Anthony's CCIE R&S thread

OfWolfAndMan

Hello all,

I have taken the initiative to finally begin my CCIE studies officially after finishing my BS degree earlier this year as well as accomplishing some needed certs for work as well as bettering myself in the packet analysis area, using Wireshark and Riverbed Pilot. As everyone else on this forum has noted, this certification is a journey, and I intend it to be just that.

My distractions post BS have primarily been packet analysis as well as python scripting to understand that side of things a bit better, as it never hurts to automate repetitive tasks around the network. The packet analysis helped me troubleshoot some of the more obscure problems found within a network, primarily at the application end of the spectrum, as well as driver bugs that could affect transactions in a negative fashion. I spent some time on the network security side a bit to understand common network attacks and the mindset behind some of these aspects.

My efforts initially are understanding what I need to study and recommended books on the reading list. I will begin with the written portion of it, and then proceed to the lab when completed. Labbing will still be a component of my initial study to understand certain solutions, but I will start with lots of reading, notes, and flash cards. My study tools include:

SOFTWARE for notes and reading:
-Onenote for note taking
-Anki for flash card study
-Kindle for Ebook reading
-Calibre for epub formatted docs
-CCIE study tracker courtesy of feralpacket.org

SOFTWARE TOOLS for lab:
-ESXi server with CSR1000Vs and VIRL
-Wireshark for packet analysis
-Mobaxterm for ssh client program
-Raspberry PIs for client testing
-Cisco Switches for switching technologies (3750X, 3850, 2960s)
-Physical router 2921 with Sec package
-Terminal servers in case I lock myself out remotely
-OpenVPN on home router to easily access lab equipment

BOOKS (Currently Reading)
-TCP/IP Illustrated Volume 1, Second Edition
-Routing TCP/IP Volume 2 Revision 2

BOOKS (Not reading yet)
-Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 Revision 2
-MPLS Fundamentals
-EDIT: Was going to read End-to-End QoS design, but fredrikjj made a good point its breadth is greater than I need, so I'm going with the Cisco QoS Exam guide on this one
-IPv6 Fundamentals
-CCIE cert guide Vol 1 and 2
-IP Routing on Cisco IOS, IOS XE, and IOS XR_Essential Guide to Understanding and Implementing IP Routing Protocols
-IP Multicast Vol 1
-Optimal Routing Design
-Cisco Express Forwarding
-CCNP Switch Simplified
-Doc CD on Cisco's Website
-Various RFCs
-Internet Routing Architectures
-Safari Books Online (Got a 50% off at the time, and it's nice it can be read on mobile too).
-Interconnections: Bridges, routers switches, and internetworking protocols (Parts)
-Cisco CEF book by Russ White
-BGP Design and Implementation (Per fredrikjj's recommendation)

VIDEOS:
-INE Advanced Technologies
-INE Advanced Troubleshooting


The cloud section (Evolving Technologies Section) I am still looking for good material for since that is a new addition to the written component. UPDATE: Reference per Mbarrett's post: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-29253

My current Daily Schedule Looks like the following:

Monday-Friday:
7 am: Wake up (Probably going to push this back a bit for study purposes)
730 am: Gym time (Mon-Wed,Fri), Thursday study time
900 am: Work
1100 am: Lunch, study
1200 - 500 pm: Work
500 - 730: Varies. If wife goes to gym, I get some time to study as there's daycare at our gym. If not, I'm usually watching the kid/spending time with him.
730 - 800 pm: Kid's bedtime
800 pm - 1100 pm: Study

Saturday and Sunday I tend to get a lot more time to study, but family events, gym time, grocery shopping, etc fall in there somewhere.

koz24

Congrats on getting started Anthony. Looks like you have your resources lined up well. Good luck!

fredrikjj

Some comments on your reading list.

OfWolfAndMan wrote: »

-End-to-End QoS Design

This seems like a great book at first, but it's really is mostly about design just like the title says. I found that the actual "QoS fundamentals" part of the book was fairly weak for someone that needs to learn and not just get an overview. You'll probably feel cheated if you buy it expecting some all encompassing tome on QoS.

-IPv6 Fundamentals

A fairly thin book on IPv6 that has a few chapters that will feel relevant, but it also has a lot of content that you'll probably not get much out of, like the basic IPv6 IGP config.

-IP Routing on Cisco IOS, IOS XE, and IOS XR_Essential Guide to Understanding and Implementing IP Routing Protocols

Questionable value imo if you are not interested in XR config. A lot of overlap with Routing TCP/IP vol 1 and 2.

-IP Multicast Vol 1

Maybe, but keep in mind that like half of the book covers things that are now obsolete. You could maybe make the case that it's a classic and that it explain things better than other sources, but the multicast chapters in Routing TCP/Vol 2 2nd edition should have you covered.

-Internet Routing Architectures

Look into 'BGP Design and Implementation' as well.



PS.
I missed the fact that the multicast book that you are talking is actually a new release, not the 1999 book. I can't comment on that book at all.

OfWolfAndMan

Completed chapters 14 & 15 of TCP/IP Illustrated Vol 1:

-TCP Retransmissions (Classic and Standard methods)
-RTO backoff and Modern RTT sampling
-Fast Retransmit, SACK, and Spurious timeouts and retransmissions
-Packet reordering, duplication, and repacketization

-Nagle Algorithm and Delayed Acknowledgement
-Sender and receiver window size and management

bharvey92

Sounds like you have the plan spot on! Seems like quite a few guys are going for their IE's - Koz and Simrid I know have active forums and me also!

All the best

mbarrett

OfWolfAndMan wrote: »

The cloud section (Evolving Technologies Section) I am still looking for good material for since that is a new addition to the written component.

Here you go: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-29253
I would also recommend that you get a Safari subscription, there is a wealth of books + videos related to CCIE studies, the value of which far exceeds the cost.

OfWolfAndMan

mbarrett wrote: »

Here you go: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-29253
I would also recommend that you get a Safari subscription, there is a wealth of books + videos related to CCIE studies, the value of which far exceeds the cost.

Excellent obscure set of materials. Thanks! +1.

Finished chapters 16-18 of TCP/IP Illustrated. I never realized how many congestion control algorithms were written for TCP.
Chapter 16: TCP Congestion Control
-cwnd and ssthresh
-Classic TCP Algorithms (Slow start, congestion avoidance, Tahoe, Reno, standard TCP)
-Newer Algorithms (NewReno)
-High-Speed TCP, BIC and CUBIC
-Delay-based congestion control (Vegas, FAST, Westwood/+_)
-SKIPPED: Buffer bloat (Not really as much an issue years later)
Chapter 17: TCP Keepalives
Chapter 18: Security
-EAP
-IPSec
*IKEv2
*NAT Traversal
*SA
*Typical Cryptography lesson
*ESP and AH
-TLS
-SKIPPED: DTLS and DNSSEC (Yes, I'm tracking what I skip over as well)

Here is a good link to understanding NAT Traversal as well: https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/64281/how-does-nat-t-work-ipsec

Some of this I'm already familiar with, but better to regurgitate and acquire greater verbosity for later.

OfWolfAndMan

Guys, I would like to provide a link to my notes. Hopefully, this may help others. Here is the link:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Apb-qyBHn-lncomCp0gstw3M-UI

However, there is a combination of my notes here: Wireshark, CCNA Security, Wireless, Design stuff, VoIP, DC, and of course CCIE. I have some other Infosec-related network stuff in there too. If you see any typos or maybe ambiguous or inaccurate explanations, let me know.

OfWolfAndMan

Haven't checked in yet, so might as well.

I have been torn between three tasks in total. In the last week, I have accomplished the following:

LAB: Finished a few of the initial BGP scenarios in the INE workbook. Pretty straightforward and nothing complex.
READING: Finished Chapter 1-3 and half of Chapter 4 in the Routing TCP/IP Volume 2 Rev 2 book. Covered topics
-Basic BGP
-BGP Filtering
+Prefix Lists
+AS path filters
+Basic route map configurations
-BGP path selection
-eBGP vs iBGP
-BGP route injection methods
-BGP message format and structure
-BGP peerings
+Basic peering
+Modifying TTL for eBGP
+Modifying update source
-BGP path attributes
Automation: The bulk of my time this last weekend. Built a script to automate the deployment of my WHOLE lab environment when building from scratch. In addition, it can run backups to my Raspberry pi. Secondary raspberry pi is acting as a RADIUS server for authentication.
Posts attached here:
Part I
https://extensibleandautomated.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/the-ccie-journey-saving-lab-time-with-automation-part-1/
Part II
https://extensibleandautomated.wordpress.com/2016/11/17/the-ccie-journey-saving-lab-time-with-automation-part-2/

That's it for now folks.

EricsLearning

Great work on the python script. That definitely gives me a couple ideas since I have my lab setup very similarly but adding ASAvs to the mix.

EANx

Please take this as constructive but you started two weeks ago and have only done a few BGP labs? You seem to be reading heavily, which is fine, but I don't see where you're linking the reading to labbing. Do you have a plan you're following where this all comes together? Or is this sort of ad-hoc at this point?

OfWolfAndMan

Thanks. Netmiko, the SSH client I use, actually has support for the Cisco ASA. Just change the "device" variable to cisco_asa (Verbatim) and just change syntax to match.

Telnetlib was my pain. It was so much more difficult to get it working properly without throwing an error at me for something.

OfWolfAndMan

EANx wrote: »

Please take this as constructive but you started two weeks ago and have only done a few BGP labs? You seem to be reading heavily, which is fine, but I don't see where you're linking the reading to labbing. Do you have a plan you're following where this all comes together? Or is this sort of ad-hoc at this point?

The labbing will come more. I tend to read a portion of the topics before I start labbing, referencing my notes to keep it fresh in mind. I have a sheet I keep track of all my topics in. This is the link to it (I didn't write it, but I like the structure, so I pick out what I need and voila).
http://download.feralpacket.org/CCCIE_RS_Progress_Tracker_v5.1_-_8_Aug_2016.xlsx
The reason I have not had as much lab time as well is because of the script I wrote above. I could've knocked out several labs for the time I had put into that script alone.

Fortunately, I have had some heavy and granular BGP and MPLS exposure lately in one of my current projects at work as well, so that helps.

OfWolfAndMan

Lots of labbing this week, but not as much labbing as I would've liked. Fortunately, the automation script has been refined to work out.

Did many labs, including:
-BGP Next-hop-self/manual next-hop modification
-iBGP synchronization
-Route Reflection
-BGP Authentication
-Bestpath selection scenarios with route policies (Weight, LOCAL_PREF, MED, AS-PATH prepending, RID, ORIGIN)
-BGP Neighbor disable-connected-check

Reading:
-Finished BGP chapter 4
-Almost finished chapter 5 BGP scaling, which included
*BFD
*NHT
*Graceful Restart
*Maximum prefixes
*Prefix Independent Convergence
*Communities (Standard, arbitrary, and extended)
*Outbound Route filtering
*Route Dampening
*Expanded community lists
*BGP Peer templates and peer groups

The thing with peer templates is INE doesn't have a lab for it in the advanced technologies, so I might check Narbik's lab book to see if he's got a lab on it, even though I could always just spin something up myself.

Tomorrow, I will be finishing up Chapter 5 of Routing TCP/IP Vol 2 and knocking out the Multiprotocol BGP chapter. After that, I am considering jumping to the MPLS book to extend out of the MBGP and VRF stuff covered and then come back around to the multicast and remainder of the book after covering the MPLS stuff since the topics are a bit more complementary.

Meaning, MPLS fundamentals would be needed. I will have to investigate to figure out the relevant chapters, but as I recall there is only a portion of the book that needs to be covered.

OfWolfAndMan

Hi guys, haven't checked in in awhile, but progress is being made unquestionably. Here is where I currently stand:

-Half of INE BGP labs DONE
-Finished all BGP chapters in Routing TCP/IP Vol 2
-Finished all relevant chapters in MPLS Fundies (Skipped over QoS chapter, MPLS-TE, and a few other things out of scope)
-Have labbed MPLS stuff briefly. Majority will come soon. Since I'm coming back to remainder of BGP labs, prob would be good to cover it then
-About halfway through CCIE R&S OCG, roughly halfway through EIGRP chapter
-Currently working EIGRP labs in INE as well

Made some major changes to my network. Have my VM environment segmented off from management, network services i.e. RADIUS/automation server/switched PDU/console server in separate area, etc. Running a PFSense firewall and it is fantastic. Love it. Helped me silo things off to only what they need to talk to, and it has embedded packet capture functionality .

Back to the main subject though, will be upgrading my box soon to a UCS c200 running ESXi 6.0 (Running 5.5 currently) and migrate all of my stuff there. At that point, I can start playing with a SNMP/Netflow/Syslog/Network services server to help with some lower level stuff (I love my packets ).
I only have 32 GB right now on the box, and maxing with 10 CSRs running is pretty easy. Fortunately the c200 m2 will have 96GB to start with (Along with going from four cores to 12 :O).

One thing that sidetracked me for a bit was two things: Was doing some work-related stuff regarding Riverbed's WAN acceleration appliances, as well as delving into the Infosec side of learning for a bit.

Goals for this week: Finish up EIGRP chapter, most of EIGRP labs, start OSPF chapter and maybe finish it.

Worthy mentions: I have been using a CCIE tracker that was posted on routergods website. Works very well and introduced me to Anki (Digital flash card program I've been using to add good questions)
Also, another thing I am compiling is two things: A good listing of relevant RFCs that may be helpful, as well as cisco docs in general that will add clarity to certain things that were vaguely mentioned in the OCG (NTP, SNMP, network services in general).

Will hopefully go back to posting once every week or two. That's all I have for now.

OfWolfAndMan

It was a moderately productive week.

-Finished EIGRP chapter
-Got through nearly HALF the EIGRP labs
-Knocked out half of the OSPF chapter.
-Reorganizing my notes as I go. The plan is to print all of them out when done and review again. Even make ink edits.
-Adding links for future reference in regards to topics that are vaguely covered. Will post in the initial post later
-Lots of flash cards added in Anki. Studying those here and there as well. Nice to have cross-platform functionality to do it on the go
-I may convert some of the INE videos to MP3 just for when I'm on the go. Not sure yet how much that'd help

Looking at getting a mobile AC unit for my office, as it tends to get hot with all the lab equipment, even with a couple fans

OfWolfAndMan

Finished OSPFv2 reading in OCG. More updated and restructured notes. OSPFv3 is about the 12ish remaining pages of the chapter, before I go into IS-IS. EIGRP labs will continue tomorrow.

Here is a link for the topics I had found as vague in the OCG so far. Will definitely be adding onto it as I go. It is password protected because I don't want the bots sniffing around. PM me if you want the password.

Downloading from DiskStation

Also, I bought a portable AC unit today, since it will be beneficial at keeping my current and upcoming server cool as the seasons progress.

OfWolfAndMan

The last five days have been slow, but making progress still.

-Finished the IS-IS chapter (LOTS of new terminology and IS-IS may be a link-state protocol, but it is completely different from operation than OSPF). Notes, taken, some flash cards made
-Knocked out the small part on route maps. Fortunately, I've dealt a lot with route maps recently, so it's more reiteration and learning the breadth of feature set it has to offer.
-Knocked out some EIGRP labs, although had to look at INE's website for some they had added. I got the workbook back when it was released as a pdf, hence why I haven't been to their website in a bit.

My goal this week is to finish the OCG volume 1, as well as more LABS. A couple of things that slowed me down is not only a wedding I went down to with the family this weekend, but also have been studying for the AWS CSA cert on the side (Want to have that done in 2-3 months tops).

bharvey92

Hi Anthony,

Have you tried reading through the new Routing TCP/IP Vol 2? Released in 2016... read through this instead of the old volume, not sure what your thoughts were on it?

OfWolfAndMan

bharvey92 wrote: »

Hi Anthony,

Have you tried reading through the new Routing TCP/IP Vol 2? Released in 2016... read through this instead of the old volume, not sure what your thoughts were on it?

That was actually the last book I read before MPLS Fundies. Well, the BGP part that is. The IP services, IPv6, and Multicast I am coming back to after OCGs and Routing TCP/IP vol 1 (Trying to knock out IGPs/BGP stuff as well as OCG, then move to more specific things like Multicast, IPv6, cloud, QoS, etc).

I have read BGP in the first revision, and it is quite outdated compared to the new revision. There is a lot of good stuff, and I'd say it's my primary go-to book for BGP. I also thought it quite helpful having a section on Multiprotocol BGP to transition straight into the MPLS material. I may just go through BGP Design and Implementation as well, since I was recommended that one.

EDIT: Finished OCG Volume 1 finally! Onto volume 2 tomorrow.

OfWolfAndMan

Finished all EIGRP labs for INE. Not as difficult as I expected.

Started CCIE OCG Vol 2. Finished MPLS. Currently on the BGP Chapter. I am not going in sequence of the book because I am trying to cover topics in a somewhat sequential order. So far it's been:

-BGP
-Route redistribution/filtering/route policy
-MPLS, DMVPN
-Layer 2 stuff (STP, LAG, FHRP, etc)
-EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, RIP
-IP Services
-Infrastructure Security

And then, after covering all material for that, I'd dive into:
-Multicast
-QoS
-IPv6

And lastly, the somewhat alien:
-Evolving Technologies

Started the MPLS labs as well, so hope to get some of those knocked out this week, if not all. Plan to finish up the two BGP chapters at a minimum, and maybe even knock out the WAN section.

tunerX

Use this as base for evolving technologies. Nick Russo makes some good documents.

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-31004

OfWolfAndMan

tunerX wrote: »

Use this as base for evolving technologies. Nick Russo makes some good documents.

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-31004

Thanks for that. Someone already mentioned it earlier, but I haven't looked at it yet. Soon...

Finished the BGP stuff in the OCG. Mostly redundant from OCG Vol 2, but a couple bits and pieces I found useful. Finished the WAN section as well. Almost done with the security chapter, but I ran into IPv6 mechanisms, so stopping there for the night, since that will take a fresh mind to absorb.

Adding a few select chapters out of the book: Network Security Technology and solutions. It was updated recently, and there's a couple chapters in there I may find useful. This will be read over this week after finishing the security/tunneling chapter.

I have been doing some MPLS labs, and finding it quite fun, regarding the flexibility in things such as setting custom rts for specific prefixes (Pretty cool). Goal this week is HOPEFULLY to finish tunneling chapter and security chapter (Shouldn't have a problem). More labbing as well.

Security technologies select chapters may mix in there somewhere as well (AAA, IPSec and DMVPN, GET VPN), but may bleed into next week.

I wanted to start Routing TCP/IP vol 1 this week, but looking like the security will take precedence.

I have completely restructured my onenote notes to realign more with the blueprint (Which actually looks a bit more logical in a couple places now).

Also, created a "Readme" at the beginning to denote variables/literals and whether they're optional/mandatory for CLI syntax. Created links for my trackers as well as the blueprints, and created an abstract, hierarchical view of subjects so I don't have to go sniffing through tabs. Everything getting linked to that portion of the notebook. Also linking RFCs referenced this week to make things a little more accommodating as well. Just little things to make it easier to navigate and update.

I will be posting my lab setup sometime in the next couple weeks (Visio, not pictures), if anyone needed ideas. That's it for now.

bharvey92

Hi Anthony,

You may have posted this elsewhere - I've made a start on MPLS Fundmentals this week, have you gone through this book? If so what chapters did you reference? I understand you don't need to know this book cover to cover for CCIE R+S.

OfWolfAndMan

bharvey92 wrote: »

Hi Anthony,

You may have posted this elsewhere - I've made a start on MPLS Fundmentals this week, have you gone through this book? If so what chapters did you reference? I understand you don't need to know this book cover to cover for CCIE R+S.

Skipped over IPv6 for MPLS, future of MPLS, Qos section, traffic engineering, the MPLS ATM chapter, and then some frame relay related stuff. The CEF chapter was extremely nice. Everything past that was in the blueprint.

OfWolfAndMan

Finished the two security chapters in the OCGs. Read through some of the AAA stuff in the Network Security and Technologies book, but going to read through the DMVPN stuff as well in the next couple of days. No labbing as I was out of town last week and the connection there for VPN connection was terrible. Goals this week: More labbing for MPLS, possibly start DMVPN/IPSec labs Start the Routing TCP/IP Vol 1 book.

EDIT: I also noticed OTV and GET VPN in the written blueprint, so I found a good article online for GET VPN: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/security/group-encrypted-transport-vpn/GETVPN_DIG_version_1_0_External.pdf The OCG wasn't enough IMO for either of those topics. OTV I may pull out my data center fundamentals book to take notes on that. I have some already, but they're not complete.

Prog Snob

I just started my studies and, like you, my own thread for it. I've looked forward to reading what you have written so far and will definitely use it towards my own study plan.

OfWolfAndMan

Prog Snob wrote: »

I just started my studies and, like you, my own thread for it. I've looked forward to reading what you have written so far and will definitely use it towards my own study plan.

Good luck on your travels.

I haven't posted here for a couple of weeks. Lots going on, for the better.

Started TCP/IP Vol 1 a bit over two weeks ago. Read through the first few basic chapters, which includes all of basic routing stuff, RIPv2/ng, finished EIGRP. Might I say though, some of the EIGRP information is old, and the RFC does very good on covering changes, and it's a good read. Seriously, lots of gold you won't find in the routing tcp/ip book.

Labbing completed: the remainder of MPLS, and finished IPSec labs. My OneNote notebook in this thread has been streamlined a bit more to include a couple more Python scripts I used to quickly rewrite specific aspects of INE's scripts.

i also have streamlined my automation script more, eliminating the burden of waiting for a reload, I will be constituting the config replace command after importing a baseline script. This will reduce time drastically. I will be posting that tomorrow probably, so keep your eye out on here or my Github page.

Lastly, I started the OSPFv2 chapter, about 50 pages in now.

Goals for the remainder of the week:

-Finish OSPFv2 reading, start and/or finish OSPFv3 depending on how much additional is not covered in my notes.
-I would like to complete labs for DMVPN this weekend, but unfortunately that may not happen as write speeds on my UCS with a LSI 1064E RAID controller are terrible, and I bought a controller with BBU and cache support, as I don't find the I/O acceptable on the current card. In fact, I may just not RAID if the next one isn't sufficiient. Anyway, I will need to take new snapshots, redeploy OVAs, and all of that jazz. May take a good chunk of my time this weekend.

EricsLearning

I took a look at your python script and I really like how you set it up. I made a similar one but for setting a baseline I just setup a config with everything that I needed set (IP, authentication... ect) and use "copy baseline startup-config" command followed by reload.

ande0255

Good luck sir, the more I am coming to realize I have a major distraction problem with reading for any amount of time I get distracted, unless I watch videos of the technical materials first and lab it up a bit based on those videos.

I want to some day pursue the CCIE level R/S, but I don't foresee that until probably the next version refresh, I realized I need the CCNP Sec knowledge first for my work place.

Good luck with your journey!!

OfWolfAndMan

EricsLearning wrote: »

I took a look at your python script and I really like how you set it up. I made a similar one but for setting a baseline I just setup a config with everything that I needed set (IP, authentication... ect) and use "copy baseline startup-config" command followed by reload.

Hi Eric, I actually recently modified my script to eliminate the need to reload when implementing the baseline configuration, using the "configure replace" command.

You can see my post here about it: https://extensibleandautomated.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/the-ccie-journey-saving-lab-time-with-automation-part-3/ And here is the updated code. I'm sure you'll like it: https://github.com/OfWolfAndMan/CCIE-Lab-Automation

ande0255 wrote: »

Good luck sir, the more I am coming to realize I have a major distraction problem with reading for any amount of time I get distracted, unless I watch videos of the technical materials first and lab it up a bit based on those videos. I want to some day pursue the CCIE level R/S, but I don't foresee that until probably the next version refresh, I realized I need the CCNP Sec knowledge first for my work place. Good luck with your journey!!

Thanks! Same to you.