Article Treasures | CCNA Exam: A Sample CCNA Lab

A section of your CCNA / CCNP education is deciding what network topology to form charge of whenever you're putting collectively your property lab. Some of you might be beginning by one or two routers or switches, while others are starting with more. A buyer recently sent me a list of his Cisco routers and switches that he involves accessible designed for a house lab and asked for my assist in arising via one of the greatest ways to use them.

There is no "right" or "unsuitable" answer to this query; once more, part of the training course of is configuring and reconfiguring the physical topology of your lab. Let's look at the routers and switches he comprises out there, including the interfaces on every, and provide you with one attainable CCNA / CCNP dwelling lab configure.

The gear record:

Two 3620 routers. Each involves 1 serial port and 2 ethernet ports.

One 3640 router. This includes two ethernet cards, every through two ports, and two AUI ports.

Three 2503s, my personal favourite designed for dwelling labs! These get 1 AUI port, 2 serial interfaces, and one BRI interface apiece.

One 2524 router. This consists of one serial port, 1 ethernet port, and one BRI interface.

One 4500 router. This involves eight BRI ports, 2 ethernet ports, and more importantly, 4 serial ports.

He additionally includes a 5200 access server, an ISDN simulator, one 2924 swap, and one 1924 switch.

Now, as long as you do not have this much gear to serve by way of, do not panic! Most CCNA / CCNP candidates don't; this is more of an train in taking a look at the things you do receive and utilizing it to the utmost.

As I've talked about in a lot of my CCNA / CCNP house lab articles, an entry server is a superb factor toward receive. All he wants is an octal cable to connect his AS toward the other devices we select to build worth of, and he is all set. (For those who need an access server pattern configuration, there may be one on my website in the Dwelling Lab fraction.)

A frame relay swap is also nice to obtain, and the 4500 will make an ideal FR switch. Having a body relay cloud in your CCNA / CCNP dwelling lab is a great way toward carry expertise configuring and troubleshooting frame relay, an important skill designed for CCNA success.

I'd put both of the 3620s on the frame relay cloud by means of the Serial interface, as well as two of the 2503s. That offers you four routers that might be utilizing frame relay to communicate, and that is probably the most we can receive for the reason that 4500 has four serial ports. The 4500 will have toward be configured as a frame relay switch and linked toward the other routers through a DTE/DCE cable. (Once more, for those who need a body relay change configuration, the one I exploit in my pods is on the on the internet site in the identical place as the access server configuration.)

The 2 2503s that are on the frame relay cloud should also be connected via their BRI interfaces. The house lab also consists of an ISDN simulator, which is critical to allow routers to speak via their BRI interfaces. Simply bring a couple of direct-by cables to connect those two routers to the ISDN simulator and that phase is able to go. (Keep in mind which you can't connect Cisco routers directly via their BRI interfaces.)

All the routers on this lab possess at the very least one ethernet or AUI port, so we will join them all to both one of many switches. The switches ought toward be connected by technique of a minimum of two crossover cables to allow observe through trunking, root bridge election, and VLANs. Having two switches really does add fairly a bit to a CCNA / CCNP house lab's capabilities. You'll be able to experiment with totally different subnets and vlans by as well. Do not be afraid to dive in - that's what a home lab is all regarding!

So now we've got four routers related via frame relay, two via ISDN, and the others by mode of ethernet segments. Two of the routers that aren't using their serial interfaces must be connected directly through their serial ports. Meant for this, you will just need one other DTE/DCE cable. Understanding the right mode to carry up the line between two immediately linked serial ports is a crucial CCNA skill, and so is troubleshooting it. It is best to be capable to bring like a connection up with your eyes closed, and once you're employed by your individual CCNA / CCNP dwelling lab, you can!

Additionally, do not forget to add a loopback interface to every one of your routers. I like to produce worth of 1.1.1.1 used for R1, 2.2.2.2 used for R2, and so on. Promoting loopbacks is another great method to create follow via RIP, OSPF, EIGRP, IGRP, and static routing.

We've taken a pile of routers and switches and turned them right into an implausible CCNA / CCNP dwelling lab. Whether you are working by mode of two Cisco devices or ten, developing by technique of your own dwelling lab topology is a superb studying expertise and the start of developing your analytical and troubleshooting skills.