2014 Lab for CCNA Voice and Beyond

Hello everyone!

I am planning on taking the CCNA Voice exam this summer or fall and I was going through the checklist as I want to have a physical lab for practice. I also want to go further down the voice path and also R&S. I need your input if the below hardware will be sufficient for my studies including for the CCNP R&S.

3 x 2811 routers each with 256Mb RAM & 128Mb flash and as far as cards/modules go: 3 x VWIC2-1MFT-T1, 3 x PVDM2-16, 3 x WIC-2T
2 x 3550 switches
2-3 x 7960 phones

With regards to the CCNP, I think the ammount of equipment is not sufficient, but I can always purchase more routers and switches if needed.

Currently, my plan is to take the CCNA Voice, then CCNP Voice followed by CCNP R&S (not a priority at the moment). I also have an ATA lying around so I guess I will forget the FXO/FXS cards at least for now (I also work for a VoIP carrier and I have access to SIP trunks for testing).

Now we get to the server that will house the ESXi VMs. I was browsing through the offers and found several Intel Xeons such a QuadCore x3220 2400 MHz, FSB 1066 with 8 GB of DDR2 memory and 2 x 160Gb SATA-II. I would up the RAM to 16Gb (or 32Gb if really needed) and add a 1Tb HDD. Would this suffice for having CUCM, Unity, Presence, the whole shebang?

Thank you very much for your assistance!

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Comments

wgroom

Looking at the equipment listed, that would be a good start. Similar to what I am using, and I am in the same boat looking for a server. I would look for a little faster CPU, and 16gb as a minimum. Best of luck with your studies, I am chasing the same dream!

Crocrodel

Thank you wgroom for the reply and good luck to you too with regards to your studies!

I found an ad for an 8-core Fujitsu Siemens Primergy RX200

Would the 2Ghz clock speed be THAT important? After all, it has 8 cores that I can redistribute as needed. The RAM and storage can be upgraded and I'm considering biting the bullet as the rest of the servers can get mighty expensive

wgroom

I am pretty sure when the Cisco ISOs load, they run a hardware check, and if the memory and CPU speed are not adequate install will fail. As well, if you intend to upgrade down the road to a newer CUCM / CUCx / CUPS software release you will be inhibited by the CPU. I am expecting to spend around $600 for a compatible server to host the Cisco servers on an ESXi base. 2.66 to 3.0 ghz, minimum 16 gb RAM, and at least 2 tb of HDD.

Crocrodel

After a bit more thought, I will go with a custom server hosting either an Intel i5 3350P or an i7 920 / 2600 with 16Gb of RAM. I find it easier to upgrade the components if needed and can find a lot of options, not to mention less noise and power consumption which is always a plus.

All that remains is purchasing the networking equipment itself.