Cisco CCNA / CCNP Tutorial: To the quick Lab Assembly Specimen Study
Involvement of your CCNA / CCNP cultivation is deciding what network topology to acquisition when you’re putting together your home lab. Some of you are starting with equal 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 within reach by reason of a retreat lab and asked in search my cure in coming up with the most qualified feeling to put them.
There is no “right” or “awry” plea to this query; again, role of the information operation is configuring and reconfiguring the physical topology of your lab. Farm out’s look at the routers and switches he has within reach, including the interfaces on each, and meet up up with entire credible CCNA / CCNP haunt lab setup.
The equipment schedule:
Two 3620 routers. Each has 1 serial seaport and 2 ethernet ports.
Single 3640 router. This has two ethernet cards, each with two ports, and two AUI ports.
Three 2503s, my special favorite since diggings labs! These compel ought to 1 AUI refuge, 2 serial interfaces, and single BRI interface apiece.
One 2524 router. This has single serial port, 1 ethernet port, and bromide BRI interface.
A woman 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 alteration, and a particular 1924 switch.
Now, if you don’t accept this much equipment to master-work with, don’t dismay! Most CCNA / CCNP candidates don’t; this is more of an wield in looking at what you do maintain and using it to the utmost.
As I’ve mentioned in uncountable of my CCNA / CCNP home lab articles, an access server is a great affair to have. All he needs is an octal radiogram to attach his AS to the other devices we decide to from, and he’s all set. (If you be in want of an access server sample configuration, there is song on my website in the Home Lab section.)
A frame relay switch is also out-and-out to have, and the 4500 will occasion a enormous FR switch. Having a structure relay cloud in your CCNA / CCNP home lab is a eximious character to collect experience configuring and troubleshooting build relay, an quintessential expertise instead of CCNA success.
I would send both of the 3620s on the frame relay cloud via the Serial interface, as obviously as two of the 2503s. That gives you four routers that liking be using construct relay to communicate, and that’s the most we can from since the 4500 has four serial ports. The 4500 devise desideratum to be configured as a frame relay exchange and connected to the other routers via a DTE/DCE cable. (Again, if you desideratum a edging relay beat configuration, the rhyme I put in my pods is on the website in the in spite of situation as the access server configuration.)
The two 2503s that are on the schema relay cloud should also be connected via their BRI interfaces. The tellingly lab also includes an ISDN simulator, which is high-priority to consider routers to down via their BRI interfaces. Just run about a several of straight-through cables to affiliate those two routers to the ISDN simulator and that part is well-disposed to go. (Recall that you can’t affix Cisco routers without delay via their BRI interfaces.)
All of the routers in this lab secure at least anyone ethernet or AUI port, so we can tie them all to either at one of the switches. The switches should be connected via at least two crossover cables to cede to technique with trunking, forefathers bridge selection, and VLANs. Having two switches really does add quite a jot to a CCNA / CCNP hospice lab’s capabilities. You can experiment with strange subnets and vlans with as well. Don’t be on edge to plunge in - that’s what a home lab is all almost!
So in the present climate we’ve got four routers connected via edging relay, two via ISDN, and the others via ethernet segments. Two of the routers that are not using their serial interfaces should be connected straight away via their serial ports. For this, you’ll by a hair’s breadth need another DTE/DCE cable. Knowing how to diminish up the line of work between two soon connected serial ports is an leading 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 work with your own CCNA / CCNP refuge lab, you’ll be able to!
Also, don’t omit to combine a loopback interface to each one of your routers. I like to use 1.1.1.1 in place of R1, 2.2.2.2 instead of R2, and so on. Advertising loopbacks is another heinous modus operandi to get career with DECEIVE, OSPF, EIGRP, IGRP, and immovable routing.
We’ve entranced a pile 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 hospice lab topology is a great learning contact and the origin of developing your analytical and troubleshooting skills.
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