1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

74% on the Boson switching questions. Got stung on some duplexing stuff and some parameters but overall not too bad. I will stick at this for another week, pretty soon I will have levelled out on scores across topics. At that point, it's diminishing returns on more reading hours considering I want to try out the actual test fairly soon, so I will then probably print out the Q and A's of the few questions on topics that are still giving me trouble, pour over them to straighten a few things out, go for a brief overall review and cram and then sit the test.

As for lab prospects it's looking like a V4 attempt for me after October 18th. Lab slots are fully booked up worldwide before then because of the lab change. Too bad. I had big plans for June in terms of lab prep, but the month has been spent on written preparation. Even so, some of this theorectical toil has been beneficial and will help me when I return to racks in July. What will I do if I don't pass the written in July? Return to lab prep anyway. I need to get back on the racks and ramp my hours up again before my contract ends when I will be tramping fulltime on lab prep. Yes! August will be a very important month for me in that respect as Im gambling on taking a two month break from contracting to really knuckle down and pull my practical studies together. I will be overseas with the family for part of that duration but I can still study online during that vacation. So I want to get some practical lab momentum going again in the evenings and weekends throughout July so Im really steaming into August when I have all this valuable time and energy on my hands.

As for second or third bytes at the written cherry, well if it comes to that I can only hope that over the course of many evenings these last four weeks I will have hit enough critical mass with my theory studies to allow me to take it out with just a reasonable amount of extra reading. The CCIE is only 10 miles wide and 10 miles deep. Beware of multiplying that by 10

Turgon

80% on the Netmaster today.
71% on the IP questions on the Boson. No change there. Busted on minutia about NAT, VRRP, WCCP, and screwed up a subnetting question

That's enough theory for me for the moment. Sunday Im returning to lab prep to continue working the last lab I started from IPExpert. It covers GRE and Routing protocols. I started this on 3rd June on my homerack and haven't returned to it since. Twenty four days ago. That's too long. Theory has taken up my time since then.

Turgon

Covered the chapter questions in Odom for Multicast and Multicast Routing.
Hit 90% on the NetMaster test.

Turgon

Had a go at the Odom Multicast and Multicast Routing questions in the Exam that comes with the book. Got burned with a 58%. It was the IGMP/PIM-DM/SM state diagrams that pulled the marks down. They usually do. No matter how many times I confront those questions it always seems to feel like it's the first time I'm looking at them. Still need to work at those.

Turgon

73% on the 30 Boson Multicast questions. Down 4% from last time. I have pretty much peaked on multicast now and perhaps I should simply pour over the details in the solutions to the questions I got wrong or instead attempt the tricky ones in an open book manner in an attempt to research the answer. Perhaps the latter first of all. No idea on SAPs!

Turgon

Today at lunchtime I very patiently went over the state diagram questions for Multicast routing in the Odom test and studied the solutions. I think this has helped a lot. I just got done with the questions tonight and scored 75%. Good. Strange questions. No matter how many times you see them you always have to work them out. Multicast state machine is involved.

Turgon

Boson Multicast 73%. Then a review and a second pass 93%.

I will take it. To be honest over the years multicast has been a good friend on past written exams. To become really good at all the nuances of it..well you would be looking at 3 months fulltime on it. Im good to go on multicast and multiple guess in the test

I may fire up that home rack if I get a chance before I turn in.

Turgon

Well I had a look at the home rack configs. The physical layout is fine but I need to wipe the configs during tomorrow evenings session. Written prep goes well. I expect to take it soon enough. Lab prep is back each evening now. Looks like a V4 lab exam for me in November/December. There are no slots available in Brussels before the lab changes and I don't fancy a flight and the expense and hassle of an all or nothing 'punt' in October to RTP. We are fine with that at home. Besides, getting tested on MPLS will be cool

Turgon

93% on the Netmaster test. Tonight lab practice again on the home rack. IPExpert v9.0 lab no 18 GRE and Routing Protocols

Turgon

Lab practice going well. Rack prestaged, wired, frame switch reconfigured, all IP addressing done. Frame Relay config done. IGPs tomorrow night.

Turgon

A really good lab this one. The IGPS went well. Fluid. Discontiguous area 0 joined with GRE tunnels. Small things to fine tune adjacencies and costs. Will have to finish the last part on Saturday because my R7 is stuck with an snmp cold start and no amount of power cycles bring it to a prompt. 10:30 pm on a Friday anyway. Time for a beer.

Turgon

Saturday morning. Time to finish lab 18 followed by some theory revision with the Boson tests and a peak at Odom when Im stuck. Open book should clear up the few things Im still struggling on.

Turgon

IPExpert v 9.0 Lab 18 GRE Tunnelling and Routing Protocols - DONE

In the end the solution did not add the final area 27 to the backbone on my home rack. Possibly this was caused by my equiment constraints at home. Fixed it with a static route on R5 to get to the tunnel destination. A good lab that illustrates well the use of tunnels to extend backbone areas as well as joining discontiguous backbone areas.

Turgon

A spot of reading on MPLS today and 72% on the Boson MPLS questions.

Turgon

10:50pm. Time to call it a night.

Right well we seem to be getting somewhere. You know I have kept a grid on the wall in my study and in each square I pencil a date when I start a practice lab from a vendor book or a topic in a Cisco Press book. The lab number or chapter is recorded and it gets coloured in yellow when it's done. I have just printed out a whole new grid now and put it on the wall next to the one that is just about filled in. There are 106 squares filled in there since I started the first one on 12th May 2007. This whole process started not long before my son was born and he will be two in September. When this whole thing is finally over, Im keeping these charts for posterity. He may find it curious when he gets older.

I will be starting lab no 8 Routing Protocol Redistribution IPExpert v9.0 on Tuesday evening. This was last attempted on 10th January 2008. Once complete that will bring closure on the 'second pass' of nine IPExpert technology labs I decided to go over again before written theory really took over. It's been useful but I shall never do them again. Post lab no 8 I have some momentum to build for the mock exam stint. This will firstly involve rapid completion of IPExpert labs 'M', 'O', 'P' and 'Q'. These have been kept in reserve for my final assault. The labs will take place on my homerack and will be somewhat compromised as I have no switches, but it should still be a useful exercise to build up a head of steam. Then it's IWEB Vol III labs no 1 and 2. Finally it's IWEB Vol II Lab no 7. Then I will take an IWEB Mock exam head on, get the sh1t kicked out of me and finally have my baseline mock experience. From there on in it's a cycle of 2 x IWEB Vol III labs + 1 x IWEB Vol II labs before the next Mock. For variety I will interject with a few days solely dedicated to the study of a single topic. I have some good notes for the topics so intend to use them so I don't go mad doing labs. IWEB Vol II labs 7,8,9,10,11,12 will incrementally be my 'primer' practice labs before each mock exam attempt.

Fun.

Turgon

Took a couple of Odom MPLS questions and solutions to work today to look over more closely. Had a look over a paper on CCO on Anycast RP. Tonight had a go at the Boson questions covering IP features and what have you. Used the Odom book and CCO to crib some of the obscure stuff about WCCP, VRRP, EEM and NTP. Picked up some useful clarification while doing so. Mainly small details I missed during my first pass of the Odom book. Scored 82% which is helpful. Nothing on EEM in Odom. Watch out.

stlsmoore

Keep at it Turgon I have a ton of respect for anyone who even attempts to obtain their CCIE. Makes me realize even more how much time and dedication you need by reading your posts. Our VP of Network Engineering is CCIE# 4202, he took his in 1998!

Turgon

stlsmoore wrote: »

Keep at it Turgon I have a ton of respect for anyone who even attempts to obtain their CCIE. Makes me realize even more how much time and dedication you need by reading your posts. Our VP of Network Engineering is CCIE# 4202, he took his in 1998!

Thanks dude. I was up at 6am this morning prestaging the homerack for the latest practice lab before my drive to work. I ran out of time to get some gremlins out of the frame relay set up before I headed off. I will fix that tonight after doing the Boson security questions. Thursday night is our last night with our visitor at home so I don't expect much rack time then. Friday night it's an early night as I have a 300 mile round trip airport run to do on Saturday. Will pick up the lab work when I get home Saturday evening.

Thought for the day 'Oh to be an employee with some time on works time to prepare for the CCIE'.

You can fill your house with books, equipment and practice labs but one thing you can't buy is time to use them properly.

Turgon

80% on the Boson security questions tonight. Good. Stumbled on CBAC configuration but I think I have that down better now. Not very well covered in Odom.

Now it's time to get the frame relay working properly on the Ipexpert lab I started last night on the home rack.

Turgon

One of those nights. Just can't get pings working over frame. Tried all manner of configurations, even swapped cables and used a different frame switch. My configs match the solution as well. Weird. 11PM. Calling it a night.

CCIEWANNABE

do you know when your are going to take the lab? have you scheduled a date? are you trying to take it before v4 gets implemented. I know I won't be ready until early 2010 atleast. I am finishing my CCIP this summer and then going to take the written this fall. Going CCIP route to learn more about BGP and MPLS since MPLS will be on v4 lab. Do you have your own lab at home? It looks like you are getting close. I am going crazy right now studying BGP. You sure have to like this stuff to be able to stick with it. And I think thats what seperates CCIE's from those who are not. You have to love this stuff to be a CCIE, not just like it.

Turgon

CCIEWANNABE wrote: »

do you know when your are going to take the lab? have you scheduled a date? are you trying to take it before v4 gets implemented. I know I won't be ready until early 2010 atleast. I am finishing my CCIP this summer and then going to take the written this fall. Going CCIP route to learn more about BGP and MPLS since MPLS will be on v4 lab. Do you have your own lab at home? It looks like you are getting close. I am going crazy right now studying BGP. You sure have to like this stuff to be able to stick with it. And I think thats what seperates CCIE's from those who are not. You have to love this stuff to be a CCIE, not just like it.

I'm shooting for a lab date before the end of the year. It will be v4. I have my own equipment at home but also use remote racks for the multiprotocol labs from the Vendors workbooks. The secret to passing the CCIE is regularity and a realistic study schedule. The latter depends on time availability to study. If you have a fulltime job that carries responsibilities that leaves no window for lab practice 9-5, and you also have a commute and a family waiting for you at home it's unlikely you will be battering away 5 hours racktime each day. Some people can pull that off but others run into problems when it affects homelife and performance at work (too much fatigue). Love your wife, like your CCIE and you will get there.

Good luck!

Turgon

107 Lab. IPexpert v9.0 Lab no 8 Route Redistribution.


I solved the frame relay issues tonight by doing some layer 2 debugging.
debug frame packet followed by a ping from the hub to the spoke. Sure enough I could see that the multipoint was using the wrong dlci in the frame map to get to the other end. Reversed the dlci numbers in the multipoint frame maps and bingo. Hub to spoke and spoke reachability.

Completed the RIP section in good order. Needed the full network prefix in the network statements on R1 for the loopbacks. They all went over to R2. Used the distance command to filter the updates so only the odd networks appeared in R2. Worked fine. The actual solution is less exact than mine in terms of neighbor. It is effecting updates from anywhere 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255. It's also allowing the networks it is announcing itself as opposed to only the odd networks announced by R1. I imagine this is required for the redistribution fun that may be coming up later in this lab. Anyway let's leave this now for Saturday afternoon.

dynamik

I really think you're just stalling until your thread gets 100k views. Git 'er done already!

Turgon

dynamik wrote: »

I really think you're just stalling until your thread gets 100k views. Git 'er done already!

hehehe..actually we have a house party going on and it's rather rude of me to spend anymore time on this when I should be entertaining so Im signing off for tonight. I do wonder if I will clear before 100k views. It's possible

Turgon

85% on Netmaster. Still dropping a few marks on the Rainman small details rubbish

Turgon

90% on Netmaster. Better.

Turgon

Damn that was a tough drive. Up at 4AM and just back from Heathrow at 2PM. Some R&R now. Perhaps some theory then finish lab 8 on Sunday.

Turgon

An early start on theory. 78% on Boson switching. Still struggling on duplexing hassles and small details pertaining to RSTP function. Will have another go now.

Turgon

90% on Switching this time. Much better. Will get some breakfast now and then press on with more work.