Hardware question

SephStorm

Hi, although I have been studying the CCNA ciriculum for some time, I havent really gotten any good guidance on hardware requirements for cisco devices. Are the features all dependant on the IOS version, and therefore the hardware doesnt really matter? I know there are models of cisco devices with more and less memory, I remember reading somewhere that the memory could affect the features your device supports (although I may be confusing cisco with the WRT54G-DD-WRT on this point).



Specificly I am looking to build a lab that fully supports CCNA through CCNA Security including SSH and SDM (is this still tested on the CCNA Security? What is the replacement for SDM?) so I'm trying to find out what I need, at a minimum to effectivly prepare for these exams, and their real world implementations.

Roguetadhg

SDM isn't something you'll need to worry about for CCNA:Security 554. CCP is what's being taught.

CCP can be installed on your workstation, instead of the routers, so it'll help that you won't need to update your hardware too much.

You'll need the USB-Serial converter, which the book even mentions. You'd think this would be in the ICND1? It may be, I'd have to look :P

There's a lot of things that the book goes through - installing IPS on the router, for example. I think the major additional hardware would be the ASA 5505. I'm seeing that they recommend 5510 as well as 5505 for CCNP:Security. Although, I'm not sure of the accuracy. It just means I need to bite the bullet and buy the first part to help even the costs a little bit!