In the first part of this home lab tutorial, Ccna and Ccnp candidates can see that there are a Lot of choices when it comes to what to buy to build your own Cisco institution lab.
Having been there myself, I know it's confusing to decree how many routers or switches to buy, and what I need at the minimum to run labs and get some great hands-on practice. Let's take a look at some lab configurations and some other lab equipment you may need.
[cable To A Serial Port]
A starter institution lab will consist of two Cisco routers and one switch, hopefully a 2950. This is a good way to get started. You will need to make sure that the routers you purchase have Ethernet ports, and at least one serial port. If possible, get routers with Bri ports, so even if you're not configuring Isdn now, you'll be able to in the future. (You will need one additional gismo to make Isdn work in your lab, and we'll talk about that later in this article.)
You can institution setting Ip addresses and testing Ip connectivity over the Ethernet interfaces, and you can configure a point-to-point connection in the middle of the two serial interfaces. (You must know how to do that before you think of taking the Ccna exams!) Depending on the switch, you can also get some institution putting the Ethernet ports in dissimilar Vlans and working with the switch Ios.
This setup does have some limitations. You can't institution trunking or Etherchannels with one switch, and you can't set up a Frame Relay cloud with this configuration. It's a good start, but you should reconsider getting a few more routers, together with one to serve as your Frame Relay switch.
What's a Frame Relay switch? Good question.
The Frame Relay Switch
As you know from your studies, Cisco routers are Dtes by default. The Frame Relay cloud is made up of Dces.
In a lab environment, you need a gismo to serve as the Frame Relay cloud. This gismo will have Dce interfaces, and will verily be performing frame relay switching. But this isn't a switch in our lab - it's a Cisco router.
There are plenty of Cisco routers that make great frame relay switches. Get one of those and a consolidate of Dce/Dte cables, and you can configure the router as a frame relay switch and have your own working frame relay cloud in your lab!
The Cisco router you select as your frame relay switch should have at least four serial ports, and if you can get more, great. It's all the time good to have spare ports.
If you get four Cisco routers, with one as your frame relay switch, you can set up a frame relay cloud and institution your hub-and-spoke frame configurations. Even better, as my labs do in my Ccna Study Guide, you can set up a frame relay cloud and a point-to-point Serial connection. This will help you get real hands-on institution with such features as Eigrp variance.
With that four-router configuration and one switch, you can get some great hands-on touch with many Ccna features that many candidates just read about. If you can add a second 2950 switch, you can institution dissimilar spanning-tree configurations, such as changing the root bridge of a given Vlan, working with Vlan Trunking Protocol (Vtp), and configuring your own Etherchannel! (You will need some crossover cables to associate your two switches.)
Let's take a look at one more prominent piece of lab equipment: the Isdn simulator.
You can't just take a straight-through cable and associate your Bri interfaces directly. You need a gismo called an Isdn simulator to act as the phone enterprise in your home network. The newer simulators let you set your own phone numbers and Spids; most older ones have a preset phone amount and Spid that you must use. either way, you get truly vital touch getting hands-on work with Isdn, especially watching Pap and Chap debugs and insight the authentication process.
Isdn simulators can set you back a few bucks. I propose you visit http://www.ebay.com and crusade for Isdn simulator. There are ordinarily 20 - 30 used ones on there at any given time. Be just to purchase one with at least a 30-day guarantee. They are robust devices for the most part, as there is one in my home lab that I've had for three years (when they were verily expensive!), and it's never given me a bit of trouble.
There are many online vendors that will sell you a new one, but obviously the price is going to be higher. One enterprise I've had good experiences with is http://www.vconsole.com. Make sure to shop around, as there are plenty of Isdn simulator manufacturers out there on the web. Vconsole is the only one I've purchased a new unit from, and the 10-port simulator I use in my classes has worked beautifully.
There is someone else piece of lab equipment that isn't vital for your lab, but you'll find life is a lot easier with it. And just as the frame relay switch is verily a router, so is this device: the passage server.
Access servers are devices with an asynchronous port that an octal cable can associate to. What you do is associate your blue console cable (officially referred to as a -rollover cable-) to the console port of your passage server. You then take an octal cable, and associate one end of the cable to your Async port. The other end of the cable, as you'd expect from the name, consists of eight smaller Rj-45 connectors. Each one of those goes into the console port of one of your other lab devices, and you configure the passage server to allow one-key passage to each of the other devices in your institution lab.
The configuration of the passage server is a easy one, and I'll have an example of configuring your passage server and frame relay switch up later today.
Not everyone can start with a lab this size, so be just when you buy your first routers. Make sure that they're not just giving you good institution now, but that they allow for time to come growth of your lab. As you add a frame relay switch, an Isdn simulator, and an passage server, you'll get the hands-on touch you need to be flourishing on the job, accumulate the self-confidence and troubleshooting skills needed in the testing room and on the job, and to solve any simulator question on your Ccna and Ccnp exams with ease.
Have fun!
Cisco Certification: building Your Home Lab, Part Ii