CCNP lab setup

I'm looking into purchasing a home lab setup for CCNP purposes. On BSCI right now. I found a decent auction on ebay.

what do you guys think of the below setup? Would it be sufficient? How about going forward past CCNP as well?

Any other suggestions for hardware to buy? other websites? I just want to make sure it covers everything including ipv6 etc.

about 1000$ for all of this:

2 x Cisco 3640 (12.4 IOS)
1 x Cisco 2650 (12.4 Advanced Enterprise IOS)
3 x Cisco Catalyst 2900 Enterprise Switch
2 x WIC-1T
NM-4A/S (Four Port Serial)
2 x NM-1E2W
3 x Serial DCE/DTE Crossover Cable
1 x Console Cable
6 x Power Cords
2 x Ethernet Straight Cables
1 x Ethernet Crossover Cables
Bonus DVD with backup IOS and tools

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

kalebksp

It's overpriced. If you have money to burn it's fine to buy a lab kit, but if you're like me and like to spend your money as wisely as possible then you should buy the pieces separately.

Here's the obligatory Wendell Odom lab guide link: CCNP Lab Series ? Master Links | NetworkWorld.com Community. He's working on an update guide right now, so keep an eye on his blog.

tiersten

accely wrote: »

3 x Cisco Catalyst 2900 Enterprise Switch

This is going to be a 2900XL and therefore useless for CCNP unless you have other switches like 2950s or 3550s to use as well.

Check how much flash and RAM are in the routers as well. No point buying it and then finding you need to upgrade the flash and RAM. You can buy ones with maxed out flash and RAM for nearly the same as regular ones.

Also what kalebksp said. The bundle seems overpriced to me.

Slowhand

It looks a little overpriced, to me. I'd say keep looking for individual deals, as opposed to trying to purchase everything in one shot. The 2900's aren't going to do you much good, you'll want to pick up 2950's or 3550's, and you'll be better off getting 2600XM series routers instead of the 2650's. Take a look at my thread from the CCNP forums, and you'll see the progression I made from when I started out to what I'm looking at now. I've been posting up some decent deals on 1721 series, 3640 series, and 2600XM series routers whenever I've come across them. Also, take a peek at some of the other lab-related threads in the CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE forums, and you'll get an idea of what's good and what's not.

Stotic

I also recommend going the individual route. You can get better deals.

mikej412

If it were $500 it would still be overpriced.

And there were a couple of 2900-XL "enterprise" models that are worthless for the CCNA (and the CCNP) -- so unless it specifies 2924-XL-EN switches, don't count on the switches being useful for more than basic network connectivity and a VLAN or two. And even then the 2924-XL-EN is useful as a 3rd (and maybe 2nd -- if you're really cheap) switch along with a couple 2950 switches.

sacox31s

Buy the lab book you plan on following then purchase the equipment individually.

The Cisco Press BSCI lab portfolio book requires 4 x 2600XMs, 1 x 2950, and 5 x WIC-2Ts.

Only one of the 2600XMs needs 2 ethernet ports.

So on ebay
2620XM - 3x $100
2621XM - 1x $175
2950 - 1x $75
WIC-2T - 5x $40

Total $750

You can probably find things cheaper.

accely

sacox31s wrote: »

Buy the lab book you plan on following then purchase the equipment individually.

The Cisco Press BSCI lab portfolio book requires 4 x 2600XMs, 1 x 2950, and 5 x WIC-2Ts.

Only one of the 2600XMs needs 2 ethernet ports.

So on ebay
2620XM - 3x $100
2621XM - 1x $175
2950 - 1x $75
WIC-2T - 5x $40

Total $750

You can probably find things cheaper.

Thanks everyone for replies. I've been doing alot of research and this is helpful.

What does the XM mean? and if I were to get 1 or 2 3640's.. do they do everything that the 262x's do? Just looked at http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/27137?page=0%2C1 where it compares the routers. Looks like the only difference is that the 3640 has 4 NM slots

accely

kalebksp wrote: »

It's overpriced. If you have money to burn it's fine to buy a lab kit, but if you're like me and like to spend your money as wisely as possible then you should buy the pieces separately.

Here's the obligatory Wendell Odom lab guide link: CCNP Lab Series ? Master Links | NetworkWorld.com Community. He's working on an update guide right now, so keep an eye on his blog.

This guide is amazing. I'm looking to replicate this setup they concluded in the 1600$(1 year ago) budget.

sacox31s

accely wrote: »

Thanks everyone for replies. I've been doing alot of research and this is helpful.

What does the XM mean? and if I were to get 1 or 2 3640's.. do they do everything that the 262x's do? Just looked at CCNP Wrap-up II: Picking Routers | NetworkWorld.com Community where it compares the routers. Looks like the only difference is that the 3640 has 4 NM slots

The normal 2600 series doesn't allow for the newest versions of the IOS and the 2600XM series does allow the newest IOS. I like the 2600XMs because they only take 1U of space.

accely

the last thing I'm really trying to figure out is which modules I will need. I want to make sure I buy the right routers with the right ports so I don't have to go looking for extra NMs or WICs

ilcram19-2

4 letters GNS3 is all i needed

tiersten

ilcram19-2 wrote: »

4 letters GNS3 is all i needed

Switches. QoS. You know the rest.

tiersten

accely wrote: »

What does the XM mean?

Cisco initially released the 2600 series and a few years later, they released the 2600XM which is an upgraded version. It has more memory, flash and came as standard with Fast Ethernet ports.

accely

tiersten wrote: »

Switches. QoS. You know the rest.

what does this mean?

tiersten

accely wrote: »

what does this mean?

People say that GNS3/dynamips is all they need but that isn't true. The issue is that basically dynamips only has a basic implementation of a switch which isn't even a Catalyst.

Slowhand

tiersten wrote: »

People say that GNS3/dynamips is all they need but that isn't true. The issue is that basically dynamips only has a basic implementation of a switch which isn't even a Catalyst.

You can, however, run routers with the switch modules installed, which will give you much, if not all, of the layer 3 switching functionality you need for the tests. Real Catalyst switches are better, no doubt, but Dynamips/Dynagen/GNS3 can work in a pinch.

accely

Slowhand wrote: »

You can, however, run routers with the switch modules installed, which will give you much, if not all, of the layer 3 switching functionality you need for the tests. Real Catalyst switches are better, no doubt, but Dynamips/Dynagen/GNS3 can work in a pinch.

so you basically assign a switch IOS (ex. 3550) to a router in GNS3?

tiersten

accely wrote: »

so you basically assign a switch IOS (ex. 3550) to a router in GNS3?

No. Dynamips doesn't emulate any of the switches. Switches have ASICs which do most of the work.

What Slowhand is suggesting is that you install a NM-16ESW into a router and use that as your switch. A real Catalyst switch is still better but you'd be able to make do for most labs with the NM-16ESW + router acting as a switch.

Forsaken_GA

accely wrote: »

What does the XM mean?

It's an upgrade to the regular 2600 series. The originals were severely limited in the amount of RAM and Flash they could use. The XM's bump that up, allow the top end feature sets for IOS, and is a little faster at packet processing (though a 2611XM will still feel some serious pain if you actually try to do intervlan routing at 100TX through it)

With all that being said, that kit is overpriced. For a thousand bucks, I'd better be getting a 3550 at least, sheesh

Mikinski

Hello sacox31s,

I saw your great post:

"
Buy the lab book you plan on following then purchase the equipment individually.

The Cisco Press BSCI lab portfolio book requires 4 x 2600XMs, 1 x 2950, and 5 x WIC-2Ts.

Only one of the 2600XMs needs 2 ethernet ports.

So on ebay
2620XM - 3x $100
2621XM - 1x $175
2950 - 1x $75
WIC-2T - 5x $40

"

I'm trying to do exactly this.

I've been struggling for some time trying to get my head round building the Lab topology in the BSCI Authorised Self-Study Guide book by Teare and Paquet.

In my Cisco pile, I've already got 2x 2611 routers and a 2950 switch, so I'm hoping to get a fully working BSCI study setup by aquiring only another two routers and some WIC cards, thanks to your information and insight.

Could I ask some questions please to clarify my thinking?

-In the book, the four routers in the pod connect to each other in a 'square' shape via serial and ethernet interfaces. Routers with 2x interfaces only should work ok as P1R2, P1R3 and P1R4, but at least one extra interface will be needed on P1R1 to connect 'up' from the pod to the frame relay router (this would be done with the 5th WIC card, I assume?).

- Does the 2621XM router get the one extra serial interface (the 5th WIC) installed in it as well to connect it to a fifth router of some sort acting as a Frame Relay router?

-Is the extra ethernet interface on the 2621XM used to connect a host PC, or something else?

-Where does the 2950 switch get used?

-On the BSCI WIC-2T cards, only one of the interfaces is ever used in this topology (the other port isn't connected to anything)?

Or am I missing something obvious here, like are you thinking of only having 3x switches in the pod and running the 2621XM as the FR switch instead?

Sorry about the long post, I'm trying to get it all straight in my head so I can buy the right stuff. Any comments would be very helpful: please put me straight if I'm really getting it wrong here?

I've done the BSCI and the BCMSN to date, but I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to routing.

https://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25299

Here is a link to the topology diagram we are talking about - I want to build just the one pod, obviously.

Kind Regards

MK

jovan88

sacox31s wrote: »

Buy the lab book you plan on following then purchase the equipment individually.

The Cisco Press BSCI lab portfolio book requires 4 x 2600XMs, 1 x 2950, and 5 x WIC-2Ts.

Only one of the 2600XMs needs 2 ethernet ports.

So on ebay
2620XM - 3x $100
2621XM - 1x $175
2950 - 1x $75
WIC-2T - 5x $40

Total $750

You can probably find things cheaper.

WIC-2Ts are very hard to come across at that price. I'm building my CCNP lab at the moment and I'm going for the dual WIC-1T on 2621XMs route because its so much easier to come across cheap. Which means about 10 WIC-1Ts