I just re-certified with my CCNA yesterday and since I'm kind of used to sacrificing time to study to re-cert, I think now might be the best time to move onto CCNP. Everything I did for my CCNA studies I did in either Packet Tracer or in EVE-NG, but the nodes that I have in EVE-NG are a little limited. Like I can't get anything faster than an ethernet connection on either my switch or router (I don't remember which) so trying to simulate something like route metrics doesn't really work. So I'm considering using CML. This raises a few questions.
1. If I use the "free" version of CML, it requires that I use a VPN and connect to cisco on "their" time, IE whenever I can "schedule" the time. This seems inconvenient at best, so -1 for CML Free. Does the paid personal edition require a VPN or you're actually running that on your own hardware so no silly VPN?
2. Another question regarding the "free" version of CML. If my "scheduled time" expires, but I'm not done with my lab yet, is there some way for me to "save" the lab to work on during my next "scheduled time" or do I have to build the whole lab every time I wanted to use the same lab? I'm sure I could do a show run and copy the configs but that is time consuming not to mention that wouldn't be the "physical" layout either.
3. If I used the paid personal addition, I assume that I could "save" labs? So I could have an OSPF lab and an EIGRP lab and if I decide that I needed to refresh my memory on the OSFP lab I could just load that saved file which would have all the configuration and physical layout done? At least since my last save of the lab?
4. Another question regarding the paid personal addition. Is it only accessible from the PC it's installed on? Or could I do something like buy a cheap server where CML would be "hosted" (within my home network) and then I could access it via web browser from another computer within my home network?
Thanks in advance. I'm trying to weigh the pro's and con's of spending $200 for a year of CML vs the "inconvenience" of the free version.
