1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

Note taking and reading today. Most likely lab 8 on Sunday.

Turgon

An afternoon out with the family yesterday. Today, administration to do for the business followed by a rack session scheduled for 5pm.

Turgon

A busy day indoors but I got the switching done in lab 8. No VTP or VLAN configuration to do on this one but mst and some tunneling. WAN and IGPs on Monday.

Turgon

Put back due to home PC crash. Fixed home PC permitting lab 8 WAN and IGP on home rack or remote rack Wednesday.

Turgon

Ok well spoke to the agents this morning. While feedback on my CV and rates is positive, both are competitive, there isn't a lot of work out there and a lot of bogus jobs are advertised. I have a few irons in the fire. Tension at home with no work and Christmas coming. I will be getting some more job search mail out later. Rack time plans now suspended pending confirmation of new contract. With the economy as it is I need to divert more time into job search if I am to work again before January.

Turgon

Redoubled my efforts on jobsearch today and was put forward for a couple of contracts. The market is flat. Booked a rack session to complete lab 8 tonight once we get the youngster off to bed.

Turgon

Lab 8 Core - DONE

Multilink a feature with virtual link used for authentication. no ip split horizon for the hub and variance the outstanding features for the IGP section.

Over the next few days will press on with 9,10 Core followed by BGP across 7,8,9,10
That will bring me to my milestone for core practice. Next week will be primarily a reading week to complete my notes across the first 10 labs and read over them in time for a mock exam I hope to hit over the weekend. With the post BGP tasks now off the boil I will need a refresher to go over my notes on those as well prior to the mock exam. Otherwise I will get splattered. The general synopis on the job front and the time expended looking for decent work and jousting with agents has been quite a strain at home. While necessary, time and energy expended on chasing jobs has been a drain on study plans.

Turgon

Battered my switching notes for the first 10 labs into mnemosyne. I think this may become quite a useful revision tool in the weeks ahead. Will press on with adding notes for WAN,IGP and BGP topics across labs 1 - 10 next followed by a rack session Lab 9.

On the job front put in for one contract I found this morning. Talking to agents the market is very quiet on infrastructure work and expected to remain so for at least another 6 months with cutbacks in the public sector and everywhere else expected. If you are looking for contract work grab whatever you can over the next two weeks because with things as they are and where they are heading, plus the usual Christmas slow down you may be out of work for a very long time..

On the positive note I still get occasional enquiries to go permanent (considering) and one client that needs a router installed on site next week. Cool.

Turgon

Approached again to go permanent. Very interesting offer. TDA with perks. Will take the family out for a drive and then tackle lab 9 this evening once the youngster is tucked up.

Turgon

Lab 9 and Lab 10 ahead this weekend, just waiting for the rack config to load. If we can get these completed and cover BGP on labs 7,8,9 and 10 then I can light the first beacon on the final path to the lab next Easter. That will be the core revisited across 10 practice labs. Next week I will start the post BGP tasks across labs 1 - 10 namely Multicast, IPv6, QoS, Security, System Management and IP Services. Efforts there along with continual note taking and revision of topics using nmemosyne should help put me in good shape for my next mock attempt.

The main thing is to continue to improve on the core technologies by the year end. The new v4 things I will start to look at from January 1 onwards. Vendor help should start to improve by then. I think with three months of that plus emphasis on troubleshooting practice I should be good to go to Brussels by the beginning of April. Feedback from v4 lab candidates is starting to come in now as the new lab has been released and it isn't pretty. One CCIE, Ryan says he wants the CCIE to become harder and harder to retain it's value. Well he would wouldn't he as he has already got his number. On that note with the change in the CCIE in security earlier in the year the last time I checked only ten people in the world had passed it. Happy days.

Turgon

Lab 9 Core - DONE.

Exhausting. Covered with 007 configs in the IGPs, subtle small things to look out for. Glad to finally tramp through what amounted to a tutorial for some of the stuff that came up. More in a moment but a well deserved break first. Just glad to get through this and be on the cusp of beginning lab 10. At last a double figure lab. Cool.

Bl8ckr0uter

Turgon wrote: »

Lab 9 Core - DONE.

Exhausting. Covered with 007 configs in the IGPs, subtle small things to look out for. Glad to finally tramp through what amounted to a tutorial for some of the stuff that came up. More in a moment but a well deserved break first. Just glad to get through this and be on the cusp of beginning lab 10. At last a double figure lab. Cool.

Sorry if I missed this but when are you taking the lab?

Turgon

knwminus wrote: »

Sorry if I missed this but when are you taking the lab?

Next Easter, employer and wife permitting. Long way to go yet, many evenings and weekends of lab work and reading/revising ahead.

jamesp1983

good luck man! you're an animal!

Turgon

jimmypizzle83 wrote: »

good luck man! you're an animal!

hehehe...thanks. You have to be to get through it. Yesterday I started at 11am but wasn't done with the lab until about 9pm. The lab work has to be broken up with everything else going on at home, mealtimes, shopping and getting the little one ready for bathtime and bedtime. Difficult to disappear up your ass with lab prep when you have a two year old. But that means your whole day is consumed. Same again today, Im starting lab 10 this morning. When working during the week Im restricted to evening sessions starting 9pm once I have got my son off to bed, and I dont do those every night or I would never spend anytime with my wife. Those with family will relate. People have passed under these circumstances though so that keeps me positive. Anyone interested in the CCIE should try and find what time they can on works time to do some practice. In my case that's hardly ever. Whoops the little guy just finished his breakfast, playtime now

Lab practice is very time consuming if it is to be done properly. Notes for BGP sections in labs 9 and 10 completed this morning. Notes for IGP sections labs 6 - 10 next..

Looking after the little one while his mom gets some much needed sleep. He likes music. Here's Robert Palmer..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xZeNueckzg

Turgon

Lab no 125 coming up this morning!

I shall do the core sections of lab no 10 from INE Vol II 4.1. I last attempted this lab on 22nd January 2009.

Turgon

Lab 10 Core - DONE

variance, conditional default route advertisements and the rest.

Time to spend whats left of the weekend with my family now. We finally made it halfway through the core revision and came a long way. Far too much work. Time to light those beacons..

YouTube - Lord of the Rings - Lighting of the Beacons [HD Test]

Turgon

The UK network infrastructure contract market continues to slide into the next ice age. Very quiet. I shall spend a few hours more getting around the agencies and then set about the home rack for some more practice. I do have an install to complete at a client site tomorrow through my own company so that's something. Post BGP topic practice next up, starting with Lab 1.

veritas_libertas

Turgon wrote: »

Lab 10 Core - DONE

variance, conditional default route advertisements and the rest.

Time to spend whats left of the weekend with my family now. We finally made it halfway through the core revision and came a long way. Far too much work. Time to light those beacons..

YouTube - Lord of the Rings - Lighting of the Beacons [HD Test]

Nice LOTR reference

Turgon

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Nice LOTR reference

Thanks yes I love those books. Ok well yesterdays site visit to do an install went well. Still jousting with agents about jobs at the moment. Tiresome

I think I will put something together on the homerack later to do lab 1. We have old routers so some features will be off. There are no switches. I dont have the initial configs for the IWEB labs and even if I did, the interfaces would be different as compared to what I have at home. Lots of fiddling about.

But for multicast, QoS, security and IP services and System Management I just need some repetition work really, so not having a built out layer 2 and layer 3 topology shouldn't hold me back. Verification wont always work and the dependencies will not be there but at least I can take a diagram, look at the topic questions and practice configuring the solution. It should all help, and I should get through these topics for the first 10 labs in fairly short order. I leave aside the Ipv6 questions. I will do that stuff on a remote rack as its hopeless with what I have at home (no IPv6 OSPF).

veritas_libertas

Turgon wrote: »

Still jousting with agents about jobs at the moment. Tiresome

I would imagine...

Turgon

Rattled through the post BGP topics in Lab 1 and made some good notes. Expect to be configuring more of the same on Friday. These notes will be essential during the winter months and I expect to be going over them regularly.

Turgon

Finishing notes on IGPs from labs 1 - 5. Im now going to go over the post BGP tasks for labs 2 - 5 on the home rack and take notes. I may use a remote rack later and set about the Ipv6 tasks for labs 1 - 5.

Then its dumping into mnemosyne all the notes. The folder for labs 1 - 5 can then go on the archive shelf alongside the IPexpert folders which are gathering dust. Having configured them twice I shall never do them again. The main thing with this second pass at configuring these labs is to refresh the memory and come away with decent notes I can use as a revision tool prior to next weeks mock exam.

These topics were configured by myself a very long time ago..where does the time go? Life I guess.

Lab 2 30th July 2008
Lab 3 4th August 2008
Lab 4 11th August 2008
Lab 5 26th August 2008

ncsugrad2002

nvm original comment, lol. I've been reading the thread but haven't kept up much lately. Nice to see you're still blogging btw.. I'm listening to the CBT CCIE videos on the way to work (80 minute drive each way). I really wish I had the income I used to so I could have more time to study AND be able to take more exams.

Anyways.

Turgon

ncsugrad2002 wrote: »

nvm original comment, lol. I've been reading the thread but haven't kept up much lately. Nice to see you're still blogging btw.. I'm listening to the CBT CCIE videos on the way to work (80 minute drive each way). I really wish I had the income I used to so I could have more time to study AND be able to take more exams.

Anyways.

Thanks man. Sucky economy. Im still awaiting news on a few gigs I have been put forward for, and spending lots of time looking for good roles instead of studying. Not a lot of jobs out there right now and hundreds of applicants. lab 2 done this morning..on to lab 3 now..

Turgon

Lab 2 Multicast, QoS, Security, System Management, IP Services
Lab 3 Multicast, QoS, Security, System Management, IP Services
Lab 4 Multicast, QoS, Security, System Management, IP Services
Lab 5 Multicast, QoS, Security, System Management, IP Services

Ipv6 skipped due to home equipment constraints. With work those on a rack session.

Thats the first five labs worked over now and notes taken. Spent the whole day on it. Now to spend time with the family.

Turgon

Scheduled some rack time for Sunday afternoon. Will use it to obliterate the Ipv6 sections across labs 1 - 5 in IWEB Vol II.

Turgon

Labs 1 - 5 IPv6 DONE

Typically the most exhaustive of these was lab 5 and there was so little time left on the rack session it was all I could do to simply bang in the given solution. I will be looking that one over in a little detail now and finishing up my notes on IPv6. All in a good session today covering what I wanted to do, the IPv6 sections.

My notes for the first five labs across topics are now complete. These now need to be typed into mnemosyne. I plan to lab up labs 7,8,9 and 10 next working carefully on BGP, Multicast, IPv6, Security, System Management and IP Services topics. This will give me a complete set of notes for the first 10 labs in IWEB Vol II. So my brain doesn't explode I shall not do these labs on consecutive days, instead using the interviening day to work on mnemosyne and go over my notes. Reflection and repetition is needed there so Im looking sharp for my next mock exam. I anticipate that will take place a week next Saturday giving me sufficient time to finish the remaining four 'half ' labs as well as compile all these notes and revise them properly. A lot of work done then, and a lot of work ahead before the next mock exam.

For the moment though, IWEB Vol II labs 1 - 5 have now been completed twice. The A4 file containing them can now be jettisoned to the archive shelf alongside the IPexpert WB 9.0 materials I similarly worked over through 2007 - 2009. It feels good to move away from this material knowing I put the time in with them and did my best. Did I eventually understand everything in them? Yes. Can I recall it all? No. That's where the revision comes in during the next couple of months. I shall feel better once the A4 folder for labs 6 - 10 is similarly filed away but that will require a bit more work in the fortnight ahead.

Once all 10 labs are nuked and the mock exam is over, Im tempted to try out the new IWEB workbook covering the v4 blueprint. I may simply read them all first off, just to get some feel for what new topics are coming up.

IWEB Vol II labs 1 - 5, thank you. I shall never do you again.

Turgon

Going over my lab notes today and battering them into mnemosyne. A singularly boring activity.

Turgon

Clattered into mnemosyne my notes from labs 1 - 10. Got Switching, Frame, PPP, FRTS, RIP, EIGRP and OSPF done. Well start on BGP tomorrow across labs 1 - 10 and the post BGP topics across labs 1 - 5. I think this is helping.