CCNP training : Cisco CSR1000v

With the introduction of Cisco Packet Tracer 6.0, several new features were added, including BGP, HSRP, which are part of the CCNP ^TM curriculum. Despite some feature limitations, students preparing CCNP Route and CCNP Switch exams are now able to simulate basic IP telephony with Cisco Call Manager Express and IPSEC VPN using Cisco ISR routers in Packet Tracer.

However, while Cisco Packet Tracer aims to provide a realistic simulation of functional networks, the application itself utilizes only a small number of features found within the actual hardware running a current Cisco IOS ^TM and focuses on CCENT / CCNA preparation.

In april 2013, Cisco released a virtual router named CSR1000v. This virtual router is provided for free on Cisco website as a Vmware virtual machine embeding IOS XE. CSR1000v runs on VMware ESXi and requires 4 virtual cpus & 4 GB ram per VM.

Multiple virtual routers can run on a single ESXi server to buid a CCNP or CCIE lab and learn MPLS, BGP, LISP, OTV, ... on real IOS-XE software.

Download Cisco CSR 1000V

Cisco CSR 1000V can be freely downloaded on Cisco website and used for a 60 days trial period. By default, the CSR 1000V virtual machine starts with the Cisco Application
Experience (AX) Technology package features and 100-Kbps maximum throughput.

The following trial configurations are available during 60 days after trial period activation :

• IP Base Technology package, 10 Gbps
• SEC Technology package, 5 Gbps
• APP Technology package, 5 Gbps
• AX Technology package, 2.5 Gbps
• 1000 broadband sessions
• 12 GB memory upgrade

After the end of the trial period ends, if you wish to keep using the product, you will need to purchase a license from Cisco for your CSR 1000v.

Licensing your CSR1000V

After having downloaded and installed the CSR1000V virtual machine, go to www.cisco.com/go/license and log in or create an account if you don’t have one.

On the Product License Registration page, select “Continue to Product License Registration.”

In the Get Other Licenses section, select “Demo and Evaluation.”

In the Product Family section, select “Routers & Switches.” In the Product section, select “Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000v.” Select the desired license type.

Enter the UDI Serial number, then click Next to generate the license. You can display the UDI Serial number on your router by entering the “show license udi” command.

CSR1000v supported features

List of supported features for CSR1000v:

802.1Q, 
AAA, 
ACL, 
BGP, 
DHCP, 
DNS, 
EEM, 
EIGRP, 
EoMPLS, 
Flex Netflow + TNF, 
GRE, 
ICMP, 
IGMP, 
IP SLA, 
IPSec, 
IPv6, 
ISIS, 
L2TPv3, 
MPLS, 
MPLS L2VPN, 
MPLS L3VPN, 
MPLS TE, 
Multicast, 
NAT, 
NTP, 
OSPF, 
PfR, 
PIM, 
PPPoE, 
RADIUS, 
RIP, 
SNMP, 
SSH, 
SYSLOG, 
TACACS, 
TFTP, 
VRF-LITE

 

Features likely to work for CSR1000v:

HSRP, 
VRRP, 
GLBP, 
EZVPN, 
QoS, 
LISP, 
ZBFW, 
Performance Monitor