1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

jbaello

This thread is very motivating!!! More power to you Turgon, keep it coming sir...

Turgon

GT-Rob wrote:

I have been having some problems myself with the racks.

About a week ago I could log in to devices, but had no control via control panel. They said they were "doing some work" and moved to another one.

Then yesterday I couldn't load configs. By the time they responded to my ticket it was resolved though.



I got through lab 2 myself yesterday. Seemed easier (for me) than lab 1, except a few tasks I was very lost on (dot1x task was a mess lol)

There's lots of tasks to get lost on. It will all come with practice which takes time!

Turgon

IWEB Vol II Lab no. 3 - DONE

This lab is finished now. I carried out all the verification steps in the solution guide. I started the workbook on 19th July spreading out the labs across several days. Im pleased to get the first three labs finished by 8th August. Much has been straightened out and learned by doing these labs in a methodical manner.

Rather than press on and start reading over lab no.4 Im taking a deserved break now. A lot of content was covered in labs 1- 3 and I need time to digest what I have learned.

I will look over all three labs update my notes and reflect on the topics covered. A time consuming business labwork but I don't wish to batter on without some consolidation of my work the last three weeks.

Turgon

Saturday. Set about briefly documenting lab solutions in a spreadsheet with a tab for each protocol. Got lab 1 written up. Still to do lab 2 and lab 3. Should be a good revision tool for future labwork.

Turgon

Documenting lab 2 and lab 3 in notes.

Turgon

IWED lab 4. Starting to look over the sections. Building some momentum now and my solutions seem to be falling into place. Hope to start configuring soon enough.

Turgon

IWEB lab 4. Configured switching, frame, ppp, OSPF Area 0. The switching section was good practice with cost, port-priority, primary and secondary root and pruning. Some useful QoS and stom control stuff as well.

Turgon

IWEB Vol II Lab no 4 - DONE

A very useful lab. This is basically the OSPF lab in many ways covering a lot of important things. I now need to update my notes for labs 3 and 4 before I do anymore IWEB work. One fifth the way through the workbook now and much has been learned and clarified.

GT-Rob

are you planning to do the vol 3 workbook? I have heard that is recommended to do a few labs from it before moving on to the 7-8+ labs from vol II. They seem pretty cool anyway, basically the IGP sections from vol II but with times goals.

Turgon

GT-Rob wrote:

are you planning to do the vol 3 workbook? I have heard that is recommended to do a few labs from it before moving on to the 7-8+ labs from vol II. They seem pretty cool anyway, basically the IGP sections from vol II but with times goals.

No I'm not planning to do that. I have already covered some pretty intense multiprotocol labs during my stint with IPexpert. My intentions are to do a few more Vol II labs then a mock exam to give me a baseline. From there I will do a couple of Vol II labs then another mock exam. I will repeat the cycle until all 20 Vol II labs are complete. I also intend to have a go at Cisco Assessor later in the year. On top of all this I will be investing time in DocCD work and dedicated sessions to brush up on many specifics.

My efforts so far are bringing home sections and points I can land fairly easily and with each subsequent exercise more of them. It's also helping me define areas I need to work on but these are being clarified and improved upon by regular practice and dedicated study. It's really attack in three areas..

1. Rudimentary configuration of everything.
2. Mechanism i.e timers required for adjacencies but there are many more such things across topics.
3. Filtering.

In all three areas the aim is to improve mental agility so I understand the requirements better, spot the issues, and be able to conjure a solution in a timely manner. Specifically focusing on the *simple* solution first. In many cases what appears to be complex requirement can be solved by a simple line of IOS code. But not always. The key is to know which requires understanding which comes from practice.

Turgon

GT-Rob wrote:

are you planning to do the vol 3 workbook? I have heard that is recommended to do a few labs from it before moving on to the 7-8+ labs from vol II. They seem pretty cool anyway, basically the IGP sections from vol II but with times goals.

Since my last post I looked over the IWEB recommendations for this. Given that I have completed the first four labs from Vol II I think I will give Vol III a whirl because it's at that point that they recommend you try out the first three Vol III labs.

The plan works by flipping back and forth between Vol II and Vol III until a sequence of labs is complete after which they advise a mock exam is in order.

Fair enough. I will buy the workbook and try this approach. This means the following before mock exams.

Vol III Labs 1,2,3
Vol II Labs 5,10,12
Vol III Labs 4,5
Vol II Labs 16,17,18
Vol III Labs 6,7,8,9,10

A lot of work. If I can get up a head of steam I might get this lot covered by sometime October. Then I will try out a couple of mock exams.

Tomorrow I will finish off my note taking on IWEB Vol II labs 3 and 4 then buy the Vol III workbook.

Turgon

Started to look over Lab no. 1 Vol III

Turgon

Sunday 7:30 AM. Back on with rack time for Vol III Lan no.1

Turgon

IWEB Vol III Lab no. 1 - DONE

Good to get the first lab out of the way in the Vol III labbook. Decent practice of the core topics. Scored pretty well and a refresher of several topics including redistribution, BGP aggregate address filtering and local preference. More and more solutions come readily to mind with regular practice.

Turgon

Brushing up on some BGP questions from Odom version 2. Preparing homerack to undertake IPExpert lab 'K' for a change of scenery.

famosbrown

Keep up the good work Turgon and I appreciate the BLOG about the stuff you are doing. After reading a few posts, you can really respect what it takes to get CCIE and respect all of the hard work you are putting in.

Thanks again!!

dynamik

You're going to have to post some follow-up information around a year after you've gotten your CCIE. I think a solid gold jacuzzi filled with $100 bills (or whatever you use over there) and a few cheerleaders would be sufficient.

Keep up the good work, and keep your eye on the prize

Turgon

Thanks everyone. Work was way too busy yesterday so I didn't get near lab work.

7AM now and clearing rack down for lab 'K'.

Turgon

IPexpert Lab 'K' - DONE

This lab was worth it's weight in gold just for BGP. Unable to complete multiple HSRP groups and IP SLA object due to IOS limitations on the home rack.

I have now completed 33 of the 39 labs in IPexpert labbook version 9.0. Now time to return to lab no. 2 in IWEB Vol III.

Turgon

According to the schedule the IWEB remote racks are unavailable next week. I booked some sessions for the following week. I do have one starting 11pm UK time on Sunday but it's hit and miss if I will get much done in that slot depending on things at home where we are very busy. I can at least read IWEB vol III lab no. 2 over the weekend and perhaps make a start on it in the Sunday session.

Sooo..for the following week I will press on with a couple of the 6 remaining IPExpert multiprotocol labs I still have to do on the homerack.

I hope you all have a nice weekend. We have a 40 dollar bottle of Laboure-Roi open at the moment as we have a special guest staying over. Time for cheese and wine.

dynamik

So how have you liked renting vs. owning a lab? If you had to do it over again, would you have just purchased the gear, or would you have rented again?

GT-Rob

Ya it sucks, they have a bootcamp running that week so they use all their racks for it.


I personally kind of regret buying any home equipment. Between what I have access to at work, and the ease and price of online rack rentals, my home stuff just sits here collecting dust. I would still like maybe 2 routers and 1 switch just to check syntax and have more control/power than a linksys garbage router, but I rarely use my home stuff anymore.

ITdude

Turgon wrote:

I hope you all have a nice weekend. We have a 40 dollar bottle of Laboure-Roi open at the moment as we have a special guest staying over. Time for cheese and wine.

Now here is a guy who knows how to prepare for the lab!

Turgon

dynamik wrote:

So how have you liked renting vs. owning a lab? If you had to do it over again, would you have just purchased the gear, or would you have rented again?

I like having my gear even if it's a little noisy because one can just use it as and when. This is particularly useful when a lab exercise is to be spread over several days as it usually is because I can't often study for very long periods at home. The remote racks are good when they are available but the price of renting does add up when you are regularly booking slots. I have certainly spent a fair amount of cash lately on tokens to use the IWEB racks. They do offer all the features though as opposed to my homerack which does 90% of the tasks I need to practice.

On balance I think having both at my disposal works pretty well. Sometimes I just use the homerack because I fancy a change, othertimes I use it because it's instantly available at no charge.

On a different note Monday is a holiday over here so in theory I have three days at my disposal to do rack practice. We are however rather busy at home. I have new furnature to assemble as well as a friend staying with us and plans to show her around the city and countryside this weekend. So it looks like my racktime will be limited until Tuesday really. I should get some reading done however.

ITdude

Turgon wrote:

I should get some reading done however.

Sounds like my mantra!

Turgon

We got back fairly late from a day out in York so I blew off the Sunday night session. This morning Im clearing down the home rack to make way for the IPExpert lab 'U' configurations.

Turgon

IPexpert Lab 'U'. Switching, PPP and Frame Relay done. A very busy lab this one. Busy at work and at home as well tonight. Just finally done hanging doors on a new wardrobe. If I can find the energy I may press on with the OSPF section later. Some limitations caused by old hardware on the home rack. No subinterfaces on the 2500's so I will have to manage with just one out of three backbone routers for this lab. MST configuration practice came up which was useful and IP unnumbered.

Turgon

No chance last night to continue. Starting the OSPF section this morning.

Turgon

IPEpxert lab 'U'

OSPF section complete. An exhausting session with bugs in the solution such as wrong metric type used when redistributing connected. Fixed an error self induced with the wrong network statement. Lots of fun with adjacencies, ospf network types, timers, neighbor statements, authentication that kind of thing. A very labour intensive lab, I expect it to keep me fully occupied when I get free time over the next few days. Verification practice was good as I managed to hunt down and fix the problems that flared up.

Turgon

OSPF/RIP/EIGRP/Redistribution and filtering done. BGP next. Certainly a very labour intensive lab this one but a good exercise.

Once this lab is complete the upcoming tasks include finishing reading IWEB Vol III lab no 2 prior to a remote rack session next week.

I have also taking time out to identify a slew of useful exercises to complete on the home rack over the next couple of months from Solie Vol II. These will be homerack jobs, For IWEB it's the remote racks.