Beta Testing - Free Online Cisco Lab

scline

n00b
Joined
Dec 20, 2011
Messages
33
Hey guys, I have been creating a scheduling system for my personal Cisco lab at home to open it up (freely) to people who want to lab for certifications. I realized over the years of gathering equipment and testing on it - 95% of the time it just sits there collecting dust, so why not let others use it. It originally started as a project last week to learn python scripting, so far its been a fun project:D.

I am at a point where I can use some real-world testing and comments to improve documentation or the service itself. My end goal is to "set and forget" making it as low-maintenance as possible and documentation/directions fool-proof.

You can access it at www.packetpals.net, please read/lab and let me know where I can improve.

One slight issue I need to look into, check your SPAM folder for emails from the site. The appointment emails always seem to get punted to spam :(
 
Wow.

Absolutely fantastic idea.

Absolutely fantastic, selfless idea!

I'd be interested to find out how much use it gets over the coming weeks/months.

Well done, have a gold star!
 
This is a great idea!!

How do you have your lab environment connected to the internet? I'm curious as to how you are allowing SSH into all of your devices?
 
This is a great idea!!

How do you have your lab environment connected to the internet? I'm curious as to how you are allowing SSH into all of your devices?

Its the console server that is exposed on specific ports via SSH for the passthrough to work. For example, via ssh on port 7001 to the console server is just a passthrough to whatever is connected to console port 1, 7002 is port 2 etc...

Outside of the console server, the lab is completely separated from any other network (internet and home).
 
I really like it and the idea behind it.

One thing I see that could be improved is more clarification on the "Schedule New Appointment" section that says that all the times are in PDT, I know it is on the main scheduler but I missed it till I got the email.

Also what are you using to create the graphs on the monitoring page? and what PDU's and console server are you using?

Thanks,
ARTbird309
 
I really like it and the idea behind it.

One thing I see that could be improved is more clarification on the "Schedule New Appointment" section that says that all the times are in PDT, I know it is on the main scheduler but I missed it till I got the email.

Also what are you using to create the graphs on the monitoring page? and what PDU's and console server are you using?

Thanks,
ARTbird309

Gotcha, looking into making everything UTC to be honest. The scheduling plugin does not appear to have an option upfront to do this. It may just be using the local server time, will be an easy fix if it is.

The graphs are done done via Cacti, iether via SNMP or custom python scripting to pull values from a database every 60 seconds.

Console server is a Digi CM 32 (purchased about a year ago for $50 on Ebay). The PDU's are 2x Baytech RPC-3 (also from ebay, $50-ish for both).
 
Scheduled some time for tomorrow, thank you for putting this up. If I have any questions or anything, is there any type of support? I realize that this is a free service that you are putting on for people and I appreciate it for sure! I'm really just curious, thank you!
 
Can can post on this thread or email me (link is in the scheduler email, be sure to check your junk mail) for support :)
 
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