Settling on switches

So as we all know, the lab uses 4 x 3560's and the 3560's are a bit different than the 3550's. The 3560's support a variety of features that aren't on the 3550's including IPv6, different QoS mechanisms..etc. Looking at my budget, I could easily purchase 4 x 3550's for my lab, but 3560's... possibly 1 at most. I'm working out something with work to get 4x 3560's at my desk for labbing, but I'm not 100% sure how that will fly. and in it's also likely that if we need one on the fly, they'll have to take one of mine

Anyway.. I'm still feeling like I'll be mostly ok if I purchase 4 x 3550's and use them, and just make up the other tasks on 3560's.. but I'd just like others thoughts on it.

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Comments

spiderjericho

Sometimes you have to work with what you have or can afford. If your goal is to prepare for the CCIE lab, then being able to prepare for most of the objectives/topics is better than none. If you need to touch upon those missing objectives/topics then you can do rack rentals. 3560s are expensive. And remember there is always IOU in the murky grey area.

Forsaken_GA

There's not a whole lot that the 3550's cant do. QoS, ipv6, and PVLAN's are the biggies. I bought 4 3550's and I'll just rent rack time to get hands on with the other features, it's a hell of alot cheaper than buying the gear, at least for the moment. 3550's used to be in the same price range as 3560's and the grey market prices on the 3560's are artifically inflated because they are coveted for training, but they'll eventually go down in price as well.

spiderjericho

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

3550's used to be in the same price range as 3560's and the grey market prices on the 3560's are artifically inflated because they are coveted for training, but they'll eventually go down in price as well.

I agree. The 3550 go for $100 to $300 depending on the model you want.

The 3560s go for $550 and up. I will say the prices have gone down in the last year. When I was shopping last year for switches, the 3560s were $800 and up (brand new for the 8-port was $900).

I'm not sure how much rack rentals go for, but if you are able to cover 85 to 90 percent using the 3550s then the time and money to invest in the rack rental of a topology with 3560s shouldn't be too bad.

I'm sure the next hurdle we will deal with is the eventual IOS licensing and hardware that supports it.

sieff

Wow. I haven't priced switches in awhile. I have (3) POE 3550 switches, which I thought were pretty worthless. I'd be willing to trade these in for a 3560.

ipSpace

In my opinion there is no point on buying 3560 instead of 3550 for your practice lab.

You can get some only vouchers for playing with the other features that 3560 has.

alxx

Could always lease a few to use at home and use it as a tax deduction ?

echo465

For stuff that is 3560 specific, you could use the community lab at Community Lab - Packet Life, each of the labs contains a 3560 and a 3550.

mgeorge

I will be adding a Cisco 3560 to the Stub Lab within the next 6 months or so once I start writing the CCNP - Route workbook at stubarea.net. Buy the 3550's and reserve free lab time on my lab for the 3560 scenarios.

NOC-Ninja

Plazma wrote: »

So as we all know, the lab uses 4 x 3560's and the 3560's are a bit different than the 3550's. The 3560's support a variety of features that aren't on the 3550's including IPv6, different QoS mechanisms..etc. Looking at my budget, I could easily purchase 4 x 3550's for my lab, but 3560's... possibly 1 at most. I'm working out something with work to get 4x 3560's at my desk for labbing, but I'm not 100% sure how that will fly. and in it's also likely that if we need one on the fly, they'll have to take one of mine

Anyway.. I'm still feeling like I'll be mostly ok if I purchase 4 x 3550's and use them, and just make up the other tasks on 3560's.. but I'd just like others thoughts on it.

Im guessing you're trying to build 4 switches connected to your box Ubuntu (GNS3). Am I right? I did the same thing.

A few passed CCIE RS with this set-up. However, you need to be aware that it takes substantial amount of time (a time that we candidates dont have) to troubleshoot GNS3 and to make it work around any WB. In my experience, I spent so much time TSing the set up rather than learning from the WB that I just gave up. Not everything will be perfect.

Guys that dealt with this will tell you the same thing. Its the main reason why candidates go for rack rentals or the expensive route like I did, which was buy all the hardware.

3550 has ipv6.. it doesnt have QoS and PVLAN which are in the blueprint.

Plazma

I won't do GNS3.. last time I tried it was more trouble than it's worth. I'm a unix guy also.. so I just run straight dynagen/dynamips for the most part.

I'm building a lab slowly at work with some bits and pieces.. probably early next year I'll give the proposal to my boss and then he can approve it and hand it off to the inventory manager.

mylesridgely

Hi Everyone

What is your opinion for using one 3745 with two

NME-16ES-1G-P modules for the CCIE home lab?

Thanks in advance