RE: Dynagen folks...

From: Scott Vermillion (scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com)
Date: Sat Sep 01 2007 - 14:01:05 ART


Joe,

I know you're busy preparing for your upcoming lab, so you've probably
been ignoring my "blog" over on the board. With much help from the
Brians, I have a Dynamips-based router server up and running with four
physical 3560 switches. So I can indeed have two "routers" talking over
a multi-hop dot1q trunk chain.

I suppose you have a point on the interface problem thing. I don't wish
that on anybody during their lab. Sure, it's an everyday thing that you
might have to deal with in real life, but I think the lab has enough
built-in stress w/out that kind of nonsense!

Regards,

Scott

  -------- Original Message --------
  Subject: RE: Dynagen folks...
  From: "Joseph Brunner" <joe@affirmedsystems.com>
  Date: Sat, September 01, 2007 3:52 am
  To: "'Scott Vermillion'" <scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com>, "'Cisco
  certification'" <ccielab@groupstudy.com>

  Things that can go wrong with the real gear, and only with the real
  gear...

  Will burn your time bad in the real lab to try and fix (loops, bad
  interfaces, two routers talking together through 3 switches over a
  dot1q-tunnel, etc)

  I'm not saying you can't learn the technologies on the dynagen, but
  I'm
  saying spend some practices sessions on a full 10 piece rack.

  That's all

  Happy Dynagening...

  -Joe

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf
  Of
  Scott Vermillion
  Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 12:38 AM
  To: Cisco certification
  Subject: RE: Dynagen folks...

  I am a true Dynamips/Dynagen believer and have built my lab prep
  "rack"
  around it/them. Please explain, Joe, how I will fail the CCIE lab
  because of it ("nothing else can prepare you for the real thing")?
  What
  is it about that "feel" that makes the difference (can you go "feel"
  the
  routers during the practical? Can you "feel" the routers in that
  remote
  rack?)?

  This has the potential to become the next "CCIE vs. college degree"
  topic, me thinks. It's probably not a very good use of bandwidth,
  come
  to think of it LOL, but I can't resist asking you to elaborate on
  these
  seemingly unfounded generalizations. I would prefer that you answer
  with
  "I have hardware routers and I also run Dynamips/Dynagen on a machine
  of
  sufficient horsepower, and here are the things I can do on the former
  that I can't do on the latter *that matter in the lab* (i.e. don't
  tell
  me about toggling the power switch...yawn...you can't do that in the
  lab
  anyway by all accounts I've ever heard).

  I'll start, going the opposite direction:

  I run Dynamips/Dynagen on a machine of sufficient horsepower, and I
  can
  directly capture traffic from a router interface into a .cap file and
  scrutinize every one and zero using open source WireShark. When I
  want
  to do that w/ physical routers, I have to use Ethernet (no serial)
  and
  set up a span port on a switch or put a hub in between the two
  routers,
  with a machine running WireShark hanging off of the hub (and I'm
  obviously in HDX at this point, which means the test environment is
  different than the non-test environment). Otherwise, I'm limited to
  only
  debug. I, of course, acknowledge that you're limited to only debug in
  the lab, but in your preparation for the lab, it's powerful to have
  such
  a tool at your disposal so that you can truly understand what's going
  on
  under the hood when you see certain debug output.

  BTW, I'm told Juniper has this capability to write .cap files on
  physical
  routers, but I cannot personall y verify. I have never heard of such
  a
  capability on Cisco routers, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

  There are more, of course, but I've already stated many of them in
  other
  recent threads and posts...

  -------- Original Message --------
  Subject: Dynagen folks...
  From: "Joseph Brunner" <joe@affirmedsystems.com>
  Date: Fri, August 31, 2007 9:53 pm
  To: "'Cisco certification'" <ccielab@groupstudy.com>

  Nothing feels as good as the real thing. And else nothing can prepare
  you
  for the real thing.

  (Remember if you only have had sex with a condom, your still a
  virgin, LOL)

  Check out the Brian's racks!

  http://www.affirmedsystems.com/photos/IERACKS.JPG

  Rack12R6#sh vers

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