CCNP home lab: equipment needed

aocferreira

Hello,

I'm planning to start my CCNP journey with CCNP ROUTE. Anyway, I would like to have an home lab that could help me going through also with the topics for SWITCH and TSHOOT, that will come back later.
What do you think of this?

1x 2620XM Router 48F/128D with SDM, Call Manager Express, Frame Relay 4-Serial Ports, 1 FE Port
2x 2611 Routers having 2 Ethernet, 2 Serial Ports
2x 2950 Switches 24 FE Ports
1x 3550-24-SMI Switch with EMI Layer-3 Routing Features

Is there anything else that's needed? Or it's just good? Anything that could be avoided?

Best regards,
André

instant000

I went all virtual for my ROUTE studies.

I have 3550 switches for the switching portion.

Private VLANs are on SWITCH, which you'd need a 3560 or better for, if you need to lab that feature.

If you haven't bought anything yet, I'd recommend spending more money on the SWITCH for now. You can use GNS3 to lab everything for ROUTE.

pert

If you can work on real gear at work you honestly don't need anything. If you can look at only some gear at work, then do virtual routers and real switches. People really, really, really go overboard with lab gear.

aocferreira

Hi instant000,

Thanks for your reply.
Yes, I don't have any equipment yet... just wondering about all the options!

I will consider your advice using GNS3 for ROUTE exam. Nevertheless, if I want to use real equipment for all exams, is my list ok? What do you think it will be a reasonable price for all equipment?

Thanks in advance,
André