Hi Jabran, You can generally perform all topics on a lab setup using dynamips/GNS3 and real switches, however some of the limitations can be dependant on how you have the connectivity from your router simulator and your switches. For the IP Expert topology you will be using quite a number of router interfaces to the switches.
Typically there are 2 ways to do this: Have a lot of physical interfaces on your router to the switches (using Quad port NICs for instance) the number of interfaces for the IPExpert topology is numerous so you may not have enough slots for all of the NICs you need. Have a breakout switch that is using a dot1q tunnel from the routersim PC and use the outer tag to associated with a particular port on the breakout switch - this way on your routers you can still use dot1q encapsulation. If you are using a breakout switch and it is a 3550, you will find that the majority of tasks can be performed, however the limitation of the 3550 platform is that L2Protocol Tunnelling does not work across trunk interfaces, so things like CDP and STP in particular will not be carried transparently between the routersim and the real switches. The alternative is to use a 3560 which can support that function (but is more costly than a 3550) or understand what the limitations are and deal with it (which is what I did) To explain one of the shortcomings in specific details - I'm using a 3550 as a breakout switch and had some fun using IRB - http://noshut.blogspot.com/2010/09/breakout-switches-and-irb-dont-play.html It's not a major issue but in some cases when you don't understand something you can be wasting effort trying to fix something that is an issue related to the environment. I describe what I set up for my lab here - http://noshut.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-home-lab.html and I'm using the IPExpert books but at the end of the day, my setup was pretty much copied from the work of Mr Paul http://7200emu.hacki.at/viewtopic.php?t=7540 and adapted for my specific environment Cheers, Adam On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 6:36 AM, Jabran Javaid <[email protected]>wrote: > > Hello Friends, > > This is Jabran from Doha Qatar. I have few questions to ask about you. > > First of all, i have researched a lot on internet for CCIE LAb , and i have > come up with the following options > > 1) you can buy your whole physical equipment (from Cisco land etc) > 2) you can use gns3 and interconnect them with real Switches (3650 and 3550 > Each Two Quantity). > > > option 2, is suitable for me as i cant afford to have full physical lab. my > Friends in this scenario would you tell me > something as follows: > > 1) If i use gns3 , with the real switches (3550 and 3560 , would i be able > to do 100% prepration, i mean all topics ? > 2) what will be other things which i can buy other than real switches to > work with gns3. > 3) who is best highly rated dealers on internet. > 4) will you please assist me in completeing my lab as soon as possible as i > have already wasted a month in it. > > thanks waiting anxiously for your replies > > > Jabran Javaid > > > _______________________________________________ > For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please > visit www.ipexpert.com > > Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out > www.PlatinumPlacement.com > _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out www.PlatinumPlacement.com
