Cisco CCNA / CCNP Tutorial: Home Lab Flock For fear of the fact About
Voice of your CCNA / CCNP edification is deciding what network topology to speak when you’re putting together your composed lab. Some of you are starting with unified or two routers or switches, while others are starting with more. A customer recently sent me a rota of his Cisco routers and switches that he has readily obtainable in search a habitation lab and asked in search my cure in coming up with the best feeling to turn to account them.
There is no “true” or “err” answer to this without a doubt; again, fragment of the information operation is configuring and reconfiguring the diplomate topology of your lab. Farm out’s look at the routers and switches he has available, including the interfaces on each, and come up up with one credible CCNA / CCNP home lab setup.
The materiel list:
Two 3620 routers. Each has 1 serial haven and 2 ethernet ports.
Single 3640 router. This has two ethernet cards, each with two ports, and two AUI ports.
Three 2503s, my dear favorite in search home labs! These entertain 1 AUI haven, 2 serial interfaces, and one BRI interface apiece.
A particular 2524 router. This has one serial mooring, 1 ethernet port, and bromide BRI interface.
Limerick 4500 router. This has eight BRI ports, 2 ethernet ports, and more importantly, four serial ports.
He also has a 5200 access server, an ISDN simulator, one 2924 switch, and joke 1924 switch.
Contemporarily, if you don’t arrange this much appurtenances to creation with, don’t dismay! Most CCNA / CCNP candidates don’t; this is more of an exercise in looking at what you do possess and using it to the utmost.
As I’ve mentioned in many of my CCNA / CCNP home lab articles, an access server is a immense id‚e fixe to have. All he needs is an octal line to attach his AS to the other devices we decide to make use of, and he’s all set. (If you necessary an access server test configuration, there is chestnut on my website in the To the quick Lab section.)
A arrangement relay beat is also huge to include, and the 4500 pleasure force a excellent FR switch. Having a construct relay cloud in your CCNA / CCNP cosy lab is a huge style to collect participation configuring and troubleshooting put together relay, an fundamental expertise benefit of CCNA success.
I would put away both of the 3620s on the layout relay cloud via the Serial interface, as well as two of the 2503s. That gives you four routers that see fit be using mount relay to communicate, and that’s the most we can obtain since the 4500 has four serial ports. The 4500 on lack to be configured as a body relay rechannel and connected to the other routers via a DTE/DCE cable. (Again, if you need a edging relay switch configuration, the rhyme I using in my pods is on the website in the after all is said setting as the access server configuration.)
The two 2503s that are on the frame relay cloud should also be connected via their BRI interfaces. The nursing home lab also includes an ISDN simulator, which is inevitable to cede to routers to reach via their BRI interfaces. Fair-minded pick up a couple of straight-through cables to affiliate those two routers to the ISDN simulator and that component is ready to go. (Remember that you can’t fasten Cisco routers directly via their BRI interfaces.)
All of the routers in this lab have in the offing at least an individual ethernet or AUI anchorage, so we can buckle them all to either at one of the switches. The switches should be connected via at least two crossover cables to cede to custom with trunking, root bridge referendum, and VLANs. Having two switches really does count up quite a bit to a CCNA / CCNP conversant with lab’s capabilities. You can policy test with diverse subnets and vlans with as well. Don’t be afraid to sink in - that’s what a profoundly lab is all surrounding!
So in the present climate we’ve got four routers connected via mount relay, two via ISDN, and the others via ethernet segments. Two of the routers that are not using their serial interfaces should be connected momentarily via their serial ports. Championing this, you’ll honest prerequisite another DTE/DCE cable. Crafty how to bring up the policy between two directly connected serial ports is an important CCNA expertness, and so is troubleshooting it. You should be skilled to bring on such a relations up with your eyes closed, and in a minute you position with your own CCNA / CCNP composed lab, you’ll be superior to!
Also, don’t lose to tot up a loopback interface to each equal of your routers. I like to turn to account 1.1.1.1 an eye to R1, 2.2.2.2 for R2, and so on. Advertising loopbacks is another spacious sense to hire career with RIP, OSPF, EIGRP, IGRP, and static routing.
We’ve enchanted a wad abundance of routers and switches and turned them into a fantastic CCNA / CCNP home lab. Whether you’re working with two Cisco devices or ten, coming up with your own home lab topology is a terrific knowledge contact and the beginning of developing your analytical and troubleshooting skills.
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