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Lab Setup

Every module has a lab. All labs run on virtual IOS XE images so you can do them on a laptop.

Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) Personal is the default for this course: legal images included, simple topology files, and the lab files here can be imported directly. EVE-NG Community and GNS3 work too if you already have images.

Image Use for RAM each
IOSv (IOS 15.9) Routing labs: OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, redistribution, DMVPN 512 MB
IOSvL2 Switching labs: trunks, EtherChannel, STP, HSRP 768 MB
Catalyst 8000v (IOS XE 17.x) NETCONF/RESTCONF, EEM, IP SLA, Flexible NetFlow, ERSPAN, VRF, IPsec 4 GB
Ubuntu or Alpine Hosts, syslog/SNMP/NetFlow collectors, Python scripts 512 MB

A 32 GB laptop runs every lab in this course. 16 GB is enough if you use IOSv in place of Catalyst 8000v except where a lab says otherwise.

Base topology

Most ENCOR labs reuse one topology so you spend time on the topic, not on cabling.

graph LR
  subgraph Campus
    A1[ACC1 IOSvL2] --- D1[DIST1 IOSvL2]
    A1 --- D2[DIST2 IOSvL2]
    D1 === D2
  end
  D1 --- R1[R1 C8000v]
  D2 --- R2[R2 C8000v]
  R1 --- ISP[ISP IOSv AS 65000]
  R2 --- ISP
  ISP --- R3[BRANCH IOSv]
  A1 --- H1[Host1 Ubuntu]

Addressing convention

Link IPv4 IPv6
Loopback0 on router N 10.255.255.N/32 2001:db8:ffff::N/128
Point-to-point A to B 10.A.B.0/30 (lower ID first) 2001:db8:A:B::/64
User VLAN 10 10.10.10.0/24, gateway .1 (VIP) 2001:db8:10::/64
Management 192.168.100.0/24

Lab habits that pay off on exam day

  1. Save a working baseline (copy run flash:baseline.cfg), then break it on purpose. ENARSI is a troubleshooting exam.
  2. Always finish with the verification commands. If you can't say which show output proves it works, you don't know it yet.
  3. Type the commands. Muscle memory matters on simulation items, and there is no copy and paste in the exam.