Re: building the security rack ASA 5505s do the trick?

[Christian Zeng <christian@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
* darth router wrote:
> Are there any major limitations I would face if I used 2
> 5505s with the basic license in my security rack?

As already suggested by other people, the 5505 is too limited to lab up 
more advanced features. By this, I especially refer to security contexts 
in combination with failover.

If you really want the hardware but dont want to buy a pair of 5510, 
perhaps a pair of used PIX 515(E) is a cheaper alternative. You can do 
some rack rentals to get familiar with WebVPN, or use the 5505 with base 
license.

> I suppose I could just use Qemu and emulate them, but I would like to have
> the hardware. Any tips?

Its nice to have all boxes there for real, but in my home lab, I had a 
5505 (Sec+ license), a VPN concentrator and one 3750 switch only (all 
borrowed). The rest was done with dynamips, pemu and vmware

http://www.internetworkpro.org/wiki/CCIE_Security_Home_Lab_with_dynamips_%26_Co 


I could play with all the technologies - like PIX/ASA multiple contexts 
and failover (pemu), transparent firewall and VPN (5505 only for 
WebVPN).  Such a home lab is great in the first phase of lab 
preparation, when you need to dive into every topic, and later if you 
need clarification on a topic that bugs you.

For the 'full lab scenario workbook phase': if you need to buy lots of 
hardware now, compare it with the costs for rack rentals. Even by having 
a home lab and being able to map workbook vendors topology to it 
(interesting first but annoying task later), I did rack rentals. You 
dont want to fight problems within your home lab topology anymore when 
you are in the last phase of lab preparation. I invested about $1000 
into rack rentals over 3 months (~250 hours); I think a single 5505 is 
already ~$500.

After all, my suggestion is that if you cannot afford a full hardware 
security lab (like most people): Build something that helps you to 
understand all the major technologies, invest wisely in *some* hardware, 
but do the full scale labs on real (rented) hardware.

Good luck!


Christian (#19533)