Back from Vacation

So I'm finally back from my month long vacation. Planning on taking the R/S written before the end of the month.

Lab setup update

Finally ordered three 2611XM routers. Now working on getting three 3725's. Also bought a little 851W for home..it's pretty nice but a pain to setup the wireless on it.

CCIE RS Rack Setup

I have been looking around to find some good deals on Cisco equipment to update my old CCIE Rack to CCIE RS version 4. After days of online research and talking to several different folks, I have decided to go with the following upgrade:

1. Replace current 2610/2611/2620 routers with the 2611XM 128M/32M (these will be R1, R2, and R3).
2. Get three Cisco 3725 routers (R4, R5, and R6).
3. Keep the current 3X Cisco 2500 series as backbones.
4. Keep the current 4X 3550 switches with EMI IOS.
5. Keep the current 2610 (already setup as a frame relay switch).

Average price for 2611XM with 128M RAM and 32M Flash is around $130 on Ebay (around $400 for three). As for the 3725's with 256/128 memory configuration, the average is about $200-$225 which is still way better than the $450-$500 price tag of 1841's.

IPexpert is a NO GO

Won't be getting the IPexpert stuff anymore as they changed their pricing for August.I have decided to stick with INE for now and will be ordering their Advanced technologies class along with the latest labs.

IPExpert

So I finally convinced my boss to order the IPexpert CCIE VOD class and the latest workbooks. Given that we are a Microsoft shop (systems/apps department), it was a big thing for me to be able to get it approved. I'm waiting for the DVD's to arrive so I can start on the MPLS stuff. One thing that they don't cover in the video classes is the troubleshooting portion of the lab...but the workbooks sure do have the troubleshooting area.

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Dynamips....

I'm not really digging dynamips as much as I thought I would. It seems to hangup every so often and the only option is to kill everything and start again. I'm looking around for some good deals on a few 2600XM and a couple of 1800/2800 series routers.

Dynamips Setup

Downloaded and installed Dynamips. Had to play around a bit to figure out why it wasn't working the right way. Turns out that I had to move the dynamips folder from the default installation directory of "c:\program files (x86)\dynamips" to "c:\program files\dynamips" (yes, I'm using 64bit Windows 7) before it worked properly. Finding out and saving the idlepc value was pretty straight forward BUT getting the loopback interface to work properly is a pain. I'm not sure if the issue is realted to Windows 7 or something stupid on my part. Will post once it's fixed...

CCIE RS Anyone :)

So I've finally decided to start studying for the CCIE R/S again for the 50th time :) I'm hoping that this time around I will be able to keep my study schedule and finally prepare for the new R/S v4. I've alreday attempted the lab about three times now (in 2008) without any luck. This time I plan on using Dynamips as I can't afford to upgrade the hardware per CCIE R/S V4 blueprint. I will be updating the blog as much as I can to help others who are in the same boat as me and in the process, learn and keep up with my own progress.

S. M