1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

Lab no 5 (continued)

About 3 hours put in after work this evening. I have reached a natural break where Im redistributing protocols nicely in the 8 router scenario. I will leave the filtering work until tomorrow. My ethernet and loopback interfaces and frame-relay physical and subinterfaces are fine. OSPF/RIP and EIGRP configured. Redistribution RIP->EIGRP and OSPF<->EIGRP is good.

Somethings picked up. Scenario frame relay constraints forced physical interfaces with no frame-maps. Resolved with frame-relay interface-dlci. My topology is different from the scenario, I have no token ring interface so used another loopback instead. The ip address is highest so this impacted the router-id used by OSPF on that router obviously.

sh ip ospf on the routers at each end of a required virtual link confirmed this, so I adjusted the virtual-link router-id end points accordingly. A good spot this as different from the solution I have to hand. Virtual-link came up nicely.

A couple of final router config solutions missing so I improvised. Requirement was two loopbacks should be known by eigrp as one address. These are already in RIP which is redistributed into EIGRP on a router. I applied ip summary-address eigrp 1 x.x.x.x x.x.x.x on the ethernet which goes upstream to the other routers running eigrp. The two redistributed loopbacks now appear as a single external summary in the routing tables of the upstream eigrp routers. It works.

I will finish the remaining tasks tomorrow, filtering and BGP etc.
Time for TV and cheesecake now.

mikej412

Webmaster wrote:

Is there a more or less official recommend amount of hours for hands-on practice?

I'm going with the 500-1000 hour range that I've seen. I think that can be spent between time going over the stuff in the DocCD and Vendor Technology/Workbook labs. Someone working at a Cisco Business Partner may see enough different stuff in their job to get by with less (or the low end of the range) and someone without the real life Cisco experience may need the lab time at the high end of the range to pass.

What I haven't figured out yet -- is that per attempt?

But someone who spends 500 hours doing workbook labs but never get close to the "magic" 80 points to pass might want to go back to the books to cover the basics again before spending more time on the racks. I did my first labs in about 20-22 hours (advantage of the home lab)... and would read the OnlineDocs for hours if necessary. Long before the 8 hour mark I knew the "magic" wasn't there -- but I'd turn it into a learning/study experience.

Turgon

The IPExpert version 9.0 lab book has finally arrived from the United States. I got an upgrade from version 7.0

I shall be finishing my latest scenario on my home lab tonight and then setting about the IPExpert lab book from start to finish.

Turgon

Pash wrote:

Turgon: Thanks very much for your answer. I keep an eye on ebay every day looking for bargins to try and snap up, my training budget is taking shape. I do also have some spare 2500 2600 routers at work to salvage, im gonna have a chat with my line manager and see if i can take some of the redundant stuff home with me for labs, but they want my MS exams done before my CCNP

Keep up the hard work man.

Cheers,

Your welcome, but don't forget your first purchase - Bruce Caslow's book on Amazon. 7 dollars used! The price of a Happy Meal!

CCIE-4-HIRE

Thanks for keeping this log of your study efforts. It is very interesting.

sprkymrk

Turgon wrote:

Pash wrote:

Turgon: Thanks very much for your answer. I keep an eye on ebay every day looking for bargins to try and snap up, my training budget is taking shape. I do also have some spare 2500 2600 routers at work to salvage, im gonna have a chat with my line manager and see if i can take some of the redundant stuff home with me for labs, but they want my MS exams done before my CCNP

Keep up the hard work man.

Cheers,

Your welcome, but don't forget your first purchase - Bruce Caslow's book on Amazon. 7 dollars used! The price of a Happy Meal!

Actually, that's 2 Happy Meals. Does the book come with a cheap plastic toy made in China?
Seriously though, great stuff you're posting.

I see Train Signal has a special going on right now.

BCMSN: Cisco Switching! (Loyalty Discount -- Now Only $149.95!)

Not CCIE stuff, but good anyway. I was thinking about picking it up.

Turgon

Thanks all.

Well I completed old practice lab no 5 now. I spread it out over three nights. Lots of practice with route filtering, route maps used with redistribution and distribute lists to filter the routes with odd numbered networks. Found a typo in my route reflector neighbor statement and fixed that so the BGP peerings worked. Used summary address on interfaces for EIGRP. A good lab with some different frame relay configurations and some custom queuing. All interfaces reachable and all appropriate routes in the seven routing tables across the lab. Some NTP configuration.

On to the IPExpert lab book now.

Turgon

Well that's Saturday shopping done.

Off to book some lab time for the IPExpert labs

Turgon

IPExpert lab 1.

Completed this one today using remote racks. A nice lab.
Watch out vtp mode transparent and ctrl-v

Turgon

IPExpert Lab no 2.

I will look this over tonight and attempt it Tuesday evening. I read over a lab the night before a rack session to give me a chance to reflect and plan the tasks accordingly. The day after each rack session I think over what I have learned with the previous lab and then look over the next one. That's the plan at the moment. I shall buy a book today to serve as a journal to make notes as I do lab tasks.

Paul Boz

what sort of notes do you take during your practice lab attempts? How to do you review them once you've completed the lab?

Paul#4

Turgon wrote:

IPExpert Lab no 2.

I will look this over tonight and attempt it Tuesday evening. I read over a lab the night before a rack session to give me a chance to reflect and plan the tasks accordingly. The day after each rack session I think over what I have learned with the previous lab and then look over the next one. That's the plan at the moment. I shall buy a book today to serve as a journal to make notes as I do lab tasks.

I like the fact that you read the lab the night before.
I believe preparation is the most important aspect of getting the CCIE.
Most people go wrong by attempting labs before understanding the material.

Turgon

Paul Boz wrote:

what sort of notes do you take during your practice lab attempts? How to do you review them once you've completed the lab?

There is a tendency by candidates to rush labs. Each practice lab you do is a learning experience in itself.

I look over the whole practice lab at least a day before I do it on racks. I update the diagram with details. I make notes to myself offering solutions to each question. If I'm really stuck I check the final configs and try and understand why they hang together the way they do. I make notes to myself to lookup on the univercd anything new that comes up.

Next day I do the lab on racks. With each question I note any problems I encounter, things I have to troubleshoot.

Day after the lab I go through the final configs again. I print them and mark on the configs the questions number answered by parts of the config.

Then I file the configs along with my notes for the practice lab and move on to the next exercise.

Turgon

Completing my notes neatly now for IPExpert lab no 2 on Quad Calatyst Switching. Also referencing some of the commands on CCO to familiarise myself again. I shall attempt this lab on the remote racks next week.

A very education lab on quad catalyst switching. If you can do this one under two hours without checking the solutions at all and you get everything spot on, schedule a lab anytime soon.

VTP, pruning, STP, macros, vlan maps, private vlans, authentication, rspan, bpduguard, port security, timer..its all in there and I like the manipulation of access required between ports and trunks.

Yesterday set up a couple of 3550s at home to try out some commands perhaps later today.

Paul Boz

Not to be a constant bother with questions, but do you have any advice on getting better at quickly referencing the univerCD? I've been forcing myself to use it in my CCNP studies rather than referencing my books so that I can develop a strong working relationship with it, but I've got to say, it's slow learning in the begining.

Turgon

Paul Boz wrote:

Not to be a constant bother with questions, but do you have any advice on getting better at quickly referencing the univerCD? I've been forcing myself to use it in my CCNP studies rather than referencing my books so that I can develop a strong working relationship with it, but I've got to say, it's slow learning in the begining.

Hello Paul,

Using the univerCD is important although I must say over the last few years I have hardly used it myself at work or at play, I usually just search www.cisco.com when I need to.

I don't think I can offer you any major tips except to use it to look up the subject areas and commands you encounter. Im certainly making an effort to get into it during my studies. However the search facility on the web version seems to take you to cisco.com anyway.

There was some talk on the latest concerning univerCD on the groupstudy list so check the latest archives. I may get one from work, but if it's changing there may not be much point and will stick with the online version. I will try and clear this up for myself. If you beat me too it let me know!

If I come up with any tips along my journey I will let you know. I may post some links anyway that I find useful with each practice lab.

Off on my travels now to a family celebration. I will be using remote racks for lab exercise 2 next week.

Turgon

My busy working day is over. I have booked a remote rack session for tomorrow evening to do IPexpert lab no 2.

To prepare I tried out a few questions on my home rack, using the 2 x 48 port 3550's instead on the 4 switches in the exercise.

I ran several show commands as I went along with each question. Remember the vendor practice exams will not tell you to do this. You should do it for yourself. It's not only how you verify, it's how you learn. Be very patient with practice labs and get the most out of them.

The session ( a couple of hours ) went very well reinforcing STP, VTP, PortChannel, interface ranges and other vital things.

For CCIE wannabes - there is an intellectual requirement to pass this thing, but most importantly is your approach. I hold a demanding job down fulltime and have family commitments. You must make sure your prioritise your job and your family to get through this thing. Blasting away on remote racks night after night is not the way to go, expect diminishing performance at work and problems at home. It's a crap way to learn anyway, you will burn out.

Save yourself disappointment and all the problems inherent in trying to pass this thing at the 4th or more attempt!

You need to face the fact that to get through the CCIE you will have to do a tremendous amount of work, on a very regular basis, over a very long period of time after work in the evenings and weekends. You also need breaks to refuel. So it's going to take a very long time.

An hour with equipment or with a book when you have the chance is better than mammoth sessions that will get you nowhere. It will take ages to get through your lab prep, that's just the way it is. So expect it to take a very long time. Be realistic in this, stick at it, don't beat yourself up, be patient and diligent and you will get there. Little and often over a very long period of time, work on your labs steadily, don't rush. Importantly, stay positive and take care of yourself so you can go the distance without affecting your daily work and your life.

It has screwed up many people at great cost to themselves personally and financially. This is unnecessary. Over the years I have seen lots of enthusiasm from people about doing this, but the long slow burn is beyond them. They wind up exhausted, disillusioned due to multiple attempts, have problems at work and at home and sometimes broke. Often they dip in and out of the game. Sometimes they blaze brightly for a few weeks or month or two then burn out a long way off the standard required.

So go for the long haul. 1 year, most nights, little and often and be patient.

Lecture over. Off for TV with my wife. It's nearly 10pm here and I have a very busy day at work tomorrow followed by rack time after work in the evening. Expect to see me posting right through to Christmas.

ITdude

Sounds like some very sensible advice for us wannabes!

Turgon

3.5 hours put in tonight on remote racks after a tiring day at work. IPexpert Lab no 2 quad switching went fairly well. It was good to get around the switches. Picked up a few useful things. Problems with port channels between Cat4 and other switches unresolved. Out of time now.

I shall definitely revisit this lab again when Im next on the racks. Enjoyed it.

Turgon

Had another go at lab 2 on the remote racks. Cracked yesterdays port channel issues. Good session over a few hours.

Turgon

9am Sunday morning here and time to study again.

I will start to look over Lab no 3 in the IPexpert technology labs - Frame Relay. With this one over I feel like Im starting to motor on.

Lab no 2 Quad Switching was time very well spent in terms of understanding and practice. I got a lot out of that lab. Some old things back in focus and a lot of new things learned including tips on configuration.

On to lab no 3 now..

Turgon

Ipexpert Lab no 3 - Frame Relay completed on the remote racks on Saturday night. A useful lab covering frame.

Turgon

Ipexpert lab no 4. RIP in a 9 router scenario.

Starting to look over this lab now in preparation for the remote rack session.

Turgon

IPExpert Lab no 4.

I have a slot sceduled for remote racks Sunday morning to do this lab. Made lots of notes. Final solutions have errors for the key chain configs. Looking forward to doing this one and running some debugs, a useful lab on RIP.

Turgon

Sunday. IP Expert lab 4.

More or less completed before the rack time expired. Towards the end of the session a debug helped me spot a few things I missed but ran out of time to fix.

A good lab this one. Notes to self..

Watch out for vlan assignment on Catalyst switch ports.
The complete key chain configs in the given final solutions for lab 4 are missing.
The offset list worked like a charm.

Things to do on the home rack..

Will experiment with authentication debugging at home and debugging of unicast/broadcast/multicast and summary updates. This lab covered this a lot.

Next up is lab no 5 covering OSPF. With that one complete I will have completed 5 IPExpert technology labs and 5 old workbook labs since I put the home rack together end of April. 10 labs all in. Good stuff.

Progress is good, and Im making plenty of notes with each Lab I attempt, both before I attempt the lab on the racks during my lab reading and preparation and during the lab session noting behaviors and what I find/learn.

I shall endeavor to give myself a little more show and debug time with my labs going forward when I use remote racks.

Turgon

Carefully studied lab 5 while I wait for more serial cables to arrive for my home lab. Looks like a good lab with plenty going on with seperated area 0. Made good notes.

Turgon

Ok I have rearranged my home lab so I have the topology for IPExpert Lab 5. I have a 4000 series router providing the two ethernet ports I need for R1 in the exercise. Ran out of tranceivers for the 2500 but the topology is mostly there. I shall just have to make a mental note of what I can't do. Not much so far giving me trouble in this scenario at least. Anything I cant do at home I have proctorlab rack time booked up.

Spent time Friday configuring the 2 x Catalyst 3550's with port channel and vlans etc. I ran out of cables so made some, but they didn't work so I made them again *carefully* and they are all fine now. A time consuming business crimping cables, it's been a while but a single cable at the shops costs 10 dollars!!!

Put time in on lab 5 on my home rack last night, Im halfway through and making notes about the progress. Very satisfying and educational. I need to get the three virtual links up next.

You have to keep plugging away when you have a demanding fulltime job and a family. 10pm - 2am sessions are unnecessary at this stage and counter productive. Too much information, rushed labs and fatigue to carry into work and homelife the next day. So it's little and often for now. Things are starting to click though which is good. Small sessions really concentrating on what is happening, building up to longer ones. About 1 years work all in I reckon. You need to be careful and patient. It takes a lot of hours over a long period of time to digest all this stuff and learn the lessons properly.

Longer more regular sessions will come later once I have patiently been through the technology labs. and got most of the points down. Shopping to do today then tonight I will carry on with Lab 5.

Turgon

Sunday 6pm.

Finally done with the out of town shopping with my wife. Home now. Time to fire up the home rack and continue with lab no 5 OSPF in IPexpert and try and iron out some of the problems. I hope you are all having an enjoyable weekend. Should be busy with the homerack for a few hours tonight.

Turgon

On Sunday I overcame some neighbor problems preventing virtual links coming up. Paid particular attention to OSPF neighbor relationships and adjacencies over different frame relay interface types. Issues patiently resolve there. Had a problem with lack of fast ethernet interfaces and the Catalyst. Abandoned further attempts with what I have at home. Tuesday night attempted lab no 5 on remote racks after work. Scenario went well but ran out of time. Unable to get the multilink working (strangely). Will attempt lab again tomorrow evening on the remote racks.

Noticed remote rack took the neighbor statement before OSPF was running on the neighbor itself. Used same interface types on home rack previously and had problems getting the router to accept the neighbor statement. Even so adjacency still formed nicely at home so perhaps not required anyway?

Remote session tonight went pretty well after playing with things painstakingly at home on Sunday and checking the theory with the Cisco Press books that have arrived. Expect a good session tomorrow evening.

I have invested quite a lot of time on lab 5, but as it's OSPF I believe it's time well spent. My verification methods are sharpening up as is my methodology to patiently get things working in a logical order.

Spent 500 dollars on Cisco Press books.

Turgon

Wednesday Evening Remote Rack 6-10:45pm after work.

Built out my configs on the remote rack for IPexpert lab no 5. I saved my configurations before the bell rang. 10:30 pm here. Rather tired after work and a 5 hour remote lab session in the evening. I shall load up the configs on my next session and just spend the 5 hours checking interfaces and neighbors and such and get the bugs out.

Note to self : - check Multilink on CCO. It still didn't come up.