1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Have you tried http://www.gigavelocity.com/ yet? I've used them a few times and have been happy with their rentals. It sounds like you're making your final approach.

Thanks for this link James but as it turned out it was not necessary. I have spoken with sales this evening and we managed to work something out. It was either that or a refund as I really cant afford to be left high and dry for weeks on end because they are running courses. They were understanding and very good about things.

Turgon

An hour on a remote rack just using a couple of routers to refresh my memory on chap and pap permutations with PPP. Easy marks on the lab but soon lost without practice.

Sett

I don't like Gigavelocity too much. Their INE rack is the same as the GradedLabs' one with the exaction of some interfaces' numbering - you have to manually edit your initial config to fit their setup. Not such a big deal, but I don't like it. Also, they are very inflexible when it comes to rescheduling.
Overall they are "ok" option of last resort.

jamesp1983

Turgon wrote: »

Thanks for this link James but as it turned out it was not necessary. I have spoken with sales this evening and we managed to work something out. It was either that or a refund as I really cant afford to be left high and dry for weeks on end because they are running courses. They were understanding and very good about things.

That's excellent news.

Turgon

Reviewing INE Vol III lab no 1.

Turgon

7:48 AM. Just finished looking over the BGP section in INE Vol III Lab no 1. I will configure the whole lab on a rack session today. Yesterday I went through the lab and scribbled down the solutions I had in mind for the questions. I wasn't far out and when I looked at the solutions guide only needed minor adjustments to my configs, small things I had forgotton. This is a good sign. It's good to be doing hands on lab practice again and I have sessions booked across the next two weeks. Lets just hope work stays sane enough to give me a chance to use them in between meetings.

Turgon

2 hours racktime today. Cool. Really needed a third to configure everything but work got in the way. Good effort today, smooth configuration practice.

reaper81

You're stepping up. More lab time and finishing off your notes. You'll have a good shot this year.

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

You're stepping up. More lab time and finishing off your notes. You'll have a good shot this year.

I think so, but I have to be very intelligent on my use of time at work and at home..deadlines to meet in both quarters and all aggresive, difficult and timeconsuming and if they do not pan out...sucks to be me

If only the CCIE was the only time/energy/intellect consumer on my plate.

vinbuck

Turgon wrote: »

I think so, but I have to be very intelligent on my use of time at work and at home..deadlines to meet in both quarters and all aggresive, difficult and timeconsuming and if they do not pan out...sucks to be me

If only the CCIE was the only time/energy/intellect consumer on my plate.

Have you ever considered putting your CCIE experiences in writing? You might find another calling as a Cisco Press author or dare I say it...an Instructor I'm sure there are many things you could pass along to those of us who haven't even begun the CCIE journey yet.

Turgon

vinbuck wrote: »

Have you ever considered putting your CCIE experiences in writing? You might find another calling as a Cisco Press author or dare I say it...an Instructor I'm sure there are many things you could pass along to those of us who haven't even begun the CCIE journey yet.

Nice of you to say so. I have looked at this briefly in the past but the opportunities in the field were more lucrative than in the UK instructor space. Perhaps I will do something once the studies are finally over

Turgon

Sunday. Read my IPv6 notes then followed with the Boson IPv6 test questions.
Monday. I have a rack scheduled today, so will do concurrent IPv6 sections from INE Vol II labs no 1 - 5

Turgon

Good session on Ipv6 and IPv6 multicast using INE Vol II lab no 1 today. Created configs from scratch concentrating on 3 routers with a frame relay link inbetween. Just built out that particular requirement. Got the tunnel working once the destination was actually in the local routing table *that* was the problem after all. Could not ping the mcast group. Need to TS that one. Saved configs for the next session and perhaps when they are loaded the whole thing will work auto magically. We will see on Wednesday which is my next rack session. A good day.

Turgon

Work done, kids in bed. Just completed a quick pass of my revision notes on Multicasting. Will have a go at the Boson tests now to see if I can energise my theory to help make sense of the various approaches. MSDP, Anycast, BSR, bi directional PIM, candidate rp, MVR..all rather confusing. Watch out for filtering mechanisms. ACLs used a good deal. Watch out for Mroute.

niteside

Hi Turgon,

What a story Have you got a lab date set at all yet for this year?

Turgon

niteside wrote: »

Hi Turgon,

What a story Have you got a lab date set at all yet for this year?

No date set yet, but I hope to sit later this year. Once I have go for launch in terms of lab readiness I will take the written for the 4th time and schedule a lab attempt. Depends on lifestyle management, work management, wife management, regularity of labtime.

niteside

I know what you mean and I wish you well.

As I mentioned on the other thread, I have mine booked for end of May. Unfortunately I wont be on the forums too much as even internet access is a bit of a luxury where I live but I'll certainly let you know what my number is.

Anyway, time to get cracking with some labs.

Turgon

No racktime available today so simply studied INE Vol II labs 2 - 4 for IPv6. Made some notes. Revisited Boson for IPv6. It's starting to come back and the configs make sense to me.

Turgon

Worked over Boson IPv6 questions. Hard. Interesting how one forgets detailed mechanics of things. Now on to study INE Vol II lab no 5 for IPv6 before my next meeting.

Turgon

Preloading a gradedlabs session from the other day. When I get an hour free this afternoon I will see if I can get that IPv6 multicast solution working properly. I ran out of time in the last session. Interestingly I noticed I skipped a pre booked session yesterday but with business I didn't have time to use it anyway *shrug*. More meetings at work now..

Turgon

Well I reloaded that config and spotted a few things. Made some changes but its still not working. Rack session ran out of time. Will think it over this evening and try again in tomorrows rack session!

Turgon

Well it looks like this is my problem.

3.2 Multicast Basics Issue - IEOC - INE's Online Community

I can see myself spending a lot of time looking over each thread for each lab in the workbook when I get some more reading time opening up. I will have a look at multicast theory this evening when the kids are in bed.

Turgon

INE Vol II lab no 5 - IPv6 BGP. Been at least 2 years since I configured this. Will polish it off in my next rack session next week.

Turgon

We have, again, a very busy weekend at home. Shopping for things prior to the holiday. I may get a spot of reading done this evening if I have the energy.

Turgon

9:30 PM. Took a brief look at the Boson questions on multicast. Detailed mechanisms. Too tired for all that this evening. Time for some R&R.

Turgon

Feeling more refreshed. Important to study a little each day. Today some Boson multicast and MPLS inbetween things to do indoors. Got the baby off to sleep so a little time now..

Turgon

The multicast routing questions in the Odom written test engine are the most challenging and exhausting to work through. The explanations have really helped refresh my knowledge on multicast routing, I had forgotten a lot of the mechanisms.

Turgon

Had a go at the 10 MPLS questions in the Odom test engine. Again, marks lost but the explanations are good and helping the recall. Calling it a night now. The weekend is over and a busy week at work ahead, with my next rack session scheduled for Wednesday. Between now and then, more configuration notes and mechanism revision for me. For those of you with time to do hands on lab prep, I hope you took advantage of it this weekend.

jamesp1983

The explanations in the practice tests are extremely helpful. Keep up the good work.

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

The explanations in the practice tests are extremely helpful. Keep up the good work.

They certainly are. I have been through these tests so many times over the years you would think I would know it all by now. But you forget things you dont use. Its interesting though because everytime I come around to stuff I find I understand something better than I did before. Usually.