Building a "Virtual" DNAC for my Budget Centric CCIE EI Home Lab (Part 1)
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- In this video I show how I build a reduced footprint DNA-Center (using vmware) to use for CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure Exam prep. I am building this device using a vSphere Host to create a Virtual DNA-Center that has a footprint of 62CPU, 256 GB RAM and a 600GB SSD HDD. This VM is the smallest most stable foot print I have been able to build that can run all services needed for NCP and NPD. I am experimenting with reducing the footprint further by deactivating some features and will add more information as I find stable options.
This "mini" DNAC is the best of both works (functionality and cost) in my opinion. It may require some administrative interaction to make work, but after this is done I will show you how to take a snapshot and introduce you to how I would build an affordable home lab using as much virtualization as humanly possible.
Part 2 in this series is coming as soon.
From where I can download the DNAC image other than the Cisco website?
Hi Terry Vinson, Thank you for your sharing. I Love the way you explain intro of vDNAC.
You are very welcome. Glad you enjoyed it. The next video will release Sept 4th.
Hi Terry.. happy to see u back.. thanks
It is great to make videos again. I burned myself out trying to be a UA-camr. I’m not a creator (I’m a teacher). Once I came to terms with that fact it started being fun again.
Recently saw an announcement support virtual appliance deployments. Based on the document seems to be available around mid 2023....
CORRECT!
Yes but until then... Additionally it will be interesting to see what the specifications will ultimately be. Also they are famous for making things like the cAPIC which is an APIC but looks and feels different than the typical APIC (meaning it will be "interesting" to use to study with) hope the same thing doesn't happen. to the DNAC.
Excellent point. BTW. Not poo-poo'ing just taking what I have now and moving forward.
@@TerryVinsonCCIEx2 definitely. Love your channel and information. Thanks and hopefully my engineers will also subscribe..
Hello Terry, Great video. Thanks a lot for sharing.
I have a question. Is there any specific advantage to using Dell R630 over Cisco C220 M4, or is it just a personal preference?
In my case the dell was cheaper tricked out. Obviously the UCS is near and dear, but I’m a cheap bastard at heart too.
Hi Terry thank you so much for the vid, really got my head in SDA at the moment but need some hands on experience and this seems to be the least painful (but still painful) way to do it. Do you think a server with dual e5-2697v4 would do just for dnac? These are 16c 32t CPUs so 32c 64t in total. They are a lot cheaper than the 20c version where I am. Thanks a lot
Yes it should work. I run one.
Can any one advise for the type of sever or specifications to buy so I can build my DNAC please? I have server with 32 vCPU, Xeon R,CPU E5-2670 but this is not going handle the requirements.
Hi Terry, it's quite useful for me to build a home lab. Great series, thanks a lot!!
And I have questions about hard disk when configuring virtual machine in this video: is Thick Provision for hard disk required? I know you picked the default settings, but I just wonder if Thin Provision hard disk is OK for a DNA Center VM? Then, I saw someone else even set three hard disks for a DNA Center VM (more than 3T). It seems a little bit wasteful. I just want to use DNA Center to try to manage about 5 or 6 switches (c9300-24T) for a test, is 256RAM and 1T hard disk good? Thanks again!
Thin is fine. The server RAM and Disk size is good I would not do 3 disks and remember SSD is important.
@@TerryVinsonCCIEx2 1. thanks for your reply! 1. hmmmm....... thank you..
What kind of server hardware is needed to run a virtual instance of Cisco DNA Center?
I just bought a Dell r640 with dual 40 core logical processors. I'm away on a business trip till late next month, so I have to wait till then to pick it up at a friend's house, which I had it delivered to. Hopefully, I got everything that the Ebay listing said I did.
Do you think it's wise to upgrade that processor for more cores and run the entire SDWAN, etc. labs off of, or buy another server and keep one dedicated for DNAC? I also have a Dell r620 with (going off memory) has 48 logical cores.
You will need more logical CPU i would aim for 72 using the Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2699 v3 @ 2.30GHz. which is very affordable. Depending on how big your SDWAN environment is it may be tight in one server. Plus you need to run ISE. I would aim for 2 servers if it was me. I tried to save money by aiming small and really wasted a lot of time and money with upgrades. Again your mileage may vary. In this series I am going to build an entire topology and I plan to use 2 servers. It would be interesting to see if I can collapse it into one.
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CORRECTION!!!!!
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I misread your comment you said dual 40. I am so sorry. Yes that is the CPU I run and I am very pleased it with. You are spot on in the R640 and the R620 as described would work great for your SDWAN if you run two servers.
HTH: T
@@TerryVinsonCCIEx2 Thanks, I just saw your new video addressing this. I wanted to buy on a 4-CPU server, but I can't power that in my apartment, I need more power. Sure, I'm sure it'll run off one 15A circuit, but I don't want to deal to with breakers tripping when it spikes and wants to draw more power.
@@DergEnterprises I run mine in the studio off 15amp, and in the DC on 20amp. I have had no issues running 2 of these on 1 15amp breaker, I had to turn off one however, when my AC died once. But the temp inside only got to about 80 for 3 days till the part arrived. So you should be good to go.
Thank you for this content. This is simply addictive. May I ask you for any link for this kind of server on eBay and most importantly how much of electric bill does it generate ..
where can I find the EI v1.1 lab zip file for EVE-NG?
Just managed to get my DNAC up and running following your instructions. Thank you Terry.
Fantastic!
Check your Study Group Chat! :D
@@TerryVinsonCCIEx2 🫡🎁
Hi Terry, Great video. I have the same server as the one in this video with 7TB solid state hard drives, 767GB RAM and Intel Xeon CPU E5-2680 v3 @ 2.50GHz running on ESXI 7.2 fully licensed with enterprise plus. ESXI is only recognizing a maximum of 48 CPU's in my lab. How were you able to get esxi to recognize more than 62 CPU's?. Thank you!
Intel Xeon CPU E5-2680 v3 is a 12 core processor. If you have 2 of them with hyperthreading turned on. Then 48 threads is exactly what you should see.
How do you get a virtual image of DNAC to run on a machine?
You just download a copy of the installation ISO from software.cisco.com. It's not really a virtual image, its just the dnac iso installed on a VM rather than an Appliance UCS220.
@UCYfDzUX3gpHsm0whmlZWC4g No it means i have a CCO account with privilege to download the ISO. I can then install that ISO on a VM as I have illustrated. The resulting VM is obviously not supported by Cisco, nor is it capable of doing what a DNAC Appliance can do in a production environment, but is more than adequate to prepare for the CCIE exam.
Great stuff, Terry! One question :) I know your goal is to have enviroment that can mimic the CCIE Lab, but have you tried installing this way DNAC 2.2.x or 2.3.x ? Or upgrading that 1.3 DNA to 2.x? Thanks!
Yes I have. I run 2.3.3.7 for classes in the VM format.
Terry, you're still the man!!!
How you doing brother!?!
Hi Terry, I have server but HDD so any workaround to install DNAC ,
I have never been able to make it work unless the first partition in the series is ssd. I did it once with a little 100GB drive that was SSD and the other drives where on HDD.
Hello Terry, Thank you for your useful and wonderful materials. I have a Dell PowerEdge R630 server with 44 Cores CPU, 512 GB RAM and 3.4 TB RAM. I am able to install any 2.x.x.x version of DNA without any issue and currently I have a virtual DNAC installed on it. However, when I try to install any DNAC 1.x.x.x, I am getting error, which I upload an screen shot of it in the below link. Any idea or thought why I am getting this error. I have
drive.google.com/file/d/1HuVRvmjqpTk7s4HIc0cr0QM8g2VE7by9/view?usp=sharing
Thank you.
Do you SSD drives? I have run every version on the same server.
@@TerryVinsonCCIEx2 Hey Terry, thank you for your response. Yes, all drives are SSD. Like I said I am able to install any 2.x.x.x version. And currently I have the virtual DNA (ova version) working perfectly fine without any issue.
@@Habibullahmajidi that is odd. Could it be the iso maybe.
@@TerryVinsonCCIEx2 I tried probably with 5 different versions and different ISO.
@@Habibullahmajidi wow. I'm clueless dude.