CCIE study plan

I definitely wouldn't say the SP track is easier unless you're just amazing at MPLS, ISIS and much larger topologies than you'd see in R&S.

As far as a study plan, I would recommend stepping it up. 1 video a day or just focusing on videos isn't going to get you a CCIE. A CCIE is a 2-8 hour a day commitment depending on where you are in the process and how close you are to the exam. It's going to require a lot of book and RFC reading, going through ever lab workbook you can get your hands on and probably a diversity in training content using different providers. Most people go to bootcamps prior to the actual lab itself but that's completely up to you. It's going to be a big time commitment that will probably stretch into 1000+ hours of labbing and much more reading, watching videos, etc. Most of the guys that passed this year on Routergods were labbing from 8PM - 2AM nightly on our Hangouts and reading RFCs like they were thrillers on their time off of labbing but trust me, it's worth it when you get those numbers.

I just wanted to add, one of our really senior RG's members made an AWESOME CCIE R&S progress tracker. I think this would help in structuring your CCIE plan: Feral Packet» Blog Archive » CCIE RS v5 Progress Tracker

(Note: Big public thanks to Jeff for putting that tracker together in the event he ever reads this post)

21ctl

kate do you have similar one for datacenter!!!!...

Yes but the gentleman who created it isn't going to be back at work for another week and I don't feel comfortable sharing his content unless I have his permission first.

joelsfood

Iris is exactly right, you'll need to do more quantity and more variety. Just a short list of resources I used (different track, but it gives an idea)

IPExpert Videos
INE Videos
Cisco Live Videos
Pearson Press NX-OS Fundamentals Videos
Cisco live 2015 live sessions (luckily, work got me a pass)
PEC Labs
Dcloud Labs
Labgear Labs
IPExpert Rack Rentals (old and new editions of workbook, in middle of lab 3 right now

)
Configuration Guides/Configuration Examples/Technotes on Cisco Support for all of the equipment in question
All previously mentioned videos converted to audio so that I could listen while doing chores, walking dog, running errands, etc.
UCSPE and Nexus1000v VMs on my home VMware lab to continue practice when I didn't have access to lab equipment
Doing labs by hand in notepad when I didn't have access to lab equipment
IPExpert Bootcamp x2
etc

And I still haven't passed yet.

You need to find what videos/books/etc work best for your learning style, and then still make use of the others, even if not ideal, to make sure you have every aspect of the information down.

Bardlebee

Yeah, I agree with what has been said here. Even for the written you have to be pretty on point. Meaning you needed to have read and fully understood all 400+ topics that are in the written! I would recommend also labbing most if not all the technologies. Some of the technologies I have not labbed due to resources or I felt they were not useful to lab. To each their own.

But the CCIE is truly a commitment. If you can squeak out 1-2 hours in a day great. But your biggest bang for your buck will be doing 4 hour days and more to be honest. Don't burn out, I hit that this month and am still recovering. Don't do 8 hour days every day unless you feel you're ready or near the end.

But I found a good happy center doing 4-6 hours a day every day. Not everyone needs this, its just what works for me. The key is to find out what works for you and be consistent about it. If its doing it 5 times a week, great. But be sure its more then just 2 hours in my opinion or it won't work in your favor of remembering topics at the very beginning.

Brian McGahan I think has a good process that he notes in his videos, and its one I go by. I take a topic, usually lead in order of the INE topics, I watch the video, I read about it and then I lab it. I feel this has done wonders for my understanding and long term knowledge. If I don't understand a topic after reading it, I find another book. I didn't quite get QoS even after reading a whole Cisco book on it! It took a more vendor agnostic book for me to put the dots together.

21ctl

ok, nice..will wait till you get his permission..you have always been helpful

21ctl

Iristheangel wrote: »

Yes but the gentleman who created it isn't going to be back at work for another week and I don't feel comfortable sharing his content unless I have his permission first.

ok, nice..will wait till you get his permission..you have always been helpful

Ok. I finished most of ine videos foe ccie sp. I realize that I know mpls but little else.how should I proceed?

I think I have wasted preious time doing video transcript instead of labbing.

Bardlebee

dppagc wrote: »

Ok. I finished most of ine videos foe ccie sp. I realize that I know mpls but little else.how should I proceed?

I think I have wasted preious time doing video transcript instead of labbing.

You really have to find what works for you. In my opinion a great method is to watch a video on a topic, read about the topic from multiple sources and do the corresponding lab on that topic. If you are doing it all from INE, they are a great source. I would personally follow the INE topics in order, as I've done this for R&S and has really given me a great base to jump off of. There is no right way to attack the CCIE besides being consistent in your studies (quality and quantity) and having an ordered plan. I would honestly take some time looking online for sources on how to best approach this. Some people make a plan of "By this date I will be here in my studies" and I think its a great way to go.

Danielh22185

I think they key is staying consistent and setting goals and achieving those goals as you go. The plan for myself actually is to get CCIE by the time I am 35. I am 30 right now (31 in February). I also have a 19mo old daughter at home and my wife and I are trying for a second. I've learned with a rude awakening over the past year how difficult it is to study with children (this is why I am still working on my NP

. So, I simply will not be able to dedicate 4-8hrs a day to studies, it will be purely impossible. However when I do begin I will be starting my own thread I will be dedicated to and it's focus will be dedicated to an effort to chase after IE while also having a busy family life and being able to dedicate 2-3hrs a day at maximum for study. Casual CCIE studies..if you will?

So if you can only invest 1 video a day I'd agree that does seem a bit on the short side because most are between 15-20 minutes long but if you are building on your knowledge with that one video per day you are moving in the right direction but just don't expect to obtain an IE within the time frames of some folks resident here.

Also, I get the feeling that when you mention SP as being "easier" I get the feeling you are looking for an easier door toward a IE#. There are no easy routes and if you truly want to become an IE you must remain dedicated to yourself to learn and grow to get there.

I am spending a lot of time doing transcript of ine videos?

Are there free transcripts online like in cbt nuggets?

Also, my preferred method of study is to see the show run with a brief explanation.

I hate reading the long cisco text.

Can anyone recommend anything?

Also there is very little study material for ccie service provider. Can anyone recommend anything?

dppagc - For a CCIE, there's going to be a LOT of long Cisco text unfortunately. I would recommend the following CiscoPress books for R&S:
- TCP/IP Vol 1 and 2
- CCIE v5 Vol 1 and 2
- End-to-End QoS
- Developing IP Multicast Networks Vol 1 <- An oldie but a goodie

Also, RFCs - Not thrilling late night reading but get your hands on OSPF, BGP, etc.

The difference with a CCIE than other previous exams is that it's not just understanding show run output or how to configuring devices. It's an intimate level of knowledge of the protocols themselves and how to troubleshoot them. Some of the directions they give you on the exam might be based on something you read on the RFC - not a straight request to configure it one way or another.

Trust me... I'm going through reading hell right now. I've got probably 150 pages of notes on 550 pages read. It's just the slog of CCIE studying but it'll make you a better engineer in the end.

Bardlebee

Iristheangel wrote: »

dppagc - For a CCIE, there's going to be a LOT of long Cisco text unfortunately. I would recommend the following CiscoPress books for R&S:
- TCP/IP Vol 1 and 2
- CCIE v5 Vol 1 and 2
- End-to-End QoS
- Developing IP Multicast Networks Vol 1 <- An oldie but a goodie

Also, RFCs - Not thrilling late night reading but get your hands on OSPF, BGP, etc.

The difference with a CCIE than other previous exams is that it's not just understanding show run output or how to configuring devices. It's an intimate level of knowledge of the protocols themselves and how to troubleshoot them. Some of the directions they give you on the exam might be based on something you read on the RFC - not a straight request to configure it one way or another.

Trust me... I'm going through reading hell right now. I've got probably 150 pages of notes on 550 pages read. It's just the slog of CCIE studying but it'll make you a better engineer in the end.

To mirror what Iris is saying, if you're thinking of going into this not reading or not reading Cisco text, you're going to have a bad time. When Brian Mcgahan recommended the 12 or so books for R/S I laughed out loud. I read terribly slow, I wasn't about to read that many books! Well... I'm already 8 books in.

CCIE R/S is all about reading, I can't vouche for the SP, but reading is fundamental just as labbing is. Its how you get a solid basics and fundamentals of each portion of a technology. Labbing afterward just solidifies how to apply it in a real world scenario and helps solidify the topics you just read.

You're going to be reading a lot man.

To my detriment probably I don't take notes when I read, I just don't. Everyone is different, but you're going to to need to read. I think I also need to read RFC's, people recommend it a lot. So, while I can't recommend it I hear it recommended quite a bit.

As someone who is only a few months away from taking the SP lab, there is not a lot of training material out there. IPExpert are just about to release a first workbook and INE have updated about half of the SPv3 workbook to SPv4. Neither vendor has provided a full set of videos either. There are topics like LISP and NG-mVPN which there is a whole lot of training out there on, so you will be reading a lot of Cisco documentation and looking at show and debug output to figure out what is going on.

The SP track also requires much larger topologies to lab with. CsC for example requires 11 routers minimum if you want to observe a three label stack. SP also requires you to know everything on the blueprint (where possible) in regular IOS and IOS-XR. This is also a problem if you don't have access to routers that run IOS-XR as IOS-XRv (a VM that runs IOS-XR) doesn't support a lot of features like QoS, multicast data plane, VPLS data plane, some LISP features, etc. When I did R&S, I did almost all of my study using IOU and GNS3.

I'm not trying to discourage you from starting the SP track, just be prepared for a lot of research. At a minimum you will want to read the following books for SP:

Routing TCP/IP Volume 1
IOS-XR Fundamentals
Internet Routing Architectures
MPLS Fundamentals
MPLS Enabled Applications
QoS Enabled Networks
Interdomain Multicast Routing
MPLS Traffic Engineering
RFC 4364, 4577, 4684
RFC 6830

This will not cover everything you need but its a start. INE also have some SPv4 videos and IPX is planning to release them in March.

Good luck with your study! Don't expect anything to be a shortcut though. There is a lot of hard work in obtaining it but the payoff is in most cases well worth it.

Well, I thought that just watching INE videos is enough. Apparently I am wrong.
I am curious about one thing.
There are 154 videos for CCIE RSv5 and 2000 over pages for the workbook.
How do you manage your time for this?
I keep having to pause and take transcript of the video so I hopefully dont have to watch it again.
Unfortunately, I may have to watch videos again and again.
How is it possible to get CCIE in 1 year?

Typically it is not. Most people 2+ years to get their CCIE. The only people I've seen do it quicker are usually people who were reading the books and the RFCs before they officially say they're studying for the CCIE and they have a ton of experience.. As far as time... heh... it's a 2-8 hour a day thing. Usually it means sacrificing your personal time... especially the closer you get to the actual lab exam. It's a serious time commitment but usually all things worth it are. I definitely don't want to sway you from getting your CCIE but you should understand what you're getting into.

Consistency is the key to getting a CCIE. If you spend even 2 hours a night studying (including weekends), that gets you over 800 hours in a year. A few more longer sessions every other weekend ramps this number up even more. Obviously everyone's circumstances are different (family, kids, long commutes, second jobs, etc) but it is definitely doable if you have the desire.

Hi IRB,

May I ask what materials you are using to simulate lab topology? Are you using INE or IPexpert material?
Are people who take the CCIE SP at a disadvantage if they dont have CCIE RS as a "background"?

I use 6 XRv routers and 10 CSR1000v routers spread across two ESX boxes to simulate three service providers and a few customers, plus several centos VMs as endpoints. Like I said in my post earlier, INE have updated about half of the SPv3 workbook to SPv4 (it is missing QoS and mVPN for example) and IPExpert are just about to release the first workbook (technology focused labs). I also have access to a lab at work, PEC, etc, to practice on real ASR9Ks.

People who are studying for SP and already have R&S can knock out a few lines on the blueprint like LDP basics, OSPF, layer 3 VPN and PE-CE routing, core BGP, and intra-AS multicast. There is still a lot of extra stuff to learn, but probably no more than any other track. If you are starting from scratch the journey is probably the same between R&S and SP, but the journey once you have R&S to SP (or vice versa) is going to be obviously less.

@dppagc - It's all relative to starting experience level and skill level. Just out of curiosity, what's your professional experience like working with SP or R&S? Are you currently a CCNA and CCNP SP or R&S? What would you say your current skill level is at between 1 being newb, 5 being "I can list all the OSPF LSAs, troubleshoot the LSDB and rock it pretty well" and 10 being "Narbik/McGahan/Network Jesus"

and 12 being Petr Lapukhov

Actually dppagc I just checked and the INE workbook now includes some label switched multicast and LISP

Iristheangel wrote: »

@dppagc - It's all relative to starting experience level and skill level. Just out of curiosity, what's your professional experience like working with SP or R&S? Are you currently a CCNA and CCNP SP or R&S? What would you say your current skill level is at between 1 being newb, 5 being "I can list all the OSPF LSAs, troubleshoot the LSDB and rock it pretty well" and 10 being "Narbik/McGahan/Network Jesus"

I am a CCNP R&S on paper.
Work wise it is mainly POC with little troubleshooting.
I would say my skill level is 3 to 4 sadly.

I had no knowledge on MPLS last month but now I have some after watching INE videos.
I have currently no knowledge of QoS and other advanced stuff.

I am comtemplating the CCIE SP since there are only about 30 videos in INE and it seems less content intensive.
Of course I could be wrong though.

routergods

dppagc wrote: »

I am comtemplating the CCIE SP since there are only about 30 videos in INE and it seems less content intensive.
Of course I could be wrong though.

The content that INE has or does not have, is no indication of the breadth of content in CCIE SP or any other track.

Go for CCIE SP because you want to, not because you think it is "easier".

routergods is correct, if you were to just watch the INE videos and try to sit the written you would be very unlikely to pass. The SP videos assume knowledge of MQC, shaping, policing, ASM, SSM, PIM, IGMP, OSPF, etc.

If time really is a constraint for you, then maybe you need to have an 18 month plan for getting your CCIE rather than 6 months or a year. It's a lot of hard work and there is no getting around that

JoJoCal19

I'd really like to know WHY you are wanting to pursue the CCIE SP, and WHAT you want to accomplish with getting it. Judging from the experience you listed, I don't know what value you would immediately gain from getting the CCIE SP. It seems more that you would be better served obtaining a position that would let you utilize the CCNP RS skills you learned with getting that cert. Are you just wanting to get a CCIE for the feeling of accomplishment of getting a number? As others have stated, it's a long, hard road to obtaining a CCIE. Even if you were to solely watch videos and absorb enough knowledge to pass the written, you'd get destroyed in the lab portion without investing hundreds of hours of labbing.