The first two CCIE Data Center Full Scale Labs are now available on the INE Members Site, with more labs currently in development. Click here for the direct link to them. These labs are included with any purchase of the CCIE Data Center Technology Lab Online Workbook, so if you currently have access to the Nexus and UCS Technology Labs, then you also have access to these new Full Scale Labs.
These labs use a separate topology from the Nexus and UCS Technology Labs, and this topology will be available for public rack rentals starting July 1st. In brief, this new topology is as follows:
- 1 x Nexus 7010 with M132XP and F132XP line cards
- 2 x Nexus 5548UPs
- 2 x MDS 9200s
- 2 x UCS 6248 Fabric Interconnects
- 1 x UCS B 5108 Blade Chassis
- 2 x UCS B200 M2 Blade Servers
- 1 x UCS C200 Rack Mount Server
- 1 x Catalyst 3750G
- Fibre Channel SAN
More specific details for the topology will be available when the rack rentals go public. Beta access to these racks will be running the week of June 24th. If you would like to beta test the new rack rentals and these full scale labs please send me an email at bmcgahan@ine.com. Please include in the email when your lab date is scheduled, as I will be prioritizing beta access based on people who have their lab exams coming up first.
These labs are similar in format to what you may already be familiar with as our “Volume 2″ labs for other tracks, however for simplicity both the Technology Labs and the Full Scale Labs are packaged together as one product, so you don’t have to buy them separately. In the near future you will also see our other tracks, e.g. R&S, Security, Voice/Collaboration, etc. go this route with a single lab “workbook” that covers both the individual technologies and combined technologies, and they will be delivered through our new online content system.
Each labs starts with a set of initial configurations and a logical topology:
Labs are broken down into four major sections, which are Data Center Infrastructure, Data Center Storage Networking, Unified Computing, and Data Center Virtualization. Each of these sections contains individual tasks which are assigned separate point values, similar to the format of the actual CCIE Lab Exam.
Solutions for each of the labs feature the configuration broken down on a task by task basis:
Verification sections guide you as to which show, debug, etc. commands you can run to ensure that the devices are configured properly. The verification sections also highlight the specific relevant output, and contain explanations about the specific configurations and outputs.
For UCS related tasks, screenshots of the UCSM GUI walk you step-by-step through the configuration of each of the required tasks, and include any relevant explanations as to why this solution was chosen over other possible solutions.
As previously mentioned, more labs will continue to be added to the Full Scale Labs section of the workbook, and will automatically show up in the table of contents when posted.
