Getting CCNP equipment to study for CCNA?

QuantumKnight · April 2014

Good morning,

My apologies if this has been brought up before, but I am contemplating getting the basic equipment needed for CCNP, I want to have the equipment and use it to study for the CCNA. That way once I have my CCNA I will not have to worry purchasing more equipment to prep for the CCNP in the future. Also this will help at not angering the boss in my home that is my wife lol. Would it be recommended that I use routers and switches that are gear towards CCNP to study for CCNA? I know OSPF is really big in networking(as well as other concepts) and hopefully more practice with it will help better prep me to understand it early in my studies. Thanks

EdTheLad · April 2014

Don't buy equipment, use an emulator which runs multiple router instances. Any equipment you buy will be old and not able to run current ios releases. Do some research on GNS3 and save yourself alot of time effort, electricity and ear plug expense.

MTciscoguy · April 2014

As I am quickly finding out, it pays to have real equipment to work with in addition to the emulators, I have picked up 3 1841 routers for less than $150, they are all upgradeable to IOS 15.X in addition to having several modules available for them, if you are diligent with your purchases, you can put a nice lab together for a very reasonable price. I know I am glad that I have put together a lab, in addition to working with the emulators, but there are just certain things the emulators are poor at doing, or can't do at all.

I know that with what I am learning you can do enough on the emulators to pass, which is the way I started my studies, but I sure like having the equipment to physically work with. I am working with packet tracer and GNS3 as well, it seems to have given me a better understanding of how this all works and I believe having both will allow me to pass my certs much quicker.

But this is just my opinion and I am sure everybody has taken their path to certification in their own way.

late_collision · April 2014

I agree with Ed, emulate everything you can!

However, I did pick up 3x2950 switches which proved invaluable when studying STP concepts. I guess what I am saying, is that if you MUST buy equipment, only buy switches, and buy something cheap because it isn't going up in value.

HAMP · April 2014

To the op, I felt the same as you, with getting ahead by buying now for both(CCNA & CCNP) instead of buying for each and semi wasting money. It made sense to me, and it was a lot easier and much simpler explanation for the wife to understand, so I understand you making sure your household is happy.
I had to get the hard equipment, because simulators just wasn’t doing it for me. Although I haven’t taken any of the test yet, or gotten deep into the rack, I have a better understanding from having the equipment then a picture on a screen.

I honestly remember when I was pulling the stuff out of the box and sitting each of them on the table, that a few things from what I have read, simply just clicked and made sense. And of course, since then, some of the simulators make sense too… lol

I will take the ccent first, but I look forward to more time with my rack then in the book with just reading.

ande0255 · April 2014

I am a fan of physical equipment too, I have:

3 x 2611XM / 2621XM routers
1 x 1841 ISR router
1 x 2621XM Frame Relay Switch
1 x 2509 access server
2 x 2950 switches
1 x 3550 switch
1 x 2801 voice router

I have no regrets spending around $1k on my lab equipment, though I don't think I'll be investing much more into it, as I'm now leaning more towards a virtual lab for mobility and studying on the fly. I have however learned a lot from the physical aspect of racking them / setting up the access server and FR switch.

I may actually get one more voice router for CCNP Voice actually.... ehhhh... I will never stop hoarding my Cisco equipment

xnx · April 2014

I like physical equipment mostly, GNS3 is only good as a time-saver

jsb515 · April 2014

i learned from having the actually equipment but if I had to do it over I could have learned the same from just using GNS3.

Jon_Cisco · April 2014

Equipment is a balance of needs and wants.
The exams are passable without equipment but there is much more to studying then passing the exam.

I prefer to have real equipment but I start playing in packet tracer then duplicate it on real gear. Packet tracer is limited in the commands but allows quick and easy access to routers and switches to build quick test setups. After I have played with something in the simulator I like to see it on my real equipment and I have recently been trying to capture the packets with wire shark to see whats happening on the wire.
GNS3 is great but I have not tied it in to real switches yet so I don't find I use it much for my CCNA study lately.

I have a brother-in-law that has worked in IT support roles for 10+ years. Not on the networking side but he has Network+ as part of his training. I spent over an hour recently trying to help him understand how my rack was cabled and the reasons for some of my choices. It reinforced the idea to me that there is value in building and wiring your own equipment.

Maybe I didn't need to spend a $1000 to learn about the equipment but this is going to be a life long education that provides for my family. In the big picture this is probably one of the better investments I have made.

Good luck

I would go with 1841 routers and cheap layer 2 switches. When you move to CCNP you will need layer 3 switches but they can still be expensive so it's probably worth waiting till you need them.

OfWolfAndMan · April 2014

For the routing part of it, like EdTheLad said, I didn't buy equipment. GNS3 all the way (7200s w/ an adventerprise ios would suffice). For the switch side of it, since I am beginning my trek into CCNP (Although primarily focused on CCNA Security), I used the following topology:
3X2950
1X3750
1X3550
You honestly only need 2 L3 and 2 L2 switches from what I've been told from several people

QuantumKnight · April 2014

Thank you guys for the response. I do have simulators but I do think I may get more from real equipment.

omi2123 · April 2014

if u r gonna buy router, go for couple 2801 routers & couple 3560 switches & one 2950 switch...those will get u thru CCNP as well & will also help u if u decide to do ccna voice....

brian89gp · April 2014

In the beginning stages having actual equipment can be helpful to get a familiarity with the physical aspect of it. Once that passes though the appeal of simulators increases. My lab methods: take an lab example and multiply it by 10, if the lab has 4 routers then create one with 40 to do the same thing. Repetition of having to do it 40 times makes it more easily memorable and chances are that at least one of those 40 will have a typo and thus increase troubleshooting skills during the process. 40 routers in GNS3, easy. 40 hardware routers, lots of $.

As far as hardware that is usable forwards into the CCNP/CCIE levels, even if you can't practice directly on it because your older router only supports 12.2/12.3 or whatever the BGP/OSPF/EIGRP/etc routes coming to and from it are the same regardless... They are still useful if you want to make them useful.

anywho · April 2014

QuantumKnight wrote: »

Thank you guys for the response. I do have simulators but I do think I may get more from real equipment.

I also got equipment suitable for both ccna and ccnp, but in the end I didn't use it much. It was good for learning to upgrade ios, but in the end I used simulators more for labbing. For ccna, I like packet tracer.

TechGuru80 · April 2014

With emulators you can preset different issues, which is a huge bonus. With that being said I have a rack for experience too and I prefer seeing, touching, playing as opposed to virtual.

Jon_Cisco · April 2014

I don't know about anyone else but I feel like I gain a better understanding of troubleshooting when I use my real rack.

For my CCENT I am doing all of my labbing in packet tracer and then setting it up on the real equipment. I feel it helps solidify some things for me but it could just be that I am configuring in a different interface that is reinforcing the knowledge. I don't think you need real equipment at this level I just think it's a great learning tool if you could afford it.

MTciscoguy · April 2014

Jon,

I agree, I like coming up with scenarios on the emulator, then instituting them on the real equipment, has been working and giving me a much better understanding of how things work. I am really looking forward to adding my Poweredge server to this mix and starting to actually manage a server with windows server on it, all of my experience up to this time has been on unix servers, I think it will enhance my learning experience

HAMP · April 2014

Jon_Cisco wrote: »

I don't know about anyone else but I feel like I gain a better understanding of troubleshooting when I use my real rack.

For my CCENT I am doing all of my labbing in packet tracer and then setting it up on the real equipment. I feel it helps solidify some things for me but it could just be that I am configuring in a different interface that is reinforcing the knowledge. I don't think you need real equipment at this level I just think it's a great learning tool if you could afford it.

I'm with you on this, and I feel the same way. I know I have a much better understanding with some of the real equipment. Actually a lot of things clicked when I was taking them out of the box, and made sense.

Getting CCNP equipment to study for CCNA?

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