1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

I was right not to book a lab session today as the whole day was obliterated with important design work. I may do some MPLS note taking this evening when the kids are asleep. Now I need to help feed them and get them to bed. Laters..

Turgon

House cleaning and curtain poles to put up. Already fixed a toilet in the house and sorted out some stuff in the garage. If I can get clear of this crap I might get some reading done tonight when the kids are asleep. An airport run tomorrow to pick up a visitor...and a family party to prepare for next weekend. Massive week at work ahead, exhausting but productive week on design at work behind me. Study prospects limited..

jamesp1983

What airport are you going to? Hope you get some studying in today!

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

What airport are you going to? Hope you get some studying in today!

Manchester.

9:40 pm Saturday night. Both my wife and I exhausted after a day on home improvements and looking after the kids. MPLS note taking now from INE Vol II.

Turgon

MPLS configs from INE Vol II labs 11 - 20 documented in my notes now. Some of the labs have no MPLS section at all. Perhaps that is a good sign? It will be difficult to do much studying today as my wife continues to find me stuff to do indoors..

Turgon

A useful little session this afternoon putting the IPv6 configs from INE Vol II labs 11 - 20 into my notes. Over the last three weeks I have put time in reviewing the QoS, Security, Multicast, MPLS and IPv6 sections throughout INE Vol II labs 11 - 20. I have some good notes for these topics now and managed to get some useful configuration time in, so overall quite pleased with progress.

Turgon

I have covered a lot of material and taken many notes. Time to take stock and consolidate what I have gone over. The demands on my time for design work will be appalling this week.

jamesp1983

Almost at 1000 hours of lab!

Turgon

Almost. A good day today creating a new improved study spreadsheet sorting out all the topics using my notes. This will be a good revision tool. Continuing to drop config into it now.

Turgon

Ok a good hour more on the note taking since finishing work and getting the kids to bed. Time for a coffee break and check in and see how my wife is. Notes coming together quite well this evening. Interestingly Iam short of ppp/pap/chap and frame relay examples in my notes so I should do some further research on those parameters. I haven't got to QoS/Security/Systems Management or IP services yet as these are real time consumers. My 300 page word document has been exhausted for all other topics except for major areas like filtering, summarization and best path. I think I will pour over my notepad files for Multicast and IPv6 configs to see if I can datamine some more good stuff.

For those interested I am putting a revision spreadsheet together consolidating the config options of 12 topics according to the following 10 categories:

Interfaces
Process
Timers
Mappings
Roles
Announcements
ACLs
Summaries
Filtering
Best Path
Authentication

As it turns out I tried something similar a year ago using the INE Vol 1 workbook for content. I have to say what Im producing this evening makes a lot more sense to me. So I guess elapsed time and regular study of configuration does pay off.

Turgon

7:26AM. Back on with the studies before the bell begins at work..

Turgon

More config added to my spreadsheet from my INE Vol II Multicast and IPv6 notes. The thing is shaping up very well. A few caveats, I have left QoS and Security alone at this time. The notes for these topics are very extensive indeed mainly because there are so many options and the config requirements are intense..many lines of configs. Will revisit these topics later. Systems Management and IP Services I have also parked for the moment. The subjects are discrete and rather tedius although not too difficult to learn once I get around to those. I should add that tunneling comes up regularly across topics - OSPF/Multicast/Ipv6 and thats something I also need to work on.

With my CCIE study spreadsheet I can see instantly how the major constructs of each topic hang together and it's going to be a great revision aid. I can pick a topic with all the config listed and clatter it out on a couple of routers in a rack session. I think that's really going to help me.

There are three characteristics of the topics that still need to be documented though; summarization, filtering and best path. Those three done well get you your lab pass. But I think I should hangback and concentrate on getting all the basics down before I get lost in all that. Many examples in my notes to consolidate and revise when I get to those things and it's going to be a very time consuming business reflecting on all that stuff. Probably in October I imagine.

I could use some time to go over Frame/PPP/Switching and Routing examples across INE Vol II labs 11 - 20 and make the usual notes scooping up all the config examples. Once done it can be dumped into my revision spreadsheet.

Then INE Vol II is done, at least in terms of raiding it for configuration examples and putting together my own warwinning notes. It's just practice, practice, practice from there on. Use my spreadsheet, configure routers. Try an INE VOL II full lab some weekends. Try a mock exam. As for troubleshooting practice, I will dedicate time to that later in the year. For the moment I want to get better at recall and configurations.

Turgon

I just notice this thread has had 150000 views.

Must be close to a record on TE?

Will look at PPP and Frame Relay examples in my Mnemosyne and VOL II workbooks and update my config spreadsheet.

Turgon

Dont you just love your old study notes. I encourage you all to make them and keep them. I raided my old mnemosyne tonight and found lots of good stuff on PPP which I have added to my config revision spreadsheet. I will do frame relay tomorrow.

On PPP it will come up in the lab. If you are lucky, the points will be straightforward. If unlucky, you will be confronted with a multilink/virtual template/authentication scenario or something of that ilk. If you haven't studied throughly you will be clueless about this and unable to get the points. You will also lose a lot of valuable exam time trying to figure it out. In the last option, abandon the points and do a simple point to point serial link and make sure it is up! You need connectivity or you will screw things in other sections..another nasty one is negotiated links and dhcp. All kinds of nasty permutations with ppp or authentication over frame using virtual templates. Study it well.

Turgon

On vacation at the moment so naturally overloaded at home. We have a party arranged for our son on Saturday so many preparations to make. A lot of baking going on while I keep an eye on the kids. Tidied the garden today, took him to and from school. May sneak a bit of frame relay revision in now as it will be quiet for an hour..

Turgon

Ok. I took my mnemosyne notes on frame relay across into my new revision spreadsheet covering all protocols. Im satisfied with how this looks now, so instead of raiding the INE Vol II workbook for more content I will make a start on revision next week, which means using this thing during a rack session to configure stuff one protocol at a time.

Looking at the config in the spreadsheet which covers all protocol there are no surprises and I suppose there shouldn't be after studying for the CCIE part time for four and a half years. But my recall of config cold is poor so I clearly need some practice. That said, looking at any configuration I largely *get* what it accomplishes. The secret is to be able to interpret what a requirement actually is, and then to hammer it down largely from memory or instinct. This takes understanding which I mostly have, and practice, which I mostly dont have. The next couple of months will eliminate the latter problem.

Looking at all protocols, one can break them down into three elements with just a few exceptions. There are three of them and you need to master them all.

1. Activate and announce
2. Manipulate
3. Filtering

Activate and announce includes mastery of the interface commands, the process definition such as router bgp 100. This area is largely interface based work with process to configure for routing protocols to announce your routes, spanning-tree, multicast RPs etc. It's all in my spreadsheet.

Manipulate builds on activate and announce. Tweak the announcement metrics, attributes, summaries, costs to make one pathway preferred over another for certain prefixes or VLANs. Timer adjustment work takes place here too and I have lots of that recorded in my spreadsheet.

Filtering is obvious. Deny certain announcements, possibly under certain conditions and announce under other conditions. Many security features reside in this area. But generally all protocols have some filtering at their disposal. All routing protocols, IGMP, RPs, VACLs et al

Practice on 'Activate and Announce' will be first across all protocols in rack sessions starting next week. I shall concentrate on the configs I have down in my spreadsheet for all CCIE protocols in the worksheets called, Interfaces, Process, Mappings, Roles, Announcements.

My spreadsheet is not up for sale, it has gone through several interations..first in May 2010, then Mnemosyne in January 2011, then notes this year, then a spreadsheet and it took me probably a hundred and fifty hours to generate it from the enormous mass of material that the vendors offer you in their workbooks. Make your own once you have 500 hours of labtime in, the manual exercise of going through the labbooks to put this sort of thing together makes a lot more sense once you are at that stage of your studies!

gorebrush

You've really managed to get some good momentum going here, good work Turgon

Turgon

It looks like my optimism got the better of me and cost me money again today. The rack session I scheduled at 11am is still sitting there unused. Im at home but too busy looking after the kids to get near it while my wife prepares things for the party tomorrow. I had hoped to get 1 hour in. More money down the tubes. It happens. Picking my son up from school very soon..

Turgon

A great weekend with the family and a ballbusting week at work ahead. A very important design meeting Monday. A strategy meeting this week I need to lead, a lot of work to get a network policy defined and released this week and a vital meeting Friday to prepare for to talk about the major project Im leading. Will study as and when.

Turgon

Up early this morning and on the remote racks doing interface practice going through the configs in my study spreadsheet. Covered frame-relay and OSPF well today, all the interfaee and network types. Also did BVI's over frame and virtual-templates, so a good session. PPP tomorrow and switching interface practice, then tunnelling variations, IPv6, multicast. Work nearly over so family time and a bed to assemble at home. No studies this evening practical after a busy day.

Turgon

I have a damn bed to assemble now. The kids are in bed. But before that I have been looking briefly at tunnelling. Here is a good link I have found which should interest you..

Recipe 12.3. Tunneling with Dynamic Routing Protocols

The recursive routing problem of tunnels is an important thing. It used to be a stock written test question back in the day, is poorly understood by CCIE candidates and a destroyer on lab day for the uninitiated. The lab exam is a minefield and this is one of over 100 horrors that could detonate on the poorly prepared candidate who would be clueless as to what was happening or how to fix it.

Will be looking at tunnelling generally next. It's use in OSPF as an alternative to virtual-link. It's use in Ipv6. It's use in multicast.

Turgon

7AM. More racktime before work starts. Another busy day ahead for the company. MPLS design meeting and tooling standards to define.

reaper81

Good work, looking good for you right now. Do you feel that all the MPLS design work etc you do help you in the certification?

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

Good work, looking good for you right now. Do you feel that all the MPLS design work etc you do help you in the certification?

It wont hurt, although the MPLS aspect of the R&S CCIE is rather basic. Rack session this morning and I managed to simulate the classic tunnel recursive route problem. Wasn't easy though, I had to poison the prefered route using ip ospf cost..will try and do some more rack work later but my day is about to be destroyed with many meetings...

Sep 20 01:58:09.743: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to up
Sep 20 01:58:09.895: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
Sep 20 01:58:18.741: %TUN-5-RECURDOWN: Tunnel1 temporarily disabled due to recursive routing
Sep 20 01:58:19.743: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to down
Sep 20 01:58:19.743: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from FULL to DOWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached
Sep 20 01:59:19.745: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to up
Sep 20 01:59:19.898: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
Sep 20 01:59:28.744: %TUN-5-RECURDOWN: Tunnel1 temporarily disabled due to recursive routing
Sep 20 01:59:29.746: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to down
Sep 20 01:59:29.746: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from FULL to DOWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached
Sep 20 02:00:29.748: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to up
Sep 20 02:00:29.900: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
Sep 20 02:00:48.747: %TUN-5-RECURDOWN: Tunnel1 temporarily disabled due to recursive routing
Sep 20 02:00:49.749: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to down
Sep 20 02:00:49.749: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from FULL to DOWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached
Sep 20 02:01:49.751: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to up
Sep 20 02:01:49.904: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
Sep 20 02:02:08.750: %TUN-5-RECURDOWN: Tunnel1 temporarily disabled due to recursive routing
Sep 20 02:02:09.752: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to down
Sep 20 02:02:09.752: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from FULL to DOWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached
Sep 20 02:03:09.755: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to up
Sep 20 02:03:09.907: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
Sep 20 02:03:28.754: %TUN-5-RECURDOWN: Tunnel1 temporarily disabled due to recursive routing
Sep 20 02:03:29.755: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to down
Sep 20 02:03:29.755: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from FULL to DOWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached
Sep 20 02:04:29.774: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to up
Sep 20 02:04:29.910: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
Sep 20 02:04:48.773: %TUN-5-RECURDOWN: Tunnel1 temporarily disabled due to recursive routing
Sep 20 02:04:49.774: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to down
Sep 20 02:04:49.774: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from FULL to DOWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached
Sep 20 02:05:49.777: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to up
Sep 20 02:05:49.933: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
Sep 20 02:06:08.776: %TUN-5-RECURDOWN: Tunnel1 temporarily disabled due to recursive routing
Sep 20 02:06:09.778: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Tunnel1, changed state to down
Sep 20 02:06:09.778: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.1.1.1 on Tunnel1 from FULL to DOWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached

Turgon

Ok well I got hours in from 7AM until the work bell went but from 10AM onwards it went down hill as my day became a car crash of meetings and decisions for customers and programme managers. So the 11AM rack session I scheduled again was wasted. It's a problem. If I dont book that session and an hour opens up for lunch (when I get lunch), then there is no slot I can use. If I book it and dont use it I waste tokens. I will just have to keep up the 7AM stints for a while and see how that goes. It would be good to get my home lab set up again! Lab time in the evening is pointless. After work its full on at home and the kids are away at 8:30 by which time my wife and I are just exhausted starfish on the sofa and my brains are compeltely scrambled trying to make sense of how best to get through the next day at work.

Gotta love it.

Turgon

Requirements on my time today at work have been shocking. No breakfast, no lunch. Just finished for the day and eaten. Study plans for the day in ruins.

Turgon

Huge three days at work spending hours with new PMs, giving meetings and presenting stuff I had to prepare until midnight. Massive results. Studies anhihalated for the week. Now with family for the weekend to refuel.

jamesp1983

How's your health? Be careful with that stuff.

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

How's your health? Be careful with that stuff.

Health is fine thanks. Happily married.

Turgon

A day at the seaside with the family