Joel's CCIE Data Center journey

joelsfood

So labbing and studying has recommenced, as mentioned. I've been working on recreating and solving the issues I had during the test. I'm working with a study partner to do some more troubleshooting work (as that is the one real lack in the workbooks from the major vendors, as of course they can't give you a broken topology to start). Working with IPExpert to schedule my bootcamp retake. Second attempt is scheduled for 7/16, but I'm checking availability every couple of hours (until I hit my max lab searches for the day) to try to move it up. Basically, rinse wash and repeat, right back at it. I want my digits. Still haven't figured out where I'll get them tattooed.

d4nz1g

Put them on your neck, as a barcode! That would be awesome haha.

jbalboa2002

Dear Joel, Can you able to help for preparing the CCIE DC lab.

jbalboa2002

Dear Joel may i know your skype id so i can add you..

joelsfood

jbalboa2002,

Most everything I could do help wise is all here in this thread or on my blog. FFeel free to ask any questions you mive have either of these places.

Continuing prep here. Took the IPExpert bootcamp again last week to keep things fresh in my head. Heading out for vacation next week, and Cisco Live the week after, so have labs every day this week (again, to stay on top of things). Yesterday was OTV and Nexus 1000V, as I had trouble with both of those. Today is Fabricpath and MDS.

d4nz1g

Update this thread! Gimme moar motivation

joelsfood

Just stopping in for a quick update, per request.

I have taken a short break from my studies since getting back from CLUS> I've been very busy at work, including flying out to interview for my old boss' job (didn't get it,which is actually good, as I'd have to have dropped most technical endeavours and been management, God forbid). Taking a swing at my VCP-NV this week, both to get the bad taste of a fail out of my mouth, as well as to make sure that I meet my goal I set for this year's work reviews, which was three industry standard certifications. Just in case I don't get my CCIE pass before the end of the year.

Also doing some work on other technologies, etc. I definitely agree with Iris, it's really easy to get bored with studying the same topics, and then you're just wasting rack time. I know these technologies, my problem is going to be figuring out what details they were looking for that I missed. So right now, redesigning a client's edge network to remove some extraneous hardware and add additional redundance and security.

Dieg0M

Hey Joel,
I was reading your blog on your second CCIE attempt and I'm very sad to hear that you didn't get a pass this time. Don't give up. Take some time to regroup and study hard again. One of the problems with the CCIE is that for each section, you either get full score or no points at all. For your next attempt, I want you to focus on double checking and even triple checking everything before you go to the next section. It is easy to forget small details when you think everything is going great and that you might actually stand a chance on passing the exam. The CCIE is not only an exam that requires you to know the blueprint inside and out, it is also a test of endurance, attention to detail and stress management. I am sure you will pass next time.

JZegers

What day in Sept and what location? My DC lab attempt is set for first week of Sept at RTP.

silver145

Agree with Diego,

if i didnt check twice over at the end i would of failed without doubt. such idiotic mistakes throughout i also took a 2 minute break to stretch out mid exam and grab some water

joelsfood

Thanks Dieg0M and silver. I definitely did go back and check everything (And caught some stupid mistakes) before signing out. It'll just take another attempt.

Haven't had much time for studying lately, as i've had to pick up some other knowledge and certification for various clients (VCP-NV, Azure, AWS Storage Gateway, Juniper SRX/EX/QFX network redesign, etc), but I have kept my hand in things. Was just doing a site survey for a new client with ucs/mds/IOS, so fixed a bunch of storage issues there. Have three UCS upgrades planned for this month too, FC and iSCSI, so that'll be fun.

joelsfood

Attempt #3 has been scheduled for January. A ways out, but I have to knock out some other certs (Azure, maybe AWs, etc) before I sit the lab again. It will be conquered though!

21ctl

hello joel,
am trying to size how much token one need to purchase to finish IPX vol 1 and Vol 2 DC....
i want to plan my expenses ahead of time and know what it will cost me!!!

joelsfood

21ctl, that's hard to say, as everyone starts at a different experience level and learns at a different rate. I've probably put in 500-1000 hours of lab time between pec, labgear and ipexpert, at a rough guess. That's actual labbing time, not just times I had lab blocked out but was instead reading in another window, etc (ie, right now )

IPX has a BOGO deal going on with DC rack rentals now, which I highly recommend. Feel free to contact Kevin (kbeem @ ipexpert.com) and he'll help you out. Just got mine, scheduling up labs now

21ctl

hello joel,
what is the difference between labgear and pec labs?
are they only available to cisco partners

joelsfood

Labgear and pec labs are only available to Cisco Partners, yes. PEC Labs(or Partner Education Connection) are lab equipment and training modules intended to help train a user on Data center virtualization technologies. There are approximately 30 different labs, with different sets of equipment, etc. Labgear is intended for proof of concept or sales presentations, and is limited to just two different labs at this point.

21ctl

hello joel,
any updates on your exam

joelsfood

Still scheduled for January, and slowly ramping up my studying around everything else going on with life/work.

Workign on an OTV lab now, and man does IOS feel annoying and clunky after getting used to modern NXOS/Junos

21ctl

wondering why cisco cannot change IOS, when i see my network team working on junos cli, it feels cool and interesting

joelsfood

You don't generally make large changes in an operating system within the same product line, as it requires everyone to be retrained, new code base, etc.

That being said, not sure what IOS has to do with data center studies, as there are no IOS products in the datacenter track. Switches in data center track all run NX-OS, which IS Cisco's next generation replacement for IOS in switches.

21ctl

joelsfood wrote: »

You don't generally make large changes in an operating system within the same product line, as it requires everyone to be retrained, new code base, etc.

That being said, not sure what IOS has to do with data center studies, as there are no IOS products in the datacenter track. Switches in data center track all run NX-OS, which IS Cisco's next generation replacement for IOS in switches.

i was making reference to your comment when you said "IOS feel annoying and clunky after getting used to modern NXOS/Junos "

joelsfood

Forgot all about that comment, it's been a while. But yeah, whole point to that comment was that Cisco had something newer, NXOS. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

joelsfood

Tomorrow is one month out, and getting into the home stretch. Today was supposed to be a full mock lab, but got a bit derailed with a production outage at a client and a two-almost 3 year old who refused to wear diapers this morning.

Still got 30 points or so into mock lab before I threw up my hands and am reading through the DSG for any bits I missed. I figure I have four other mock labs left from IPX (and 8 more days with full 8 hour mock lab rack rentals), so just using this one as a review of notes/information.

gorebrush

Keep on trucking, the home stretch now!

joelsfood

Have I mentioned lately how much I like the Fabricpath lab on PEC? I think this is the single best lab, configuring STP (RPVST), Fabricpath, VPC+ on 5k, VPC+ on 7k, vrf-lite, hsrp and OSPF per the lab. Then if you want to explore, the topology and licenses available make it easy to practice mst, eigrp, otv and even setting up your multihop FCoE links between 5ks.

Iristheangel

hahahah! YUP! I think I mentioned in my thread about my love of that PEC lab as well! I used it for a lot of my lab meetups and would write my own content since the topology/licensing was fairly flexible

joelsfood

Never give up kiddies. #52,000

lostindaylight

....::::!!!!!!!!CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!::::....

Great job man. I'm so happy for you.

Alex90

Congrats buddy

d4nz1g

Congrats mate! Nice number you've got