1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

creamy_stew

Turgon wrote: »

arguably the hardest month of my 13 year career is over. Result.

Result: You got to work with CCIEs and make a living doing it, probably learning a good deal in the process.

Turgon

I have been working alongside them for a number of years now and comfortable at that level. The satisfying thing is having been fully engaged for a month the late night outages, the improvement design work, the customer deliveries and the standardisation and auditing requirements are now under control. More studytime ahead. Im on leave next week but first need to catch up with family matters as we havent had much quality time together with the urgent evening and weekend work these last weeks. Once refueled some hours can go in on the study front again. Back to the deadlines now..

Turgon

good day and a major audit result at work. Approved a design too.

mikej412

Turgon wrote: »

good day and a major audit result at work. Approved a design too.

Boring. How about some nice study time instead?

Turgon

mikej412 wrote: »

Boring. How about some nice study time instead?

Now that would be nice Mike. The work insanity is cooling off now so finally next week I can get some study hours in. Tantilisingly close to 900 lab hours so must cross that rubicon sometime this weekend or maybe even tomorrow! Depends on available labslots.

Turgon

Last day at work before leave and up early. I had hoped to get a couple of hours racktime in on INE but their rack slots have gone today. Maybe on Saturday. I think I will get over to ipexpert and see if I can grab one there although Proctor Labs is pricey. Wrong topology too but I will work with it.

Turgon

900 lab hours - DONE

INE Vol 2 labs 8,9 and 10. The QoS sections.

I also got an hour in this morning on my notes.

The last month has been very demanding on the workfront and while results there have been good it's been quite a toll on the whole family. Im taking next week off to spend time with my wife and son. My wife has rightly insisted I do no rack sessions that week. Those of you married with children will understand

Turgon

A couple of days out now to visit relatives. Some reflection undertaken on an approach to kick start the studies when I return.

yuriz43

I haven't read this thread in a while, are you still planning to take a stab at the lab this year, Turgon?

Turgon

yuriz43 wrote: »

I haven't read this thread in a while, are you still planning to take a stab at the lab this year, Turgon?

Next year. My written expires in April so Im shooting to get enough revision in before then.

Turgon

Sometime today preparing study materials. Printed out first 10 labs of INE Vol II and put in ring binder.

Also dug out the Memosyne database of topics I populated with content from the previous INE Vol II for all subjects. This is a good find and I will bulwark it with the content from the latest Vol II.

With my developing notes, this device and the command memoriser Im quietly confident I can do some damage on revision across October and throughout November culminating in a Mock Exam. All the troubleshooting revision starts in the new year. The family has a new arrival coming Christmas so its important to get cracking on revision between now and then.

With 10 subjects all in, if I can get an hour in each day on the revision of notes, scenarios in the database and/or command memoriser it will all help. 200 configs per subject should crack the nut.

Turgon

Im struggling with mnemosyne today so if anyone has any help on that please pipe up. I have found an old study database I produced last year but I would really like to update the subjects with new content. Unfortunatly I seem unable to do so as the edit icons appear greyed out. I will try again now and see if there is a way forward!

Turgon

Cracked it. Add card does the trick. Entering INE Vol II material now. Should be a formidable revision aid this throughout October once the content is in there.

Turgon

INE Vol II Switching questions for labs 1 - 10 battered into Mnemosyne.

Its going to take many hours to get the Q + A for INE Vol II put into this thing but its going to be a useful study aid for several months.

Turgon

INE Vol II Labs 1 -10

The OSPF questions are now clattered into Mnemosyne. This is good stuff. A short break now followed by another subject until I reach a point when my wife cant stand it anymore. It is after all Sunday.

Turgon

INE Vol II Labs 1 - 10

RIP questions now clattered into Mnemosyne.

There will be some duplication in there that will need clensing as Im adding the latest Vol II content to the previous version of Vol II notes. That activity comes later. For now though Im quite please with todays effort. The question base has upped to nearly 400 now with many more topics still to document.

Then the fun part comes, going through the questions and dumping all the config answers in there from the solutions guides. That will take a long time.

A break now as Im getting nagged by my wife. Its lunchtime and we need to take our boy outside for a walk.

Turgon

INE Vol II Labs 1 - 10

EIGRP entered into Mnemosyne. No major surprises to report except not a lot of content on this topic. BGP next.

Turgon

INE Vol II Labs 1 - 10 BGP. Entered into Mnemosyne. Starting to enjoy this now.

Turgon

Finished off typing some of the BGP questions into Mnemosyne today. Ok so thats switching, Frame/PPP, IGPs and BGP all in for 10 labs. Comes out at 436 questions of note.

So I reckon including MPLS, IPv6, Multicast, Security, System Management and IP Services Im looking at about 750 questions for 10 labs. Call it 1500 questions all in for Vol II.

Throw in the content I have down for Volume I (please let it be a cut and paste job from my spreadsheet I painstakingly put together!) and we should be round about 2000 or so questions.

At 200 Q + A's per topic (roughly), I think that's enough to do the actual lab exam. At least in terms of revision of topics.

Essentially the topics must be learned thus:

1. How to build the essential construct of the protocol or mechanism
2. How to tune the construct to meet a specific requirement i.e best path, filter etc

On troubleshooting practice I took a peek at what INE have to offer in the Vol II labs and I think if I put the time in I should get up to speed on that aspect fairly soon. But I have to put the time in..

I need to see how gradedlabs can be used to load up an INE Vol II troubleshooting configuration so I can attempt the questions.

But that's all rack time and for the moment at least its back to the grunt of reading and typing so my notes are complete. November will most likely be my rack hire month.

For anyone interested in this approach in order to create your own database of essentially flash cards for INE workbook material I can tell you it takes ages. You cannot cut and paste from the workbooks.

The hard part is keeping going until its done. I have many quite tedious hours ahead of me just to get all the questions in for 20 Vol II labs. Note I am just doing the questions for the moment and not getting bogged down on finding and recording the solutions. That happy research task will commence once ALL questions of interest for all topics across all 20 Vol II labs are in the can.

MPLS will be next across labs 1 - 10

Turgon

7 meetings at work today and a network rescue in the evening. No time for studies today. Maybe tomorrow.

Turgon

Another busy day at work Thursday. No studies. WFH day Friday. Will try and get an hour in on MPLS note taking.

Turgon

No studies Friday as the day was busy enough. Will try to get some time in now its the weekend as a lost one is death to CCIE candidates. My wife has plans for us all to spend time together and get on top of chores after a busy week at work is over. Lets see how it goes!

Turgon

busy all day with the family saturday. Will study some today.

Turgon

Busy with the family including a trip out for shopping. What free time I could fit in was spent preparing documentation for work next week as opposed to studies. Good material on the workfront generated but a flatline weekend on studies. Maybe next week. Time for soup with the family now and bathtime for the youngster!

Turgon

Made a start after work on notes for MPLS in INE Vol II. Some of the CCIE candidate threads seem to be flagging so thought I'd make an effort. Way busy at work. Will try and do more MPLS tomorrow.

Turgon

Friday night after a busy week at work but put some hours in this evening to keep going.

In Memosyne I have added content from INE VOL II labs 1 - 10 for MPLS. Those are all in now. I also added content from my notes for MPLS from Vol I.

Stuck at it and added the content for Multicast for INE Vol II labs 1 -10. Getting on for 500 questions now. Some of the CCIE blogs are starting to flag now and with good reason.

The requirements are hard. Keep at it boys. Evenings and weekends are key if the 9 - 5 keeps you too busy at work.

Turgon

clean the whole house then studies. Thats the deal today!

Turgon

Cleaning done.

Documented IPv6 from INE Vol II labs 1 - 10

Time to give my son a bath and get him to bed.

Then onto QoS, Network Services, Security. The most tedious of subjects to document. The CCIE is won on Saturdays.

creamy_stew

Turgon wrote: »

Some of the CCIE blogs are starting to flag now and with good reason.

What does that mean, that they're "starting to flag"?

Turgon

creamy_stew wrote: »

What does that mean, that they're "starting to flag"?

Starting to tail off. That's quite normal given the enormous time requirements of this certification.

Took care of my son's breakfast this morning then rattled out INE Vol II QoS labs 1 - 10 into Memosyne. Time for the family now before my wife gets any more antagonised.

Security, Network Services later.