Cisco Lab Suggestions

CCNA & CCNP Lab Suggestions

Many people ask me what would make a good CCNA lab? Well, that can be a tricky question based upon your budget and future Cisco aspirations. So let’s start off with a few basic concepts I hope we can all agree on.

1) You need a physical router as the simulators just don’t have the ability to give you the “hands on” you need to see what happens when you disconnect a cable, put a cable in the wrong location or just plain configure the interface incorrectly. Dependant on what you do by mistake, you may see either the interface or protocol go down and based upon that it should give you a clue of where to start troubleshooting(hint, what layer is the interface at and what layer is the protocol at?). Anyway, you will come to find quite quickly that mistakes you make on Router 1 are affecting Router 4 all because you did not screw in a cable properly. No simulator can simulate that, so a router is invaluable.

2) Two routers really are required to see if anything works. If you have a very limited budget, you can receive value from only purchasing a single router over working with a simulator. However, you will not be able to see the main thing we are trying to accomplish. The propagation of route tables and the routing of data! The only way you can see if your configurations work, is to have at least two routers. That said, if you can afford a kit with more than two routers, it will enable you to exercise more complex scenarios. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you purchase a dual router kit or better that comes with all the accessories you need. Otherwise you can spend days or weeks trying to find all the little extra pieces you need to get your lab up and running. I mention this as some other resellers are selling their kits with 2500 routers and they are not including transceivers. Well how will you use the Ethernet AUI ports without them?? So this is basically how I view it. One router will give you the ability to run the commands on the switch and allow you to memorize the correct syntax and context in which to run the commands. Two routers will allow you to router table information propagate, data propagation and path election. In addition, you will see basic device elections. With three or more routers you will get all of the above and full device elections.

3) Do I need a switch? Well, it is a nice to have for the CCNA track. However, with only about 2 questions on the test dedicated to “hands on” switch knowledge, you can make it by without a switch. Most of the information on the test will reference material that is memorization based such as “What is a Layer 2 protocol used to maintain a loop-free network?” Thank goodness we memorized STP. That said, it would be nice for us to be able to actually “see” the switching concepts work. So this is basically how I view it. One switch will give you the ability to run the commands on the switch and allow you to memorize the correct syntax and context in which to run the commands. It will also allow you to do some of the VLAN labs. Two switches will allow you to see VTP Domain & VLAN information propagate. In addition, you will see basic device elections. With three or more switches you will get all of the above and full device elections. Remember, we are only at the CCNA level right now. If you ask me do I need a switch for my CCNP studies? Most definitely(you will need three full featured switches)! If you have to skimp on something at the CCNA level, skimp on the switch in my opinion.

4) Do I need to worry about ISDN? Yes. It is still on the CCNA test. All of my dual router kits for CCNA have either a built-in ISDN port or I have added a module to support ISDN features. Many other resellers neglect ISDN. Trust me, it is not wise as it is on the test! Now that said, I want to explain my logic behind how I do my kits for ISDN, but we can modify this to meet your needs. As I mentioned, most of my kits include support for ISDN. I generally only put support for ISDN on one device. This will only give you the ability to proactive your command syntax and make sure you are entering the command at the correct portion of the IOS tree. You may ask why? Well to have ISDN really work in your lab environment, you need an ISDN simulator. An ISDN simulator runs over $500 and as I am sure you are aware, that is more than the price of my of the router kits. So if you are on a limited budget, this is the last place I would spend my money. But if you want a full functioning ISDN environment so you can practice for your CCNA test, make sure you have two routers that support ISDN and one ISDN simulator. Finally, a way to work around this exorbitant cost, is to rent my CCNA rack rental for a weekend so you can practice your ISDN commands with the simulator there as that is much, much cheaper.

So now that we have a general understanding of where we will start to build our Cisco CCNA or Cisco CCNP certificatio Lab, read the two articles below that build upon what I just mentioned above. make sure you make it to the bottom of the article where I have a feature comparison chart for Cisco routers and Cisco Switches for your training lab.

For your convienence I have listed below the Cisco Router Interface Comparison Chart and the Cisco Switch Feature Comparison Chart. These two resources are also listed on my CCNA Study Help page.

Cisco Router & Switch Comparison Charts

Cisco Router Interface Comparison Chart
Cisco Switch Features Comparison Chart