CCIE Collaboration: Home Lab Rack vs. Lab Rental?

will_a · June 2014

I'm good on the media. As far as the demo licensing, is there a better/easier/cleaner option then snapshots after installing licenses? You used to be able to request 6month demo licenses but not sure if they're still doing that.

Specifically which licenses are needed for collab lab? Just uck9 and cme-srst? Any chance you could post a show license output? Assuming the SRE's on ebay will include whatever licensing they'll need also? I've never worked with those.

many thanks,
will

pitviper · June 2014

will_a wrote: »

I'm good on the media. As far as the demo licensing, is there a better/easier/cleaner option then snapshots after installing licenses? You used to be able to request 6month demo licenses but not sure if they're still doing that.

Specifically which licenses are needed for collab lab? Just uck9 and cme-srst? Any chance you could post a show license output? Assuming the SRE's on ebay will include whatever licensing they'll need also? I've never worked with those.

many thanks,
will

Yeah, just need the uck9 license on the gateways - cme-srst feature is still just a paper license.

Technology Package License Information for Module:'c2900' 

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Technology    Technology-package           Technology-package
              Current       Type           Next reboot  
------------------------------------------------------------------
ipbase        ipbasek9      Permanent      ipbasek9
security      securityk9    Permanent      securityk9
uc            uck9          Permanent      uck9
data          None          None           None

will_a · June 2014

Thanks man!!

will_a · June 2014

One last hurdle... TelePresence. I've had a little real-world experience with it, and can figure out the rest. But as far as lab licensing goes, is there sufficient (for the colab lab backbone purposes) licensing included with vcs and tms?

cisco_nerd · June 2014

I am currently re-doing my home lap topology to reflect that more of the CCIE Collab topology.. at present I have:
3x 2811 (with a few VIC-2MFT1/E1, 4fxs, 4fxo, 2fxs, pvdm2-64, wic-2t and a wifi wic), two of these also have NM-16ESW-1G modules installed
2x 2901 ISRG2 with pvdm3-8 (and wic-4t, E1, and hwic-4esw) - i had planned to make one of these 'cloud routers' and the other a h323 gatekeeper at the hq site
1x 3550 inline power, (may turf)
4x 3750-24 poe,
2x 2950T (may turf)

I also still have some 2621xm and 2651xm routers that are running older CME that can either be backbone routers to inject routes (for R/S studies) or could just be PSTN routers.. or just removed altogether, not sure yet.

should there be anymore scope for the ISRG2? or would the 2901 routers suffice? I was able to get these from work. All IOS is 15.1 with CME v8.6. Hopefully the 2901 are of use other wise i will end up replacing them with 2911 or better depending on budget.

I'm also building an ESXi white box (hex core i7, 64gb ddr3) to run a few WK12 DCs, exchange server, CUCM pub/sub, uccx, cuc cups etc. etc. for the HQ site.

Any other tips?

JeanM · June 2014

Can you guys share your lab topology?

RaviS72 · July 2014

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum. I am looking to take my CCIE Collaboration lab exam and please recommend me a good place for training?

nellocon · August 2014

Could anyone please provide the minimum spec required to order an entry level UCS server for the lab. I have all equipment required for the lab except the UCS server so I am going to order one. Problem is I do not have a clue about ordering servers from Cisco...

If someone could post the part IDs required it would be fantastic!!!

Thanks

Legacy User · December 2014

Didn't feel it was worth creating a new thread for this but I am currently working through my ccnp voice. I had no intentions on working on the CCIE Collab anytime soon even though I got the BLS at IPexpert months ago. Everyone keeps telling its not a huge gap to jump into the ccie collab material like it is with the RS track. Recently I've had the chance to acquire some hardware at a greatly discounted price so I chose why not.

Would this home lab be sufficient to work through the workbooks? I currently have 600hrs of rack rentals through Ipexpert Proctor labs is there any need to get more they're running a great special today on rack session.

I currently have
1x 2911-VSEC 15.2(M)4, 2x Pvdm3-16, 1x VWIC2-2mfT1/E1
3x 2801,advip 15.1-4(M)3, 3x pvdm2-64, mix of VWIC-2MFT1/E1, 1x Aim2-Cue
1x 3725 as PSTN, FR
1x WS-C3750 48-PS-S
3x 9971 w webcam
3x 7961g
VM’s of CUCM 9.1, CUC 9.1, UCCX 9.0, CUPS 9.1, Server 08 running AD,

shodown · December 2014

Yeah you can do just about everything. I would do most of the labs at home, and use the rack rentals for the stuff you cant' do

Legacy User · December 2014

Thanks! Thats great news! Only thing that sucks is that the price of memory has doubled I'm running 16gb on my pc will cost me $160 for an additonal 16gb.

If anyone is interested on ipexpert today they have a HUGE deal on rack rentals. For every 1 rack session you buy you get 2 more so for example if you buy 5 you get 15.

shodown · December 2014

Oh wow, thanks for the TIP. Getting ready to buy 10 of them to get 30 sessions.

CCIE Collaboration: Home Lab Rack vs. Lab Rental?

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