Re: DC study recomendation

GAURAV MADAN wrote:
> Hi there !
>
> Its been almost 3 years since I have actually posted on this group .. But
> now I am thinking of starting this all over again . Hence I would like to
> have recommendations on
>
> 1) How and where to start DC studies ? I wont mind attempting CCNP DC first
> before actually getting on to CCIE level . The fact is that I am total
> fresher in this domain ( while I have descent experience in RS and SP
> fields)
     If you are new to this field, it may be a good idea to start with
some CCNP DC materials. Since some of the topics are specific to DC (I'm
thinking in particular of storage and UCS), going through CCNP-DC could
give you a start with those topics, and let you know where you need to
study more.
     I did start with CCNP-DC, and it really helped. For example, the UF
(unified fabric) materials gave me a good foundation for FC - something
which I (as a routing/switching person) was severely lacking.

> 2) I always prefer VoDs as a quick learning approach .So if there are any
> please point to the same
     I, personally, have used VoDs from INE. But IPExpert also has VoDs,
and I am sure there are also other vendors out there.

> 3) Practice resources ? Again since I am not from this domain ; I have to
> rely on outside world for hardware . So recommendations here are welcomed .
     This, for me, was the biggest hurdle. It is incredibly difficult to
get equipment to practice on - real gear is incredibly expensive to buy,
and rack rentals are booked for months in advance.

     If you are lucky enough to work for a Cisco partner, I HIGHLY
recommend you first take a look at PEC (the Partner Education
Connection). The labs there are really well done, and you can get real
hands-on practice with almost anything you can think of (OTV,
FabricPath, FCIP, UCS B-series, FCoE, etc, etc, etc).

     For rack rentals, I have used equipment from INE and IPExpert. They
both have their advantages and disadvantages:

     1) IPExpert - I have only used the mock lab topology. The
technology labs are very new, and I do not know too much about them...
     Advantage: big lab (you get access to a lot of equipment at once),
and pretty much unrestricted. You can create your own VDCs, and try out
anything you want.
     Disadvantages: being unrestricted also means some... unpleasant
surprises. More than once I spent the first several minutes of my rack
rental opening tickets to support and asking "how do I get access to
device X? The default password has been changed to something else".
     Also, they seem to be booked solid for months in advance (3 months
- at least I think that's how far in the future their calendar goes?).

     2) INE
     Advantage: they have added some new equipment lately, so it is much
easier to find a free slot. Unfortunately, that seems to only apply
Nexus switching - as soon as you try to add UCS-B or SAN to your rack
rental, the first available slot you find is still two months in the
future...
     Disadvantages: the automation still has some issues. From RDP
connections that disconnect every 3 to 5 minutes, to configurations that
will not load on the devices (making UCS labs next to impossible). For
me, all this culminated in losing a 5.5 hour rental, just a few days
before my lab exam, because of a "scheduler malfunction". Yes, I did get
my tokens back from support, but I was unable to reschedule the rental
in time.
     Also, the topology is somewhat more restricted. You generally have
access to a single VDC (and cannot create/delete/edit other VDCs), and
you cannot access all the features (if I recall correctly, one such
exception is FabricPath - I was not allowed to activate the feature on
the 5Ks).

     If anyone from INE is reading this: you really, REALLY should think
about finding an alternative to those "RDP-in-a-browser" thingies. They
are EXCRUCIATINGLY slow (making any lab that involves a GUI - such as
UCS - a real pain! Especially when combined with the inability to load
saved configurations). And they disconnect every several minutes.
     Give me a regular RDP connection, where I can at least change some
settings to make it less painful to use over a slow, high-delay
connection (change the screen resolution, change quality settings, etc).
To secure it, you could use a VPN, or a port forwarding that's created
as needed, only for the duration of that particular rental...

-- 
Bogdan Sass
CCA-XD5,LPIC-1,VCP5-DT,2xCCIE #22221 (RS,DC)
Information Systems Security Professional
"Curiosity was framed - ignorance killed the cat"
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net