PAN Hardware & PAN-OS ver. for ACE and PCNSE Certification

[jasonmadruga84]

Hi all,

I'm looking to study for and pass PAN Accredited Configuration Engineer certification and perhaps PCNSE down the road but would like to know what PAN hardware & PAN-OS version software I should get my hands on to help me out.

To give some background, I hold CCNA R&S and CCNA Sec and I don't know what ACE and PCNSE would be equivalent to in the PAN world. I'd like to start by working towards the equivalent of CCENT or CCNA R&S and if that is ACE, than that's what I'd like to pursue at this time.

I'd like to get my hands on some PAN hardware from eBay but wouldn't want to get something that's simply out-dated. I'm enrolled in Palo Alto Firewall Essentials PAN 8 EDU 210 and that's great. I've got access to NetLab and I believe that it has the latest PAN hardware and PAN-OS software there but I want to actually get my hands on starter gear and learn the basics you can't learn in the virtual world.

Please let me know your PAN hardware & software recommenedations for ACE and/or PCNSE certification studies.

Thank you,

Jason M. Madruga

[pulukas]

Each ACE exam is tied to the PanOS major version and gets opened with the full dot 1 release.  I don't believe you can take the older exams only the active version which is currently 8.1.  So to keep this up you take the test for as each major release progresses.

https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/services/education/ace

The ACE and PSE exams are available with free training online at the education site to prepare for them. Sign up for an account here.

https://paloaltonetworks.csod.com/LMS/catalog/Welcome.aspx

You don't need to be concerned about hardware platforms for the PAN tests.  The questions are focused on NGFW feature usage and really don't vary across the platforms.