Solved: Looking for the right Equipment for my CCVP lab.

pabloalberto · ‎07-31-2007

I started to take CCVP classes and due to my long commute from home ot work I really dont have time to go to school for hands on practice. I want to setup a decent lab at home and need some detail information as to what equipment i showed buy.

Thanks.

Majdi Harb · ‎07-31-2007

my suggestion on Cisco Voip home lab for building knowledge and testing purposes and also getting the first step in this field without paying a lot of money, mainly if u get the following items u can cover most of Cisco Callamanger-ip telephony configuration areas and really u will be able to design and implement at least a single site Cisco ip telephony project:

1: cisco callmanager 4.x virtual machine (VMWare), install it on any capable pc or server.

2: cisco ip communicator (softphone installed on ur pc) or if u would like to work on physical ip phones, u have to buy cisco ip phones (note that it works without license for home lab purposes so don't worry about phones licensing). also to power ip phones u need either a poe switch or power adapter for each ip phone or even active patch panel (that gives power on 4,5,7,8 pins).

3: if u want to go outside (calls to pstn) in ur testings u have to buy a small series gateway (1700 is ok or start with 2800 ISR's series) download a voice grade ios. and a FXO card (say 2 ports PN: VIC2-2FXO), just plug it (RJ11) with ur telephone line box on the wall.

4: u have to start reading callmanager system and admin guides in addition to callmanager SRND.

hth

please rate helpful posts

/majdi

View solution in original post

Majdi Harb · ‎07-31-2007

my suggestion on Cisco Voip home lab for building knowledge and testing purposes and also getting the first step in this field without paying a lot of money, mainly if u get the following items u can cover most of Cisco Callamanger-ip telephony configuration areas and really u will be able to design and implement at least a single site Cisco ip telephony project:

1: cisco callmanager 4.x virtual machine (VMWare), install it on any capable pc or server.

2: cisco ip communicator (softphone installed on ur pc) or if u would like to work on physical ip phones, u have to buy cisco ip phones (note that it works without license for home lab purposes so don't worry about phones licensing). also to power ip phones u need either a poe switch or power adapter for each ip phone or even active patch panel (that gives power on 4,5,7,8 pins).

3: if u want to go outside (calls to pstn) in ur testings u have to buy a small series gateway (1700 is ok or start with 2800 ISR's series) download a voice grade ios. and a FXO card (say 2 ports PN: VIC2-2FXO), just plug it (RJ11) with ur telephone line box on the wall.

4: u have to start reading callmanager system and admin guides in addition to callmanager SRND.

hth

please rate helpful posts

/majdi

opers13 · ‎07-31-2007

Majdi,

quick question, I'm also looking into a voip home lab. Does callmanager 4.x requires a license on vmware?

So the ip phones do not require licenses at all? How about if integrating the ip phone to let say my Vonage box?

If license is an issue with callmanager 4.x, how about running callmanager express 4.x on a 2611xm router? I have the IOS and CM express 4.x softwares, haven't installed yet...does CM express requires a license?

Has anyone got their Vonage box to work with CM using the ip phones? I think it can be done...but I'm not really sure what to do.

thanks

opers13

Majdi Harb · ‎07-31-2007

hi opers13

if it was a CCM 5.x and later u will be enforced to get the phone licenses, u can't add a phone in CCM admin page if u don't have a license budget, but in CCM 4.x and pre-CCM4.x it is not, where technically u can add ur cisco sccp phones in CCM administration page and they work fine either on VM CCM 4.x or real CCM 4.x, but in real environment it is not legal to not buy a license (note that in CCM 4.x and prior u can only use cisco sccp phones there is no support for 3rd party sip phones like CCM 5.x and later)

for CME 4.x the same thing, You have to purchase SRST license even there is no license enforcement.. it is a legality issue...

i mean if u have an IOS that supports SRST just start call-manager-fallback menus!

hth

/majdi