Re: Cheap Juniper Gear for Lab

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

On Apr 10, 2012, at 5:58 AM, Julien Goodwin wrote:

> On 10/04/12 14:31, Steven King wrote:
> > I am tasked with replacing an old linux router setup with Juniper gear
> > in the near future. Though I am a Cisco guy myself.
> >
> > Does anyone know of any older cheap Juniper gear I might find on Ebay so
> > that I may build a home lab without going broke?
>
> A slightly more useful way of answering this then just pointing to eBay
> is to give some candidates.
>
> Routing/switching *config*, firewalling - Branch SRX / J
>
> The lower end SRX, and J series devices are nice as they take nearly all
> the config (except MX-type bridging, and some EX bits), including MPLS.

But not so nice in that they run Services JunOS instead of real JunOS meaning that they behave like Netscreens with a 
JunOS style configuration file instead of behaving like Junipers.

If you're wanting to model Services JunOS, then, yes, the SRX-100 is a good candidate and dirt cheap.

If you want real JunOS, avoid SRX or J series at all costs.

> Juniper do have a bunch more lines, but those are the most common
> (there's also the E/ERX BRAS boxes and ScreenOS firewalls, but both are
> not long for this world).

Don't forget their SSL VPN boxes which are an acquired doesn't behave at all like a Juniper device line of products.

> If you just want one box to get to know the OS an SRX2X0 (or possibly a
> 100) is by far the most flexible way, and can be had for < $500 used).

With the caveat about Services JunOS above.

Owen