My CCIE Data Center Thread

ninjaturtle

The focus can sometimes be a challenge, I know it's for me sometimes. With things happening around you, whatever they might be it just pulls you away. It can become very frustrating. Keep at it!! I actually write FOCUS and STAY FOCUS on my notes. Above my office door it says, 'BEFORE LEAVING, WERE YOU FOCUSED?'

In regards to the Narbik "Zero to Hero" course, I was so stoked to hear that news. I'm definitely going to look into that course. Thanks for letting us know.

Cheers,

creamy_stew

Iristheangel wrote: »

My next project after I'm done with the CCIE DC will probably be a lot more ambitious and definitely something I'll start a thread about once I'm ready.

Are you a sorceress

Have you considered going into research/PhD? Your threads here would make an awesome personal letter to a good research institution. Of course, there's the money thing... But this brain of yours should be used for the common good, and not be in the hands of some shady for-profit mega-corp!

/creamy

fredrikjj

My two cents about the focus thing are that it sounds completely normal to me to not feel a very high level of focus during a normal study session. Just like in any preparation or practice situation, you can't replicate the sense of urgency you feel when you're in the actual competition, or exam in this case. It might not even be desirable because it's a level of focus that's not sustainable over long periods of time. You've done every workbook, and you've read all the books that you want to read so clearly your level of focus is "enough" to get your practice in over the long term, which is what matters.

Marv_Bx_718

I will be following this thread closely, I just took advantage of the 50% sale last night at IPExperts, and will start studying for my written this coming Monday.

As well as following your blog Iris.

AmericanDreamer

Iris,

Which workbooks are you using to study for the lab?

Iristheangel

I've been using the IPX workbooks. I bought the INE ones originally but that was a big fat waste of cash

Iristheangel

51 days before my lab exam.

Feeling cautiously optimistic? Maybe a little crazy? Maybe a little sleep deprived?

Maybe all of the above.

I have 8 hours of lab time scheduled every weekday between now and my lab date (5PM - 1AM) and 12 hours a day per weekend day. I'm in full on beastmode now. I'm getting through the IPX mock labs probably in 4-6 hours but I am probably too used to the content at this point so I've been trying to think up crazy things to try and then doing them (i.e. Building an FCIP tunnel from one DC to the other, creating an ISCSI gateway on the MDS on the other side, booting from iSCSI over OTV on the OTHER DC from that)

On a side note, I had a 2 week sidetrack where I built a MONSTER security lab for fun since someone gifted me with an old C200 M2 loaded up with RAM and cores, a 5506-X, 3850 and some 3702e APs. This was the ambitious project I was talking about in one of the previous posts but I sort of needed a mental break and to try something new so I stood it up in a 2 week period and utilizing some beta code I was able to get in the testing group for. When I'm done with the DC lab, I'll write a LOONNNGGGGG TE post on it and do some videos to show how it works and lessons learned. Just to give you all a sneak preview, here's what I stood up:
- ESXi and vCenter 6 - First time setting this up from scratch so it was fun and a good learning experience
- WSA 8.8 VM with Pxgrid integration - built my policies based on SGTs and using WCCP on the 3850 to direct traffic from a guest VLAN to the WSA. Again, first time setting this up from scratch but I had some decent documentation from the PEC labs
- Lancope Stealthwatch Manager and Flow Collector VMs with Pxgrid to do not only "network as a sensor" but "network as an enforcer." Using the Netflow from my ASA and 3850
- Firesight Management Console v6 (beta) with Pxgrid integration with ISE - Again, built my policies on tags and full identity sharing between the console and ASA. Since the code is still beta, it was a bit of trial and error.
- Nexus 1000v for ESXi - I've got this tagging the VMs and being a Trustsec speaker. This wasn't too hard to be honest and actually probably helped my DC studies
- ASA 5506 with Firepower services, Trustsec, VPN posturing via ISE and Anyconnect 4.0, etc. This was fun to learn
- Server 2012 for Active Directory and using it as my CA server - I was used to "dcpromo" with Server 2003 and 2008 so this was a bit of a learning curve when I set up DNS first, then created a new forest and then found out that it didn't automatically create the AD records in DNS when I did it in that order.
- Prime (beta)
- MSE
- vWLC 8.1
- ISE 2.0 (beta)
- and some other goodies.


Anyways, it was a TON of fun and before I write a huge long post about it, I need to a) find out my NDA on what I can disclose about it and 2) get past the most pressing thing in my life which is my CCIE DC.

late_collision

I'm unsure if I understood anything you just said.

koz24

Iristheangel wrote: »

I have 8 hours of lab time scheduled every weekday between now and my lab date (5PM - 1AM) and 12 hours a day per weekend day.

That's crazy. I hope to have that kind of dedication when I go for my IE. Out of curiosity, when do you wake up? Are you getting at least 7 hours a night? I wonder what the optimum sleep time is.

Iristheangel

I usually got to bed around 1-2AM and wake up at 7AM. I get work done from 8-5 and start labbing right after work. It's the final 50 days before the exam so I'm trying to get the final push of studying and labbing done

AmericanDreamer

Really? Which material from IPX do think is better, the workbooks, the videos or both? I purchased the AAP from INE, which I thought was pretty good, but I do not have anything to really compare it to...

Also, I read that you mentioned that the rack rentals were much easier to get with IPX... Are the racks at IPX pretty accessible whenever you want to book them?

I am about to buy some workbooks and I was going to go with INE, but I am now curious on what IPX has to offer after reading your response...

Mooseboost

I find myself reading through this thread hoping that someday I will be as awesome as Iris. The level of dedication alone is simply amazing. I look forward to reading about your pass.

Iristheangel

AmericanDreamer wrote: »

Really? Which material from IPX do think is better, the workbooks, the videos or both? I purchased the AAP from INE, which I thought was pretty good, but I do not have anything to really compare it to...

Also, I read that you mentioned that the rack rentals were much easier to get with IPX... Are the racks at IPX pretty accessible whenever you want to book them?

I am about to buy some workbooks and I was going to go with INE, but I am now curious on what IPX has to offer after reading your response...

INE was death by powerpoint and fat fingering configs. I wish I had a counter for all the hours I lost watching the instructors troubleshoot their own fat fingered config for L2/L3 problems and wondering why they didn't just edit that out of the videos. As far as the workbooks, they are missing HUGE parts of the test and not anywhere near expert-level in terms of configs or what they're asking you to do, and their lab pods are missing big parts like VDC access - if you go into a the CCIE lab without every configuring a storage VDC or understanding VDC templates or how to troubleshoot misconfigured VDCs, that might be the timesuck that fails you.



I found IPX a lot more streamlined, almost no powerpoints, their lab workbooks are MASSIVE and very very very detailed - thousands of pages of solutions and lots of mock labs, and their mock labs have full VDC access and a very very very good topology.

That's my .02 cents. I probably wouldn't be close to a CCIE if INE was my sole training provider.

joelsfood

And the new versions of the IPX workbooks just posted.

AmericanDreamer

Thanks a lot for your input Iris. I wish I knew all of that before I purchased INE's AAP for 3 years . It's funny that you mention "death by powerpoint," because now that I think about it, it does kinda seem that way. I also wondered why they never edited their videos when they make mistakes that takes 5+ minutes to troubleshoot :roll It's cool though; I am going to purchase IPX's DC Bundle and I will use INE's AAP to fill in any gaps that I have and for their various technologies videos they have for the other tracks and vendors.

Just like everyone else who is following you said, I am on the sideline watching you do your thing, waiting to cheer you on once you win the big game. Thanks for all of your blog entries and willing to help out others who are not as far along as you are on the quest to become a CCIE DC journey. Your determination motivates me to get off of my @$$ and put that work in!

Marv_Bx_718

joelsfood wrote: »

And the new versions of the IPX workbooks just posted.

Where did you post them sir? I am checking your blog by the way.

joelsfood

Marv, I didn't post them anywhere. IPExpert just posted them to the member's area for people who have bought them.

Marv_Bx_718

joelsfood wrote: »

Marv, I didn't post them anywhere. IPExpert just posted them to the member's area for people who have bought them.

Maybe mine hasn't updated yet, I am still studying for the written anyway, so I haven't checked the workbooks yet.

Iristheangel

20 days until my lab...

oohhhhh crapppppp......

JoJoCal19

Wow it's close. How has lab prep been going?

ninjaturtle

AmericanDreamer wrote: »

Thanks a lot for your input Iris. I wish I knew all of that before I purchased INE's AAP for 3 years . It's funny that you mention "death by powerpoint," because now that I think about it, it does kinda seem that way. I also wondered why they never edited their videos when they make mistakes that takes 5+ minutes to troubleshoot :roll It's cool though; I am going to purchase IPX's DC Bundle and I will use INE's AAP to fill in any gaps that I have and for their various technologies videos they have for the other tracks and vendors.

Just like everyone else who is following you said, I am on the sideline watching you do your thing, waiting to cheer you on once you win the big game. Thanks for all of your blog entries and willing to help out others who are not as far along as you are on the quest to become a CCIE DC journey. Your determination motivates me to get off of my @$$ and put that work in!

Keep an eye out for discounts with IPX. They always have promotions going on. Heck, you could give them a call and they will honor one if it's close, or at least let you know when it's around the corner. I got my 1yr subscription for a little more than half off!! So definitely keep that in mind, save you some money since you dropped cash on INE too.

Cheers,

21ctl

the discount is still high because it forces you to buy 5/10/25 before they add the extra token.

the Full Mock Lab token is very expensive ?

Data center racks are just too expensive.. how can one survive especially if you are from africa

joelsfood

Data center is just not something you can study cheaply for. List price on a rack is somewhere north of $800,000US. That doesn't even take into account the costs of hosting it, which in many colos can run you more than $1000US/month. So IPX adding those 5 new racks is a huge monetary investment, and they have to recoup that somehow (plus make a profit, they're a charity )

21ctl

i agree with you but, we still kinda feel that it very expensive. wondering why cisco don't give good discount to major trainers.
am crying to study for data center because am shouldering the whole cost for now

21ctl

how is your studies going... i know your lab date is close now!!!

Shoe Box

Only a week or so away!

creamy_stew

I think Iris is in beast mode until the exam!

I imagine her sitting at her computer, growling at passers-by, occasionally being fed pieces of raw meat on a stick by the wife

21ctl

very funny

Iristheangel

creamy_stew wrote: »

I think Iris is in beast mode until the exam!

I imagine her sitting at her computer, growling at passers-by, occasionally being fed pieces of raw meat on a stick by the wife

That's about accurate

I built four lab DCs today: SAN, Compute, and LAN. Now I'm writing a POC guide for Firesight while I resolve a storage issue in our lab. #MyBrainIsFastSwitching

Tomorrow I fly to Tulsa, OK to start my IPExpert CCIE DC bootcamp on Monday. Labbing all week, then heading to San Jose on Friday to relax during the weekend, then the lab is on Monday.

Wish me luck

creamy_stew

You got this!

GOGOGO!