Passed CVOICE (1/5)

negru_tudor

Hi all,

Fairly new around here as a member but have been lurking through threads for some time now and found a helpful and encouraging community.

Now I've been in telecoms for about 4.5 years now, involved with good old Nortel CS1000 systems, Avaya IPT and Shoretel as well as some Cisco VoIP integration projects and migrations from TDM. Have started down the CCNP Voice track late Nov '14 and today I've struck my first major victory against the NP "beast"

I have to say it's a though exam with a fairly high minimum passing score so getting down and dirty with the kit and hands-on is crucial.

Study material used:

- Jeremy Cioara's 642-437 nuggets for CVOICE 8.0, the old 642-453 (GWGK - this one's priceless) and the 642-642 ones for QoS
- the Cisco Press Official study guide as well as the Foundation Learning Guide
- bits and pieces of all that i could get around the web on topics like SIP, GK, QoS, SRTP
- Firewall.cx for some secure RTP stuff (very handy; security knowledge IS tested on the exam and that's all that i'll say on this but beware)

Lab kit used:

- GNS3 with some CIPC VM machines
- 1 x 2801 router with E1, FXS and some PVDM2 modules
- 1 x 3550 switch to push some power into IP phones and some QoS configs
- 2 x 7960 IP phones for some good ol' hands-on
- 1 x Avaya PBX in VMware to run some SIP trunks
- 1 x Asteris PBX in VMware to run some SIP trunks and for VM purposes

Have been studying like crazy for this basically squeezing in as much time as I could to get this in the bag as I've read around that Cisco might be looking at redesigning the CCNP Voice track sometime this year.

The exam, I feel, didn't touch upon some of the stuff Cisco's material would have you thinking it would and kinda "insisted" on some topics that IMHO would fall into the not-so-critical-stuff-to-know-by-heart for a VoIP / UC engineer. All in all, it's a tough one..tougher than most of the exams taken so far...I wouldn't say tougher than CCNA though but it's above CCNA Voice.

Taking some 2 weeks time off and then off to CIPT 1.

Cheers!

Alex90

Congrats mate

negru_tudor

Thanks Hope you manage as well! Seen you're pretty much on the same path!

ccnpninja

Congrats and thanks for the feedback!

Alex90

negru_tudor wrote: »

Thanks Hope you manage as well! Seen you're pretty much on the same path!

Thanks! Yep CCIE Collab is the end goal, there is just something about the voice/UC stuff that does it for me! I'm finishing off CCNA Voice and then will hopefully be onto NP Voice. I am a bit worried about this exam update that's been mentioned though, I don't want to be in a position where the whole syllabus get's updated before I have a chance to complete it.

What's your time frame from CIPT1?

negru_tudor

Alex90 wrote: »

Thanks! Yep CCIE Collab is the end goal, there is just something about the voice/UC stuff that does it for me! I'm finishing off CCNA Voice and then will hopefully be onto NP Voice. I am a bit worried about this exam update that's been mentioned though, I don't want to be in a position where the whole syllabus get's updated before I have a chance to complete it.

What's your time frame from CIPT1?

Aiming high I too am worried about a potential NP Voice "refresh" but I'm guessing we'll find out soon enough if Cisco really plans on doing something about it (there's this Cisco Live 2015 event in Milan between 27 - 30 January, so this week). I hope they don't and keep the track unchanged for the current year.

Was thinking of sitting down the CIPT1 somewhere before the 15th of May...depending on how studies go I might go for it a bit earlier but it's subject to a lot of factors and work. Was then thinking about CIPT2 for somewhere around early September 2015, then CAPPS around Christmas time and TVOICE for Jan-Feb 2016 but all of this is really just a rough schedule based on my own study time and work-life balance..I've seen other people smoke this track in less than 1 year. Myself, I tend to spend maybe too much time on some topics & getting lost in the details but that's just me.

Good luck with the CCNA Voice! It's got it's fair amount of stuff crammed into it but just leaves you feeling good once you have it down..so much useful info..CVOICE is pretty much a more in-depth look at the gateway stuff (very little to none CUCM stuff), voice protocols and QoS..the stuff you build VoIP networks on. I pretty much enjoyed them both.

Alex90

Well might as well aim for the top!! I don't think it's the end of the world if they do a refresh though, from what I understand it's likely that you'd still be able to mix and match the old exams with the new. If there is an update, will they release at Cisco Live then?

From what I've heard CIPT isn't too bad, I think that CIPT2 and TVOICE are supposedly the hardest. Do you have much exposure to CUCM? Seems like you've got a pretty solid schedule though, and also realistic. There was another guy on here who do it start to finish in 4 months but I just wouldn't have the amount of spare time required to complete it in that time frame.

Thanks, enjoying the study so far and luckily I'm in a voice job at the moment so I have ample time to play around with gateways, CUCM, Unity etc...

negru_tudor

Alex90 wrote: »

Well might as well aim for the top!! I don't think it's the end of the world if they do a refresh though, from what I understand it's likely that you'd still be able to mix and match the old exams with the new. If there is an update, will they release at Cisco Live then?

From what I've heard CIPT isn't too bad, I think that CIPT2 and TVOICE are supposedly the hardest. Do you have much exposure to CUCM? Seems like you've got a pretty solid schedule though, and also realistic. There was another guy on here who do it start to finish in 4 months but I just wouldn't have the amount of spare time required to complete it in that time frame.

Thanks, enjoying the study so far and luckily I'm in a voice job at the moment so I have ample time to play around with gateways, CUCM, Unity etc...

Yeap, that'll get you far. I'd reckon they might as well announce it at a live event but that's just a hunch (no solid foundation though - probably getting ahead of myself) but as you said, we ought to be able to mix and match so should be good though it depends on how fast will they churn out study material if they revise the courses..I've invested a bit in 8.0 study stuff so am hoping to make the most use of it while I still can.

I've head the same about CIPT1..I guess we'll find out soon enough though. I can't say I have much exposure to CUCM nor have had much aside from my home voice labs but I tend to get all crazy with VMware and lab integration (to other systems using SIP or H323) so I guess it all boils down to how much time I'm willing to put into this..I have, however, done several CME/Voice Gateway integration projects to TDM systems for VoIP migrations and enjoyed those pretty much so it's become a bit of a hobby for me in a sense where it's peaked my interest to what you can do with the tech.

All the best in your studies! I'll post back once I've anything interesting/relevant on my CCNP Voice "quest"

Alex90

I'm kind of hoping that when they do revise the exams, they drop it down to 4 instead of the current 5 exams required for the NP Voice. Only time will tell I suppose!! I really need to build myself a lab at home, I'm going through some of the IPexpert CCIE Collaboration workbook and using there rack rentals for my labbing at the moment but obviously that is predominately aimed at CCIE students so it's not ideal. I'm working in a voice role so I get plenty of hands on time with CUCM, Unity and gateways.

It sounds like you like the voice side of things so I'd imagine you'll be fine That's one of the reasons I'm holding off on the routing and switching side of things, I just don't find a lot of it that interesting. Voice/UC and data center are my interests! The lab equipment you listed, did you use that for CCNA Voice as well?

Thanks, I look forward to hearing how you get on with the other exams... 1 down, 4 to go

negru_tudor

Alex90 wrote: »

I'm kind of hoping that when they do revise the exams, they drop it down to 4 instead of the current 5 exams required for the NP Voice. Only time will tell I suppose!! I really need to build myself a lab at home, I'm going through some of the IPexpert CCIE Collaboration workbook and using there rack rentals for my labbing at the moment but obviously that is predominately aimed at CCIE students so it's not ideal. I'm working in a voice role so I get plenty of hands on time with CUCM, Unity and gateways.

It sounds like you like the voice side of things so I'd imagine you'll be fine That's one of the reasons I'm holding off on the routing and switching side of things, I just don't find a lot of it that interesting. Voice/UC and data center are my interests! The lab equipment you listed, did you use that for CCNA Voice as well?

Thanks, I look forward to hearing how you get on with the other exams... 1 down, 4 to go

Yeap, pretty much used the same stuff for CCNA Voice though i also had CUCM 8.6 and Unity running in VMware to get some hands on. Got this in my mail this morning https://www.netacadadvantage.com/experience-skills/experience-skills-blog/-/blogs/new-cisco-certifications-that-might-interest-you?p_p_auth=HziQNgT1?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monthly&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonv63NZKXonjHpfsX67ewtW6CwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ASsVlI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFSrXMMbZmwLgFWBU%3D so it looks like they've announced the new certs and the CCNP R&S change..nothing on Voice...hope they keep it that way for a while :d

negru_tudor

CCNP Voice seems to be getting the boot .. last day to take any 8.0 cert seems to be August 17 2015 ... Current Exam List - IT Certification and Career Paths - Cisco Systems

ande0255

Ah man I just saw this under the refresh thread, that sucks so big time, hopefully they'll do what they usually do and give you credit towards one of the new exams for this one. I was on the brink of buying the entire CCNP Voice book set a month or so ago too, good lord am I glad I did not impulse buy the library!