CCNP R&S - Recommend material

the_lost_scotsman

Hi Guys,

So I am back as ever when I have a hard certification to take. Anyway I am starting the route exam first for personal reasons. But what I am finding difficult is the little information on what resources to use for the exam. This isn't just limited to the route exam but the CCNP as a whole. Currently I have CBT, INE and the cisco press book. Is there any other resources that you guys can think off ? Timeline is about 5 months for the CCNP route as I have to pass the old CCNA-V first but any additional input would be appreciated

atorven

Come on, there is plenty for material out there for R&S, between using the resources that you already have and Cisco documentation, I don't see where you can go wrong.

xnx

You must be joking?

The CCNP Official Certification guides and Foundation Learning Guides make for hours of reading.

I'm not sure if you work with Cisco stuff day to day but the CCNP isn't just a 'cert' that you can get from reading... trust me, you'll have to know your stuff by the time you get to T-Shoot.

I'm finishing off Switch right now and then will start CCNP revision from scratch, once I feel worthy of CCNP level stuff I will take the T-Shoot, although I could do that straight away and probably pass after Switch.

Priston

Cisco Networking Academy has a new Lab Manual now.

CCNP ROUTE Lab Manual (2nd Edition) (Lab Companion): 9781587134029: Computer Science Books @ Amazon.com

atorven

@xnx - How do you suggest he "learns his stuff" without reading? You can't lab what you don't know.

the_lost_scotsman

@priston - thats the type of resources I am looking for. Thank you very much.

@xnx - I am the type of person that would get bored very quickly in my job if I wasn't constantly learning. I work everyday with Cisco devices and it frustrates me that I wouldn't know about the technology deeper than what CCNA curriculum teaches you. I don't know about any of you guys but I found that the CCNA covered alot of technologies but nothing to deep. I happily put 3 - 4 hrs outside of work to learn more and have a overall better understanding and if I pickup a few certifications along the way then great .

Ismaeljrp

Well I should be recieving my copy of CCNP Route Simplified and IP Routing on IOS, IOS XE and IOS XR. I'll let you know how those go if your thread is bumped.

Cisco documentation is invaluable, do not underestimate it. After all, that's where all the material for books come from anyway.

I took the previous CCNA version, and 1 year at work in a NOC role I've learned more advanced topics such as IP SLAs, Tracks, VRF Routing, MPLS, QoS and VOIP, yet I'm still far off CCNP level overall, so I can understand where you're coming from.

koz24

Ismaeljrp wrote: »

Well I should be recieving my copy of CCNP Route Simplified and IP Routing on IOS, IOS XE and IOS XR. I'll let you know how those go if your thread is bumped.

Cisco documentation is invaluable, do not underestimate it. After all, that's where all the material for books come from anyway.

I took the previous CCNA version, and 1 year at work in a NOC role I've learned more advanced topics such as IP SLAs, Tracks, VRF Routing, MPLS, QoS and VOIP, yet I'm still far off CCNP level overall, so I can understand where you're coming from.

I know Cisco has recently updated the exams to reflect what's expected in the field but, QoS for instance, isn't touched upon anymore until the CCIE and I keep seeing it on CCNA-level job advertisements. Same goes for MPLS. I'd say you're lucky to be exposed to them in a NOC role.

txraider09

Chris Bryant is also revising his whole CCNP training videos on Udemy. I believe the course is 99$ but they sometimes have it on sale as well.

Ismaeljrp

koz24 wrote: »

I know Cisco has recently updated the exams to reflect what's expected in the field but, QoS for instance, isn't touched upon anymore until the CCIE and I keep seeing it on CCNA-level job advertisements. Same goes for MPLS. I'd say you're lucky to be exposed to them in a NOC role.

Indeed.
I originally was hired for more basic roles, but as we're under staffed I had to learn more of these topics.

xnx

the_lost_scotsman wrote: »

@priston - thats the type of resources I am looking for. Thank you very much.

@xnx - I am the type of person that would get bored very quickly in my job if I wasn't constantly learning. I work everyday with Cisco devices and it frustrates me that I wouldn't know about the technology deeper than what CCNA curriculum teaches you. I don't know about any of you guys but I found that the CCNA covered alot of technologies but nothing to deep. I happily put 3 - 4 hrs outside of work to learn more and have a overall better understanding and if I pickup a few certifications along the way then great .

Apologies for the abrupt response, I stupidly got the impression that you did no hands on cisco stuff at all.

Stick to the exam blueprint and lab as much as possible.

For example you should be able to set up a distribution switch and a access switch with trunks and LAGs and configure basic routing very quickly .

Labbing is effective for the exam as you can learn to type commands really fast and not have to worry about making a mistake unlike working on a production network.

When I did my CCNP Route exam i got stuck on a sim and wasted a lot of time, luckily my IOS working speed is quite fast so I was able to make up time on the easier sims. I scored 837 or something on my first attempt - compared to the near 1000 / 1000 I was scoring on the CCNA exam.

Getting real life routing experience will be the biggest challenge as very few people get to work on a network edge, this was one of my biggest challenges 'relating' to BGP and iBGP.

Can I ask how old are you by any chance? Feel free to PM me if required.

Once again it's never my attention to piss anyone off - especially a fellow UK networker, I was just being realistic.