Building a Cisco Study Lab Part 2 - Getting Requirements, Choosing Switches No comments yet

With the exceptions of the lucky people whose employer supplies them with Cisco equipment, most CCNA candidates will spend their own money on lab equipment. Hence, it is probably important that equipment that you buy is both useful and cheap.

It is important to recognise downright BAD advice from other people. People that have passed CCNA 3 or more years ago and have not kept up with the times will recommend purchasing obsolete, useless equipment. Following such advice is a waste of time. I had a bunch of Cisco 1900 series switches from earlier studies. These days, I cannot even sell them for $1, yet I have seen them recommended for CCNA lab study, despite them being completely useless for the current exam.

The key source of information of requirements is Cisco.
The exam page for current (640-802) CCNA exam, here, outlines the exam requirements.

Of particular importance is any mention of “Configure” or “Implement” by Cisco. This basically means that configuration of such topics is examinable!

From here, armed with a bit of prior knowledge of Cisco platform capabilities, we can determine what hardware we can use.

For price comparisons, we’ll use eBay, worldwide listings, with Buy-It-Now. eBay is not necessarily the best source, but it is the only source that is universally available so it makes a good comparison base.

It is clear that switches are the easier decision - there is only one paragraph on switch configuration, vs three and a half for routers.

Onto switches, then!

The official recommendation from a typical CCNA study book will be 2960 switches. These currently go for the bargain price of $1500 (USD), with some as low as $500.

These will certainly do the job, however, the price is a little steep. Can we do better?

Well, there are a lot of cheap used Cisco switches out there… But are they useful?

The configuration requirements for the exam include Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol, described here.

You’ll see that we need at least a 2940 or 2950, and we cannot use the old 3500XL or 2900. Further, it is assumed that you have been using switches that only support 802.1q, not ISL - this rules out 2900s, 3500s, and older models again.

Currently, 2940 and 2955 are in very short supply and are not favourably priced. This leaves the 2950 as the only contender so far, but which 2950 should you get: the Standard or Enhanced image?

Cisco describe the features of both the Standard and Enhanced editions on their website in some detail.

In brief, the Enhanced image switches perform better QoS, but cost more.
The premium of Enhanced image may be useful to you in CCNP, and even more useful if pursuing Voice track, otherwise the Standard image will be fine.

A single switch is sufficient for practicing the configuration of most topics.
Having two switches will allow to observe VLAN Trunking Protocol and Spanning Tree Protocol in action, though you can nevertheless configure them with just one switch.
Having three switches will allow for more complex topologies, but is perhaps a better investment when you’re already pursuing your Professional level certifications.

Building a Cisco Study Lab Part 1 - Introduction No comments yet

Popularity of Cisco networking certifications seems to be at an all-time high. Certainly Cisco themselves seem to think so, why else would they bother creating three new CCNA specialisations earlier this year.

Networking is a bit of a strange beast, one that is commonly not understood as well as desktop/server administration, or software development.

One of the reasons for that is the ease of getting hands-on experience doing either of the latter. Operating systems are effectively free these days, and so are programmer tools and compilers. Hardware to run these tools is not free, but not many people get into IT without having access to a computer!

Networking is a little different.

Unlike server infrastructure, networking equipment is usually specialised, proprietary hardware, that is not commonly found outside of enterprise wiring closets, and retails and a suitably “enterprise” price.

As a result, a number of people have tried (and some succeeded) in getting their Cisco certifications purely by rote learning, memorising the theory, and doing simulation practice.

Whilst this can work initially, this strategy fails in the long term, as hands-on experience is a must for higher level certifications.

It is far easier to practice (and impress potential employers) if you have access to sufficient real hardware so that you can test and understand any required scenario in a lab environment.

In my experience, it is all about investing in yourself (and ideally, not overspending). My CCNA lab cost me about $2000 (AUD), and I could have spent a lot less with a little more knowledge at the time. Nevertheless, I learned a lot, and gained a raise out of the exercise that more than paid off my study expenses.

In the next series of posts I’ll write about getting the most out of a Cisco study lab, the recommended equipment, and point out a few mistakes to avoid making.