At what point is power an issue for home Cisco lab?

Currently, I have a 2821 router with 2950 switch. I'm getting another 2950 and looking at a layer 3 switch. I'm starting to wonder when/if this will be a problem on my energy bill.

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DevilWAH

well first thing is only power it up when you need it, and yes hardware can eat up a lot of power.

you wont be using much PoE I expect so this will reduce it a lot, however check the data sheet on Cisco for those devices and you are looking at between 50 -100w idle, which in a lab is pretty much what you would expect to see.

So 4 or 5 switches and you could easily get to 250w, and how long would you leave on a 250w light bulb before you worried about the electric bills?

I suggest you look up the data sheets for all the devices you are thinking of gietting and look under the power section, this will tell you your expected power usage and then compare it to a light bulb or a 1kw kettle.

Asif Dasl

I started to worry about this with my PCs but I worked it out and figured the lab time more than pays off the cost of the electricity - your ROI on electricity usage should be very good. If you remote in to your lab you could get a remote IP power switch but the cost of that could just go towards electricity...

FloOz

I started worrying when my office lights start to flicker

Honestly you won't really see a huge spike in your energy bill. I run my rack on average 10-15 hours a week and don't seem to have any issues. Typically I run about 5-6 devices at a time

Iristheangel

If you're worried about electricity, just make sure to save your configs and shut everything off after labbing. You shouldn't see much of a spike. Also, another thing you might consider if you want to keep your rack going all the time is to find local small businesses that have power going all the time and some space to spare. You might be able to work out a deal where you can keep your equipment there and on all the time. One of my buddies in San Jose has his CCIE rack running in the back of a bowling alley. He got lucky with that deal but he had 24/7 remote access to the equipment and it's always running but he's got a massive amount of equipment and it might be a waste if you're only looking to keep 6 or 7 pieces of equipment running

Roguetadhg

Iris, that's pretty amazing. I have to wonder what type of topology he's running that he doesn't need to change topologies ever.

NetworkVeteran

Roguetadhg wrote: »

Iris, that's pretty amazing. I have to wonder what type of topology he's running that he doesn't need to change topologies ever.

There are two ways to go about it--

1. Create a topology that's a super-set of everything you may ever need to do. The CCIE racks at INE are a good example of this, although you could surely come up with a simpler CCNA/CCNP topology.

2. Use a L1 switch or use tunneling so you can reconfigure your topology on-the-fly. A 3750 can achieve this.

Two at my workplace asked/got approval to rack their personal labs.

(Although neither found time to actually do it! All who made CCIE at our workplace used GNS3.)

Iristheangel

Roguetadhg wrote: »

Iris, that's pretty amazing. I have to wonder what type of topology he's running that he doesn't need to change topologies ever.

He can change topologies, just not after hours

DevilWAH

I don't find I change topologies much. all my Lab is at work, so i make changes in the day. If needed you can always play around to build virtual topologies, you rarely need to move cables to do it.

Jsut make sure you have a terminal sever so you have console access to all the devices. this way you can create complex logical topologies with out worrying about locking your self out.