Recommendations on Cisco Routers for physical home lab?

[velvettripy]

Hey Everyone,

Currently studying for my CCNP ENCOR exam and I've began building a physical lab because I already had some equipment.

So far I've got:

3x Cisco 3750x Layer 3 Switches. 1x Cisco 2960-S Layer 2 Switch.

And I plan on getting two more 2960-S switches.

Here's my question,

Which Cisco Routers should I purchase for CCNP labbing?

And how many Routers should I purchase?

Note:

I know I could go the GNS3/ EVE-NG/CML route.

But my current Desktop is old and only has 8Gb of RAM...

And I'd rather drop some money on a few physical routers (even if they're older used routers from eBay) to add to my physical home lab, that allows me to work with real equipment, than spend $700+ on a used Server so that I can use GNS3/EVE.

Although that is something I'd like to do later down the line, right now I'd prefer to get some physical routers to go with my switches.

[balaji.bandi]

You can try Router 2800 which help you - since you looking Physical Lab.

As my experience - its good to have hands on Physical Lab - But think about Power / Noise at home very high these devices.

As the technology become day by day changing, going Virtual always help you - so the home Server or workstation help you to learn other vendors for Labbing, not restricted to cisco.

The choice is yours - I had full CCIE Rack way back, the power bill gone £100+ pounds, Once i moved to Workstation, it has come down to £20-30, and i could able to do other PoC and Labs in same Workstation.

[M02@rt37]

Hello @velvettripy 

Building a physical lab for CCNP ENCOR is a great initiative, and it's fantastic that you already have a set of switches !!!

For your router needs, you can consider Cisco ISR models that are suitable for CCNP-level labs.

- Cisco 2800 Series:

Models like the 2821 or 2851 can be cost-effective choices for CCNP labs. They support a variety of features required for CCNP studies.

- Cisco 2900 Series:

Models like the 2911 or 2921 are newer and offer enhanced performance compared to the 2800 series. They are still relatively affordable and provide good support for CCNP-level labs.

- Cisco 4300 Series:

Models like the ISR 4321 or 4331 are more modern routers with higher performance. While they might be a bit more expensive, they offer additional capabilities that could be beneficial for more advanced scenarios.

- Cisco 1900 Series (if cost is a significant concern

Models like the 1941 are older but can still be useful for basic CCNP lab scenarios. However, they may have limitations in terms of features compared to the newer series.

As for the number of routers, having at least three routers would be ideal for practicing dynamic routing protocols, redundancy, and other advanced topics. With three routers, you can simulate different network segments and practice routing between them.

Consider looking for second-hand network equipment sellers. Before purchasing, ensure that the routers come with the necessary licenses for features you plan to practice, and make sure they support the IOS version required for your studies.

[Ramblin Tech]

Physical routers purchased on the secondary/used market (eg, ebay) also have the thorny issue of software licensing. The seller has no legal right to include the IOS software with the hardware purchase, as the software was only licensed to the original hardware purchaser, with Cisco retaining all rights to the software. Including the IOS software in the hardware purchase is a copyright violation on the part of the seller of the used equipment (though including IOS in flash memory happens all the time). Operating the hardware without a valid license is a violation on the part of the purchaser of the used equipment. Legally, the purchaser of the used equipment must obtain a valid software license from Cisco in order to operate IOS.

That said, is anyone in Cisco's legal department coming after a home lab user? No, as there is no business case for doing so. Might they come after the seller? Maybe, if the seller has an ongoing business that rises above the noise level. How will Cisco deal with the issue over time? Smart Licensing. New Cisco gear tends to be crippled without a valid Smart License installed.

Where does that leave home lab users? Obsolete hardware usually is supported by software without Smart License enforcement coded into it. Home lab users will be boxed into obsolete hardware running ancient software versions. If home lab users want to run newer IOS versions, then they will need to purchase Smart Licenses, or... go virtual. The cost of hardware + software licenses will quickly eclipse that of a virtual environment, and CML comes with relatively modern IOS/XE/XR/NXOS versions that are licensed to execute in CML. Neither GNS3 nor EVE-NG include licensed versions of Cisco software, so with those environments you are back to running pirated versions of software as you would be with used, unlicensed hardware.

Why not go virtual rather than physical? The CCIE lab exam went virtual years ago and network engineers working in cloud environments need virtualization skills.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

"But my current Desktop is old and only has 8Gb of RAM..."

You cannot add RAM?  Possible a relatively inexpensive way to allow you to run a memory hog emulator.

[Leo Laohoo]

@velvettripy

How much are you willing to spend?

NOTE:  My response is to elicit a response from the bot scrubber.  

[paul driver]

Hello
Although a physical lab is great to study with, you are basically stuck to that individual piece of equipment and in most cases additional expense building it up to take the relevant IOS firmware , plus the cabling, modules, power and most importantly Noise!

Nowadays we are blessed with simulation vms (EVE-NG -CML) which opens up exposure to not only cisco but other networking platforms and the overhaul expenditure is far less than building a physical lab.

I would strongly invest in simulation labs, the only serious expense would be the procurement of a barebones high end pc/server that has a lot of ram (min 128gb) and dual/multiple cpu cores (£600 + approx) then on top of that would be a yearly subscription to CML or professional version of EVE, or even a free standard version of EVE.

For there on you have a setup that will help with your CNNP or even future CCIE studies.