CCVP & CCIE Voice Home Lab advice required

[benq20070]

Hi,

I am seeking help of experts and more experienced people at this forum to help me out deciding the voice lab that is me and group of my friends planning to put at home. The list is long and will not fit in this page with the restriction of number of characters I can post here. Please see the two attached file. One in PDF and the other is MS Word.

Appreicate your help.

Thank you.

Ben.

[paolo bevilacqua]

Hello,

the equipment you listed appears more than adequate for studying and I fact I think can be somewhat optimized budget-wise. The only thing I would add would be a PIX or ASA because beside the CCIE curricola, many customer have it in between voice endpoints.

Regarding the topology the choices are so many, the one you proposed will certainly do and then you can change as fantasy dictates.

Hope this helps, please rate post if it does!

[thisisshanky]

The attached excel spreadsheet is what i used for my lab. Hope this helps..

Sankar.

PS: please remember to rate posts!

[thisisshanky]

Forgot the attachment.

[flash2200]

Hi Ben,

I'm in the same boat as you in developing my own lab. I'm guessing you're probably aware of this but you might consider renting the equipment. Even if you don't go that route the CCIE Voice Topology diagram from www.proctorlabs.com offers a good design goal for a home lab if you don't mind signing over all your paychecks to cisco for the next few years :)

http://proctorlabs.com/PDF/Voice_4_std_top.pdf

The hardware details are listed here:

http://proctorlabs.com/racksystems/specs/ccie_voice.cfm

Cheers

[benq20070]

Hi everyone,

Thank you to all replied to my post and thank you for taking out the time and effort.

I appreciate if we do not duplicate the information. I've have already posted the diagram and the blue print of my equipment list from my spreadsheet which in fact has more detail, means you can see all the interfaces, card's names those are requried for particular routers. The links that leads to other websites where hardware list is posted do not have the detail that you can see in my list. This is exactly I mentioned in my Word doc. that everyone will give you the general list but not to the level of part's detail (interfaces, crds etc. etc.) that is required for a particular router. I am still looking for the answer of the questions I posted in my Word Doc.

I am post them again.

1. Need someone to review the equipment list and verifying that I am not missing anything even any small component.

2. Someone can provide more information on accessing the lab remotely.

3. One of the most important things related to CCIE phase is that we need to have the lab setup as close to the real environment as one can face on the big day. I know the list Cisco has on their website for the voice lab and that is very expensive. We are trying to do the setup within our available financial resources. Do you think we are meeting at least 80 to 90 % comparing to what Cisco is recommending? As you notice they are using all the 3725 series routers and we are using only at one site the 3725.

4. Is there anything someone can suggest with the less expensive lab than what I?ve listed and still can do all the labs? I was told when people use non standard approach e.g. use the ordinary Pentium 3 or 4 computers, hack the registry and install the CallManager, there are certain feature may not work. One can spend hours and hours troubleshooting without knowing that although their configuration is Ok but because they he do not have standard equipment it?s not going to work. Or another example that I knew how to run 2600XM IOS image on 2600 non-XM hardware even though the Non-XM models do not have enough Flash RAM. Our approach is to have standard setup for the CCIE as much as possible with the budget.

Thank you.

[flash2200]

I'd just mention to be careful of the IOS versions on the routers you buy since they are not specified on your list. 12.4 IOS is fine but you will need specific versions for your hardware to enable gatekeeper functionality for example. (Ie: Just because a voice gateway can act as a gateway does not mean it can act as a gatekeeper without using the appropriate flavour of IOS.)

You covered off the CCME on one router but I think you would also need SRTS on one of the branch office routers ideally. You would need to order the appropriate voice router bundle from cisco.

My two cents...

[benq20070]

Hi Flash2200,

Thank you for reminding me. It was on my mind but then slipped and did not put it on the list. You are right the IOS version suppose to be the correct one in order to support SRST. Thanks again. You did answered at least one of my question i.e. to see if I am missing any thing. Thanks again. Still waiting for other answers.

Ben.

[benq20070]

Hi,

Yes some time it is wise to rent the pod instead of having your own lab. You missed one point, we are group of friends (about 5 to 6). A simple math tells that its wise to have your own lab rather then rent the pod because if you add up the money every one is ging to pay to rent the pod it may be more or close to what we can buy our own equipment have the lab for years and unlimited access. Again it is different for an individual due to the total cost of the lab.

Here is a suggestion for others. Make a group and pool the money, have written agreement, singed by all members to handle the financial matter. We decided the memebrs will be locked in one year contract and cannot get the money back if some one wants to leave eraly. So every one can constrate on the study rather then worring if people start leavng the group and they have to pay / return the money to them.

So I suggest folks out there planning to have your own lab then come up with group.

I appreciate if we do not start debating on whether one should have a group or nto or else the focus of my request will shift :)

Thank you for your everone's consideration.

Ok back to business, waiting to see some answers for my 4 questions.

Thanks.

[benq20070]

shoot..... too many typo errors. Please ignore.

[benq20070]

Any one there can look at my request. Thanks.

Ben.

[benq20070]

Hi,

I am sure there are people in these forums who have more experience and they can help looking at this thread.

Thanks

Ben.