CCIE Voice v3 COMPLETE lab for $2k?

rchase

So studying for a CCIE lab that is soon to be retired does have its advantages. Older lab means older, cheaper, used equipment.

Here's what I'm planning on purchasing, mostly on ebay, to put together my entire CCIE Voice lab. I've specd out every part and included the prices which are estimated based on ebay buy it now prices. I didn't find the cheapest possible option, I just looked at the first few that came up. I also calculated in some shipping costs although many were free shipping:



The total comes out to $1,880! not bad...


1. 3750 24ps with PoE $310

HQ site -- 2911 (alrdy own) - needs:
a. VWIC-1MFT-T1 $45
b. WIC-2t $10
c. PVDM2-64 $80
d. 128mb flash $25


BR1 site -- 2821 -$210
a. VWIC-1mft-t1 -$45
b. hwic-4esw --- $110
c. wic-2t ---- $10
d. pvdm2-48 ---- $50
e. 64mb flash ---- $15

BR2 site -- 2821 --$210
a. VWIC-1mft-e1 $45
b. Wic-2t $10
c. pvdm2-48 $50
d. NM CUE 40gb $230
e. 1gb CF card $20


PSTN, FR -- 2821 $210
a. VWIC-2mft-t1 $40
b VWIC-1mft-e1 $45
c. 2x WIC-2t $20
d. PVDM2-64 $80
E. 2gb cf $25

Also alrdy owned: 3524XL PoE switch, HP Workstation /w 16gb ram, 2x 500 gb, VMware ESXi 5 with CUCM, CUC, UCCX, CUPS, 6 IP Phones - 7970, 7961, 7960, 7940 models, 2 analog phones, and a VIC-2FXS card that I can hopefully pop into my PSTN router above when I get it

Let me know what you voice guys think. Suggestions? Mods?


RCHASE

pitviper

Double-Check the supported modules on the ISR2. I don’t think that the 1st Gen VWIC or WIC-2T will work. I went with a VWIC2-2MFT-T1/E1 for mine – one port PRI, the other data T1. Of course that will bring the price up (might be cheaper to pickup another 2800). Also the PVDM2’s need an adapter to work in the ISR2s: PVDM2-ADPTR

I’m kind of on the fence on the 2900s – On one hand, they are too expensive to load up for the lab (and the licensing is a PITA), on the other hand it’s the next logical lab upgrade.

You’ll also want to make sure you have a few 3rd gen or newer phones (79x1s, or later) as the the 79x0 series are lacking in some features. From experience, get as many 6 or more button phones as you can. The 7961 is probably the best bang for the buck. LOTS of different line configurations in the workbooks – makes it tough with only 2 button phones.

Also, any ol' CF card will work fine in the lab. I use all 1GB Transcend CFs - they we're less than $10/each

rchase

Thanks pit, I was wondering about the compatibility also but I figured "if it works it works". If it doesnt work Ill get another 2821 (for some reason 21s seem to be cheaper than 11s? anyone else notice this trend?)

QUESTION: can i use a T1 to T1 WAN connection for just the 2911 and still use the serial connections and program the terminating router to FR between the 3?

QUESTION2: should i just get pvdm's instead of pvdm2s? Did I get enough pvdm for each of the sites?

pitviper

rchase wrote: »

QUESTION: can i use a T1 to T1 WAN connection for just the 2911 and still use the serial connections and program the terminating router to FR between the 3?

I don’t see why not – the PSTN/FR Cloud router will just see the MFT as a serial interface. That being said I’ve yet to actually mix them myself – Don’t have any open slots on my cloud router (2821).

rchase wrote: »

QUESTION2: should i just get pvdm's instead of pvdm2s? Did I get enough pvdm for each of the sites?

PVDM2’s for the 2800s.
PVDM3’s for the 2900s, or PVDM2s + an adapter for each module.
Yeah, you have more than enough DSP resources there. The biggest thing is to beef up the HQ a little (like you did) – this way you can setup multiple DSP intensive features without tearing down the config between each one.

rchase

Thanks for your help Pit. Im looking fwd to putting this together next week

rchase

Hey also, I was wondering, I've got IPexperts lab workbooks and they come with configs for each site. Have you used their configs and have you ever had any errors where the configs dont work on your hardware?

Also, so for each lab, its simple enough to just wipe configs and tftp the new ones but what about all your servers CUCM pub,sb CUC CUPS UCCX. how do you start fresh on those? I think I'm gonna reinstall each and then take a VMware snapshot for each one right after install. Then I could revert back to those snapshots each time. I'll just need lots of HDD space for that


And another thing is I'm using all the 8.x images. I talked to another CCIE Voice guy and hes using the 7s (the lab is 7 obviously) but he recommended to just stick w the 8.x images. What do you think? If i stick with 8.x I figure i should at least try to get UCCX 7 because unlike 8 which is linux based, 7 installs on windows and i figure id need to know how to do that

pitviper

rchase wrote: »

Hey also, I was wondering, I've got IPexperts lab workbooks and they come with configs for each site. Have you used their configs and have you ever had any errors where the configs dont work on your hardware?

Nah, shouldn’t be an issue – Just open up the configs in a text editor and look for things like serial interface numbering, and FastEthernet x/x vs GigabitEthernet x/x. I have a series of pretty in depth template configs in work that I move across different platforms all of the time with no issues. First time through just manually copy and paste the configs in sections – makes it easier to pickup on anything that you may have missed.

rchase wrote: »

Also, so for each lab, its simple enough to just wipe configs and tftp the new ones but what about all your servers CUCM pub,sb CUC CUPS UCCX. how do you start fresh on those? I think I'm gonna reinstall each and then take a VMware snapshot for each one right after install. Then I could revert back to those snapshots each time. I'll just need lots of HDD space for that

I use snapshots, but I also completely backup the cluster as soon as I’m done with the initial installations. For the rest of the gear, I generally setup a utility server that is accessible from everything, and back them up one shot with Kiwi (err, Solarwinds) CAT tools. The older version was unlimited use for something like 25 devices which is perfect – I think that they switched to a timed trial now though.

rchase wrote: »

And another thing is I'm using all the 8.x images. I talked to another CCIE Voice guy and hes using the 7s (the lab is 7 obviously) but he recommended to just stick w the 8.x images. What do you think? If i stick with 8.x I figure i should at least try to get UCCX 7 because unlike 8 which is linux based, 7 installs on windows and i figure id need to know how to do that

Kind of a grey area – The “official” IOS/Software list is quite old, and at the bottom there is a disclaimer stating that anything that’s been mainstream for 6 months or more is fair game. I’m using 8.6 but mainly because it matches my production environment @ work.

pitviper

So how are you making out with the new lab setup?

mathelize

My Lab Setup so far

HQ router 2811 PVDM2-64 3560-24-PS-S VWIC2-1MF-T1/E1 WIC-1T,

BR1 Router 2811 PVDM2-32 HWIC-4ESW VWIC2-1MFT-T1/E1 WIC-1T ,

BR2 2811 PVDM2-16 NM-16-ESW, VIC2-1MFT-T1/E1 WIC-1T, AIM-CUE

PSTN Router 2821 PVDM2-64 NM-4A/S HWIC-4ESW 3 X VWIC2-1MFT-T1/E1

7945s 65s 70s 71s 75s 9971 any phones, lol

3TB HD 2 X Quad Core CPU 32GB RAM Dell server

What do you guys think?

rchase

Thats an excellent lab Mathelize
The only thing I see is - are you missing wic-1ts for your HQ, BR1, and BR2 for Frame Relay WAN?
You may need more PVDM resources but im not sure
From what I see for IPexpert workbooks, youll need at least 6, 6 button phones preferably 7961 or 7965s

I posted a follow up to this article, citing the actual cost of my lab and everything I ended up buying here:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccie/86043-update-ccie-voice-lab-actual-cost.html

One thing that I learned after buying the HWIC-4ESW is - I plugged it in and no phones lit up. So i learned that I needed to buy an ILPM-4 which is
basically a daughter card to connect the 4 ports to power, and then another PWR unit for the 2821 so that added about $160 to the original cost of the HWIC.

I scored a bunch of PVDMs in my 2821 purchases so ended up having a total of 64chan each at BR1 and BR2, with HQ and PSTN having 128 channels each! Prbbly overkill

I also salvaged a whiteboard which i posted in my lab, highly recommend if you can find one for cheap, I have my lab drawn up and I will be adding IP addresses and slot#'s to help keep track of everything at a quick glance

Heres a pic of that:

pitviper

Yeah, the 6 button phones certainly come in handy. I started out with all 7941’s and quickly switched to 7965/7961s.

The NME-16ES-1G-P + IP power supply is another good switch option. The beauty is they can run the full IP Services 3750 IOS!

instant000

rchase:

Could you please go back and update your original post with what hardware you're utilizing? It appears that you changed it slightly from reading the thread.

Also, I noticed that you're using both INE and ipexpert for your training. Since I'm already on INE, my wife is kinda lumped in there with it, also. However, if there is some compelling reason that ipexpert's content is better, I would want to hear it, as I don't want to set her up for failure.

Additionally, I noticed that you worked on some project with turning up SIP trunks (from your resume). I don't know how it is in your area, but from the projects that my wife gets, it seems that the problem usually occurs on the service provider side ... which can be pretty annoying. Is it the same in your area?

shodown

Our company provides Ipexeprt and I have INE with my own money. They have the differences that INE hand walks you through everything if you follow there method. Ipexpert already assumes the knowledge that you are ready for CCIE. You can pass the CCIE by following the plans both have setup for you. If you put in 1000 hour of lab and study time I see you passing the lab without much problem.



SIP trunks are usually a combo of the provider and customer. Most SP's don't have the staff that has the SIP experince so they usually fumble it especially if they are not IP based and are regular TDM guys moving over to IP. Customers usually don't understand the IP to IP gateway or CUBE features so they usually jumble things up on there end as well.

rchase

From what I've gathered from others studying for CCIE Voice is that INE's videos are the best and IPX workbooks are the best. So I got the INE videos and the IPX workbooks.

SIP Trunks can be a serious pain. I had a problem where I could make outbound but no calls would come in. The provider was useless - no assistance. I spent many hours scrolling through hundreds of lines of ccsip debugs, but all SIP would say is "invalid host". Long story short, the problem was the ASA 5505 between the UC520 and the internet. Even though it had 1-1 NAT, theres IPs inside the SDP messages that also must be changed, and the ASA was messing it up. Connected the internet connection to a new "internet" VLAN, added the ASA, and the UC520 to that VLAN, assigned the public IP to the UC520 interface with bind commands, locked it down with an ACL, and now calls work both ways.

If your wife needs help on a project let me know. The most helpful thing I've found is sharing working configs. When I have a problem I cant figure out, I ask a friend if he can pull a working config for me to look at

instant000

rchase:

Hah.

Thanks. I'll keep in mind your offer.

I like that you mentioned that ASA issue. I've managed to convince her that maybe if she had a little better understanding of routing/switching/security she'd have an easier time troubleshooting some of the issues that she comes up with.

One issue she had the other day, she was talking about it, and I was instantly saying to check such-and-such route, and she was like huh? And it was the correct answer. I like to say that it's important to get Layer's 2 and 3 in place, and then start running services on top of that. And if something breaks? Check layer 1 first

Doing the UC thing is pretty cool, though. You get to touch virtualization, exchange, DNS, AD, VoIP, POTS, etc. A voice engineer who knows his/her stuff is worth their weight in gold.

I'll let you be, and go back to studying SWITCH. Have fun in your studies!

rchase

Yes, to be an expert UC Engineer, it really does require being proficient in both R/S and Security, as well as virtualization which is becoming more and more important in all areas of IT. Because of this, I plan on following up my voice certification/studies with R/S, Security, and VCP certs all in the effort of becoming an expert UC Engineer.

pitviper

rchase wrote: »

Yes, to be an expert UC Engineer, it really does require being proficient in both R/S and Security, as well as virtualization which is becoming more and more important in all areas of IT. Because of this, I plan on following up my voice certification/studies with R/S, Security, and VCP certs all in the effort of becoming an expert UC Engineer.

That’s a good plan – Security is more an entire entity of its own. You can be more then proficient with security as it pertains to VoIP (CUBE is basically “our” VoIP firewall) without going full boat. A portion of my lab is actually built with VCP in mind but that freakn’ "required" class is expensive.

instant000

pitviper wrote: »

A portion of my lab is actually built with VCP in mind but that freakn’ "required" class is expensive.

If you check out "this thread": http://www.techexams.net/forums/virtualization/72885-inexpensive-vmware-training-options.html

You'll see that there are some lower cost options, that seem to revolve around finding the pertinent class at a community college.

We had an offer for a class here (freebie for contractors) but I missed out, and there wasn't an "order of merit list" or anything for getting the class, it was a "first come, first served" -- which means people that don't know how to install an OS were trying to sign up for the class.

Oh well, maybe some other time.

aaron0011

Here is a friend of mine's lab. He is taking the lab exam in two weeks and I hope to buy most of this off him when he passes.

Three 2801 routers with CUE modules, DSPs, and multiple VWICs
2821 that acts as my PSTN/WAN router
3750-48 port PoE switch
Mixture of different model IP Phones
VMware running CUCM Pub, CUCM Sub, Unity Connection, CUP, UCCX.

shodown

I agree with pit you don't need to be balls in security, but you do need to at least undertand IOS firewall, basic ACL's and and a decent amount of route/switch with a pinch of wireless. My next question for everyone is this. How many of you know UCCX scripting or plan on learning CVP/UCCE in the future or even other types of VXML, Java application development to take your VOIP skills to the next level. I've been playing around with java the past few weeks and my UCCX scripting is already looking better.

aaron0011

shodown wrote: »

I agree with pit you don't need to be balls in security, but you do need to at least undertand IOS firewall, basic ACL's and and a decent amount of route/switch with a pinch of wireless. My next question for everyone is this. How many of you know UCCX scripting or plan on learning CVP/UCCE in the future or even other types of VXML, Java application development to take your VOIP skills to the next level. I've been playing around with java the past few weeks and my UCCX scripting is already looking better.

My friend I mentioned a couple of posts up spends about half of his time programming UCCX/UCCE IVRs to access external databases. He has a strong programming background though and is a really sharp dude. I don't plan to go that far with it.

shodown

My current positions requires a decent amount of UCCX scripting to be able to meet the customers needs, hell even for the pickiest of customers I have had to do CUE scripting for UC500 boxes. But I think these are the thing that separate the levels of voice engineers.

rchase

UCCX scripting is in very high demand. As shodown said, this skill separates the experts from the amatuers

Nice lab! follw up and let us know how your friend's lab attempt goes?

Trifidw

I've recently had to take on UCCX at my place and am rather enjoying the scripting part, it is very rewarding finding an elegant solution to a call centre managers requirements.

klampkin

I worked a little bit with UCCX scripting at work for a client, nothing major.

I am currently prepping for my CCNP Voice using the INE program.

I'm having some issues with setting up the UCCX7 server.

Can anyone advise me on how I can get the MAC address for the UCCX 7 server?

My UC Servers are running on Dell 1950 server. The UCCX 7 server is on a Windows 2003 Server (32bits) with SP2.

I have also installed sshd so that i can ssh into the server and get the "show staus" info.

Unfortunately I cannot get the SSH to work for the UCCX 7 server.

Also how can i get the a Lic for the UCCX 7? supposedly, you can get a Demo Lic. if you work for a Cisco partner, but i could not locate the demo lic. on Cisco's website: https://tools.cisco.com/SWIFT/LicensingUI/demoPage


Thanks all in advance.

~klampkin

klampkin

All this issue is resolved.

Thank you skinsFan202 for your help!

aaron0011

rchase wrote: »

UCCX scripting is in very high demand. As shodown said, this skill separates the experts from the amatuers

Nice lab! follw up and let us know how your friend's lab attempt goes?

My friend did not pass but said he was very close. He disagrees with how it's scored and mentioned he had things correct in sections where he missed points. Obviously there are multiple ways to accomplish certain tasks but he did not feel the lab was real world results oriented.

That said, he has already rescheduled and said he wishes there wasn't a 30 day minimum wait for retake.

bobfromfpl

Heh... certainly anyone who fails by a few points would disagree how its scored

But as Mark says in the NP videos.. it's not based on 'best-practice' but its the capabilities of what the equipment can be configured to do.

Flyingput

Second this. I postponed my CCIE v journey for almost 2 years because of UCCX/UCCE. It's a totally different world. The "return of investment" seems great so far. As I heard, top call center guys are paid as much as CCIE v (not every CCIE v knows call center stuffs deeply).
Now I am back to CCIE v path and probably I will rent INE equipments to practise.

rchase wrote: »

UCCX scripting is in very high demand. As shodown said, this skill separates the experts from the amatuers

Nice lab! follw up and let us know how your friend's lab attempt goes?

shodown

@fly

Which one do you specialize in? UCCX or UCCE?

rchase

To continue on this UCCX thread, I finally got some hands on with the scripting, and I'm liking it. It kind of fills in a gap for me because I started my career on the software side and I missed the creativity of it (even tho I decided back then that the fun parts of the day-to-day job of a software engineer did not outweigh the boring parts)