Learning Juniper

Folks:
I am currently CCNA certified, but I want to expand my skills into Juniper systems. What is a good model of router that Juniper offers that is basic, but complete enough to train on? I currently have 2600 series Cisco Routers; however, I want something that is comparable in the Juniper appliance.

Thank you.
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zoidberg

i found a couple j2300s on ebay recently. that should compare closely and let you dive into most things junos.

there are virtual options (code name: olive) where you can load up junos in a virtual machine or even run it on a pc (with h/w restrictions). plenty of information can be found online. disclaimer: loading junos like that may be a violation of junos terms of service.

Aldur

yup, j2300's are a great way to go and or olives.

The J2300 are still kinda pricey on ebay, ~ 450 USD but olives are kinda hard to find compatible parts, mainly the NIC's.

I have 6 J2300's and 2 J4300's in my home lab and they are amazing to study with. I would recommend picking up some j series routers off of ebay to play with.

Without a doubt there's always the olive option which by far is much cheaper and I actually have a couple of olives in my lab too which act as outside EBGP peers to my J's.

HTH

e24ohm

Hey thanks mates!!! I just finished my CCNA, so I am super excited, to dive righ into the thick of it all; however, I do not want to limit myself in one vendor. I also read somewhere that HP was making a router line.

thanks gang.

Aldur

I wouldn't want to be limited to one vendor also, but keep in mind that generalists make good money, but not nearly as good as money as a specialist.

You'll need to specialize it one vendor equipment or another. Keep in mind that you can just do it all like zoidberg, just get all the IE's there is to get out there

But seriously after I get the JNCIE-ER I plan on picking up some cisco certs to broaden my skill set. Just because you focus on one vendor doesn't mean you can't focus on another one later.

zoidberg

damn alcatel messed with the naming conventions though. their's is "sra", it won't match the others, so maybe i'll skip that one :P haha, kidding, i'll skip that one because i hate their cli

and if hp wants to get more into the game? yikes. and no aldur, there will be no hpie for me :P

vendor neutral is cool and all, and it's nice to be able to flip around and play on boxes from a dozen different vendors, but it really gets to be a mess as every vendor has it's own cli and it's own rules and it's own little exceptions to how protocols work.

you need to find a happy medium, keeping in mind what you need to do your job, what you need to do the job you want, and what you want to challenge yourself with and learn. further, focus on understanding the core theory behind things. don't focus on commands, focus on the technology, know the protocols. if you know how they work on the inside, it gets easier to figure out to configure them, and you always have ? to help you out.

as for adding some juniper experience to your resume, great idea. when you get into networking, it's not really cisco vs. juniper, it's cisco & juniper. any juniper studies will compliment your cisco studies as both vendor focus on the technology and not necessarily just the commands; which you'll learn as well. juniper is getting more aggressive and picking up clients all over the place. being able to work on both will help, as mixed vendor environments are popping up more and more.

Forsaken_GA

I'll probably pickup at least some associate level juniper certs, and maybe their professional level equivalents when I'm done with CCIE.

You can't really go wrong with Cisco for your first track, as they have been the industry leader for so long, and networking concepts are pretty much the same across the board, if you're really good with the routing protcols, for example, the concepts don't change just because you're using JunOS, it's mostly a matter of syntax, and what defaults change, and etc.

But it's also a bad idea to marry yourself to one vendor. Cisco doesn't always provide the best solution, though you'll never hear them admit that. Juniper makes some *really* nice gear. So does Force10 (fortunately, they're about as close to IOS as you can get without risking a lawsuit, so not much learning curve there). You won't find me touching Nortel or HP gear unless there's a very compelling reason. Compelling to the degree of my boss telling me to use that gear or look for another job type of compelling. HP ProCurve's are pieces of crap.

nick619

The generalist vs specialist issue

I agree it's not good just to focus on one specific vendor. IMO it would be ideal to be just general enough to make yourself valuable in case something happened to one certain vendor and then to specialize in a specific area.

Aldur

zoidberg wrote: »

... and if hp wants to get more into the game? yikes. and no aldur, there will be no hpie for me :P

lol, hpie, that just sounds silly, sounds to close to hippie

nick619 wrote: »

The generalist vs specialist issue I agree it's not good just to focus on one specific vendor. IMO it would be ideal to be just general enough to make yourself valuable in case something happened to one certain vendor and then to specialize in a specific area.

+1 on that. As long as your a generalist enough to know your way around other equipment then you can specialize all you want into one vendor.

CaptainCharisma

While I'm not the topic creator, but I see this topic is something I was thinking of posting myself. I am having similar thoughts, I achieved my CCNA last year, I have a home lab of 6 x 2610 routers, 2 x 2950T switches, and 2 x 3550 switches, but would like to expand my knowledge to include Juniper equipment too. In part because it might help me more in conjunction with my CCNA to obtain a networking job, but also because of the Juniper fast track program that is going on.

Upon reading this topic and seeing the opinions of Juniper pros such as zoidberg and Aldur, I've decided to take their advice myself and pick up a Juniper J2300 router. I've also ordered the "The Junos Cookbook" and the "Junos Enterprise Routing" book.

My questions to zoidberg, Aldur, or any other Juniper people is, will 1 J2300 router in conjunction with my Cisco equipment be enough to practice on in preparation for the JNCIA-ER exam? I figure with only 1 Juniper router I may be limited to doing certain things that are specific to Junos, but basically all the of the general knowledge and common standards should transfer right? I would understand if I had started with Juniper and then bought 1 Cisco router, I know I wouldn't be able to practice EIGRP.

Thanks.

LarryDaMan

Just FYI. I noticed this on a blog. CISCO certified folks can get some decent deals and discounts when going for Juniper certs. I guess Juniper wants to steal some CISCO talent.

Juniper Networks Certification Fast Track Program - Juniper Networks

Aldur

Nice lab you got there, seems similar to my lab except mines all juniper equipment

The cookbook and the ER book are great resources for learning junos, I've read a decent amount out of the cookbook and from cover to cover multiple times on the ER book... yes i have no life

As far as your question about getting one j series to practice junos, I think that would work really well. With Juniper routers you don't have any propriety protocols to work with, such as EIGRP. Would be fun to test and play with interoperability at that point too.

I would definitely think that one J series router would be more then enough to study for the JNCIA-ER exam, especially since you have a way to connect it up to other routers to send info to/through it.

And without a doubt the knowledge that you learned in your CCNA would transfer over very well. I took some cisco classes right before I got my JNCIA-M and that info really helped me out with learning junos.

CaptainCharisma

Thanks Aldur.

I've received my router, haven't done much yet with it though, will have to wait until tomorrow night at least, and I've also received my books.

What are the typical serial port settings for console connections to Juniper routers and switches? The answer is probably in one of my books but I haven't had the chance to look them over yet.

Also, upon the first time turning on the J2300 do I have to do the J-Web configuration, or can I dive right into the command line?

What would you recommend I look at as far as Juniper switches go (not going to get one right away but thinking about the future)? And, for purchasing Juniper equipment, do you recommend any specific vendor (I know CDW sells Juniper, but looking for others as well, I know theres not much on ebay)? I'm not looking at going crazy and buying tons of gear, but I'm just trying to prepare for when I do go to buy another piece of equipment(I prefer real equipment over simulation/emulation).

Aldur

awesome to hear that you got your juniper router! It's like Christmas morning when a new router comes

The console port setting can be found at the following link, along with any other port/pinout setting you'll need for your router.

https://www.juniper.net/techpubs/software/jseries/junos73/jseries73-getting-started/hw-pinouts-chapter.html#hw-pinouts-chapter

Oh hell, thankfully you don't have to mess with jweb if you never want to and can jump directly into the cli. To get into the cli when you power up your j2300 you can either do the initial config via the console port of you can plug a crossover cable from you laptop into the fe-0/0/0 port and the router will automatically assign that interface an address and do dhcp to give you lappy a ip address aswell

Well I think it's the fe-0/0/0 port, might be fe-0/0/1

This is of course if your router is at the factory settings, if it's not there's a little button that you can press with a pen to cause it to revert back to the factory defaults.

Man I'd love to own a EX switch, but right now those baby's are a little too pricy for my pocket. Maybe once the price comes down I'll pick some up for my lab. On that same note resellers tend to be a little too expensive too and I found it just to be cheaper to buy gear on ebay. If you do find some good deals from a reseller let me know, especially good deals on the switches.

nick619

I would imagine one J-series is enough to study for JNCIA-ER, along with reading through the books

. But keep in mind if you want to do IPSec or anything, do you have the crypto sw on ciscos to terminate the tunnel. IMO, It might be good to have at least 2x J-series eventually if you are planning to pursue the ER track.

CaptainCharisma

Christmas indeed Aldur.

I bought my router off of ebay, and thats where I'll try first before buying anything else.

Thanks for your input nick619, I will likely buy another J-series router eventually but I'm going to try and study with just the one for the time being. I'm not worried about my Cisco equipment, I think things will work fine with them.