₦airaland Forum

Good Day Nairalanders,
For those that are interested in Cisco Networking and its technologies like I am, and are interested in being in a study group, I have just created a Cisco Nigeria study group on Skype. I have noticed that despite the fact there are many Nigerians who are Cisco certified Engineers in the different tracks that Cisco provides, there exists no study group or social media avenues where Nigerians interested and want to train or are currently training to learn the Cisco Technologies can interact, exchange ideas, give useful advice and opinions, share resources and materials and most especially learn from each other.

I have decided to create a Cisco Nigeria study group on Skype for anyone that is interested in the idea, I believe this will be a very good avenue especially for those that are thinking of a career path in Cisco Networking as materials and information can be shared via Skype.

A Little About My Journey With Cisco:
I am currently studying for the CCNP Voice which soon will be (CCNP Collaboration) and have got all the materials that I need. I am using INE as my Online Trainers and have a subscription with them that will be expiring next month. I am hoping to meet Nigerians- aspiring students that want to build a career in Cisco networking but don’t know where to start, those that have already started and currently training with one of the Online I.T training companies like me, Nigerian Cisco practicing engineers and other network engineers and the likes.

To Join the study group, all you need to do is log in to your skype account and search for Cisco Nigeria Study group. Hope to meet you guyz there or go to the link https://join.skype.com/nPPMsyP

Nice one! I'm also studying and working with Cisco voice in my office. I 'll be happy to join.

That's nice, add me on skype
skype name:incrediblestev

amarawa:
Nice one! I'm also studying and working with Cisco voice in my office. I 'll be happy to join.

Introducing The Next Generation Network Simulation System…


We all have our own lab full of high-end routing equipment ready and waiting for when we need it. If only it were that simple! A major part of a network engineer’s time is spent waiting to get ‘hands on’ with the lab network equipment. Then there’s the time spent cabling and configuring and finding that mistyped subnet mask.

But imagine what you could do if those network resources were available at a click of a button. What if network engineers had the same capabilities as software engineers, with the ability to create virtualized environments with high fidelity?

Used by engineers across Cisco, VIRL is a network simulation system based on OpenStack, along with virtual Cisco router running IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR and NXOS network operating systems, as well as IOS Layer-2 switching and ASA firewall functionality. With the VM Maestro GUI, you can quickly create network topologies and have the router and switch configurations built using AutoNetkit. Then, with a single click, start the simulation. The network topology is realized as a running network of VMs, each of which is an instance of a Cisco NOS representing a switch or routing platform, orchestrated by OpenStack.


Cisco VIRL In Detail
Cisco VIRL Personal Edition annual subscription license provides a scalable, extensible network design and simulation environment with several Cisco Network Operating Systems. This includes IOSv, IOSvL2, IOS XRv, NX-OSv, CSR1000v and ASA1000v virtual machines as well as third party images such as Ubuntu Linux.

Educational pricing is available for this product for college students, parents buying for a college student, or teachers, homeschool teachers and staff of all grade levels – limited to one purchase.

VIRL enables users to:

• Build highly-accurate models of real-world or future networks.

• Learn and test with ‘real’ versions of Cisco network operating systems – IOS, IOS XR, IOS XE, NX-OS and ASA.

• Integrate virtual network simulations with real network environments.

• The download includes VIRL Personal Edition 1.0 Pre-Release software with a single-user annual license to manage up to 15 Cisco nodes.

Read about the virtual OS feature support list here:

• For IOSv: http://community.dev-innovate.com/t/iosv-more-info/633

• For IOSvL2: http://community.dev-innovate.com/t/iosvl2-more-info-updated-4-26-15/3279

• For IOS-XRv: http://community.dev-innovate.com/t/ios-xrv-more-info/631

• For NX-OSv: http://community.dev-innovate.com/t/nxosv-more-info/632

• For CSR1000v: http://community.dev-innovate.com/t/csr1000v-more-info/630

Requirements
Verify that your PC or laptop meets the following minimum requirements:

• Host system must be able to access the Internet on a regular basis (TCP ports 4505 & 4506 outbound enabled on any firewall/proxy)

• Four CPU cores and 8GB of DRAM that can be allocated to the VIRL VM (more resources allows for larger simulations)

• Intel VT-x / EPT or AMD-V / RVI virtualization extensions present and enabled in the BIOS

• 50GB of free disk space for installation

• VM Maestro User Interface client requires Java JRE 6+ to be installed

You must purchase and install one of the following supported Hypervisors in order to run Cisco VIRL.:

• VMware Fusion Pro v5.02 or later (including v6.x or v7.x)

• VMware Workstation v8.04 or later (including v9.x and 10.x)

• VMware Player v5.02 or later*** (including v6.x)

• ESXi 5.1 / 5.5 using the vSphere Client: ESXi 5.1U2 (Build 1483097) or ESXi 5.5U1 (Build 1623387)****

These Hypervisors are not included as part of Cisco VIRL and must be purchased separately.

For non-Hypervisor installations (Bare-metal) verify that you PC or Laptop meets the following minimum requirements:

• Host system must be able to access the Internet periodically

• Four CPU cores and 8GB of DRAM – more resources allows for larger simulations

• Intel VT-x / EPT or AMD-V / RVI virtualization extensions present and enabled in the BIOS

• 50GB of free disk space for installation

• Ability to boot .ISO image or attach the ISO via an integrated management interface (such as the Cisco Integrated Management Controller)

• VM Maestro User Interface client requires Java JRE 6+ to be installed


***VMware Player

***VMware Player – Note:

VIRL provides the capability to link both the management- and data-plane interfaces of nodes within a simulation to external networks and devices on those networks. This connectivity requires that an interface be shared between the host PC and the VIRL virtual machine.

Both VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation provide tools to configure the required virtual networks and interfaces. VMware Player does not include such tools, so although VIRL will still operate with VMware Player, the ability to communicate over Ethernet from the PC to nodes within a simulation will be inhibited. If such direct Ethernet connectivity is desired then either VMware Fusion Pro (for Mac), VMware Workstation (Windows or Linux) is required.

Users are able to communicate with nodes within a simulation running on VMware Player using the VM Maestro ‘Telnet to console port’ or ‘ssh to Management port’ access mechanisms.


****VMware ESXi

****VMware ESXi – Note:

ESXi host MUST have Intel CPU with VT-X / EPT support. AMD processors are NOT supported.

Cisco