CCIE R&S Journal: I Want To Be The Best

gorebrush

lostindaylight wrote: »

Nice post gorebush.

I think there is an analog in endurance sports such as running, triathlons or cycling. Specifically, there is a fairly small "sweet spot" of about 80-90% intensity, where you are able to maximize the return on your effort without burning yourself out. Conversely, if your effort level is not high enough, you're simply not going to get the results.

Where the difficulty lies, is that 80-90% produces a substantial amount of psychological stress. It's not easy to make a distinction between what's uncomfortable but beneficial, and where you're really burning matches at an unsustainable rate.

This nails it on the head nicely for me. When I went through the CCIE R&S I had found my sweet spot and I was able to pile in hours upon hours daily. At the time, I knew I had to get it done and that was a bit of a continuous source of motivation. Double edged sword though, now I've got my first CCIE done, arguably I can relax; but I have been relaxing too much. That sweet spot is what we all need, finding it can be hard!

joelsfood

Read my latest blog post and listen to everyone in here. Don't burn yourself out, it applies at the end, and in the middle. Take a break. I prefer a long walk, early morning, with the dog and no one to annoy me

EricsLearning

I love the post gorebrush. I run ultras and marathons and there is definitely a sustainable pace and a sprint pace. Its so hard to watch people start off at a sprint only to quit a couple hours in. I guess in this case it would be a couple months into the journey.

Bardlebee

@joelsfood - Yeah I read your blog, I'll have to read your newest entry and congrats man on the finish! I think some of the drag down I'm feeling is I work from home so I'm on the computer for 8 straight hours and then if I want to get good study time in... I'm on the computer another 4, 6, 8 etc you get the idea. So its kind of rough, no human contact is good because it allows focus. But its bad because you feel drained from being in a room all day. I think I'll take your advice and go for a walk just before I study or just see the sun, part of this I think is mentally draining from just not leaving this room.

@gorebrush/lid - Yeah man I feel like I've hit a stride to where 4-5 hours is good for me and it doesn't feel fatiguing like it did in the first few months. Sometimes I wonder if its the material is not pushing me or I'm not pushing myself. I guess I have a lot of inner hold ups with pushing myself and really need to approach this on a one day at a time methodology.

You can tell by my posts that I was coming into this wanting to push myself, and I did. I think that was a positive thing and has made me come farther in a shorter amount of time then I would otherwise, but I think at this point... where I am re-reviewing everything, pushing myself isn't going to work like it used to. It may be a detriment. I've found it very, very hard to detach from this pushing methodology in my head and "go with the flow" and just do 4 hours or 5 hours or whatever and don't stress about it.

I'm starting to really feel it now, that this is a marathon. I accepted it in the past but now I think I am really coming to terms, that I just can't rush something like the CCIE. Like body building, you don't just rush into getting ripped. I takes months and months of measured and most importantly steady repetition. I think I need to keep disconnecting with this thought that more hours = faster goal achievement. It can, but at a certain point its diminishing returns, especially if you're not into it.. then you're wasting time. Which is my biggest problem right now, losing focus during my study time.

@rbaul - I'll give that link a look. I truly don't have a method right now other then doing something every day. And then going through and focusing on weak areas. So maybe a new methodology will help me get me out of the funk I am in.

I'm not super sold on taking days off. I know its probably healthy and in fact there is probably science in there to boot for evidence! But maybe I'll do like a single day out of the week I'll do videos for 2 hours and that's it. Or read for two hours. Right now I just lab lab lab. Which is actually my weaker area as I don't have a decade of experience in route/switch. So its good either way.

Thanks for all the comments guys. You guys boost me up I'll have to think about my approach mentally here. What I'm feeling may be burn out and since I've never had it before (except for back in December) maybe I'm unable to identify it.... so maybe one day off won't kill me. :P


===========================================

DAY 162

THINGS I DID:

- Almost done of IPv6

Total Time: 3 hours


QUESTIONS/CONFUSION/CONCERNS:

TOTAL DAYS OF ZERO TIME STUDYING: 8

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I've gotten bad sleep the past two nights. So I didn't want to push it tonight. I took tomorrow off from work and will probably spend some time just relaxing and watching videos. We'll see how that goes. I got most of what I wanted to get done today. Albeit, not in a very good time frame, hard to focus when I'm tired. And I'll probably take tomorrow to get much needed rest to spur off what is perhaps burnout

OSPFv3
OSPFv3 over NBMA
OSPFv3 Virtual Links
OSPFv3 Summarization
IPv6 Redistribution
IPv6 Filtering
IPv6 MP-BGP
IPv6 PIM and MLD

gorebrush

The bottom line is, nobody can tell you what's the best study pattern for you, you just have to keep trying different approaches to find what works.

fmitawaps

Bardlebee - way back when you started this topic, and I was reading your detailed list of what you did each day, I wondered how long it'd be until you burned yourself out on it. You've actually stuck with it quite a lot longer than I figured you would.

I'd say to take a week off and just relax. Then come back and resume studying and find a number of hours that works each day without killing yourself over it.

The way people talk about CCIEs, and from what I read here and in other places about how hard and intensive the studying is, and how long it takes, and even then, how they barely pass the exam, makes me think I might just go to CCNP level (eventually) and let it go at that.

Unless I hit the lottery first, in which case I'm retired.

Bardlebee

@fmitawaps - After much reflection it seems that I haven't hit burnout this time around, though I did back when I was doing 6-8+ hours a day back in December. Rather, it appears I hit a wall of... boredom. At least that is what it seems so far. I'll elaborate in my next post.

The CCIE is a beast no doubt and I too would rather win the lottery But since I never play I guess I'll never win. Oh well.

Bardlebee

DAY 163-172

THINGS I DID: SECOND PASS COMPLETE!

- FINISHED SECOND PASS OF ATC LABS! 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 3.5 / 4 / 3 / 4

Total Time:


QUESTIONS/CONFUSION/CONCERNS:

TOTAL DAYS OF ZERO TIME STUDYING SINCE BEGINNING: 8

FINAL THOUGHTS:

As noted above, I've completed going through the ATC labs once again. Areas where I felt I got much stronger were Multicast and DMVPN. MPLS still alludes me, but its because I didn't really sit down at length to give it its due respect.

In total I have approximately 200 ATC labs that are still on my "redo" list. These were labs I couldn't do just off the top of my head. or had trouble logically putting it together. 99 percent of them was the first one, I just didn't know where to start (what sub menu) to get my answers. Personally, I would pass it if I could at least find the sub-menu and tab and question mark my way through. 200 sounds like a lot, but I think that is probably about half of the ATC labs, I think there is about 400-500 total.

I got a great tip from one of the individuals on routergods that I should do a full scale lab once every month or two, because what happens is you'll end up forgetting what you learned from the things in the start. This is very, very true. But rather then jump in full scale, I'll be jumping in functional labs. These are the labs that bring all these concepts together in a larger configuration setup.

Tomorrow I will be doing my first functional lab. My plan of attack is pretty straight forward. I'll do this functional lab and see what I miss or cannot configure, I will then go over those areas ad nausea. Once that is done I will begin my third pass through the ATC labs to master the configuration/steps of setting everything up. I will then do the next functional lab in the least when done of my third pass, then I will move on to my fourth pass etc etc until there are no more "passes" needed.

At that time I will hit full scale labs. I'm not going to lie, I am disappointed and at the same time humbled at how long this beast is going to take. I had thought I'd be deep into full scale labs by now. But it is what it is. I am only 6 months in, so I have on average another 6-12 months to go.

As far as my burn out issue I have been dealing with. I think I've come to the realization I was just getting "bored" if that makes sense. I feel a get a lot more energy from being challenged with a new protocol, then I am being challenged with the same protocol that I forgot. Something about forgetting how I configure something really takes the wind out of my sails. So I am thinking this mix up of the functional labs is really going to help.

I'm fairly confident that in this second pass, I will eliminate almost all of DMVPN and Multicast, I am feeling much stronger in Multicast and... I am actually finding it fun to troubleshoot, dare I say it?

==================================================================

Lets take a look at what I wanted as far as projection and where we are at. I'm going to have to bump some of this forward:

Study Time: Weekdays 6 or more hours / Weekends: 8 or more hours

Phase 1) Build Up and Written September - December

1. Do all INE workbook/videos/reading first pass - Done
   1. Do all one-off technology workbook labs once
   2. Watch each INE video in conjunction
   3. Read literature on each technology
2. Study technologies out of scope of the lab for the written - Dec 1 - 20
3. IS-IS and other technologies from books/videos
4. Take all wrong questions and study deeply the Cisco documentation on the subject
5. Identify week areas
6. If I fail the test, I will reschedule a week later and assess the problem areas.
7. I will weep silently for the 400 dollars lost
8. Take practice tests and repeat studies on areas missed - Dec 1 - 20
9. Take the CCIE written - Dec 13 - 26
10. Profit - I can move on to Phase 2

Phase 2) Lab Apocalypse - PROJECTED: December - March / NOW: January 1/16

1. Do a "Second Pass" on the same one-off INE technologies and continue until mastered. WAS: Jan ACTUAL: March
   1. Whichever labs are missed, not understood or not gotten right the first time, they will be added to subsequent passes
      1. There will be a "Third" a "Fourth" etc etc passes until all technologies are done right the first time and most importantly the logic is fully understood from the lab
2. Do Narbik's workbook and all the labs and see how well I do WAS: Feb NOW: April
3. Do the remainder of the INE Labs, Functional, Config, TSHOOT and Mock WAS: Feb-March NOW: April
4. Fully understand what was wrong, and repeat these labs until you do them in extremely fast fashion.
5. Time yourself, increase efficiency
6. Do Cisco 360 labs WAS: Feb-March NOW: April-May

Phase 3) Final Boss Fight - WAS: May - June NOW: June - July

1. Schedule Lab Attempt - WAS: April - May NOW: May - June
   1. Assess from 1-5 where I am. Work on speed and accuracy.
   2. Learn lab tricks to help with speed.
2. Perhaps attend Bootcamp - TBD
3. Achieve my career long dream to join the ranks of the CCIE

Phase 4) Profit??

gorebrush

fmitawaps wrote: »

Bardlebee - way back when you started this topic, and I was reading your detailed list of what you did each day, I wondered how long it'd be until you burned yourself out on it. You've actually stuck with it quite a lot longer than I figured you would.

I'd say to take a week off and just relax. Then come back and resume studying and find a number of hours that works each day without killing yourself over it.

The way people talk about CCIEs, and from what I read here and in other places about how hard and intensive the studying is, and how long it takes, and even then, how they barely pass the exam, makes me think I might just go to CCNP level (eventually) and let it go at that.

Unless I hit the lottery first, in which case I'm retired.

If it were easy, everyone would have one.

Bardlebee

DAY 173

THINGS I DID: SECOND PASS COMPLETE!

- FINISHED Functional Lab 1 - 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours


QUESTIONS/CONFUSION/CONCERNS:

TOTAL DAYS OF ZERO TIME STUDYING SINCE BEGINNING: 8

FINAL THOUGHTS:

The functional lab wasn't all that bad. Here are the things I missed, which in the grand scheme was nothing at all. I think pretty much the only thing I didn't know how to configure was PPPoE, but can you blame me? Tomorrow I will focus on these topics and nail them down, then start my third pass on the ATC's:

Functional Study - (Misses/Etc)
3.1 - PPPoE - (Syntax/Not Know Where to Start)
3.2 - PPPoE Authentication - (Syntax/Not Know Where to Start)
4.2 - IPv4 EIGRP Authentication - (Syntax - Order of commands, but submenu found)
5.2 - IBGP Sub-Section next-hop - (Forgot next-hop self, thus recersive routing would fail due to directly connected routes not redist into IGP)
6.1 - IPv4 over DMVPN - (Small syntax miss - Missed two commands. Map multicast and map multicast dynamic on hub)
6.3 - IPsec over DMVPN - (Small syntax miss - Missed crypto isakmp key command. Wasn't 100 percent on method, whether to use profile or not)
7.2 - IPv6 Redistribution - (Small Syntax miss - find out about redistribute eigrp 1 "include-connected")

Bardlebee

DAY 174

THINGS I DID:

- Fourth Pass - 4.5 hours

Total Time: 4.5 hours


QUESTIONS/CONFUSION/CONCERNS:

TOTAL DAYS OF ZERO TIME STUDYING SINCE BEGINNING: 8

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Following will need to be redone again:

RSPAN --
Voice VLAN --
Private VLANs --
Reliable Policy Routing --
GRE Tunneling and Recursive Routing --
RIPv2 Filtering with Standard Access-Lists --

Following ELIMINATED from next pass (Either I know how to configure it through context or from memory):

VTP Prune-Eligible List
VTP Version 3
STP Path Selection with Port Priority
STP BPDU Guard
MST Root Bridge Election
Protected Ports
SPAN
MAC-Address Table Static Entries and Aging
Routing to Multipoint Broadcast Interfaces
Reliable Static Routing with Enhanced Object Tracking
RIPv2 Convergence Timers
RIPv2 Offset List
RIPv2 Filtering with Prefix-Lists




I am going to try and ramp up my production. I feel I can get in probably 25 labs a day if I work at it. I'll slow down as needed. Today my study session got cut into by work, kinda sucks I would have hit 25 otherwise.

Bardlebee

DAY 172

THINGS I DID:

- Third Pass Done - 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours


QUESTIONS/CONFUSION/CONCERNS:

TOTAL DAYS OF ZERO TIME STUDYING SINCE BEGINNING: 10

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Bleh, I messed up this entry some how.. oh well.

chob11

I share similar frustrations as you went through with the CCIE written. I passed my CCIE R/S Written in January and will be taking the lab in April-May. It has been a while since I have looked at this forum and wish I did sooner. Your thread is motivating. Keep up the good work!

NOC-Ninja

Looking good. goodluck!

gorebrush

Glad you are still going at it. I need to get on with my written, already had to reschedule it once. Oh well.

Bardlebee

chob11 wrote: »

I share similar frustrations as you went through with the CCIE written. I passed my CCIE R/S Written in January and will be taking the lab in April-May. It has been a while since I have looked at this forum and wish I did sooner. Your thread is motivating. Keep up the good work!

How long have you been at it? Feels like I've been doing this forever, but realistically I have another 6-12 months :P

Mr.Brandon

Just wanted to compliment you on this thread. I think this style is a great way to express and tune your study process and force yourself into a "check on learning" mindset when you're done with a study session. Cool stuff!

Loga99

Admire your commitment.I'm just starting out with a+, but in the future i will be taking cisco certificates.

Bardlebee

Mr.Brandon wrote: »

Just wanted to compliment you on this thread. I think this style is a great way to express and tune your study process and force yourself into a "check on learning" mindset when you're done with a study session. Cool stuff!

Exactly why I did this thread was to keep myself honest. The thought "I have to update the thread" and the guilt that would go along with that if my numbers didn't come up to my own personal standards helps drive me. I've also joined a group called routergods with like-minded individuals, their chat and guidance has been invaluable and is already shaping my next step in my career. I'm glad I can be a source of inspiration for people, but yeah it is the last thing on my mind. Kind of why I did this too was I saw very few blogs/threads on the trials and tribulations of getting the CCIE, so that made me be less committed at first. So by doing this, hopefully someone will find this long ass thread of nonesense years from now and they can use a similar drive to push themselves.

Bardlebee

Loga99 wrote: »

Admire your commitment.I'm just starting out with a+, but in the future i will be taking cisco certificates.

Hey A+ buddy. Do it!

I have my A+/Net+/Sec+, if you're just getting into IT its a good way to kind of breach into it, but by no means will give you experience in networking. I say this not to discourage, but because I wish someone would have told me that years ago. I spent probably about 3-5 years in help desk positions with CompTIA certs, always wanting to be a network engineer. However, no one really gives a crap about CompTIA in the network engineering field, nor do they give a crap about help desk experience.

My advice to you, if you want to get into networking. Do the CCNA first and try to find a contracting job for experience or some other intern job if your bills or low. It'll catapult your career 3-5 years ahead where you would have otherwise been spent in help desk. I'm not saying help desk isn't a viable career path, nor do I look down upon it. What I am saying is, I did not want to do it because I was passionate about networking. In hindsight, I should have skipped my CompTIA's and those years of help desk and just went straight in, head first.

Just my two cents. Networking is one of those jobs that are still low barrier to entry (degree not required, but usually is a "plus", some places will have it as a requirement) and you can still make a crap ton of money if you buckle down for a few years and focus on your game. Get in it now, before the barrier to entry changes. Also learn scripting a little bit or just a language like Python. I should take my own advice on that one, don't know any yet but I will after the CCIE. But, point is, scripting/automation is going to be more and more prevalent in the next 5 years in my view.

But, I only have 5 years experience in networking, so take from it what you will.

Bardlebee

gorebrush wrote: »

Glad you are still going at it. I need to get on with my written, already had to reschedule it once. Oh well.

Better to reschedule then fail it

But failure is also okay. I did it, you can too

gorebrush

Failure is always an option. It's just not one I like to take if I can reasonably avoid it

Loga99

Bardlebee wrote: »

Hey A+ buddy. Do it!

I have my A+/Net+/Sec+, if you're just getting into IT its a good way to kind of breach into it, but by no means will give you experience in networking. I say this not to discourage, but because I wish someone would have told me that years ago. I spent probably about 3-5 years in help desk positions with CompTIA certs, always wanting to be a network engineer. However, no one really gives a crap about CompTIA in the network engineering field, nor do they give a crap about help desk experience.

My advice to you, if you want to get into networking. Do the CCNA first and try to find a contracting job for experience or some other intern job if your bills or low. It'll catapult your career 3-5 years ahead where you would have otherwise been spent in help desk. I'm not saying help desk isn't a viable career path, nor do I look down upon it. What I am saying is, I did not want to do it because I was passionate about networking. In hindsight, I should have skipped my CompTIA's and those years of help desk and just went straight in, head first.

Just my two cents. Networking is one of those jobs that are still low barrier to entry (degree not required, but usually is a "plus", some places will have it as a requirement) and you can still make a crap ton of money if you buckle down for a few years and focus on your game. Get in it now, before the barrier to entry changes. Also learn scripting a little bit or just a language like Python. I should take my own advice on that one, don't know any yet but I will after the CCIE. But, point is, scripting/automation is going to be more and more prevalent in the next 5 years in my view.

But, I only have 5 years experience in networking, so take from it what you will.

Thanks for the advice i'm basically doing the A+ just for the knowledge ,as my base knowledge is quite bad. I intend to do the Network+ after the i have achieved the A+ certificate, would you advise me to skip the Network+ and go straight for the CCNA or at least get the CCENT certificate first. I plan on working as Linux system administrator, but would like to get good grasp on networking, so i plan on getting CCNA and CCNP in the next 2-4 years. I have already started programming about 3-4 months in now. I'm also attempting to get my degree in computing and IT + mathematics at open university plus looking for work.

Bardlebee

Loga99 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice i'm basically doing the A+ just for the knowledge ,as my base knowledge is quite bad. I intend to do the Network+ after the i have achieved the A+ certificate, would you advise me to skip the Network+ and go straight for the CCNA or at least get the CCENT certificate first. I plan on working as Linux system administrator, but would like to get good grasp on networking, so i plan on getting CCNA and CCNP in the next 2-4 years. I have already started programming about 3-4 months in now. I'm also attempting to get my degree in computing and IT + mathematics at open university plus looking for work.

It depends, do you know computers well? Could you build one from scratch? If you're at that level, I would recommend skipping the A+ entirely and jump right into the CCNA. The Net+ is like CCNA light light. Its only worth it to like DoD from what I've seen and no networking place cares about the Net+.

I would say, if you're already good with computers, as in you can troubleshoot them and build them, and you want to get into networking, skip the CompTIA A+ etc and just get a CCNA. The worst thing that could happen is that you have one of the hardest (starting out) certifications in the industry and you have to get the A+ later to compensate for maybe not being able to break into networking. But, I highly HIGHLY doubt that. At least in my area there are head hunters just looking for the CCNA acronym willing to pay good money for a green person in the field.

Short version: If you're already good at troubleshooting computers, skip the A+ and get the CCNA. Get and finish your degree as well, in my opinion it will set you apart from other people and it will put you in place for the HR check mark of having one. I got my BBA strictly for the jobs that said "Preferred/plus bachelors degree". I think I am in a slight minority on this opinion, because others have told me they don't care. But I think in the end it will be worth it and I don't have to worry about it.

EDIT: I just read your last sentence, sorry I got over excited haha. If you plan on doing Linux Administration, I can't give you too much advice. I would say getting your CCNA later in your career will help that translation between departments and give you flexibility as far as being marketable. There are linux certs our there, but I'm the last person to give advice on a Linux career

Bardlebee

gorebrush wrote: »

Failure is always an option. It's just not one I like to take if I can reasonably avoid it

I'm already calling my first lab attempt my "first fail"

chob11

Bardlebee wrote: »

How long have you been at it? Feels like I've been doing this forever, but realistically I have another 6-12 months :P

I started studying at the end of July 2015. I have been studying about 20-25 hours per week. I take days off here and there to recharge. The past month, it has been two 8 hour labs on weekends and then weekdays to go over lab results/work on weak areas.

Bardlebee

chob11 wrote: »

I started studying at the end of July 2015. I have been studying about 20-25 hours per week. I take days off here and there to recharge. The past month, it has been two 8 hour labs on weekends and then weekdays to go over lab results/work on weak areas.

Oh wow, so you'll be attempting under a year. Good luck man! It's also great to hear that that's possible. I thought me attempting in the June-July time frame would be crazy, but now it seems doable.

I mean, I don't think it will take me an insane amount of time to go through the Mock Labs for all the vendors before then. I estimate I should be done of these pass throughs by mid April so seems about right. Still not scheduling though...

I started September 2015, basically doing the same or more hours a week as you. Some weeks not, some weeks more.... but I'm starting to get the feeling that I am at the top of the hill and I'm starting my way back down.

Bardlebee

DAY 176-192

THINGS I DID:

- Third Pass Done - 3 hours average x 17 = 51

Total Time: 51 hours


QUESTIONS/CONFUSION/CONCERNS:

TOTAL DAYS OF ZERO TIME STUDYING SINCE BEGINNING: 10

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Well, I done did it. Third pass completed. Or is this my fourth? Ah well. I eliminated 80 labs, as in I won't be doing them again next pass. I still however have 120 I did not do correctly, as in I didn't know where to start with the config. Most, maybe 90 percent of those I knew what the end goal was and why the particular knob was used. It's just, using them gets me in trouble.

120 isn't bad. If I grit my teeth I can do the next pass in a week. This time I will really go fine tooth comb on it, I really need to know what I am missing. Things I think I'll eliminate this coming pass will be all of the MPLS labs, because I spent time going slow with it. I wouldn't say I spent significant time with it, but to the point where I can build an L3VPN from scratch pretty confidently, I couldn't do that before. This pass I also eliminated DMVPN, which is good to see that I didn't forget all the commands, I just always get tricked up on the placement of the underlay and overlay of the IP's

Besides that, the past week has sucked major ass when it comes to my discipline. I slipped quite a bit, many days were 2-3 hour lab sessions at best. 2 days I didn't lab at all! I think a lot of it is stress from work, I am no longer liking it and it has me spun up in different directions. The past two days I've refocused a bit, yesterday I did 25 labs, today I did 12 labs and stopped there because I want to have significant time for a functional lab tomorrow.

I'm hoping, by end of next week. I will be done of my fourth pass through. At that time, in theory if I did one more pass through which may take an additional week I should have eliminated all but a dozen labs to redo. I'm feeling confident that by end of this month. I will have a good shot of feeling okay with starting the full scale and really testing my knowledge against it. I hope I surprise myself as I've done with the functional lab last time.

With the baby coming in 2 months I need to refocus, I don't need to do 6-8 hours daily. I just need focused and quality study. I feel as though, once the baby is here that will give me a lot more organization in the fact that my time will be precious. Right now, I have a crap ton of time, and I think its contributing to my laziness and lack of focus, along with my work frustrating me.

Here goes another pass! I will be a CCIE 2k16! Or lose a crap ton of money attempting!

Bardlebee

DAY 176-193

THINGS I DID:

- Fourth Pass 3 x 4 hours = 12

Total Time: 12 hours


QUESTIONS/CONFUSION/CONCERNS:

TOTAL DAYS OF ZERO TIME STUDYING SINCE BEGINNING: 10

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Foundational Lab 2 took me a significant amount of time compared to Lab 1, but I was kind of slow rolling it. It took about 6-7 hours to do the whole thing and I was very chill through the whole thing. Below is kind of my scratch notes. I was an idiot and didn't learn my lesson about learning PPPoE before starting this one. I paid for it, as it had yet another PPPoE situation. Had it been the Lab, that would have been huge points, more if something relied on it!

///////////////////////////////////
REFINING:
2.5 - Spanning-Tree - Advanced << CIST Priority Syntax miss. General MST configuration fluency lacking.
4.4 - OSPF - Missed BFD config
4.5 - OSPF - Reading comprehension miss. Created totally stubby, when what they wanted was to transfer LSA-5's
5.1 - BGP - Didn't make confederation to achieve external AS number 5555
5.3 - BGP - Didn't use unsupress map/supress map to achieve aggregate summary on one side and unsuppressed on the other.
6.2 - DMVPN - IPsec - Shared keyword for profile on the hub, to share the profile amongst two separate tunnels
7.3 - VPNv4 - Missed putting redistribute OSPF under the address-family ipv4 VRF command. I put it under regular ipv4, which won't do anything.
8.3 - IPv6 Redistribution - Missing "include-connected" in redistribution keyword and the interface redistribution reachability issue from 4.7




///////////////////////////////////
COMPLETE MISS:
3.1 PPPoE
3.2 PPPoE Authentication
4.7 - IGP Redistribution - Didn't Identify the problem locations or solution beyond tags - need review of redistribution problems/solutions


It seems like a lot, and well maybe it is. But I actually got a lot right in Lab 2 as well. I think overall if there was a grade, I probably got a 70, which isn't so bad to be honest.

I'm chipping away once again on my fourth pass through the one-off labs and I have about 120 of them. I did 20 today and eliminated 8 out of those, so it seems with each pass there is about 40 percent I am eliminating.

I feel fairly confident by end of this month or sooner I will be in full scale lab mode.

I keep meaning to read up on getting a labbing server to run CSR1000v's, but I keep getting distracted/burnt out. I really don't want to use tokens for full scale because A) That stuff is expensive and Its more flexible... annnddd C) Narbik/Cisco 360 is something to consider next.

It's odd really, I feel like I grew the most in 6 months, and now I am just trying to find the knobs that I can't do. I then need to refine my knowledge/syntax/speed. I think that honestly will be the last leg of my journey. After that, its DDoSing the lab I guess.

Bardlebee

DAY 194

THINGS I DID:

- Fourth Pass 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours


QUESTIONS/CONFUSION/CONCERNS:

TOTAL DAYS OF ZERO TIME STUDYING SINCE BEGINNING: 10

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Only got 3 hours of sleep last night, going to cut this short, but so far so good! I'm still hitting about 50 percent eliminated. Bad thing is only did 6 labs tonight, will try to make up for it, but should be done come hell or high water on Saturday for this pass. The passes are getting smaller and smaller