Some questions and comments about CCNA:Voice

binargs

hello all.
I been through the official book 3 times now and watch the cbt video once. Here are some of my thoughts and questions.

1. The first part of the book, about the cme section and the theory section, are very well written. I get the concepts and I created a master config with everything used. I get that portion.

2. The second half of the book about CUCM, CUC, and CUPS, I found it hard to remember what is involved.

3. Watch the CBT videos too, the concepts did not stick. Especially the part about how to use the GUI, in and out of my head.

4. Bought the Boson practice exams, found the questions are heavily focused on CUC, Reports and recovery. Which neither the book nor the video covered well.

5. Tried to watch Mark Snow's video from INE, I understand that guy is know for being complete, but there is just something about the way he gives the lessons that every time I put the video on, I will fall asleep within 10 minutes. I found it to be very dry and robotic

6. Now trying to get a copy of CUCM from "unofficial" channels. I think it is very poor that Cisco did not include a demo version of the things on the exam. For all of the Microsoft exams, a trial copy of the product is usually included. Not Cisco.

7. According to the Cisco breakdown, over 25% of the exam is on CUC and CUPS, and another 20% on CUCM. Without understanding these topics, there is no way for me to pass the exam. And I am finding myself reading the same paragraph over and over, for the past 2 weeks.

8. The people who passed the exam, how did you guys managed with the CUCM and CUC sections? What is your feeling towards the exam overall? Difficult? Easy?

9. May I just don't have the love for technology anymore, but when it comes to CUCM, and CUC, i just can care less. Maybe it is that mentality that is prevent me from learning it. On the other side, I am dying to learn how to integrate AIM / CUE of Unity Express, which ironically is completely absent from the exam.

Any suggestions or comments is appreciated.

theodoxa

I like CUCM (Partitions and CSS make more sense than COR Lists for example), though I wish Cisco would merge the two, making CME the CLI. That way once you learned CME, you could manage both and if there was something you couldn't find in CUCM (e.g. for the life of me, I can't figure out how to assign an existing DN to a Phone. There is a hyperlink to add a NEW DN, but not to use an existing one), you could simply drop to the CLI and configure it. Or, you could just use the CLI exclusively if you prefer.

[EDIT] Unfortunately, there is no "legit" way to get CUCM for a reasonable price. There are sites claiming you can make the non-bootable images from Cisco's site bootable. Sadly, it appears Cisco caught wind of this and now even the non-bootable recovery images require a service contract to download. There is a developer version of CUCM (don't remember the URL), but it costs several hundred dollars. For that, you could simply buy a lab with CUCM images included from someone like NetCertLabs or http://www.************** (<-- I wonder if techexams note liking the second kit seller is a bad sign?)

Bootable_UCSInstall_UCOS_8.6.2.10000-14.sgn

binargs

Thank you, with the name and major search engine, I was able to get the file

I download the ESXi 5.1 update 2 from VMware

fixed the SSL problem from ESXi shell with this VMware KB: vSphere Client and vSphere PowerCLI may fail to connect to vCenter Server 5.0, 5.1 and 5.5 due to a Handshake failure (affects XP only)

follow this instruction and installed CUCM 8.6 in ESXi Install CUCM 8.6 in VMware ESXi | Ian Seno

davenull

Instead of going through the official book, try working through the CCNA Voice Lab Manual by Brent Sieling first. I can't stress enough how much the lab manual helps with remembering the GUIs. Also, it's not just a step by step labbing, there's plenty of descriptions and explanations that the official book is lacking.

negru_tudor

davenull wrote: »

Instead of going through the official book, try working through the CCNA Voice Lab Manual by Brent Sieling first. I can't stress enough how much the lab manual helps with remembering the GUIs. Also, it's not just a step by step labbing, there's plenty of descriptions and explanations that the official book is lacking.

Totally agree here. Brent's book is top notch for the CCNA Voice. Even gone back to it a couple of times for the CCNP Voice track stuff.

Alex90

negru_tudor wrote: »

Totally agree here. Brent's book is top notch for the CCNA Voice. Even gone back to it a couple of times for the CCNP Voice track stuff.

Same here, didn't go through Brent's book cover to cover but it was certainly very useful for areas I was weak on.

binargs

failed, some thoughts

1. i thought the official guide says passing is 800 but for my exam it said passing is 880, i scored 770. wth?

2. the biggest issue i have with the test is that it ask many "where in the menu is that option" type of question that I have no answer to, since i do not have a working cucm or cuc or cups running in my house. i didn't think it was fair to test hard memory of menu, it should of been a simulation type of "hey, go create a user"

3. many people expressed they got help from the lab guide. i might take a look.

4. since my cisco certs expires at 19th, i got one more shot. think they will extend me some time?

theodoxa

binargs wrote: »

2. the biggest issue i have with the test is that it ask many "where in the menu is that option" type of question that I have no answer to, since i do not have a working cucm or cuc or cups running in my house. i didn't think it was fair to test hard memory of menu, it should of been a simulation type of "hey, go create a user"

I was afraid of this. That was something I hated on Microsoft exams - "Where would you go to configure X", usually with 2 or 3 answers that are very similar sounding, requiring you to know the exact name of the console.

4. since my cisco certs expires at 19th, i got one more shot. think they will extend me some time?

You might consider retaking the CCNA if you think you can pass it. Cisco makes you wait 6 days (5 days starting the day after the fail) to retake the same exam. But, you should be able to take a different exam without waiting. So, if you were to fail ICOMM let's say tomorrow, you would not be able to retake it before the 19th, but you could give the CCNA a try. Should your CCNA lapse, you could retake the Composite exam to get it back in one exam.

negru_tudor

binargs wrote: »

failed, some thoughts

1. i thought the official guide says passing is 800 but for my exam it said passing is 880, i scored 770. wth?

2. the biggest issue i have with the test is that it ask many "where in the menu is that option" type of question that I have no answer to, since i do not have a working cucm or cuc or cups running in my house. i didn't think it was fair to test hard memory of menu, it should of been a simulation type of "hey, go create a user"

3. many people expressed they got help from the lab guide. i might take a look.

4. since my cisco certs expires at 19th, i got one more shot. think they will extend me some time?

..kind of hard tackling this track without a home lab. You don't even need much to get CUCM, CUC and CUPS 8.6 running in VMware (Virtualbox, Workstation etc). Add to this GNS3 and some CIPC virtual machines and you're flying. There's too much GUI to this beast which unfortunately you cannot master unless you get up close & personal with it, break things a couple of times etc. I think the greatest achievement in pursuing the CCNA Voice track was getting the home lab glued together and seeing them all work like they should..

Sorry you failed. Hope you bag it next time!

binargs

I will try to spend more time in the virtual machine.

i don't think i can pass the icnd2 again right now, ever since i passed it 3 years ago, i can count on one hand the time i actually used it. i am more of a sysadmin by trade and with the update of multisite ospf and ipv6, i don't think i can pass the icnd2 again.

<rant>
what really does a number in my head is that this 640-461, at least with the previous generation, is purely about cme. which i like and is the reason why i really want to pick up ccna:voice, to show my clients hey i actually know this stuff. but the current 640-461 is more like a sell tools for Cisco to mandate us to learn about CUPS and video in ccna:C, which I have yet to see a single enterprise use. I get the feeling that when Cisco redesign the exam, they figure hey let's make them know CUPS and maybe we will sell more of them. The CCNA level is suppose to target the smaller sector of the business world, and the most popular choice is cme and cue, which in my last exam, have a very small significance. There was absolute no questions about dial-peer, wild cards in cme, and the official book does not even include cue but there were questions after another on CUPS and Jabber. The Offical book dedicated half of the book in cme and by no way it reflects in the exam. Maybe Cisco should start look at how Microsoft does things - by a particular technologies. So I can get my cert in CCNA:CME instead of learning CUPS which I will not touch for the rest of my life.
</rant>

negru_tudor

binargs wrote: »

I will try to spend more time in the virtual machine.

i don't think i can pass the icnd2 again right now, ever since i passed it 3 years ago, i can count on one hand the time i actually used it. i am more of a sysadmin by trade and with the update of multisite ospf and ipv6, i don't think i can pass the icnd2 again.

<rant>
what really does a number in my head is that this 640-461, at least with the previous generation, is purely about cme. which i like and is the reason why i really want to pick up ccna:voice, to show my clients hey i actually know this stuff. but the current 640-461 is more like a sell tools for Cisco to mandate us to learn about CUPS and video in ccna:C, which I have yet to see a single enterprise use. I get the feeling that when Cisco redesign the exam, they figure hey let's make them know CUPS and maybe we will sell more of them. The CCNA level is suppose to target the smaller sector of the business world, and the most popular choice is cme and cue, which in my last exam, have a very small significance. There was absolute no questions about dial-peer, wild cards in cme, and the official book does not even include cue but there were questions after another on CUPS and Jabber. The Offical book dedicated half of the book in cme and by no way it reflects in the exam. Maybe Cisco should start look at how Microsoft does things - by a particular technologies. So I can get my cert in CCNA:CME instead of learning CUPS which I will not touch for the rest of my life.
</rant>

Lol, man I feel your pain! ) My thoughts exactly. I got into it because I was hooked by "see this little router right here? what if i told you it can do IPT, SIP trunks, etc"..and then I got into studying for the CCNA-V and was kind of let down in some ways..then I went to the NP-Voice track and kinda started to like CUCM and what it can do but started to hate on other stuff but then again I'm under a little bit of pressure to get those exams done ASAP so I think things could have been different if I could have studied at a "slower" pace. If you really think about it, it's kinda cool to get CUPS working and get one client (CUPC) to rule them all :P (VM, Presence, Video, Voice). Still, it can be nerve wrecking when you're just studying, studying etc.. I actually know companies who weren't very keen on IM/Presence/UC but once they had a taste of it they swore they'd never look back.

Chin up. It's never the end of the road with these things. Just think about all the knowledge you've gained during your studies. If you went to a customer's site and had to set up a CME box with IP Phones, a PRI and some analog ones would you be able to do it? If yes, then you've already won a great deal!

theodoxa

binargs wrote: »

<rant>
what really does a number in my head is that this 640-461, at least with the previous generation, is purely about cme. which i like and is the reason why i really want to pick up ccna:voice...

I think Cisco is trying to move away from CME. The "Replacement" for the UC520 for example is a server running CUCM and CUC (Cisco Business Edition 6000).

[EDIT] I'm not sure how a server is supposed to replace 4 FXO or 2 BRI + 4 FXS + 8 PoE Ports.

binargs

thanks guys.

i got the lab manual by brent, i sat in front of my cucm and cuc vm and went through the book. i thought it is alot better than the official guide.

one of the things i done is that after the exam, i wrote down a couple of questions that really stuck out from the failed exam so i can look up the solution. the problem here is that now i went through the exam book, the lab, and pretty much everything cisco have officially published, but i still don't have answer to some of the questions i did not know on the exam. any suggestions?

btw. the official lab guide was the same thing, cuc and presence together is only 100 pages, but on the exam they accounted for over 30 % of the questions. i f'ing hate presence cups

negru_tudor

Post the questions here and we'll try to help out. Presence is a b@$)h till you get it working but it's cool once you have it working..it's still got a lot of moving parts to it..

cisco_nerd

I suggest to you that you build yourself a full cluster of v8.0 or 8.5 in ESXi. This will give you the hands on you need for the exam - especially if you do not work with the equipment on a daily basis.

the exam is very much 'know how to do it / configure it - or fail'... you need to be familiar with the interfaces, RTMT, CCP, CME webGUI, reporting, as well as CUPS/CUC configuration, client integration etc. etc.