David's CCIE: R+S Thread

lrb

Not long now mate! How's the study been the last few days?

gorebrush

Not bad, practice practice practice. Fairly happy. I've gotten much quicker at things and I can see things from a high level much more clearly now. I think this will be key to the config strategy.

My Troubleshooting is getting good too - all about taking the logical steps throughout pinning down the problem.

I can now configure Phase 3 DMVPN AND encryption (full IPSec) without any looking up the DocCD.

Wish the lab was tomorrow! But nice that I've got another two weeks to keep on going. I'm here like 10-11 hours a day now with about 6-7 hours of solid labbing.

gorebrush

As I maintain, my only concern is being thrown some curveballs that hose my thought process and gooses my lab completely. Hopefully I'll be OK!

d4nz1g

Could you share your lab gear with us? (haven't gone through the whole thread)

gorebrush

ESX Server + 10 x CSR's and 4 Switches, and GNS

Usually the CSR's are what I go to though as that's what the INE book is based on.

d4nz1g

Awesome!

How much mem/cpu per CSR?

gorebrush

The "Light" 2.5Gb one - I've got 32GB RAM in there

d4nz1g

Uhh, very good!

You gonna nail this exam

gorebrush

Just about hit 500 hours labbing today. I've been troubleshooting like a ninja. Some days I don't get on so well though, but mainly I am doing well.

Two weeks to go then I'll be travelling to London for a week's holiday. Got the Nexus 7K course the week after too, upon such time I'll probably decide that I'll want a DC IE if I pass this one first.....

gorebrush

Getting itchy now. Want to get it done.

More hours practicing and reading up on some misc things today.

gorebrush

14 days to go, and 12 before I travel to London. I'm actually looking forward to it now. Looking at this thread, I started it over FIVE years ago. Just goes to show how long this thing can take. It's been a busy five years though, I've gotten married, changed jobs three times, and lots of other things in life have happened. It's only been since May 2013 did I actually sit down and properly study for this thing and well I can now appreciate the results of my hard work. I've become a troubleshooting badass at work, frequently fixing things that other engineers cannot, or won't investigate.

I am so close to the lab now, but I appreciate everything that I've done towards it this past 18 months. Getting the digits will be the icing on the cake, I think! So I'm going to double down for the last two weeks and see what remaining areas are left for me to revise. There's bound to be something, the scope of this exam is truly huge!

d4nz1g

Great journey, gore!

Remember: the paper is nothing compared to the experience acquired during this journey, I bet you achieved the CCIE level way before getting the #.

gorebrush

Oh absolutely, it has certainly been a long journey, but one I hope is coming to a intersection where there's a Pass. The journey will never be over, there'll be something else to get certified in...

bharvey92

It's one thing getting certified it's another thing gaining the experience using it. Keep going Gorebrush! Looking forward to you announcing your #

silver145

^ agreed bharvey, Bush! not long togo, (i am current on 3 weeks worth of annual leave) doing nothing but lab lab lab lab lab so i presume you are in the same boat. Are you going to chill out the day/night before so you dont "blow your load" for the day

gorebrush

Already two weeks into my leave been labbing and watching videos 10 hours a day. 10 days to go until travelling. I'm in hotel 2 nights before exam so got time to scope out lab location and to relax a bit.

The test needs to be sensible now and have no nasties on it - I think I will nail it

gorebrush

Still just practicing now. I'll be happy when the day has arrived. Feels like an age away! Feeling a bit tired today so was getting some simple stuff wrong. Time to pack it in for today.

Dieg0M

Best of luck! I hope you will not find any bugs. My best tip would be to be confident and ask the proctor if you find something that is not working as expected.

gorebrush

Yeah, I've heard IOU can be problematic!

One week left before I travel

silver145

From what i have read Gore, If you are hitting a brick wall and pretty sure it should be working, save the config and reload the box's.

gorebrush

Yeah, shut and no shut is your friend too

gorebrush

Slow day today. Some TS practice again, but I'm starting to run out of labs. Same for CFG. Might just watch some videos on areas I am sketchy in. Once the weekend is through then it is CCIE Lab week. Won't get much chance past Tuesday to do a lot - travelling on Wednesday and scoping out the lab before the big day. Probably just some slight reading, catch up on some sleep will be nice too. I haven't worked a shift at all since the 10th, so getting used to shifts again after I'm done will be something to get used to.

Just hope the weather holds out now - having to travel from one side of the UK to the other in adverse weather should prove challenging. I've heard that Cisco can refund you if you there are extenuating circumstances, I'm sure not being able to get to the lab is one of them. The only problem with that is that I will have to go and sit the lab in Belgium as I'm nearly at the end of my written 1st attempt window... Nice.

gorebrush

Well just to add something a bit more positive. I've looked through the INE workbook and I have to admit I am comfortable with pretty much all of the content in there, some of the more complex stuff I think I will take another look at, but at the moment I'm feeling happy enough with my progress up until this point.

Got 5 more days of study left. Wonder how on earth I'm going to use them - probably put in 12-13 hour days now until the end, so another 48-65 hours up for grabs.

bharvey92

Where you travelling from Gore? I live about 40minutes train from London and the weather around here is fine and outlook isn't too bad either!

gorebrush

Driving across from Wales on Wednesday, staying near Feltham

gorebrush

Busy ass day today, only managed 5 hours study, but all good CFG practice.

lrb

Sorry man I've been away a lot lately and considering taking up a new job so I almost missed the chance to say good luck! Take it very easy the day or so before the lab date; you don't want to have that feeling of burnout carry over onto the day of the lab. Drive safe and best of luck David Ping me if I can help at all

gorebrush

Well while I have been having a few long sessions this last few days, I'm starting to get prepared for this week. I've decided to take it as week long thing and not just concentrate on the day itself. Final few days study are upon me now - I will be reviewing the odd video on something I am hazy on - looking things up in the DocCD (NTP is an interesting one to try and locate, oh and the links for all the Multicast documentation (PIM Config) are broken. Luckily Multicast is an old topic so the 12.4 documentation will suffice.))

And general troubleshooting/config practice. I'm not sure what else to do now really. I've got all my videos accessible whilst I'm away so I can review one or two things on laptop whilst away. I'm travelling Wednesday, will just relax then that day, scope out the lab location on Thursday and then relax again in preparation for Friday. While I am a little nervous, I am also very happy with the work I've done up until this point. I've definitely covered everything in the INE workbook at *least* twice - so hopefully there will be no scares in the exam.

I've read/heard a lot of feedback about the v4 R&S being a very unrealistic exam - they expect you to configure all manner of stuff in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways - and I've heard (from you included) that this isn't the case with v5. I'm expecting a fair coverage of the blueprint in configuration though.

My one top tip (and I think I've said it before) - if you are practicing your speed/general labbing, then do yourself the favour of buying a US layout K120 Logitech keyboard. They apparently use these in the labs and coming from a UK layout - not knowing where a few key characters on the keyboard are really hurt me when I first bought the keyboard. Backslash being a main offender. For those of you who don't know the difference, the left shift on a UK keyboard is small and the backslash is to the right of it, unlike a US layout where the shift key is massive (Not sure I see the point, but then I am biased) and the backslash is on the other side! That really bugged me to begin with.

I'm also a spoiled kid when it comes to keyboards because I generally use one of two Cherry-MX boards that I've got and getting used to a rubber dome keyboard again took some doing.

I know it's probably a minor point but I've got a good strategy towards config - I'm aiming for speed and accuracy and combining sections as much as possible, to save going in and out of the same routers/switches all the time. Little things like keyboards will help stave off the frustration in what will already be a stressful environment.

If I don't post anything else this week then you'll know why - but to everyone who has either contributed to this thread over it's 5 year life or anyone reading it - thanks for your support. May sound silly but it's this forum/thread that I always kept coming back to when I desired the CCIE - I read the original post that I made way back in January 2010 and it reminds me of why I wanted the CCIE, so if anyone out there is thinking of doing the same thing - then put up a thread. Write in it. Say why you want CCIE and just leave there as a reminder for yourself. It will help when times get tough - trust me. I've had some difficult issues in my life (and there are some ongoing!) so having the CCIE to think about has actually kept me sane, given me a goal and purpose.

bermovick

In case you don't post again until after the big day, I wish you the best of luck!

joelsfood

Good luck, man!