Need crash-course in MPLS - want to build lab simulation - equipment?

[Brett Tesdall]

Hi, all,

I've been given the task of helping to deploy a brand-new MPLS between two sites (adding a third later on).  My experience up to now with MPLS is at a general understanding, and I have deployed new routers on an existing MPLS with some assistance (i.e. script).  Now I am needing to be able to deploy this myself and learn how the routing, OSPF, BGP, etc interact.  The two sites are also going to each have local internet connections for basic web browsing, not for a VPN failover tunnel, however, if the internet fails at one site, it should fail over to routing this traffic over the MPLS and out the other site's internet.

Anyway, I'm wanting to put together a hardware lab to play with this stuff and looking for recommendations on what I should get.  I've been looking at various hardware setups on eBay and other places.  We're going to be using 2901's as the routers in both sites and 2960's as the switches.  I'd like to use hardware as close in functionality to these devices but much more affordable, like possibly 1841's or 2801's and 2960 switches.  Will these devices work, and how many of each would I need to properly simulate this environment on my desktop?

Thanks!

[Karsten Iwen]

Some time ago there was the official training MPLS which was part of the CCIP. The lab consists of 17 router which lets you practice many aspects of MPLS. I replicated the lab in GNS3 and had that running on a 2008 MacBookPro with 4Gig of RAM. You can download the GNS-files here:

http://security-planet.de/2009/02/22/training-implementing-cisco-mpls/

The page is in german, but google translate should work for it.

[Brett Tesdall]

I've downloaded GNS3, and found that the Integrated Services Routers like the 2901 or, presumably, the 1841's or 2801's are unsupported for emulation in GNS3.  I think it's due to the CPU's in those units or something.  I'd like to work with devices as close to what will be deployed in the production MPLS as possible.

[Karsten Iwen · Accepted solution]

The config on the 2900 (ISR G2), 2800 (ISR G1 )and the 7200 in GNS3 will be pretty much the same. The only difference is that on the ISR G2 (your 2900) you can run a more recent IOS version with more or newer features. But for learning MPLS, the most affordable way will be GNS3.

[Brett Tesdall]

I took another stab at this with GNS3 and have had pretty good success at it.

Thanks!