I would second what Nicholas said. I too have my own lab and used it quite a bit as I went through WB1 and part of WB2. At one point I got tired of having to figure out that S0/1/0 on a router in a lab question actually meant I needed to use S0/1 or some other number. I also could not simply load the preconfig sections of the labs. As such I started renting some time on weekends and it really helped me spend more time on the topics then trying to make sure everything match up and that the routers I used for Say R2 could do everything that it needed. Right now I am less then two weeks away. In a few days I will start taking my time off work right before the lab. I purchased a whole block over several days which they linked all of the sessions together. This way I can use my final days at will. If I am hard at a lab when the 11:45pm comes it will not matter I may keep at it until late at night. If I start getting tired I can just stop and know it will be right where I left it when I wake up. Not like I will be getting that much sleep during the next few days but it will still be nice. Once I am done with a lab, I just click on the revert lab then load the next lab up and in a few minutes I am ready to go on to the next one. Another tool I use is my own lab along with rented rack time. If I get to a question that leads me to other questions of my own, then I just fire up a console session on my own gear and go a bit further in detail on that topic without messing up what I already did. As such, I would highly recommend Proctor Labs for at least part of your studies. The only thing I wish Proctor Labs had was a preload with only part of the config done. Many everything though the Internal routing section. At times I only had 8 hours to do a lab and some time I ended up spend more time on the early sections of the lab and then didn't have as much time to spend on the later. As such I am a lot better on the early stuff then that late stuff. I would love to be able to go back to those labs and just load everything before BGP Then I can spend time on the other areas and still have the chance to run into a gotchya later on because a late step caused something to break or the one issue that really had me going on day when I setup BGP I ended up having a loop created and I had to go back and figure out what happened Rob _____
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of nicholas golden Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 5:48 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Fw: Re: My lab hardware I think I emailed Joe only on this, so I am re posting it so if it shows up twice I apologize :) e --- On Fri, 9/18/09, nicholas golden <[email protected]> wrote: From: nicholas golden <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] My lab hardware To: "Joe Astorino" <[email protected]> Date: Friday, September 18, 2009, 3:45 PM I agree with Joe on this. However I have a couple of things to add. Even if the company is footing the bill, it's not that expensive to rent time. Also, think about all the wr erases you have to do on your equipment and trying to figure out why something isn't working and you realize it's from the last lab you did. With renting time, you load your configs knowing things are right and will work correctly.Mostly , I do use my own gear but I am just getting started nailing down core concepts and technologies. There are times where I want to ensure I understand something so I go rent time and find out. I think even if you use your own gear all the time, when it gets close to lab time I would think renting time and doing the mock labs would be the best bet. I feel the more I do that, the better off I am. Here is what I like about renting time. Stability - You know it's going to work, and if it doesn't they will fix it. Cabling - no worries, it's all done for you graded labs - if you have this then you hit a button and voila you find out exactly what you did wrong. Compare that to your own home lab. You have to copy paste configs in, do the lab then compare and USUALLY you get some silly "self induced troubleshooting" That Scott Morris likes to talk about. I found this all WAY to annoying. I like to maximize my time when I am learning, not chasing down issues that are questionable and leading to mass waste of time. Ok, so now that I just went off and said some things about the home lab let's talk about the good stuff. The 2811's are going to be your best friend. I have been finding them for 599 on ebay maxed out on memory. The go FAST as they are "buy it now" prices, so you have to keep your eye out for them. The 3825 is the router of the future, the ISR is awesome. But who has 3,000 to spend on a single router. I checked last week and the price for one of these beasts were 2,800 (all in US dollars by the way) and may or may not include maxed out memory and flash. So in the end, it's how much time and money do you want to spend. I know renting time can be a pain if you live across the world. It's a pain for me I live on the West Coast and if I want an 8am time slot that's 5am my time. I wish *some* racks were available for west coasters on a different time slot (Ahem, Pacific Time), but I already contacted Mike Down about that and it's being looked at. All and all you are on the right track, you can use your own equipment - just be aware of how to save time and be fast at set up and tear down of configs or rent time from proctor labs and not worry about that stuff and focus on the labs. The choice is yours, either way is correct it's all on you :) My 3 cents :) --- On Fri, 9/18/09, Joe Astorino <[email protected]> wrote: From: Joe Astorino <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] My lab hardware To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Date: Friday, September 18, 2009, 11:39 AM The PIX 515 is a nice piece of equipment but totally and utterly useless for the R&S lab exam : ) So, get rid of that.. You will need 4 switches. Use the 3 3560s you have and 1 3550.. You are doing well with the 2801s there...if you can get some more 2800 series routers : ) Are you mimicking our topology? If so, you will need 3x BB routers (these can be junk, 2500, 2600 at the most and you can pick them up on ebay cheap), and 8 other routers. I'd suggest making your frame-relay connected routers the more powerful ones (R2, R4, R5, R6) because they will have the most connections and will also be doing MPLS stuff. If it is on works budget and if you have them, 2801, 2811, 3825, 1841 are all excellent choices for a lab. If it is your own money coming into play and you are on a budget like most of us, you can do MOST things with the old 3640 routers. Keep in mind you will NOT be able to run 12.4T on those which is what you have in the real lab. They only support up to 12.4 mainline. Also, 2600XM models can stand in quite nicely if you are on a budget. Again, same thing with the IOS, and you will need to max out the RAM and Flash on the 2600XM and 3640 to get the most out of them. So -- If you are on a budget they will work for MOST of your studies, but understand that there will be some things you will be unable to do, and come features you will be unable to test. On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 11:11 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: Greetings everyone. I've been lurking for a while now and I thought I should introduce myself since I'll likely start asking a lot of questions as I get further into preparation for my R&S lab (May 3rd RTP). Currently, I'm working on finishing my way through the on demand videos of the Blended Learning Solution. I hope to have this done by the end of the month. After that, I'll start working my way through the early labs to see where I'm deficient. I'm self funded renting rack time is out of the question. However, I have access to our "hotswap" inventory at work. I've racked some of it to use as my R&S lab. I also have access to a few more routers if needed, but they will likely be 1750s. I've considered grabbing a few and using those as the BB routers since I don't think the configs will change much from lab to lab on the BB routers. Anyway, here's what I'm currently working with (from top to bottom in the pic). Pix 515e, (3) 2801, (3) 3560, (2) 3550. Any suggestions on things to add/remove for the 4.0 lab? http://tinypic.com/r/forvm/3 Thanks, Mitch _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com -- Regards, Joe Astorino - CCIE #24347 R&S Technical Instructor - IPexpert, Inc. Cell: +1.586.212.6107 Fax: +1.810.454.0130 Mailto: [email protected] -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com No virus found in this incoming message. 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