Upgrading our College’s Cyber Lab
My college has a cyber lab for cyber security and computer science courses. It features multiple racks of Cisco switches, routers, hubs, and more for student use. It is a great place to get hands on experience with Cisco networking equipment and really surged my interest in the field. Most of the equipment works fine, but some of it is outdated or experiencing issues.
After class one day, our professor told the cyber club how the school will be upgrading the cyber lab we were using over the summer. He informed us that the school wants to give us the opportunity to assess the lab, figure out what equipment we have, what works, and what should be replaced or added. We were also told we would be given a $70,000 budget and basically free will to add anything reasonable for a cyber lab.
We started out by making a small spreadsheet to determine how much of each different equipment model we had. The lab contained multiple different models of switches, routers, and even multi-layer switches. Likely all purchased at different times by different people.
As well as analyzing the lab we brainstormed ideas for what we could add. The club liked the idea of adding a server for practicing file transfer protocol (FTP) and hosting web servers. A few people also suggested adding a windows server for students to practice running. Sadly, a fish tank was not considered a “reasonable cyber lab expense” to the dismay of many students.
The club decided that we wanted to keep most of our equipment and replace what was broken. Our goal was to ensure that 15 students could have at least 3 switches and 3 routers. We also decided that each rack should have a multi-layer switch. We informed our professor of this, and the above desires of a server for ftp and web hosting.
On top of upgrading our cyber lab equipment, we were given the task of relabeling all the Ethernet connections from rack to rack. Our lab has 3 stationary racks on two sides of the room connected by Ethernet cables. The cables are labeled but became worn out after years of use. Our club leader slightly altered the text on the labels for clarity, and I was tasked with typing them up for a faculty member to print. During our next club meeting we spent the hour relabeling all the cables, so they were no longer old and worn.
On the last day of class, our professor told us the school plans to make the upgrades we suggested. He informed us that the equipment will be bought over the summer and in August we can come in and aid in installing the new equipment. We were all extremely grateful that the school would give us the opportunity to manage such an upgrade and budget. I shall update in August with a new blog post on how that installation goes.