What sets the CCIE certification so far apart from the numerous other certifications available in the IT industry? A grueling 8-hour practical lab exam that takes countless hours of book study, real world experience, and hands on configuration experience to pass, of course!

While many engineers have significant experience configuring and troubleshooting Cisco equipment in live production environments, the knowledge accumulated through this process is typically not enough on its own to pass the CCIE lab exam. So if this knowledge isn't enough, then what else is required? Simple… practice, practice, practice! (and don't forget to practice). So the next logical question is… where do I get the equipment to practice?

Some of the most common questions we receive as CCIE instructors and authors of CCIE content are "What type of equipment do I need to prepare for the CCIE lab?" "Should I rent rack time or should I buy my own equipment?" While the answers to these questions will depend on a number of factors, such as which CCIE tracks you plan on tackling, where you are located in the world, what other resources you have access to through work or school, this document can be used as a general boilerplate specification for building a rack of lab equipment to prepare for the Routing & Switching CCIE Lab exam within the scope of the INE line of CCIE preparation products.

One of the main advantages of using the INE product line of CCIE preparation products is that the physical lab topology for all of our products is the same. This means that no matter which Routing & Switching product you are using you will not need additional devices in your rack, and furthermore you won't even need to change the cabling once your rack is setup, ever!

Platforms Used

To start with let's examine the general specification we at Internetwork Expert use for our topology. The topology consists of two portions, devices within the candidate's control, and backbone or external devices whose configurations never change and are not within the candidate's control. The devices that the candidate configures include 6 routers of various platforms, two Catalyst 3550 switches, and two Catalyst 3560 switches. The external devices that the candidate does not configure include a Frame Relay switch, three backbone routers for injecting routing information, and a terminal server/access server.

Below you will find a table that lists the specific platforms that we use for our own development purposes. If you were to buy all of the devices listed below your topology would match ours exactly, however this option will typically not be cost effective for most candidates.

Device	Our Platform	Modules	RAM	Flash
R1	2610XM	2 - WIC-1T	128	32*
R2	2610XM	2 - WIC-1T	128	32*
R3	2611XM	1 - NM-4A/S	128	32
R4	1841	2 - WIC-1T	256	64
R5	1841	2 - WIC-1T	256	64
R6	1841	1 - WIC-1T	256	64
SW1	Catalyst 3560-24TS-E	N/A	N/A	N/A
SW2	Catalyst 3560-24TS-E	N/A	N/A	N/A
SW3	Catalyst 3550-24 EMI	N/A	N/A	N/A
SW4	Catalyst 3550-24 EMI	N/A	N/A	N/A
BB1 / Frame Relay Switch	2522	N/A	16	16
BB2	2501	N/A	16	16
BB3	2501	N/A	16	16
Access Server	2511**	N/A	16	16

* 2511 comes in two models, 2511 and 2511-RJ. 2511 uses two 68-pin SCSI II cables, also known as "octal cables" that convert the 68-pin female to 8 x RJ-45s for console connections. The 2511-RJ model has 16 RJ-45 asynchronous interfaces that use RJ-45 cables wired for rollover, such as the blue Cisco console cables.

Cabling

Now that we know what platform to use in the topology let's take a look at how the devices are cabled together. Below are the diagrams of the physical cabling followed by a list of specific cables that are required to connect all the devices. Note that these diagrams exclude the cabling for the access server which would be connected to the console port of all devices and power cables.

Physical Interface Connections

Frame Relay Switch Configuration

Local Router	Local Interface	Local DLCI	Remote Router	Remote Interface	Remote DLCI
R1	S0/0	102	R2	S0/0	201
R1	S0/0	103	R3	S1/0	301
R1	S0/0	113	R3	S1/1	311
R1	S0/0	104	R4	S0/0	401
R1	S0/0	105	R5	S0/0	501
R2	S0/0	202	R1	S0/0	102
R2	S0/0	203	R3	S1/0	302
R2	S0/0	213	R3	S1/1	312
R2	S0/0	204	R4	S0/0	402
R2	S0/0	205	R5	S0/0	502
R3	S1/0	301	R1	S0/0	103
R3	S1/0	302	R2	S0/0	203
R3	S1/0	304	R4	S0/0	403
R3	S1/0	305	R5	S0/0	503
R3	S1/1	311	R1	S0/0	113
R3	S1/1	312	R2	S0/0	213
R3	S1/1	314	R4	S0/0	413
R3	S1/1	315	R5	S0/0	513
R4	S0/0	401	R1	S0/0	104
R4	S0/0	402	R2	S0/0	204
R4	S0/0	403	R3	S1/0	304
R4	S0/0	413	R3	S1/1	314
R4	S0/0	405	R5	S0/0	504
R5	S0/0	501	R1	S0/0	105
R5	S0/0	502	R2	S0/0	205
R5	S0/0	503	R3	S1/0	305
R5	S0/0	513	R3	S1/1	315
R5	S0/0	504	R4	S0/0	405
R6	S0/0/0	51	BB1	S0	51
R6	S0/0/0	100	BB1	S0	100
R6	S0/0/0	101	BB1	S0	101
R6	S0/0/0	201	BB1	S0	201
R6	S0/0/0	301	BB1	S0	301
R6	S0/0/0	401	BB1	S0	401

Ethernet Connections

Local Device	Local Interface	Remote Device	Remote Interface
R1	Fa0/0	SW1	Fa0/1
R2	Fa0/0	SW2	Fa0/2
R3	E0/0	SW1	Fa0/3
R3	E0/1	SW3	Fa0/3
R4	E0/0	SW2	Fa0/4
R4	E0/1	SW4	Fa0/4
R5	E0/0	SW1	Fa0/5
R5	E0/1	SW3	Fa0/5
R6	G0/0	SW2	Fa0/6
R6	G0/1	SW4	Fa0/6
SW1	Fa0/1	R1	Fa0/0
SW1	Fa0/3	R3	E0/0
SW1	Fa0/5	R5	E0/0
SW2	Fa0/2	R2	Fa0/0
SW2	Fa0/4	R4	E0/0
SW2	Fa0/6	R6	G0/0
SW2	Fa0/24	BB2	N/A
SW3	Fa0/3	R3	E0/1
SW3	Fa0/5	R5	E0/1
SW3	Fa0/24	BB3	N/A
SW4	Fa0/4	R4	E0/1
SW4	Fa0/6	R6	G0/1

Switch to Switch Connections

Local Switch	Local Interface	Remote Switch	Remote Interface
SW1	Fa0/13	SW2	Fa0/13
SW1	Fa0/14	SW2	Fa0/14
SW1	Fa0/15	SW2	Fa0/15
SW1	Fa0/16	SW3	Fa0/13
SW1	Fa0/17	SW3	Fa0/14
SW1	Fa0/18	SW3	Fa0/15
SW1	Fa0/19	SW4	Fa0/13
SW1	Fa0/20	SW4	Fa0/14
SW1	Fa0/21	SW4	Fa0/15
Local Switch	Local Interface	Remote Switch	Remote Interface
SW2	Fa0/13	SW1	Fa0/13
SW2	Fa0/14	SW1	Fa0/14
SW2	Fa0/15	SW1	Fa0/15
SW2	Fa0/16	SW3	Fa0/16
SW2	Fa0/17	SW3	Fa0/17
SW2	Fa0/18	SW3	Fa0/18
SW2	Fa0/19	SW4	Fa0/16
SW2	Fa0/20	SW4	Fa0/17
SW2	Fa0/21	SW4	Fa0/18
Local Switch	Local Interface	Remote Switch	Remote Interface
SW3	Fa0/13	SW1	Fa0/16
SW3	Fa0/14	SW1	Fa0/17
SW3	Fa0/15	SW1	Fa0/18
SW3	Fa0/16	SW2	Fa0/16
SW3	Fa0/17	SW2	Fa0/17
SW3	Fa0/18	SW2	Fa0/18
SW3	Fa0/19	SW4	Fa0/19
SW3	Fa0/20	SW4	Fa0/20
SW3	Fa0/21	SW4	Fa0/21
Local Switch	Local Interface	Remote Switch	Remote Interface
SW4	Fa0/13	SW1	Fa0/19
SW4	Fa0/14	SW1	Fa0/20
SW4	Fa0/15	SW1	Fa0/21
SW4	Fa0/16	SW2	Fa0/19
SW4	Fa0/17	SW2	Fa0/20
SW4	Fa0/18	SW2	Fa0/21
SW4	Fa0/19	SW3	Fa0/19
SW4	Fa0/20	SW3	Fa0/20
SW4	Fa0/21	SW3	Fa0/21

Connection	Cable Type	Number of Cables
Serial	DB-60 Male to DB-60 Male DTE/DCE Crossover	12
Ethernet	Category 5 RJ-45 Male to RJ-45 Male Straight-Through	12
Ethernet	Category 5 RJ-45 Male to RJ-45 Male Crossover	18

IOS Versions

Okay, so you finally pieced together all your equipment, every cable is wrench tight and verified working, now what do you do about IOS versions? The current specification for the Routing & Switching CCIE Lab uses a variety of IOS versions from 12.2 through 12.4. Depending on which platforms you chose to build your topology the versions and feature sets you use will vary a little bit. The specific IOS version, feature set, and image names that we use are as follows. Note that the version numbering may be slightly different that what is available now as versions are typically deferred as new releases become available:

Device	Our Platform	IOS Version	Feature Set	Filename
R1	2610XM	12.4(10)A	Advanced Enterprise Services	c2600-adventerprisek9-mz.124-10a.bin
R2	2610XM	12.4(10)A	Advanced Enterprise Services	c2600-adventerprisek9-mz.124-10a.bin
R3	2610XM	12.4(10)A	Advanced Enterprise Services	c2600-adventerprisek9-mz.124-10a.bin
R4	1841	12.4(24)T1	Advanced Enterprise Services	c1841-adventerprisek9-mz.124-24.T1.bin
R5	1841	12.4(24)T1	Advanced Enterprise Services	c1841-adventerprisek9-mz.124-24.T1.bin
R6	1841	12.4(24)T1	Advanced Enterprise Services	c1841-adventerprisek9-mz.124-24.T1.bin
SW1	3560-24TS-E	12.2(44)SE	EMI	c3560-advipservicesk9-mz.122-44.SE.bin
SW2	3560-24TS-E	12.2(44)SE	EMI	c3560-advipservicesk9-mz.122-44.SE.bin
SW3	3550-24-EMI	12.2(25)SEC2	EMI	c3550-ipservicesk9-mz.122-25.SEC2.bin
SW4	3550-24-EMI	12.2(25)SEC2	EMI	c3550-ipservicesk9-mz.122-25.SEC2.bin
BB1 / Frame Relay Switch	2522	12.2(15)T17	IP Plus	c2500-is-l.122-15.T17.bin
BB2	2501	12.2(15)T17	IP Plus	c2500-is-l.122-15.T17.bin
BB3	2501	12.2(15)T17	IP Plus	c2500-is-l.122-15.T17.bin
Access Server	2511	12.2(15)T17	IP Plus	c2500-is-l.122-15.T17.bin