Free CCNA Labs Topology

I’ve designed the Free CCNA Labs topology to provide the greatest flexibility. We can use this single topology to complete nearly all of the free CCNA labs, although we’ll typically only be using a few of the devices at the same time. I’ve posted the NETMAP file (needed for Cisco IOU) that I’m using and if someone wants to create a topology (.net) file for Dynamips/Dynagen/GNS3, I’d be happy to post it too.

Note: While I’m using Cisco IOU for these exercises, it’s not absolutely necessary. You can also use real equipment (if you have it available) or Dynamips for the majority of these labs. I’ll be using my home Cisco lab equipment for some features that don’t work very well in Cisco IOU (such as spanning tree protocol and other exercises that require redundant links between switches).

Network Devices

Our network topology consists of five routers, a frame-relay switch, and two ethernet switches.

When using physical equipment or Dynamips/GNS3, you may use any platform you wish for the routers and frame-relay switch. To avoid confusion, though, you’ll probably want to make sure that the connections and interface names match up with the diagrams below, if possible.

Frame-Relay and Serial Topology

All five routers are connected to the frame-relay network, which we’re emulating with a dedicated frame-relay switch (here’s the frame-relay switch configuration). In addition, there are direct serial connections between several of the routers.

The frame-relay network is fully meshed, consisting of a total of 10 links —  permanent virtual circuits — between the five routers. The DLCIs used for the connections are as follows:

Ethernet Topology

Each of the five routers has an Ethernet connections to one of the switches, as shown below. In addition, the DALLAS router has connections to both switches. The two switches have a single connection between them, via their Ethernet 0/0 interfaces.