1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

Ipv6 reading in Vol 1 going well today.

Turgon

Ok I will call it there for today on IPv6 reading as I have to pick up a guest travelling up from London. I need to revisit IPv6 NAT, IPv6 and Multicast and all the various IPv6 tunneling methods. IPv6 and BGP worth looking at again as well.

Turgon

Far too busy at work to study today. Many meetings to run, things to research, discussions to be had, reports to generate, designs to attend to.

Turgon

My son was unwell in the night so I didn't sleep well. Up early this morning and fatigued. A lot to do at work today. Lets see if I can get an hour in of reading later in the afternoon.

jamesp1983

Turgon wrote: »

My son was unwell in the night so I didn't sleep well. Up early this morning and fatigued. A lot to do at work today. Lets see if I can get an hour in of reading later in the afternoon.

hope your son is doing better.

Turgon

Hes still unwell but should be ok after sleeping thanks James.

Intense, busy exhausting day at work. No studies. Try again tomorrow!

jamesp1983

Turgon wrote: »

Hes still unwell but should be ok after sleeping thanks James.

Intense, busy exhausting day at work. No studies. Try again tomorrow!

glad to hear he's on the mend. get em tomorrow!

Turgon

Slaughtered with work this week. No time or energy for studies at all. Nuked after a busy day at work. Still..platform and architecture matters going well which pays the bills and my bonus. All pigs fed and happy. Day off and an airport run tomorrow. Study prospects zero.

Turgon

Keeping an eye on the little ones while my wife gets some rest. My wife has never been a fan of me doing racktime after work when we finally have some time together but she is prepared to give me two evenings a week. So I will try out INE Vol 3 next week. I need to get some lab hours clocked. Meanwhile some Vol1 reading this weekend when Im not spending time with the kids. Finish off IPv6.

Turgon

Managed to look over the end of IPv6 in Vol 1 again. I need to lab that stuff. Other than that all day with my wife and kids. We had an enjoyable afternoon out but no studies possible. There just isn't time to have it both ways most weekends. Once the kids are washed and in bed after 8pm there are lots of bills and whatnot to sort through.

Turgon

Counter attack on lab practice begins this week. All preparations made ready. Next six weeks critical.

jamesp1983

Turgon wrote: »

Counter attack on lab practice begins this week. All preparations made ready. Next six weeks critical.

nice. keep us updated.

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

nice. keep us updated.

Busy day at work. Racktime scheduled, Vol 3 lab no 10 printed out. Will look it over this evening.

Turgon

Looked over Vol 3 Lab No 10 switching last night. Picked up some tips, updating study notes. Have a rack session later today.

jamesp1983

Turgon wrote: »

Looked over Vol 3 Lab No 10 switching last night. Picked up some tips, updating study notes. Have a rack session later today.

hope you actually get to get it in today. I know i hate having to skip them.

reaper81

Turgon wrote: »

Looked over Vol 3 Lab No 10 switching last night. Picked up some tips, updating study notes. Have a rack session later today.

Good job. Seems you are making progress right now. Where do you feel you are in your preparation?

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

Good job. Seems you are making progress right now. Where do you feel you are in your preparation?

I feel if I took 3 months off work and crammed for the lab exam I would pass it. That can't happen, too much real work to do. Another busy day of design meetings over, feeling nuked. On the road tomorrow for two days of migration meetings. Perhaps some studying in the hotel tomorrow night, who knows. Booked a lab session until 10:30 pm today but just clocked off work feeling tired. Once the kids are in bed I may just be too tired to use the session again. Long drive tomorrow, big meeting, need some rest. The CCIE is a vanity project for me now. I have the advantage as I earn more than many CCIEs based in regular jobs in the UK, so the career is going very well indeed, and it requires a lot from me. That does not include extra curricular hours working practice labs and what have you. My boss would much rather I get some rest The CCIE I would like to have, but I dont need it and preparing for it isn't very practical for me these days.

Turgon

Too knackered to use the rack session as I only just got done dealing with emails at work. More wasted rack tokens, and my money. Tired. Some rest now with my wife before a commute tomorrow.

Turgon

Stuck in a hotel after a day of meetings so did a rack session. INE Vol 3 no 10 the switching section went well. One thing tonight reminded me of is that if switches are in different VTP domains you better make them transparent so that VLAN 10 in one domain makes sense of VLAN 10 in another. Other than that dot1q tunneling practice was very useful, apply to the interfaces facing the switch with the vlan you *dont* have, and use vlan dotlq tag native or you are doomed. Other than that, happy to report I loaded no preconfigured configs and managed to configure the lot from scratch to get it working. Also found an error in the solutions guide as they have a vlan missing in the solution. The idiots. Cool.

Turgon

My wife is keeping me too busy giving a hand with the kids and with the gardening and chores. There will be no studies this weekend.

Turgon

Busy day at work. PM and design meetings. Working out some strategy documents. Lots to get done by the end of this week for the company. No bandwidth to study today.

Turgon

A full on week doing strategy work for the company. No time or focus for studies this week.

Turgon

Very tough week at work but getting results. No time or energy to study, far too wired after work. No one at work demanding I get the CCIE either, so it's even.

Turgon

Totally focused at work I had a great week delivering on all fronts. Finished each day tired. After disconnecting from work and spending time with the family each evening I was nuked. Went to bed, did it all again the next day. My targets met at work, my studies moved along zero. Targets pay the bills, the CCIE doesn't. Will try again next week. My wife has plans for me the whole weekend. Chores Saturday, family visiting Sunday. Studies zero. The CCIE remains a vanity certification for me and impractical, which is fine. I already have the job CCIE's want so will focus on spending time and energy doing it well! FWSM->ASA migrations on my mind for 300 customers in one cutover night with all the NAT differences 8.4 offers. The CCIE in R&S doesn't cover that

Turgon

A whole day of cleaning and chores ahead. Will have a look at the graded labs schedule later and see if I can grab a rack slot for next week. Would like to crack on with the Vol 3 lab work again.

Turgon

Whole house cleaned. 10 month old in one arm, vol 2 notes on my screen. Difficult to concentrate. Fun.

Turgon

7:15 AM. Up early looking after the kids until 2pm while my wife prepares food for family visitors coming over for the afternoon. Will see if some reading possible later in the day.

Turgon

Managed half an hour reading when I got my youngest off to sleep. Scrambling through INE Vol II lab no 10 to find useful configs to bolster my notes. Its a good lab. Now back to family matters..mum and dad coming over.

Turgon

A good weekend socially albeit light on the study front. Got some note taking in and time to reflect. The week ahead will be busy with meetings. I need to advise a network designer, produce some strategy slides, help project managers. So I expect Monday to be full on. After that I think I can get some Vol II reading and note taking in certainly and possibly some racktime, but I must get a standards document compiled by the end of the week! Some of the other CCIE threads are starting to flag due to fatigue but I think should the guys still be blogging in February, one or two have a shot next year. But it's a long time until February and they have much to do between now and then. For every 50 written passers, one lab passer. Time to study is a problem for many. The ideal candidate does 1000 hours in 12 months. Few can do that for practical reasons. I was one.

For myself, 2012 opens up an opportunity to change my equation. I can ask the company for support for CCIE. This was on offer earlier in the year, but I wisely declined. With so much riding on my performance at work I wanted to spend 2011 delivering and not be distracted. Had I tried to have it both ways, when so much needs improving on our networks, I would have failed at work, and failed in my studies as they would have been hit by pressure at work. A lose/lose. So the objective was to kill myself in 2011 at work to create the study gap in 2012, but also keep my hand in on the studies so I had a platform to build on in the new year. I have accomplished both with results for the company, and a frosty awareness of all things R&S. Regular hands on revision opens up in 2012 with some regular racktime in the offing during my best hours in the office when Im not knackered. I owe the success at work to my sacrifice of my CCIE desires in 2011 and focus on the job in hand, but also to the efforts of the team I have been leading this year who have worked so hard to deliver for our company. A win/win.

Turgon

The whole day spent helping project managers understand technical tasks that need planning and hours spent reviewing a critical network design. Hours and hours of meetings. No studies today lets try again tomorrow.