prospective employers once you get the NOC job you wanted. Learning new thing is a great experience, and plus it gives you a chance to settle down rather than having them throwing stuff in your face, expecting you to know everything. Not everyone who get hired at the NOC was familiar with the softwares/tools there beforehand.

Yeah I just am trying to be as prepared as possible. I have a potentially huge opportunity coming up and want to know as much as possible. I have no prior NOC experience and I'm finding it difficult to get my foot in the door. I figure the more skills I can prove the better.

On the other hand I just want to do it because it's a whole lot of fun. The cisco SDM is basically the concept I'm looking for. You can open it up to the web and remote in. It's works great. I'm looking for something similar that will monitor the whole network.

hiddenknight821

bcall64 wrote: »

Yeah I just am trying to be as prepared as possible. I have a potentially huge opportunity coming up and want to know as much as possible. I have no prior NOC experience and I'm finding it difficult to get my foot in the door. I figure the more skills I can prove the better.

On the other hand I just want to do it because it's a whole lot of fun. The cisco SDM is basically the concept I'm looking for. You can open it up to the web and remote in. It's works great. I'm looking for something similar that will monitor the whole network.

I see. Since you won't have certs that can validate your experience on the network monitoring tools, be prepared to answer your questions regarding your findings when you were exploring the tools. I don't believe SDM is exactly the tool you will see in most NOC. However, if you want to look more into that, then I think you should check out Cisco Configuration Professional since it will replace the depreciating SDM completely in the near future.

Chris_

If you are looking for monitoring software then get your hands on PRTG, kiwi cat tools and netflow analyser - all good free trial versions. Although in a NOC you would be more likely to use something like HP openview or CA spectrum, not sure if they do trial versions - worth a look though.

alxx

cat tools

Probably not in a noc but still useful.
syslog-ng with syslog-ng php to log all the important router and switch messages (getting it setup myself)


some other useful tools
Armory - Packet Life