My CCIE Story

November 10, 2007

Hi everyone. I have been a member for a while now and have enjoyed reading everyone's posts.

I am not as experienced as I would like to be. I am very motivated. I don't know how long it is going to take me to do this. I'm going to try and maybe I can get it done one day.

I have read books and I have tried some things. I do use the cisco website for commands and configurations.

I have a very busy schedule so I'll try to write when I can and as often as I can. I expect I am going to make mistakes. I'm just telling you now. I do not pretend to know it all. I know I am still young enough to make mistakes. I will try to be sincere and to be honest in my approach.

I am subscribed to groupstudy.com. I am reading things and trying them from sometimes. I look up whatever I do not understand. I have access to a nice lab. It is very decent so I am lucky. I have a lot of books and maybe one day I'll read them all.

Tonight I am going to try to perform a full lab. I will grade myself. I will give myself 8 hours to get it done. I'll report me score based on whether things match what is expected. I will then fix things and then run verification commands to see if I can repeat what is being asked. I will use the cisco site to so that maybe I will better understand what was being asked in a task.

I now have my ccna and ccnp. Both are relevant to the ccie Lab. I also have almost 3 years direct experience configuring cisco devices on campus networks. I have configured 1600, 1700, 1800, 2500, 2800, 3600, 3800, 4000, 4500, 4700, 7200, 7500 routers. I have configured 1600, 1900, 2900, 3500, 3750, 4000, 4500, 6500 switches using menu, catos, and ios. I have configured a variety of other cisco devices and software applications. I have worked with foundry, cabletron/enterasys, nortel, 3com, and cisco.

I can perform basic to medium level task independently. I commonly work on some tricky tasks when they come up. I normally can do these by myself. I am not an expert yet. I do not always say the right words. I do know how to troubleshoot. I so know how to use the cisco website to help me find an answer to problems. I am not a teacher. I am not a tutor. I am just trying to pass the ccie lab.

I am paying for this myself. I do not expect any help from my employer.

I am starting a lab at 10pm tonight. I will give myself until 6am tomorrow morning or until I get tired or have got as much finished as I can before I give up. I will grade it when I am done. I'll report back a summary of my experience.

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good luck nice story

damsel_in_tha_net

best wishes!

Good luck!!

damsel_in_tha_net

where did you go? how did u do?

http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cciemainlabih3.jpg

hehe nice picture, i like the stranded HD under the desk.

Seems like a nightmare to rewire but looks like alot of fun

See the hard drive on the floor is only a 20 gig hard drive. The one on the table is 400 gig. It is in front of the two cisco appliances, the ids and the acs. There is another pod behind what you see.

NICE!!!

That case in the middle looks like the type for a rack mountable music processors. Particularly the type used by a gigging musician...

Did I get that right?

No sorry not a musician.

I'm learning how to use the command line more creatively. That is the send * command to make 2 hands work like 10.

I've found a nice a way to look for errors in my rack

sh run | i ip address | duplex | speed | shut

I can add more too to it.

I use sh ip alias to find my ip addresses on each device.

I also like this one

tclsh foreach R {
1.1.1.1
2.2.2.2
3.3.3.3
4.4.4.4
} { puts [p $R r 1]}

It pings each ip address and with a repeat count of 1.

I use an alias for ping.

alias exec p ping
alias configure p do ping

CCIE-4-HIRE wrote:

No sorry not a musician.

You mean you don't got the CCIE blues?

Have you heard that rumour that's going around
You got it made, way across town
It's the same old story, tell me where does it end
Yes, I heard the news, it's the CCIE studyin' blues again

IMHO I would ditch the alias commands, you need to take them out one the lab when you're done and they really don't save time when you consider adding them to the routers then removing them (even with a send *, if it fouls up and wrecks the grading script you're hosed). It's a personal choice, but the last 4 people I know that passed didn't use them.

The ping TCL script is a timesaver, I would learn how to use the macro command to do the same on the switches that don't support TCL.

lets see what topology u using

Nice rack, I would focus on lab speed first. You should be able to be done with Bridging & switching, IGPv4/v6 and BGP before lunch. That way you have the remaining 4 hours to finish IOS features, security, multicast and do a good once over on the whole exam.

The time I passed I only had security left when we broke for lunch. Ask Mike from this board I was very confident in the lunch room because I was so far ahead of the game I had a full 2 hours to go over the lab in detail.

-Mike
CCIE #17982

Thanks mikeeo

My switching is very good. My frame is very good. Nearly perfect every single time unless I botch it with a typing error. My ability to perform summaries and policy routing are also nearly flawless. I am now concentrating on my ability to master metrics and my ability to influence route selection per protocol with the emphasis on ospf. I think I have rip down and my ability to configure eigrp is pretty good to. Odr is not really a problem so much since I understand the concepts on which it is built. I am learning to use my index finger as I read the tasks of a requirement.

It's a lonely weekend. I read a few chapters from Solie CCIE Practical Studies Volume I last night and worked up what I still need to do to my lab to perform the practical per topic labs in his book and the 5 labs at the end of the book. The tasks do not look to bad from my experience. I looked them over and I feel comfortable that I can do each task in CatOS and IOS for that matter. I may have to write back later this weekend if I am wrong and his labs are tougher than they look at first.
Anyway I have tonight and two days and one book to try and work through. The book is really not that bad I found some things I need to challenge since they are unfamiliar to me. There is a tip about VTP Server and Client, where the author says if a client's revision number is more than one-half that of the server that the the client will not sync with the server. This is news to me and may be version specific. Now I have to check it and find out for myself. I did not fully understand that VTP version 2 has little if any effect for Ethernet networks except maybe for the feature called Version Specific Transparent Mode. This seems like a feature I may test as well if time permits. As you can see I have some questions to work out. Little things but things that are making me question how well I really do understand the technology.

Turgon mentioned here (http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23875&start=125) about a problem with the nonegotiate command on a 5000 switch. However he did not tell us what the set trunk mod/port [on | off | desirable | auto |negotiate] and the next command as well set trunk mod/port [isl | dot1q] optiosn would do for us on the CatOS and on the 5000 - the negotiate keyword would actually attempt to negotiate to ISL and then if it failed negotiate to dot1q - seems very similar to dtp in that respect. Solie may be out of date and most of the lab stuff from then does not really apply to now, but it can still be useful in understanding these technologies.

Tonight I am working late on a small project to create a tunnel from a client site to the corporate data center. The requirements are kind of tough and the goal is to beat the window of opportunity for a change control action. Now just setting a tunnel is fairly simple but there are other challenges and communications is the biggest right now. Anyway an issue like this does seem to complicate things a bit. So I'm working out each potential configuration this evening and probably some of the day tomorrow too. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

I was working on a lab and it took me a lot longer to get done than I expected. I obviously have a lot of ground to cover. I did purchase the Internetwork Expert Books so I am going to try one of them and see if I can get them done one at a time. My plan will be to work on each of the technology labs and use the cisco website for additional options. I keep getting a little more curious each time I work on a lab about some of the topics and other ways to do them or options not in a lab. Anyone else have this problem.

I'm still working on OSPF and trying to get it right. I know most of the theory by memory. I also know how to configure areas, virtual-links, and inject default routes. Authentication is trivial if done carefully. After a couple of days loaded with about 2-4 hours of just turning on a feature and watching the output of debug go by I am now able to identify each piece of critical information as it happens. I think this is a real cool achievement. Now I have to repeat the experience with my other IGPs and IPv6 IGPs before I close the door and move on to BGP.

Hey anyone going to Narbik Kocharian's class in Pasadena, California? I just got approved, so I'll be there. Finally a little company support. It's cheap and it has a lot of offerings for the money. I've heard good reviews. Anyone else had Narbik for a trainer from here or am I the first?

Got asked an interesting question and luckily I gave the right answer. Here it goes:

How would you configure 3 Routers, 2 in their own Private Vlans (PVLAN_1 and PVLAN_2) and the third in an unprotected VLAN for OSPF? This is an interesting question and if you want to try to answer it can you explain each concept as you work through the problem and the solution. If not, I'll help you out. Someone asked me this recently and I managed to work my though it immediately but I tried to ensure I understood each concept being measured as I carefully answered the question. Anyone else want to try?

I found a nice list of CCIE's here: http://nuone.freewebpage.org/cciehalloffame.html It lists the first CCIE as well, Stuart Biggs.

Having fun tonight working with BGP. I never seem to have neighbor relationship problems. What I've done is take two routers and established adjacency. Then added a third on an ethernet segment or VLAN and I've ran some show and debugs to watch the adjacencies form up.

This sounds really basic and it is. But it allws me to fully understand each debug message that is normal as the relationship forms and as I apply each command. I've added 2 ethernet interfaces and 2 serial interfaces per device and am enjoying watching the processes.

This is what I cosider getting down to the basics and just knowing it cold. I worked on regualr expressions today and for this I cheated. I used a looking glass server to run my queries against and it is really mandatory that I did this. I took a simple experession and I made it more complex one step at a time to ensure of exactly what I was doing and what the query gave me in return for my efforts.

I did the same thing with subnets. I made a route generator as detailed by CCIE Practical Studies Volume 1 and then I creaated filters. Time consuming but very very educational. I would recommend it to veryone.

When I was working on Frame I took a similar approach. I did the same thing for VTP, MST, and Spanning-Tree Protocol and each of its features. This is even more educational when used with etherpeak. Any play with port security and VRRP/HSRP and you get the feeling for some of the interesting issues that can arise.

Well, if you are reading you might note I've started working on things on my own a bit to get down to the nitty gritty. It seems some of the labs assume you have done this kind of barebones works and if you have not, then the value of the workbooks and lessons is tremendously lessened.

If you do not have cash for a bootcamp, then do what I'm doing, take it one step at a time. If you've been to a bootcamp and still feel like you need more. Learn by doing and do it with debugs and wireshark at your side. It is a free tool.

I found a cool template for menu, banner, and privilege levels so I'm going to do this tonight too. And I'm incorporating it into my alias commands. I am getting better at this kind of stuff.

Ethan Banks had a cool tool to crack passwords using the IOS and it made me think. So I tried it and it worked. So now I can use my little router as a password recovery tool now without the reboot and actually recover the old password - well for Type 7 passwords anyway. I already learned how to recover configurations that employ the No Service Password-Recovery option.

Well I hope everyone is well.

Small scale technology labs is the way to go. Do the foundation work, do those debugs, keep at it and above all be patient. Patience is essential if you are to learn properly during lab prep. Those multiprotocol labs will be MUCH more beneficial to you later on once you have done the preparitory hands on practice with technologies.

Good luck!

Thanks Turgon.

I just looked at Micronics Workbook samples and they have a lot of the same labs with building block approaches. So does some of the Cisco Press books. I've been doing a little more and more to ensure I have it and I have it fast.

I'm considering buying their workbooks or just working like I am first until I find something I cannot do on my own.

CCIE-4-HIRE wrote:

Thanks Turgon.

I just looked at Micronics Workbook samples and they have a lot of the same labs with building block approaches. So does some of the Cisco Press books. I've been doing a little more and more to ensure I have it and I have it fast.

I'm considering buying their workbooks or just working like I am first until I find something I cannot do on my own.

Very good. Solie has some good small scale labs and a lot of CCIE's found them ideal for working technologies the last few years. Another book I can vouch for is Hutnik and Saterlee CCIE All in One Guide. It's an old book now and some of the content is off the lab but I used it in 2002 and it's an excellent primer for small scale technology focussed labs before you get stuck into 8 hour multiprotocol scenarios..which often run into 16 hour sessions because you run into far too many problems and have to plunder the given solutions.

Give Hutnik and Saterlee a whirl. They even have an exercise on BGP backdoor routes and confederations. Probably the price of a happy meal these days used on Amazon. My copy has gone so I will be pickiing it up myself for old times sake soon enough

Thanks for the advice again Turgon. I used H&S and own their both books - the single technology book and the book with the labs. I took them apart for good measure. I did lab up Solie already and found it interesting to say the least. The labs in the back of the book are a bit dated, but a careful person who understands the current CCIE blueprint can still use them effectively.

Further, I just finished going over my old copy of ECP-1/ECP-2/NMC-1/NMC-2 and the accompanying labs for OSPF and BGP from the original "technologies" offered by Mentor Technologies. I'll tell you if you can do the Advanced Lab on OSPF, BGP, and Multiprotocol Routing then you can probably do almost anything asked. I use debugs when I lab so things make a little more sense to me and I can pick out errors quickly as they occur.

I strongly recommend readers take a look at Hutnik/Satterlee, Solie, and older labs if you can find them. They may be littered with older and non-relavant technologies, but they have a lot of age-old problems and for this they are diamonds in the rough.

So Turgon, you have been at this for a while too. I do not feel so bad now. I'm working hard and harder to understand things. I just got my copy of Soup-to-Nuts by Narbik and I must say I am truly impressed with it. I do not even need a router it is so well dcoumented. But I am going to lab it up anyway.

Reading through the labs and those vlabs makes me realize how much things are similar today to yesteryear. It is a lot just to work through them. I will the relative difficulty is a lot different. The material today is a lot more advanced on nearly every wavelength. Makes me wonder who should be interviewing whom? But the core technologies have not failed. They are still pretty much the same, year after year. Well it was a good review.

Chewing on QoS tonight. Reading a heavy / concise overview. I expect to be labbing it this week.

Debug on.

Debug off.

Gotta get me CCIE finished. The CCDE is here and the Cisco Architect is coming soon enough to go with it.

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