Joel's CCIE Data Center journey

joelsfood

Lots of MDS last few days, labs, config guides and videos. Zoning is cake, I've been doing that for years (and just got pegged to help with new director class Brocades for a datacneter move), but port security, etc? Making me pull out my hair

gorebrush

Do you mean ordinary layer 2 port security?

joelsfood

MDS port security for FC, whicdh has all kinds of fun order of operations, enabling and disabling CFS, etc

joelsfood

Crazy busy week here (20+ hours consulting, plus regular full time day job), so no lab time, but I was able to leave IPExpert videos going on other screen the whole time. I also added two more blades to a UCS/Vmware (Smartstack) deployment, and they had said they wanted best networking speeds possible, so took advantage of chance to setup VM-FEX. Created new service profile template, new dynamic vnic connection policy, new FC HBAs (adding FC backup storage device), etc. I'd done all of it before, with the exception of VM-FEX, but still good practice while I watched Jason and Rick talking about UCS.

Bryando

Why is your blog tripping the work filters as P*rnn? What is going on in there?

d4nz1g

Joel,

How difficult do you think of Unified Fabric stuff for someone with R&S/Security background?
SAN and virtualization stuff are just blowing my mind...Layer 2 and layer 3 topics seems like inferior to ROUTE and SWITCH exams, but as I see the exams focus way more on technologies that I have had no exposure at all (FC, MDS, VM stuff)

joelsfood

ha, there's certainly no **** on my blog. I suspect your filter flags everything on tumblr as adult, as that's where I have it hosted right now.

joelsfood

d4nz1g, it's definitely a change in mindset. Obviously, Nexus and FIs in ethernet mode, should be no issue for you. But storage is definitely another beats. Luckily, pretty much any of the instructors out there (INE, IPExpert, etc) are network guys first too, so all of the training is really written for R&S people. So while there's definitely a learning curve, you're in the admirable position that the training is all specifically targeted at that learning curve for you. So it's definitely doable, as shown by the R&S people that INE and IPExpert have gotten to pass the tests

Bryando

Yeah... tumbler.... just realized. Wish I could see it. I will check it out later. Thanks.

joelsfood

Just finished the last of the IPExpert videos, and have three four hour rack rentals this week (tech lab monday, mock lab yesterday, tech lab tomorrow). Putting on the Youtube playlists I had created while I work at installing all of the apps on my "new" (reissued) laptop from work. 79 days to go

joelsfood

Just got approval for the IPExpert online bootcamp 3/23-3/27, which puts it just over two weeks before my test. Hopefully it will give me a final polish, but still give me time to practice anything that I still need to in the final two weeks.

joelsfood

Just started going through the IPX videos a second time. Slogging through every forum, study group, configuration guide, etc on one monitor, while I have Jason/Rick playing on other monitor.

joelsfood

4 weeks out and I'm cautiously confident. Just took a read thorugh the blueprint, notating any topic that I'm not confident in (all of which I can do, I just might need to refer to techdocs, or spend more time with context sensitive help than I want).

Confident with this proportion of each section
65% of Section 1
70% of section 2
54% of section 3
100% of section 4
100% of section 5

When you add in the weightings (30,20,10,30,10), that puts me at 78.9%. I think I just might do this. IPExpert bootcamp is next week, then I have another 2.5 weeks of labs and then I'm off to San Jose

lrb

Sounds like you are tracking along nicely!

Do you have the IPX montly subscription or did you buy one of the yearly deals when they were available? I'm tempted to get a subscription in addition to my INE AAP as the DC videos feel a little short on some information. Out of three main areas (UCS, nexus, storage), the storage videos with INE are probably the best.

joelsfood

I had the monthly subscription for one month, but then when work bought the bootcamp that gave me two years of video access.

joelsfood

Last week was the IPExpert CCIE Data center bootcamp, and I definitely think it was money well spent, even with interruptions from work and family (I took the online course). Jason Lunde did a great job of teaching the course, and I definitely feel more confident in my knowledge (though it was a SMART group of guys in the class, so definitely felt overshadowed on some of the stuff), and ability to take this test.

This week has been more on note taking and final preparation that way. I'm going through techdocs now, reviewing things I'm still rusty on, or just making sure I can quickly navigate to stuff that I know I won't memorize (FC-SP, OTV FHRP isolation, etc). I'm taking Jason's suggestion of a notebook full of vanilla configs for the various technologies to study before bed the night before. Even the process of creating that is pointing out some mistakes, as well as just being tired. Don't ask me why I thought at 6am Sunday morning that confirming IP reachability had anything to do with setting up a basic FEX config.

17 days and counting

gorebrush

How goes the prep?

joelsfood

Did a mock lab last week and ended up with 67% (but that was with 6 hours and no recheck), almost all just stupid little details that I didn't read clearly enough. So far this week I've just been going through blueprint and reading configuration guides for anything I'm still not really confident in, as well as letting training videos play on other screen and putty open for anything I need to test (have IPExpert/Labgera racks every day until test, as well as N1KV/UCSPE here at home).

I'm cautiously confident. Worst case, I should have it in two tries, best case, I should pass next week and I'll add the CCIE party to my CLUS schedule.

d4nz1g

Sweet!

How did you prep for UCS topics? UCSPE only? Any books/docs?

joelsfood

UCS is actually my strongest suit, as we put in our first chassis at work back in 2010, and I've been using it ever since (up to 9 chassis in 4 clusters at day job, and work on two other clusters). Even so, I still use UCSPE for most of my lab work, as of course I don't want to make service impacting changes on production systems. UCSPE is by far the best emulator Cisco has ever released

joelsfood

Today was my last mock lab slot. Used IPExperts lab 3, and scored ~84% (a couple of things I solved differently than writer, particularly QOS, but my solution appeared to still meet the requirements) in 4hrs 24 minutes. As always, need to pay more attention to details, but I'm feeling pretty good for next week.

siggnation

Good luck tomorrow Joel!

gorebrush

Good lord is this tomorrow?!

Best of luck, bring it home, man!

lrb

Best of luck Joel!

joelsfood

THanks guys, but we're going to put that down as a first attempt. Second attempt is scheduled for September (And I"ll be checking for earlier dates). Labbing starts again Monday. Taking notes now trying to figure out what I got wrong (Based on things I know I had wrong, annd things I wasn't sure about, trying to match up to what I know my score was). Have to try to figure it all out while memory of the topics and points for each is fresh.

lrb

Bad luck dude but nice attitude rescheduling straight away. Have a few days to kick back and relax with family and friends, make a plan of your weak areas (your score sheet should indicate these I'm guessing) and hit them hard.

gorebrush

Damn! I was feeling good for you too

Rescheduling straight away is a good sign though, never give up!

joelsfood

Thanks guys. Yeah, I was definitely disappointed, but I refused to let it get me down. I've invested too much time (mine and my family's) in this to give up now. I refuse to be someone who just puts CCIE Written on their resume (which I refuse to do on it's own rights ) and gives up on passing the lab.

I've already got lab open recreating one of the tasks I had issues with.

gorebrush

Excellent attitude - I was the same. When I left the lab I was convinced I'd failed and I was already planning my trip to Belgium...

joelsfood

Yeah, now I just need an earlier date to open up. Closest I found was September. Between labbing stuff out again, I'm busy refreshing CCIE page hoping a closer date pops up that I can hop on, even if it means flying out tomorrow