1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

Lab 10. Multicast completed. I need to brush up on the ACLs used to assign multicast groups to RPs. Looks like my next contract will start in a couple of weeks so hopefully I will get a lot done before that starts.

Turgon

Lab 10 completed at home this morning. Some note taking planned tonight. Next week I will be working on the remaining IWEB Vol II labs.

Turgon

Notes updated to version 1.21 with useful solutions recorded for Switching and BGP sections across IWEB Vol II labs 1 -5. Will be starting IWEB Vol II Lab 12 on the remote racks this afternoon. May look over some Odom questions this evening to help with written prep.

Turgon

Looked over the Odom questions on switching. Hoping to get a couple of hours in on the racks tonight.

Turgon

IWEB Vol II Lab 12. Switching and Frame done.

Turgon

IWEB Vol II Lab 12. IGP/BGP/Multicast done.

This lab is particularly heavy with BGP so worth the trip. Really found it hard the last few days to sit down and put the hours in on this lab so it's been little and often. Done with BGP and Multicast this evening. Rather tired with the workbook now. Cheesed off with rack work and feel I need to read a bit more. Just need to stick at it and complete the remaining labs to get to Camp 3. I will assess things sensibly from there. I basically understand a lot concerning requirements and solutions these days. Just need some drills to get the mechanics down so I can construct useful things in a timely fashion. Notes are coming together covering various ways to tweak the protocols and manipulate and influence routing and trunking paths.

Just hit 600 hours racktime. Man it's been a slog.

mamono

Your journal keeps things in perspective and shows how much determination is required to complete something of this magnitude! You can do it! I hope to walk this path in the future.

Turgon

mamono wrote: »

Your journal keeps things in perspective and shows how much determination is required to complete something of this magnitude! You can do it! I hope to walk this path in the future.

Thanks Mamono. It's been a lot of work to get to 600 hours racktime. Note I only record the time Im actively configuring solutions on racks not the duration of the slot itself as sometimes racktime is lost when things have been busy at work or at home. There seems no point logging wasted time. 600 hours of real configuration time it is though. I feel good about that. With IPexpert, IWEB and many Cisco Press configurations behind me I feel like I have covered almost everything now. Will try and get a slot and finish lab 12 today and take on some of the Odom test questions later.

Turgon

IWEB Vol II Lab 12 - DONE.

That's your lab for BGP. FRTS was pretty good too. I didn't get near Odom today as I just wanted to keep myself fresh to finish lab 12. Certainly feeling a little jaded with lab work of late. Im left with just three labs left to complete the workbook so that's ok. Four full labs completed since the beginning of the year and lots of reading and notetaking undertaken. I will be looking over Odom tomorrow.

Finishing the remaining three labs finally gets me to Camp 3. At that destination the summit will be visible for the very first time. At earlier stages of the climb what appeared to be the summit was simply a ridge lower down the mountain.

From CAMP 3 the final assault to the summit is fairly well mapped out for me...

Revision and Mock exams. I have a battery of Vol III labs remaining should I feel inclined and also a bunch of Solie/Doyle labs lined up. Small scale things to work on specific areas.

Mock1 ->Revise notes->Vol III-->Doyle-->Solie-->Mock2

Repeat until Mock results are acceptable. Pass written. Schedule lab.

Turgon

Using the test engine that comes with Odom's Cisco Press CCIE Routing and Switching guide 3rd Edition. Took on a random100 question practice exam this morning and took a bit of a pasting in some quarters. That's fine. I know which areas to work on in the week ahead.

Turgon

Hit 70% on the practice test today which augers well for the written test. Spent quite a bit of time the last three days doing the Odom questions and reading up from the book. There's clearly some more reading ahead of me, particularly for IPv6 and MPLS but overall quite happy with the progress. Certainly forgot some of the writtenesque details but it's starting to come back. This week it's more written preparation and starting tomorrow I will begin to take out the remaining three labs in IWEB Vol II to take me to Camp 3.

A week Monday I start a new contract. I should be home by seven in the evening by which time Im needed at home. Initially my study time will be necessarily curtailed while I settle into the new work routine. I can see me having one evening during the week for lab work and one day out of two at the weekend. Weekends will be somewhat pressurised after a busy week in a new job. I will be tired, my wife will have had a busy week all day on the homefront on her own, and come the weekend there will no doubt be a small mountain of household things to attend to. Not least shopping and cleaning. So the first few weeks I will have my hands full and need to be careful I don't overdo the studying at the expense of things at work and at home. I certainly need to be very focused on the new job. My energy and attention span will be needed there and no one will be interested in my CCIE plans that's for sure. There's a lot of work waiting for me at that place and I will need to throw myself into it. I intend to use the weekend for mock exams. The single evening session will rotate using IWEB Vol III core labs (3 hour labs) or specifics from Solie or Doyle on the homerack. I don't anticipate getting anything done at work during lunch. Being new there I will need to mix with the staff. So any revision of my notes or book learning is going to squeezed somewhat into an hour snatched at the evening or at weekends. I'm just glad that the tramp through the workbooks is coming to an end. I have learned a lot, covered just about everything, and basically understood it all. It's now a case of revision and practice. I have discussed progress with my wife but we agree that any projections on a lab date are pointless right now until the written is cleared (again) and progress on the mock exams is good. We will just have to see about that over the next couple of months. March and April need to be good months on the study front.

Turgon

Juggling my son and a Cisco Press book this morning while my wife gets some rest. Should have another crack at an Odom test later!

Turgon

Time for that test. On Monday I will contact the local Cisco branch office about arranging some ASET labs.

Turgon

75% today. Getting better. It's the tedius mechanism details that get you. Later today will work hard on the following subjects:-

OSPF
Congestion Management and Avoidance
Shaping and Policing
Security
MPLS

I will try the chapter tests on these things and augment with reading from the book. One needs to be cautious about repeating practice tests. Familiarity sometimes breeds contempt. The detailed solutions are clearing up mechanism operation nicely however with the notable exception of PIM-DM and PIM-SM message flows in networks. Having trouble getting that down.

Turgon

Ok, well I spent a couple of hours each day over the course of the last week working the Odom questions in the Cisco Press Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide Third Edition. Marks improved as my memory was refreshed about the specifics. I also had time to look over the chapter on MPLS. With the two for one offer going I decided to have a go at the written test yesterday. I was curious to see how my lab prep might help me with the questions.

The outcome was ugly. I failed the test by quite a distance. QoS was my best score 83%, the rest of the subjects were well off the pace. I will need to invest significant time with Wendall Odom's book to get things upto standard again.

The lab preparation helped me to some extent with some of the questions, but where I really suffered was on the writtenesque stuff. If I had a dollar for every question that came up on a topic I had read up on in great detail a year or so ago but had forgotten specific things then I could afford take my wife out for a decent meal. Too bad. I also struggled on some of the very specific mechanics of protocols that were floating around somewhere in the back of my brain.

It is all in Wendall Odom's book though so I shall just have to befriend it again over the course of the next six weeks. At least I won't have to read every single page. It's all good though, taking the written like that will at least keep me honest. There is a tendency with Vendor materials to tramp through practice labs without really getting the mechanics down. Having to work at the written again should help me there. From a practical point of view it's all very well thinking you can handle (for example) Anycast RP thanks to the few situations that IWEB throw at you, but if your understanding of the mechanics isn't good enough and the real lab situations are worded in a tricky way I think there's every chance you will blow the points on that section badly.

The written and lab are different though, and being away from written prep for so long hasn't done me a lot of favours. Never mind, onwards and upwards to close the gap. Should try the written again inside 8 weeks. On a more positive note I start my new job on Monday. Not bad in a tough economy. I got the nod over five other guys for that one so I best be on my mettle on the workfront while I settle in. No doubt this will force a relaxation on the CCIE lab practice front for a little while as I focus on the paid work. Looks like as good a time as any then to concentrate on some regular reading over the next couple of months.

By the way, I thought you couldn't mark on the written these days but I had the option. I made the classic mistake of marking too many questions, typically the schematic timeconsumers, in an effort to pick off the simpler questions quickly in a first pass of the test. Problem was the 'easy' marks proved tricky as I had forgotten too many specific things, so these took time and in the last hour I was left with about 30 diagramatic questions to field in 30 minutes. So these were badly rushed. Had I had more time though, Im not convinced I would have improved my score much more this time around. Just something to think about next time. No marking. Answer and advance. 105 questions in 120 minutes. Tough job unless you are very well prepared!

This is a set back, but retrievable. Providing I put the work in I still feel fairly confident about a written and lab pass sometime this year.

kpjungle

Im sure you'll get it the next time Turgon. You have done it quite a few times before though right? The Odom book you mention, is that the exam certification guide?

Again, drink a few beers, take a breather and get back on the horse!

Turgon

kpjungle wrote: »

Im sure you'll get it the next time Turgon. You have done it quite a few times before though right? The Odom book you mention, is that the exam certification guide?

Again, drink a few beers, take a breather and get back on the horse!

Thanks kpjungle! Yes I will get it next time. I just need to settle down properly with that book over the next few weeks and brush up on the details I have forgotten. Odom's book is the 'CCIE Cisco Press Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide'. It's a fine book for written and labprep.

sides14

It's always nice to remember everything, but there is entirely too much to remember. The practical is where the magic is done. There are certain aspects that you will remember and the other aspects slowly are forgotten over time. Keep your head up and keep moving forward. I truly enjoy reading your blog.

Turgon

sides14 wrote: »

It's always nice to remember everything, but there is entirely too much to remember. The practical is where the magic is done. There are certain aspects that you will remember and the other aspects slowly are forgotten over time. Keep your head up and keep moving forward. I truly enjoy reading your blog.

Thanks man.

Ahriakin

Aye the written is a very different beast, the security one anyway focuses a lot more on minutiae than practical knowledge and I imagine R&S is similar enough in the approach. Even on exams where you can review I very rarely do, I have had better results with going with my 'gut' on questions I wasn't sure of, the subconscious tends to do a better job than 5 minutes of worrying over it at the end imho. Anyway, 'tis a minor stumbling block, congrats on the new contract too, like you said in this economy that's a hell of a task in itself.

Turgon

Ahriakin wrote: »

Aye the written is a very different beast, the security one anyway focuses a lot more on minutiae than practical knowledge and I imagine R&S is similar enough in the approach. Even on exams where you can review I very rarely do, I have had better results with going with my 'gut' on questions I wasn't sure of, the subconscious tends to do a better job than 5 minutes of worrying over it at the end imho. Anyway, 'tis a minor stumbling block, congrats on the new contract too, like you said in this economy that's a hell of a task in itself.

Thanks for that. Unfortunately my gut instinct didn't help much on the test either. It's the small details regarding protocol mechanics that got me. Never mind. I have started to read Odom steadily I think I have already straightened a few things out. I will just have to patiently read the book over the course of the next few weeks. What with the time spent on written prep the last week my lab hours have fallen away, so today Im prepping the home rack for IWEB Vol II 4.1 lab 13. I will try and get a couple of hours in today and leave it set up to continue with it in the evenings after work this week. This contract is the priority though, got bills to pay!

Turgon

Ok well the rack is cable so I will get on with a compromised lab no 13. Compromised in the sense that I have no switches at home. I think I will do the non switch tasks for the last three labs at home and then rent some block racktime one weekend to cover all the switch tasks for the remaining three labs, clearing the switches down each time all the tasks for a particular lab are complete. This is about the most realistic arrangement for me at present. I need the flexibility of the home lab for a couple of weeks as it's unlikely I will get more than an hour or two's rack time in each evening sitting while I'm settling into the new job. Seems a waste of money to book 4 -5 hour rack slots on remote racks if Im simply not going to use all the time.

Once the workbook is done, the homerack becomes a playpen for Solie and Doyle scenarios. It's been a tremendous if noisy servant since April 2007.

I will be chatting with IWEB about a realistic mock exam schedule in due course. I imagine my final period of study will encompass Mock Exams, IWEB Vol III mini labs, Solie/Doyle, revision of my notes and some technology specific work from the Vol II labs. With the reload facility on the IWEB remote racks you can easily load up configs so I may spend a weekend just doing Multicast questions (for example) from 3 -5 labs in the book. Given I have the damn written to take again and that I may not pass the lab first time I have my work cut out for me this year. But if I can keep the workrate up on an evening basis I may get there. Certainly at this stage I do find that my learning is exponential providing I get the hours in regularly!

kpjungle

Turgon wrote: »

Ok well the rack is cable so I will get on with a compromised lab no 13. Compromised in the sense that I have no switches at home. I think I will do the non switch tasks for the last three labs at home and then rent some block racktime one weekend to cover all the switch tasks for the remaining three labs, clearing the switches down each time all the tasks for a particular lab are complete. This is about the most realistic arrangement for me at present. I need the flexibility of the home lab for a couple of weeks as it's unlikely I will get more than an hour or two's rack time in each evening sitting while I'm settling into the new job. Seems a waste of money to book 4 -5 hour rack slots on remote racks if Im simply not going to use all the time.

Once the workbook is done, the homerack becomes a playpen for Solie and Doyle scenarios. It's been a tremendous if noisy servant since April 2007.

I will be chatting with IWEB about a realistic mock exam schedule in due course. I imagine my final period of study will encompass Mock Exams, IWEB Vol III mini labs, Solie/Doyle, revision of my notes and some technology specific work from the Vol II labs. With the reload facility on the IWEB remote racks you can easily load up configs so I may spend a weekend just doing Multicast questions (for example) from 3 -5 labs in the book. Given I have the damn written to take again and that I may not pass the lab first time I have my work cut out for me this year. But if I can keep the workrate up on an evening basis I may get there. Certainly at this stage I do find that my learning is exponential providing I get the hours in regularly!

What sort of switch-lab setup do you need?

Turgon

kpjungle wrote: »

What sort of switch-lab setup do you need?

Four switches would be fine. I have no switches at home at present so will have to do those tasks on remote racks.

Got Frame/PPP/RIP out of the way this morning. A break now as we have some shopping to do. Hope to get OSPF done later today when we return. Then an early night as a busy first day on the new job is looming!

Turgon

IWEB Vol II lab 13

OSPF and IGP redistribution done. No real surprises. Useful application of distance command to prefer one path out of area 1 as opposed to another. Need to remember that one.

Multicast etc tomorrow evening after work.

Turgon

First day on the new job went fine. Got to swap cards in a couple of 6000's. Tommorow I will be working closely with someone to assess what networking needs doing to migrate customer traffic to a new infrastructure. Quite an urgent project.

This evening after I got home I put an hour in on the homerack to continue with IWEB Vol II lab no 13. Covered Multicast, IPv6, Security, System Management, IP Services. Useful work. Will do QoS and BGP tommorow night. Obviously very focused on my new contract right now so it's vital I get on racks for an hour each evening to keep up the study momentum. Regular practice each night is key, even if it is only for short spells for a while. Weekend I plan to catch up.

Turgon

Looked over the BGP section for twenty minutes during my lunch break and configured all the BGP tonight on the home rack. Ingress point manipulated using unsuppress-map, Egress point manipulated using appropriate route map in neighbor statement to EBGP peer. Some interesting redistribution work as well to get over sync issues. Tired now as a busy day at work taking in some new projects I will need to help drive from a network design perspective. Expect to get busier this week assessing some loadbalancing possibilities for some new links.

Will look at QoS for IWEB Vol II Lab 13 tomorrow evening. That will bring closure to this lab.

Turgon

IWEB Vol II Lab no 13 - DONE

Completed the QoS sections tonight. Lab 13 is your lab for FRTS.

Got home later than usual after a full day in my third day in the job. Work is going well but with the driving and the new environment this week is taxing on my energy levels. Felt tired tonight but forced myself to finish this lab in the evening as planned.

It's really make or break time now for my study program. I have been thinking over the available study window while driving home tonight. It's going to have to be on racks each evening for quite sometime now to bring everything to a head, with Mock exams every other Saturday. Juggling the demands of the new job I'm going to need a healthy supply of guts to keep my study schedule on track. March and April will be medieval months in terms of practice on the core during the week. Expect to be taking on IWEB Vol III labs soon. After a few days on core studies in the evenings I will follow on for a couple of days on Multicast/IPv6 followed by QoS/Security. Many good things have to happen over the next 10 weeks. I think they can, it's all down to determination now to finish the trip.

Written prep takes place each lunchhour at work. Mr Odom's book.

Turgon

Another busy day at work designing a resilient network solution for my client. Got home, had dinner, bathed the youngster and got him off to bed.

IWEB Vol II Lab 16 up next. The penultimate lab in the workbook. With effort I may actually get to Camp 3 by the end of the weekend. What a journey...in the drive to work this morning I went over last nights lab. The FRTS configs make more sense these days structurally, and some other things. So a little each evening is helping.

Time to recable the homerack for lab 16 and clear down configs. Later..

Turgon

All rewired and cleared ready for tommorow night. Reconfigured frame switches, added IP addresses to the six routers. Short on serial interfaces and also interfaces to do dot1q encapsulation so I had to make a few compromises and swapped ip addressing on one backbone router from serial to ethernet interface. Roll on Friday night. Time for TV with my wife now.