CVOICE beginner

khayes

Hello all,

I'm beginning my CVOICE study the first of the year, and I'm excited but at the same time stressed out. I've begun to build my voice lab which consist of the following:

Dell PowerEdge Server: ESXi
VM:
CUCM 7
Unity 7 (2003 server)
Exchange 2007 32 bit (2003 server)
Voice Gateway: 2621XM running 12.4 (T)
Protocol H.323

So far i've learned to configure LDAP authentication, and intergration, i've setup my phones in Call manager by assigning the MAC addresses, I've learned how to create the partitions and assigning extentions to the phones. I looked on examples to get me as far as i've gone and I feel like i've cheated myself instead of figuring out without examples. I've worked on CME before and setup my dial-peers and patterns, but I did not do it the honest way, I copied other people's configs and I felt bad doing it. So I guess now I'm confused with the dial-peer configurations, and basically how to setup my lab to make calls out to the PSTN. I really want to master voice and be really good at it but I feel like all the stuff I've done has been dishonest.

I'm also confused on if I shoud use only my CVOICE CBT nuggets and the CVOICE guide and go take the test or just shallow my pride and stuggle with the CVOICE guide from Cisco.

Turgon

khayes wrote: »

Hello all,

I'm beginning my CVOICE study the first of the year, and I'm excited but at the same time stressed out. I've begun to build my voice lab which consist of the following:

Dell PowerEdge Server: ESXi
VM:
CUCM 7
Unity 7 (2003 server)
Exchange 2007 32 bit (2003 server)
Voice Gateway: 2621XM running 12.4 (T)
Protocol H.323

So far i've learned to configure LDAP authentication, and intergration, i've setup my phones in Call manager by assigning the MAC addresses, I've learned how to create the partitions and assigning extentions to the phones. I looked on examples to get me as far as i've gone and I feel like i've cheated myself instead of figuring out without examples. I've worked on CME before and setup my dial-peers and patterns, but I did not do it the honest way, I copied other people's configs and I felt bad doing it. So I guess now I'm confused with the dial-peer configurations, and basically how to setup my lab to make calls out to the PSTN. I really want to master voice and be really good at it but I feel like all the stuff I've done has been dishonest.

I'm also confused on if I shoud use only my CVOICE CBT nuggets and the CVOICE guide and go take the test or just shallow my pride and stuggle with the CVOICE guide from Cisco.

Well done. The first step to getting better is to stop living in denial. Don't worry. Going by the job boards what few good infrastructure jobs are out there do require voice skills so it's clear there are a lot of people muddling through and not particularly adapt at it. Go right back to the basics and spend a full year studying voice. That's what Im going to do right through 2010. Meanwhile have a chat with Uncle Mike who may be able to give you some pointers on the details. Anyone with really good skills in voice has a future, but *really* good skills in voice are going to require a lot of study on your part. Write off the next two years of your life to learning Voice properly. Far too many CCVP's have no experience and get disemboweled in the field.

khayes

Turgon wrote: »

Well done. The first step to getting better is to stop living in denial. Don't worry. Going by the job boards what few good infrastructure jobs are out there do require voice skills so it's clear there are a lot of people muddling through and not particularly adapt at it. Go right back to the basics and spend a full year studying voice. That's what Im going to do right through 2010. Meanwhile have a chat with Uncle Mike who may be able to give you some pointers on the details. Anyone with really good skills in voice has a future, but *really* good skills in voice are going to require a lot of study on your part. Write off the next two years of your life to learning Voice properly. Far too many CCVP's have no experience and get disemboweled in the field.

You are right. I don't want to be a paper CCVP I want to actually know what I'm talking about and be able to "walk the walk". Voice is something i've always wanted and i'm beginning to do it. At my job we deal with the UC500's and i don't do the inital configurations on them but the physical installs and phone placements in clients offices. My employer told me that I can't do voice installs untill I get my CCVP and I feel like if I studied just enough to pass I would be ready. I feel like I would **** myself and not learn anything. I don't like to read and I get bored easliy so I tend to foucs on on the CBT nuggets but I like the hands on better. That's how I learn better is hands on.

Turgon

khayes wrote: »

You are right. I don't want to be a paper CCVP I want to actually know what I'm talking about and be able to "walk the walk". Voice is something i've always wanted and i'm beginning to do it. At my job we deal with the UC500's and i don't do the inital configurations on them but the physical installs and phone placements in clients offices. My employer told me that I can't do voice installs untill I get my CCVP and I feel like if I studied just enough to pass I would be ready. I feel like I would **** myself and not learn anything. I don't like to read and I get bored easliy so I tend to foucs on on the CBT nuggets but I like the hands on better. That's how I learn better is hands on.

Like so many things you learn best by doing. Book learning, theory, exams are fine as an introduction to things and without any of that going for you it's possible through experience to misunderstand how things *actually* work (important if you are going to design things one day). Exam study can also introduce you to the capabilities of technologies, useful as hands on in the field often locks you into what you have around you. So that is all good. But you really need to do the *work*. Particularly in voice. A lot of promises are made to companies on the back of a proposed voice solution and if you really can't deliver it on a technical level you will screw up an entire companies telephone life, and the perceived savings are lost when the costs get out of control. A lot of consultancy costs in Voice projects are actually solutions companies passing themselves off as specialists in this area to their clients and playing for time as they try and hire someone who *actually* knows how this stuff works. Hence the jobs on the boards

You will be fine. Good luck.

khayes

Turgon wrote: »

Like so many things you learn best by doing. Book learning, theory, exams are fine as an introduction to things and without any of that going for you it's possible through experience to misunderstand how things *actually* work (important if you are going to design things one day). Exam study can also introduce you to the capabilities of technologies, useful as hands on in the field often locks you into what you have around you. So that is all good. But you really need to do the *work*. Particularly in voice. A lot of promises are made to companies on the back of a proposed voice solution and if you really can't deliver it on a technical level you will screw up an entire companies telephone life, and the perceived savings are lost when the costs get out of control. A lot of consultancy costs in Voice projects are actually solutions companies passing themselves off as specialists in this area to their clients and playing for time as they try and hire someone who *actually* knows how this stuff works. Hence the jobs on the boards
You will be fine. Good luck.

Yeah but I'm afraid to Job hop at the moment. I have freedom at my current job, and I love that, and have the best co-workers in the world but I feel like I'm going to be stuck doing what i'm doing and that's not what I want. I want to become a Voice Engineer!

mikej412

khayes wrote: »

I looked on examples to get me as far as i've gone and I feel like i've cheated myself instead of figuring out without examples. I've worked on CME before and setup my dial-peers and patterns, but I did not do it the honest way, I copied other people's configs and I felt bad doing it. So I guess now I'm confused with the dial-peer configurations, and basically how to setup my lab to make calls out to the PSTN. I really want to master voice and be really good at it but I feel like all the stuff I've done has been dishonest.

Considering the CCVPs out there that couldn't make a phone call even if you gave them a pay phone and a pocket full of change -- getting things to work using examples isn't necessarily a bad thing. And Cisco does make a lot of "Reference Designs" available to point people in the right direction.

But yeah, at some point if you actually want to be be more than good at voice you have to move past being lucky finding working configurations to copy and spend the time learning how all these voice things work under the hood. But being lucky finding working configurations is a good start

What is your current job? Any voice? Any possibility of voice in the future?

khayes

mikej412 wrote: »

Considering the CCVPs out there that couldn't make a phone call even if you gave them a pay phone and a pocket full of change -- getting things to work using examples isn't necessarily a bad thing. And Cisco does make a lot of "Reference Designs" available to point people in the right direction.

But yeah, at some point if you actually want to be be more than good at voice you have to move past being lucky finding working configurations to copy and spend the time learning how all these voice things work under the hood. But being lucky finding working configurations is a good start

What is your current job? Any voice? Any possibility of voice in the future?

Currently I'm a CCNA I work for a Consulting firm as a Network Consultant. We do voice but it's with the Small Business Solutions. (UC500) CUCME and CUE 7. The president of the company told me if I got my CCNA I could get some voice work. I passed my CCNA and started to work on some projects but no help with configuration or anything advanced. I tried proving to them I want to be the Voice Engineer here in Atlanta by getting two voice deals and me being the primary support guy for that, but he told me get more certifications and they will let me do voice. I'm like geeze man I learn better hands-on. So i'm trying to become the voice guy for our location, but it's hard because there's not alot of voice installs. All I have is my CUCM 7 lab and my 2621XM and a couple of IP phones and a DSL connection I'm trying to build my VoIP network at home with.

Turgon

khayes wrote: »

Yeah but I'm afraid to Job hop at the moment. I have freedom at my current job, and I love that, and have the best co-workers in the world but I feel like I'm going to be stuck doing what i'm doing and that's not what I want. I want to become a Voice Engineer!

I don't think you need to change jobs. You just need to understand how all this stuff works in more depth which will take time. Read the books, study for the tests and really work that home lab hard. Spend hundreds of hours on it next year working almost every single day on it and you will have come a long way. The job you have already gives you more exposure to voice than many CCVPs currently enjoy which is one of the problems with this area of work.

khayes

What books do you recommend? Cisco press?

Turgon

khayes wrote: »

What books do you recommend? Cisco press?

Not only that but white papers and general technology books in IPT. Mike most probably has a list if you ask him nicely. Not my area yet!

mikej412

khayes wrote: »

What books do you recommend? Cisco press?

Your options are the Cisco Press books AND the Cisco Documentation and White Papers. If you're working for a Cisco Business Partner and have access to the Partner eLearning, you'd also want to check what is available there.


The Cisco Press CCVP web page has the suggested books for certification, plus some additional reading. Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) (Authorized Self-Study Guide) is the updated book for CVOICE and it's where you'd want to start.

You can also check out the CCIE Voice reading list for more "additional reading" -- there were no self-study books when I did the CCVP and I just got all the suggested CCIE Voice books from the CCIE Voice List and the old CCIE SP Voice written qualification track.

If I were certifying now I'd also probably consider getting the CBT Nuggets.

khayes

Well I have the CBT Nuggets CVOICE and the CVOICE 6.0 book 3rd edition. So I think I'll start over. I started watching it a long time ago watching it here and there for things I was confused on when setting up configurations and CUCM stuff, but now I think I'll start over from chaper 2 and on.