My CCIE Data Center Thread
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jamesp1983
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Congrats!"Check both the destination and return path when a route fails." "Switches create a network. Routers connect networks." -
aftereffector
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Congratulations Iris!!CCIE Security - this one might take a while... -
TheProf
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Congrats! That's an amazing achievement! -
zeetskeet
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I Have been following your journey for a while now.
Seems like your hard work paid off, congratulations!"Real Programmers Count From Zero" -
shuttle233
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Congrats Katie. I heard about it from Narbik. I'm currently working on CCIE RS.
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shuttle233
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No wish I was. He posted on his facebook page which is how I heard. Been a quiet follower of you for a while.
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DPG
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Congrats!
Do you think you would have been able to accomplish this in only two attempts if you weren't working for Cisco? -
21ctl
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Congrats!
Do you think you would have been able to accomplish this in only two attempts if you weren't working for Cisco?
i don't understand what you mean by that, have u followed her blog. i read her blog and she has been working hard and studied her way through from CCNA DC ,CCNP DC and passing CCIE.
she is not stopping already registered for Security class " from ZERO to HERO" -
Iristheangel
Mod Posts: 4,133 Mod
Congrats!
Do you think you would have been able to accomplish this in only two attempts if you weren't working for Cisco?
Of course. It would have just required more rack rental time. I used some internal racks which saved me some cash and rack rentals. My study materials in terms of videos, books, lab workbooks, etc stayed the same regardless of my employment. I didn't study this for 6 months out of the blue. I started studying DC at the end of 2013 and purchased almost $2K in DC rack rental tokens at the time and the INE DC Lab Workbook. It took me almost 2 years of labbing, videos, books, and craziness of 40+ hour study weeks to get to the point where I took my first lab attempt.
BTW, Mrock and I were sitting in the lobby with another Cisco employee who was attempting the CCIE DC for this 5th time. He ended up failing again. Mrock passed on his first attempt yesterday. Mrock definitely isn't a Cisco employee and he's not working in professional services anymore
Employment can help in terms of paying for your training or helping you have access to lab resources but it's not a guarantee that you're going to pass. It takes hard work to get to this point. -
Essendon
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Congratulations on the awesome achievement! Can you please say hello to Mike for me?! He was an awesome guy to have around here. -
Iristheangel
Mod Posts: 4,133 Mod
Sent him a text on your behalf, Essendon He flew back to Florida today. I'm super happy for him. He's 2 for 2 on passing on his first go now. It was also nice to put a face to the name I've been talking to online for 4+ years now. I think he's going to spend the next month trying to figure out what his next IE will be and then jump into it.
I have to say that even though I was "sleep labbing" (since the lab started at 4AM my time), I really liked RTP more than San Jose and I'll probably go back. David is a good guy. He's very straight-to-the-point and doesn't BS. He's not going to hold your hand and it probably drives a TON of people nuts but he's fair and I get the impression that past all the sarcasm, he genuinely wants people to pass. He's also very very straightforward about how long it takes to grade (40-50 minutes for the DC script to run), who grades them (Never him. The proctors don't grade the people who take it directly under them - it's to prevent any personal bias and that makes perfect sense), that there aren't gremlins coming in to hose up your lab during the day - if something is messed up it on you, and that the lab is graded on a script - there's no magic secret sauce or if you have an IE or anything beforehand you're graded harder. I appreciated that sort of honest and straightforwardness and I'm sure everyone else taking the lab does too. When I took it in San Jose, the proctor didn't tell us anything except where we could go to the restroom.
One thing to note: Prior to my first attempt, I took the week off and re-did my IPX bootcamp, I had a spa day and back massage the weekend before my lab, and slept an enormous amount so I was nice and relaxed for my first attempt. It equaled a fail.
Second attempt: Didn't sleep more than 3 hours for the 48 hours prior, wasn't able to take the day off of work so I was working on the airplane and when I got off, was super stressed and anxious, was not well-rested or clearminded for the lab and somehow I cleared it.
Apparently I work my best when I'm exhausted, run down, and about to keel over. :P Note to self for CCIE #2 -
DPG
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Iristheangel wrote: »BTW, Mrock and I were sitting in the lobby with another Cisco employee who was attempting the CCIE DC for this 5th time. He ended up failing again.
That is what I was getting at. It is well known that Cisco employees have exclusive access to resources that us civilians could only wish for. I passed on a position with them even though I think I would have had a much better chance at obtaining a CCIE which has always been a personal goal.
CCNP to CCIE in less than 2 years is a crazy accomplishment regardless of employer.
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DPG
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Iristheangel wrote: »I have to say that even though I was "sleep labbing" (since the lab started at 4AM my time), I really liked RTP more than San Jose
Wow. Did you have to fly across the country for the second attempt due the lab availability? Cisco really needs to get something permanent setup somewhere between the coasts. -
Iristheangel
Mod Posts: 4,133 Mod
The only really exclusive thing I have access to is an internal rack someone locally pieced together but most large partners have the same thing and it's a bit more formal. In our case, our local storage guy built it from scratch and gave some of us studying access but it's not an "official Cisco resource" by any means. I've heard that TAC also gets racks mostly for testing bugs and issues but on their off time they get to have access to it for certification reasons. The rest of us in the organization have zero access to TAC's special resources though.
What my employer is save me money on rack rentals, lab workbooks, bootcamps and the actual cash of the exam - not the timing or amount of tries it took me to knock this guy out. The resources work paid for were the same resources anyone would have used in the course of study of this exam -
lrb
Member Posts: 526
That is what I was getting at. It is well known that Cisco employees have exclusive access to resources that us civilians could only wish for. I passed on a position with them even though I think I would have had a much better chance at obtaining a CCIE which has always been a personal goal.
For the most part Cisco employees have access to the same gear as partners such as dCloud and PEC. I would say the benefit of working for Cisco as a blue-badge (permanent) is that you get your written and lab paid for. -
21ctl
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nice write ups, once am done with my CISSP am starting DC next year jan from ground Zero... HOPE Narbik will start the DC ZERO to HERO, the timing makes sense since its only weekend ( Saturday).. hoping to accomplish my whole from ZERO to lab in 24 months.
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xnx
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Congrats, I've had some good fortune come about recently and have been working as a Network Engineer for a few months.. I was actually doing some basic 1000v troubleshooting for a client the other day!Getting There ...
Lab Equipment: Using Cisco CSRs and 4 Switches currently -
Essendon
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Iristheangel wrote: »Sent him a text on your behalf, Essendon He flew back to Florida today. I'm super happy for him. He's 2 for 2 on passing on his first go now. It was also nice to put a face to the name I've been talking to online for 4+ years now. I think he's going to spend the next month trying to figure out what his next IE will be and then jump into it.
Thank you! -
fmitawaps
Banned Posts: 261
Iris, why did you list your CCIE DC second to the CISSP? Seems like it should be first after all the work it took to get it.
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Iristheangel
Mod Posts: 4,133 Mod
Because I group them together by vendor, not value on here. If I had to put it in order, it would look really weird going "CCIE, CCNP, CISSP, CCNA, CCENT... " and so on
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bharvey92
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Congratulations! Saw you failed, but you dusted yourself off and hit it again - and smashed it. Inspirational! Great stuff!2018 Goal: CCIE Written [ ] -
Iristheangel
Mod Posts: 4,133 Mod
Thanks for all the good wishes and congrats! It was therapeutic at times to vent/update on here. I'm hoping my CCIE R&S is a similar trajectory. I have a feeling that I'll enjoy studying it more than DC to be honest and labbing should be easier with all the virtual resources out there.
. Best of luck for #2.