After a bit of screwing around and reading about PEMU/VMware I managed to get my topology working as intended. GNS and virtual adapters don’t seem to like on the fly changes. The solution in the end was to configure all the adapters/IP’s etc, reboot the VMware host machine, then create the topology in GNS from scratch.
My laptop is directly connected to my Dynamips/GNS machine (running Vista) which is is bridged to the inside interface of the PIX. The Dynamips/GNS machine also runs a virtual instance of Windows 2003 server with Cisco ACS installed which is bridged to the DMZ interface of the PIX.
The PIX 525 is running release 8.0(4) with ASDM 6.1(3).
Apart from testing failover (which doesn’t really work properly in Dynamips) I can play with just about everything required for the first ASA exam (SNAF).
After about 10 solid hours of messing about and doing a shitload of reading I’m pretty comfortable with just about every topic. The next step is to do some labs from the Cisco Partner e-learning connection (PEC) and then book the exam as soon once I’ve done a solid review.
At the same time I’ve been studying for SNAF I’ve been going through the CCNA Security certification guide. I think for anyone that’s completed the ISCW exam from CCNP, providing you have a basic understanding of security copncepts I’d say you’re probably 3/4 of the way there to obtaining this cert. Definitely worth the effort imo…
