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Everybody, welcome today to our session on effective techniques
for building home labs, and effective techniques for using remote
equipment in remote, sort of rentable racks and labs,
and that's why I'm going to be covering today.
So let me set your expectations.
I've see a lot of questions coming in here before the session actually
started, and I want to make sure that we're all in the same page
as to what I'm going to cover, and just as importantly,
what I'm not going to cover.
By the way, for those of you who may have never seen me before,
I'm Keith Bogart.
I'm one of the instructors here at INE,
and I specialize in the CCNA and CCNP sort of product lines here.
So what am I going to cover?
So I try to device the title of today's session to give you a clue
as to what I was going to cover and what I was not going to cover.
So when I'm talking about home labs.
I'm talking about labs that you build yourself,
at home, with real hardware.
When I'm talking about remote labs, I'm talking about logging into
someone's remote labs, like logging into INE's remote racks,
or logging into-- There's probably dozens or hundreds of companies
out there that for an hourly fee, you can log into their remote equipment
and use their racks, so you don't have to build one yourself at home.
The second part of today is going to be talking about well what are
some of the effective techniques for doing that,
for managing that time?
This presentation's built around a couple of assumptions.
I'm trying to reach the broadest audience possible worldwide.
That being the case, there's somethings I'm definitely not going
to cover. My assumption is is that you are someone who,
number one, does not have access to Cisco IOS images.
There's a lot of people out there in the world who are interested
in getting a CCNA, all the way up to a CCIE,
but they're not a Cisco customer.
And, they don't have legal access - and I'll emphasize that - legal
access to Cisco IOS images.
And without access to Cisco IOS images,
that precludes you're using things like GNS and other emulated or
simulated stuff.
So, I'm going to make that assumption number one - they don't have
access to IOS.
I'm also going to make the assumption number two that,
you're not like a server expert.
There's some of you who are watching right now,
who know all the ins and outs of VMware,
and ESXi, and you can manipulate and build your own VRL server,
and stuff like that.
Once again, those of you who fit that category,
you're in the upper technical end already coming into this.
But there's probably thousands of people over time who are going
to watch this, who know nothing about servers,
who the only way the can get hands-on time to practice CCNA,
or CCNP, or even CCIE, is by actually getting on real equipment.
There's a lot of you that just don't have the technical knowledge
because of your prior skills - that's because of what you've done
previously - to build a VMware server, or to build some of these
complex virtual environments, and your only option is to either build
a lab at home with real equipment, or to log into somebody's remote
equipment. This is for you.
This is for that group of people.
When you start going down the topic of virtual routers,
and using VMware and stuff, that can lead into a whole different
rat hole, of-- we've seen some questions coming in about,
how much memory do I need for this, and what images do I need for
that? That could be a whole day on it's own,
so that's a different topic for a future discussion.
Today I'm going to break this presentation into two parts.
Part number one is going to be about, okay,
if your objective is to build a home based lab,
if you want to go to eBay or some other website and either buy new
or probably used Cisco equipment, so you can have a lab in your house,
what are the processes, what's the design process you have to go
through, so by the time you're done you've got a lab that will meet
your purposes?
That you won't have overlooked something or maybe purchase something
that you didn't need?
So we're going to talk about that as part one.
And then part two is, for those of you that either don't want to
do that or don't have the money to do that,
and you'd rather for $5 an hour or $3 an hour,
log under somebody else's rack like INE's rack,
and use a preexisting rack.
What are some effective techniques for that?
Because if you're paying anywhere from 3 to $5 an hour to log
into someone elses equipment that-- you know time is money.
Every single minute might be a nickle or 10 cents to you,
and you don't just want to have idle time where you're reading something
or you're thinking about something for 15 minutes and your money
is slipping away.
You want to have everything lined up so you can have the most effective
time on that rack possible and do that as best you can,
so that will be part 2 of today's session.
Some people have asked me how long this is going to go,
good question, I estimate that it'll be somewhere between an hour
and a half and two hours.
That's just a rough estimate.
A lot of it depends on the quantity of questions you guys have.
Alright, so let's just go ahead and jump into this here and start
out. So let's start with part number 1 here.
You've decided that you want to build your own home based lab,
and the biggest mistake that people make when they're doing this
- and I'm guilty of this myself because I built a home based lab
many years ago and I did not follow my own advice that I'm writing
here - is that you jump into it too quickly.
You're all really excited about, man I just love this idea of I'm
going to have a lab right here in my little home office.
I'm going to be able to wake up at 3:00 in the morning,
and slip out of my bedroom without waking up my wife,
and go down there and practice BGP.
How fun will that be?
You say, okay, great.
Let's see here, let me go onto Ebay.
Oh, wow, here's a great price for a Cisco 2900 something.
Here's another great price for a set.
You buy all this stuff.
It ships to you.
You're all excited.
You've got these big boxes.
You rack it all up and then the problems start happening.
You start tripping circuit breakers, because you didn't account for
how much electricity all this stuff was going to draw.
You turn it on and within 10 minutes you got sweat running down your
face, because you didn't realize how much heat it was going to put
out. Or you turn it on, and you realize,
wait a second, this device isn't supporting IPv6.
How am I supposed to do an IPv6 lab?
Certain protocols and features aren't supported on what you bought.
It's all because you rushed into something.
You didn't take the time to slow down and really think through the
design process of this.
So as we can see here, we're going to talk about this.
There's a lot of decisions involved in building your own home-based
lab. Certainly money is a factor.
Unless you're Donald Trump, you don't have an unlimited supply of
money to throw at this thing.
So unless you want to get a divorce in two months because you went
into debt over this, you probably want to think about just how much
is this worth to me.
Am I willing to spend $1000 on a home-based lab,
or am I kind of limited to only 300 bucks?
What kind of money do I have?
Space, we'll talk about that.
Do you actually have space for this?
If you look in your home-based office right now,
some of you guys, if you look in your home-based office,
it kind of looks like a junk yard.
You just got stacks of stuff all over the place,
boxes. Do you really have a place to put this stuff?
Convenience and inconvenience of this.
I'm going to talk a little bit more about this,
but the heat, the electrical factor, tripping over cables,
you've got to think about that.
You've got to think about the hardware and software selection.
This is usually the first thing people think about,
is what hardware and software do I need,
and they skip the first three items which are actually pretty important.
Building any lab, either a personal lab or even a work lab,
requires a logical thought process.
There's nothing worse - and take it from me,
because I've done this - there's nothing worse than spending hundreds
of dollars, to realize that this lab you put together is not meeting
your actual needs - that you've missed something.
Horrible sinking feeling in your gut when that happens.
In order to prevent that, it's best to go through PPDIOO.
What's that? This is actually a concept.
If you've studied for your CCNP you probably ran across this in your
CCNP switch exam topics.
It is a Cisco methodology that defines the continuous lifecycle of
services required for a network.
Now, you might be thinking, what does that have to do with me?
You might think of this and say, Oh, okay,
if I'm a network engineer, and I am sort of in charge of my enterprise
network, my company network, yes.
So I can see how I need to know this to keep myself on track,
to make sure I don't go off on a tangent,
but what's this have to do with building my lab?
Well, keep in mind that when you're building a home based lab,
really the process involved in that is no different than if I hired
you to come work for my company.
I said, I want you to build out the network infrastructure for my
company. I don't have a network, I need one,
I want you to create it, design it, and build it.
The process to do that and the process to build your own home based
lab is the same.
Now, certainly the usage of those labs is different.
One is going to be used to basically help the company make profit
and to be more time effective with the employees and stuff,
but essentially they're carrying data, they're being used for the
same protocols.
And so the design idea is the same, whether you're building an enterprise
lab, or a smaller form of that in a home-based lab.
So, going through the PPDIOO process will slow you down,
and make sure you hit every single task,
so you don't miss something along the way.
Okay, so what it this PPDIOO, and how's it affect this?
So, these acronyms stand for Prepare Plan Design Implement Operate
and Optimize. Now, the last part of this - optimize.
When you're actually designing and building and using your own home-based
lab, optimize isn't really a factor.
That's really for when you're dealing with an actual enterprise lab,
and over time you want to go back to your lab,
and see, is this network for my company operating in the most optimal
way possible? Are there ways I could tweak it to make it more efficient,
more effective?
Not really a consideration, when you just built a lab to play around
with. The first five of these are really the ones that we have to
concentrate on when building and designing our own home-based lab.
Let's just go through each of these, starting with Prepare.
Here's actually the definition of Prepare.
I'm not going to read this to you, but the ones that I've identified
here in red are the aspects of Prepare that actually do apply to
designing and building your own home-based lab,
which is developing a network strategy and coming up with a high-level
conceptual architecture that identifies technologies that can best
support your requirements.
So some of these other ones, like developing a business case,
that doesn't really apply in your particular case when you're talking
about a home-based lab.
So, in the Prepare stage is where you actually take a step back -
you know, just temper your enthusiasm for a minute to get on eBay
and start spending your money - and here,
you take a step back, you say, what are my requirements?
What do I want to use this lab for in the immediate future,
and if I plan on keeping it for a year,
or two years, three years, how do I envision using this lab in the
long term future?
Those are your requirements.
Now, for those of you who are just starting down the path of pursuing
your CCNA, so I'm speaking to those of you that fall into that category
right now. My best advice to you is don't build a home-based lab.
Don't do it. Now I know that, you know,
as far as a CCNA is concerned, a vast majority of the questions are
multiple choice, some drag and drop and stuff like that.
You might get anywhere from three to six questions are of the simulation
type where you actually have to go into a simulated router or switch
and type in commands.
Even at the CCNA level, yes it is true,
you definitely need to know IOS commands.
You can't pass that test just based on knowing theory of protocols
and features. You got to know IOS commands. It is true that the best
way to get these IOS commands memorized is to do them hands on,
so why am I saying right here don't build your own rack?
Why am I saying it's best to use remote equipment instead?
Well, here's why, when you're just starting out with your CCNA,
so I'm assuming here that if you're starting out your CCNA you know
little to nothing about networking.
Okay, so if you're starting out with the ICND1 or the CCENT examine
your level of existing networking knowledge is about this big if
even that much, and quite frankly at that level you don't know enough
about networking to be able to identify some of the critical things
you need to know to build a home based network.
For example, these are some of the questions you have to be able
to answer to build a home based network/ which at the CCNA level when
you're just starting you probably won't be able to answer.
For example, what type of interfaces do you need? Someone who's just starting
out the CCENT level, they're not going to know the difference between
a high-speed or a low-speed serial, or even what a serial interface
is. They're not going to know the difference between a Fiber Gigabit
Ethernet interface and an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet interface.
So they're not going to know what kind of interfaces they need.
What type of hardware will you need to support the protocols and
features that are on the CCNA blueprint?
You're not going to be able to answer that at the CCENT level.
How are you going to know which feature sets or versions of Cisco
IOS that you need on your devices?
Once again, you're not even at the level yet where you can do that.
So here's an analogy.
To ask someone who's just starting out on the CCNA path,
to ask them, Hey, I want you to design and build a lab,
to me, it's sort of like asking someone who has only ever ridden
a bicycle to pick out a new car.
If you've only ridden a bicycle, you can't go to a car dealership
and pick out a new car.
You have no idea what you're looking at.
You have not idea what's better, and what's not.
You just can't do it.
Really, I suggest that you wait until you're at least ready to start
pursuing your CCNP before you have enough foundational knowledge
to start putting a lab together.
Let's assume that's where you are.
You're starting your CCNP studies and you want to build your own
home-based lab.
At the CCNP level-- so you've got the CCNA behind you.
With the CCNA behind you, you should be able to answer all these
questions right here.
How much money are you willing to invest in this?
Do you expect to use this rack for any things that are not included
in the CCNP/CCIE blueprints.
For example, you look at the CCNP blueprint,
and you see a listing of features and protocols right there.
But at this point in time you know enough about networking that you
say, well I've heard there's something out there called DMVPN and,
although at the CCNP level I have to know at a real high level why
someone would use DMVPN and maybe just a paragraph or two describing
what some of the overall features are that make up DMVPN,
at the CCNP level they don't expect you to know how to configure
it or troubleshoot DMVPN but maybe you personally,
you want to do that, you want to try that out.
Well, okay, that's something you'd have to factor in.
Can you answer that question, are there any features or protocols
that you already are somewhat aware of that you're going to want
to use this rack to play with that aren't necessarily part of the
blueprint that you're studying for right now?
This third bullet point is probably the most important one.
Do you have the ability to make a list of all the required features
and protocols that you plan on implementing on this rack?
Hopefully, you can. Do you effectively know how to use the IOS feature
navigator? When buying hardware, one of the things you're going to
have to know in advance, is what version and what feature sets of
software will support the features and protocols that I want to use,
and which ones won't?
And chances are you probably don't know that off the top of your
head. So by going to the IOS feature navigator,
you can discover that information, you can learn it.
So you make sure that you buy a router or a switch that's got the
correct software, because once again, remember what my assumption
is here. My assumption is, you don't have access to Cisco IOS
images, you are not a Cisco customer.
The only way you're going to get Cisco IOS images is by buying a
piece of hardware on eBay or somewhere else that already has the
IOS loaded on it.
And you're going to pull your hair out of the roots if you buy
a router only to discover that the IOS is on there doesn't do what
you need it to do.
You're going to want to make sure that before you plap down any money
on any equipment you know exactly what feature set is running
on that router or on that switch, and that that feature set will
support what you want to do.
Can you find or understand Cisco data sheets?
You know, one of the most frustrating, complicated things to do when
putting a rack together deals with serial interfaces,
because Cisco's got a dozen different kinds of serial interface.
I'm talking about the physical way a serial interface looks.
Some of them have 9 PINs, some of them are big,
monstrous things with 30 PINs.
There's all sorts of different form factors of serial interfaces.
And you have to know, if I'm going to buy this particular network
module, or this particular WIC card that's got a serial interface
in my router, what is the actual form factor of that serial interface?
What kind of serial cable goes with that so I can buy the correct
serial cable? A serial interface won't do you any good if you've
got the wrong cable that doesn't physically plug into it.
Finding a Cisco data sheet on that network module,
or on that WIC card, is the best way to answer that question.
What's the physically form factor of that serial interface?
What kind of cable does Cisco provide that connects to that?
And then the last question.
Do you consider IOS 15.x mandatory in your home lab?
In today's world I think the CCNA - definitely the CCNP,
and the CCIE, and I think the CCNA as well - are based on 15.x IOS.
Does that mean that when you're putting a lab together,
you have to make sure that every single piece of hardware you buy,
supports 15.x?
Are you just going to be totally messed up and left out in the wind
to dry if you don't do that?
It depends. If you're trying to put a lab together to practice your
CCNP - at CCNP level stuff - not really that important.
It's helpful, but you're actually going to find yourself spending
a little bit more money to get the devices that support the 15 code.
There's a lot more devices available and they're a lot less expensive
that support the older 12 code.
And at the CCNP, that's probably okay.
It's really once you get to the CCIE level,
especially on routing.
When you talk about the routing protocols and stuff that you have
to know about at the CCIE level, there are a lot of little nitty-gritty
commands that have changed from 12 to 15 - a lot of commands that
now have different keywords, that the structure of how you type the
command in is a little bit different, that the output you see is
a little bit different.
Once again, at the CCNP level, not so much,
but the CCIE level, yeah.
Especially with the routing stuff, that's where it would really behoove
you to get routers at least that are running 15 code.
I personally don't think you really have to worry about getting switches
that run 15 code.
Pretty much all the features you need to know about on switches -
private VLANs, private access lists, VACLs and RACLs - those are
all doable in 12 versions of IOS.
Here's the reality, here's the reality of the situation - even at
the CCIE level.
Nowadays when you go to take the CCIE lab,
the lab is all based on virtual equipment.
Back when I took the CCIE lab, I actually had a physical rack of
equipment in front of me of routers and switches that I had to cable
and plug into.
That's not the case anymore.
Nowadays the routers and the switches in the CCNA lab are all virtualized.
What does that mean to you?
The virtual version of software that Cisco uses for their virtual
switches is very limited.
It doesn't support a lot of stuff, and I'm talking about - for those
of you who are familiar, I'm talking about - something called L2IOU,
Layer 2 IOU, which is what they use in their switches there.
L2IOU to the last time I looked, still is lacking a lot of feature
support that you'd find in a real switch,
like some of the security features like dynamic ARP inspection and
DHCP snooping and stuff like that isn't really supported in the virtual
IOS. It's still only supported in the real IOS.
So, as far as switches are concerned, don't worry about it.
12.something is perfectly fine.
As far as routers are concerned, yeah.
If you've got the money and you can find a router that supports 15.x,
that's probably good because then the lab you're building right now
not only will work for CCNP, but will still work for you when you
go on to the CCIE level.
Let's see here.
So some additional notes I've got for myself here.
In the prepare stage, so at the prepare stage of PPDIOO,
the end result of this stage when you're building a home-based lab
is just a detailed listing
on like Word or Excel or something of all the protocols and features
that you'll need for your lab to support.
So that's what you're trying to build right here,
a list of all the protocols and features for your lab.
Now, next to each one of those protocols and features.
Like let's say you've got on that list,
I want frame relay, I want BGP, I want IPv6 for OSPF,
and you just build a list like that.
Now, next to each one of those things, you should list some additional
things. For example, is there any particular hardware you're going
to need to support that protocol?
For example, if you say frame relay, next to it you should write
serial interfaces.
If you build a lab of nothing but Ethernet interfaces,
you're not going to be able to do frame relay.
You're going to need serial interfaces.
If one of the protocols you want to practice is VLAN Trunking
for example. Well, if you buy a really old Cisco 2500 series router
that only has 10 MB Ethernet interface,
you're not going to be able to trunk to that router,
because trunking requires that a router has at least a FastEthernet
interface or higher.
That's a hardware requirement to do trunking.
So those are some examples of that.
So here at the Prepare stage, you're not yet at the point where you're
saying, I need a 29/61.
or, I need a network module - an NM-4A/S.
You're not there yet.
Right now, all you're doing is listing out your protocols and features
that you're going to want to play with - that you probably got from
the blueprint, or the route, or the switch,
or the CCIE - and then next to them, you're porting just at a real
high level, general characteristics of hardware you'll need - if
any; maybe there's not anything - that you'll need to support that
particular protocol.
Another thing you're going to want to list is,
what's the minimum quantity of devices that you would need to play
with this protocol?
For example, if the VLAN trunking protocol of VTP is something you
want to play with, you can't do that with just one switch.
You're going to have to get at least two switches to support that.
So that's one thing you'd put in there.
If you're talking about frame relay, at a minimum you would need
two routers with serial interfaces.
If you wanted to do back to back frame relay,
that would be your minimum you would need to support that particular
protocol or feature.
What's the minimum version of IOS needed to support this feature?
Like I said, vast majority - probably 90-95% of what you're going
to want to play around with - will be supported at some version of
12 software, like 12.4 T, or something like that.
That's where using the Cisco IOS feature navigator will answer that
question. Here at the prepare stage, when you're done that's what
you should have.
You should have a document or spreadsheet that lists all that stuff
out - the protocols you want to play with and at a real high level,
what they're dependencies are.
What hardware you're going to need.
What kinds of interfaces.
What the minimum quantity of chassis you'll need,
or the minimum quantity of interfaces you'll need to support each
one of those features.
Let me take a quick pause here and just catch up and make sure
there's not a gazillion questions I need to answer.
Someone here is mentioning Packet Tracer.
I've looked into Packet Tracer, but from what I've seen Packet Tracer
- now remember, I'm talking about legally,
what you can get your hands on legally - legally speaking from Cisco's
perspective, Packet Tracer is only supposed to be available to people
who are going through the Cisco Networking Academy,
or you're a Network Academy instructor.
As far as I know, those are the only legal approved methods by Cisco
to get a hold of the Packet Tracer software,
so that's why I'm not including it in this presentation right here.
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