What Would Be the Recommended Materials for a CCIE Routing And Switching Lab?

I have utilized the workbooks from SPOTO Club when I would be studying for CCIE Routing and Switching. Each of these vendors would be utilizing a “lab topology” for all of their labs. Most of the topologies would be having 4 switches and 9 routers. 3 of the routers are “backbone” routers, pretty much the same as what you could expect on the CCIE Routing and Switching lab exam. The backbone routers are pre-configured and “out of your control”. They are utilized to inject routing information as well as some other neat tricks. The number of routers & switches and also the interfaces, router/switch models, cables, as well as IOS versions will depend on the topology that you are going to use.

Real Equipment

1. Building your lab is expensive, even though you can sell most of the hardware when you are done studying. It’s hard to tell how much money you can still get for your old hardware 12 months from now, it’s possible that you won’t get much in return.

2. When you would be on budgeting you might get tempted to replace some routers or switches with cheaper models. The problem would be that able to that some features wouldn’t be supported on the cheaper switches. For example, instead of the 3560 switches, you could gain a 3550 but it won’t support all IPv6 features or private VLANs. It would take time to find out what your lab can’t do.

1. You would be required to need a terminal server for remote console access. The Cisco 2511 is considered to be a great terminal server but it’s not cheap.

2. 9 routers as well as 4 switches draw quite some power, generate heat as well as a lot of noise. This wouldn’t be something that you want in the living room…

3. Buying all the routers, switches, as well as interfaces, takes quite some time. You also need to make sure that the routers have enough RAM and Flash to store the IOS image.

4. Depending on where you live, it might be hard to get equipment. eBay would be considered as great but shipping costs can be quite high.

Before you are grueling buy any hardware, double-check if you can use it for version 5 of the CCIE Routing and Switching lab. In the previous version (v4) the real lab had 4x 3560 switches so that’s what would be all vendors were utilizing. Since version 5 of the lab exam, Cisco wouldn’t be utilized a particular switch model and the entire lab is virtual.

Cisco has released a document where they explain which router and switch support would be supported to all commands:

1. Cisco ISR 2900 with IOS 15.3T Universal software release

2. Cisco 3560X with IOS 15.0SE Universal (IP Services) software release

If you would have to build an entire lab with these devices then it would be very expensive. 2811, as well as 1841 routers, are also able to run IOS 15.x so you can probably use those.

Rack Rentals

Rack rentals are considered to be their…you pay and get telnet access to a remote lab that is cabled and configured for you. You wouldn’t have to worry about anything interfaces, hardware, IOS images, cabling, GNS3, etc. It’s all done for you. Since the vendors I mentioned earlier are so popular, many companies offer rack rentals for their topologies.

Hence, if you wish to achieve the CCIE Routing and Switching Certification in a single attempt, you should check out the study dumps offered at the SPOTO Club.m

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