New guy going for CCIE

reaper81

Hey everyone,

My name is Daniel, I'm a network engineer from Sweden. I'ven been lurking around for a while but decided to do some posting.
I work as a network engineer for a large company in Sweden, I am CCNP and CCDA certified and I'm also ENS no 4075. I decided
to start posting to get some help from other people studying for the CCIE and maybe some study partners. I run a blog located
at Daniels quest for CCIE, not updated too often but I try to update when I have some time. I have a fiancee and a son
so time is scarce as for many of you also studying.
I have done about 125 hours of studying so far, I'm studying for the written exam.

What would you say is a reasonable amount to study for the written exam?

How much time do you plan on spending or did you spend on labs before doing the lab?

I have bought the workbooks from INE but I'm not sure if to do Dynamips and real switches or to do rack rentals or maybe both.
Would you say Dynamips is sufficient for anything except switching, should I rent labs for everything?
The problem with rack rentals is the time difference to Sweden, usually a good time for me doesn't match up to the rack rental slots.
Also I find that 8 hours is way too long for the average session, 4 hours would be enough. Do you know a good rack rental that
supports INE except for INE themselves?

mikej412

I spent a month reading the Cisco Press CCIE R&S Exam Certification Guide and a week going though the flash cards and practice questions on the Cisco Press CCIE R&S FlashCards and Exam Pack (don't think it's offered any more) and passed the exam without a problem.

But I also consider the time I spent studying for the CCDP ARCH exam and the CCIP QoS and BGP exams as CCIE R&S prep too.... so toss in a few more months there.

But after all my CCIE Lab Prep and Lab attempts, my 2nd R&S written exam was trivial.

Passing the written exam is just your ticket to the Lab -- and once you pass, the clock starts ticking (18 months to take your first Lab attempt).

The mixed approach (real switches, dynamips, and some rack rental) for lab work probably makes the most sense.

I've got the home hardware lab -- and I still use Dynamips a lot. And I have a bunch of tokens in my account at INE for mock labs.

Use Dynamips (with Dynagen/GNS3) for the non-switching technology labs. Your current Cisco experience should let you know when you hit one of the Dynamips glitches due to the simulated hardware.

If you don't mind spending the money, then the hybrid real switch and Dynamip'ed router option solves the rental rack scheduling issue -- and lets you work through the full labs at your convenience -- and sneak in some lab practice whenever you have some spare time available.

It's been a while since I've looked at the CCIE Rack Rental places. Each Vendor (INE, IPE, CCBootCamp -- and I think Narbik) has theirs. There are a few independents that support the major workbooks too -- GigaVelocity has 3 hour, 6 hour, and 12 hour slots available.

Welcome to the TE forums -- and Good Luck with your CCIE Journey

Slowhand

Välkommen till TechExams.net.

I can't give you too much advice on the path for the CCIE, (I'm a few years out from that path, myself,) but I'm sure you'll find plenty of good tips on this board. There are several members who are documenting their CCIE journey in the form of threads here on TechExams, so you could always start with checking those out.


Jag vet att det det är en djävulsk test, men här finns många som kan hjälpa dig göra pluggandet lite lättare. Lycka till!
(You'll have to excuse my rusty Swedish, it's been a while.)

reaper81

Slowhand wrote: »

Jag vet att det det är en djävulsk test, men här finns många som kan hjälpa dig göra pluggandet lite lättare. Lycka till!
(You'll have to excuse my rusty Swedish, it's been a while.)

Thanks Your swedish is not bad at all, you almost nailed it. Did you live in Sweden for a while?

Did some studying of BGP today, read the certification guide and going to do some reading in Internet Routing Architectures by Halabi. I did the BGP test for CCIP a while back but then decided to go straight for IE so I have a pretty good foundation of BGP, also worked some with it. Plan is to finish BGP in the next few days and then start with the next topic.

reaper81

Wrote a quite lengthy section on OSPF on blog. Its my notes from studying. Feel free to use them if interested. EIGRP will be put online when I find the time also.

killuah72

mikej412 wrote: »

I spent a month reading the Cisco Press CCIE R&S Exam Certification Guide and a week going though the flash cards and practice questions on the Cisco Press CCIE R&S FlashCards and Exam Pack (don't think it's offered any more) and passed the exam without a problem.

But I also consider the time I spent studying for the CCDP ARCH exam and the CCIP QoS and BGP exams as CCIE R&S prep too.... so toss in a few more months there.

But after all my CCIE Lab Prep and Lab attempts, my 2nd R&S written exam was trivial.

Passing the written exam is just your ticket to the Lab -- and once you pass, the clock starts ticking (18 months to take your first Lab attempt).

The mixed approach (real switches, dynamips, and some rack rental) for lab work probably makes the most sense.

I've got the home hardware lab -- and I still use Dynamips a lot. And I have a bunch of tokens in my account at INE for mock labs.

Use Dynamips (with Dynagen/GNS3) for the non-switching technology labs. Your current Cisco experience should let you know when you hit one of the Dynamips glitches due to the simulated hardware.

If you don't mind spending the money, then the hybrid real switch and Dynamip'ed router option solves the rental rack scheduling issue -- and lets you work through the full labs at your convenience -- and sneak in some lab practice whenever you have some spare time available.

It's been a while since I've looked at the CCIE Rack Rental places. Each Vendor (INE, IPE, CCBootCamp -- and I think Narbik) has theirs. There are a few independents that support the major workbooks too -- GigaVelocity has 3 hour, 6 hour, and 12 hour slots available.

Welcome to the TE forums -- and Good Luck with your CCIE Journey

Have you used GigaVelocity? Any comments on this lab provider?

I want to try them since the regular INE timeslots doesn't work for me anymore after the Daylight Savings Time happened.





Daniel,

Welcome to TE. Thanks for asking the question about the written exam since I've always wondered how much studying I'd need. I'm also pursuing CCIE R&S and not too far from you. Keep us posted of your progress.

My current plan of attack is to read about a technology, watch CBTs, and lab the heck out of it using dynamips. When I have a good understanding of all the CCIE exam topics I'm going to start renting labs and do some full scale lab scenarios.

When I feel I'm ready for the written exam, I'm going to take all the CCIP exams in 1 week for preparation then if all is good, take the written the following week.

My target study time is 20 hours per week but I don't always make it.

Reading this always motivates me:
Interview with 6x CCIE Roman Rodichev!!!! CCIE Study Resources

Well good luck on your studies, don't give up and lets try to reach Turgon's hours

mikej412

killuah72 wrote: »

Have you used GigaVelocity?

No - I have the home lab (and Dynamips).

I'm using Graded Labs for the InterworkExpert Mock Labs and Proctor Labs for the IP Expert Verified Labs (TM) automated grading.

Slowhand

reaper81 wrote: »

Thanks Your swedish is not bad at all, you almost nailed it. Did you live in Sweden for a while?

I was born there, moved to the U.S. when I was 8, but it's been a long, long time since I had a chance to really talk or write in Swedish. It's amazing how fast you lose it when you don't use it, kind of like subnetting actually. . .

god_of_thunder

ProctorLabs has BOGO on their lab sessions if you speak with a training adviser. INE keeps running specials on their site to give 15% off rack rental tokens.

mikej412

It's worth keeping an eye open for specials -- and it can't hurt to use the chat feature or give a sales advisor a call if you can't find any published deals.

INE had their 50% off deal code for the people subscribed to their newsletter a couple weeks ago -- so it's probably worth signing up for the newsletters of the Vendors/Rack Rental places you might consider using.

GigaV looks like they are currently a little more than 1/2 off their usual prices for 3 hours and a little less then 1/2 off for their 12 hour blocks.

reaper81

I'm about halfway through Halabis book now. When done with it I'll be finished with BGP. Added blogpost with EIGRP notes.

reaper81

Hopefully I can finish Halabi tomorrow. Must read for BGP studies, one of the best books out there. After BGP I will go for MPLS. Seems logical since they are so interconnected.

reaper81

Added blogpost on BGP. Must say that BGP is one if not the favourite of the routing protocols. So much that can be done with it.

reaper81

BGP finished, started with MPLS today. Read the certification guide and moving on to MPLS and VPN architectures by Pepelnjak.

reaper81

Reading MPLS fundamentals by Luc de Ghein, quite a decent read so far. Hopefully I will finish MPLS in a couple of days and then I'll move on to IPv6 or multicast.

Turgon

Keep up the reading. Start hitting the practice tests on the CD that comes with the Odom book and try the Boson test. Do the tests each day. Should be time to take the written soon. Good luck!

reaper81

Thanks Turgon. I might be overpreparing but I think I'm going to finish the sections I have left and then maybe read the certification guide once more and then do quick reference sheets + study questions. Do you think I should just get the written done or will I benefit from have done the theory a lot before moving to the labs?

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

Thanks Turgon. I might be overpreparing but I think I'm going to finish the sections I have left and then maybe read the certification guide once more and then do quick reference sheets + study questions. Do you think I should just get the written done or will I benefit from have done the theory a lot before moving to the labs?

The theory is important and I think with the amount of hours you have accrued on that you should be there or there abouts. A lot of candidates tend to approach the theory test preparation from a point of view of rote learning as opposed to finding out how something actually works. You want that understanding going into the lab prep.

reaper81

MPLS finished, will add blogpost later with notes. Moving on to multicast. Can anyone recommend Bosons practice exam for 350-001? I want to practice questions but avoid all the ****, Boson is legit right? Anyone else producing good material or should that be enough?

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

MPLS finished, will add blogpost later with notes. Moving on to multicast. Can anyone recommend Bosons practice exam for 350-001? I want to practice questions but avoid all the ****, Boson is legit right? Anyone else producing good material or should that be enough?

The Boson is fine. You have done enough reading so now you need to do the practice questions to work that knowledge and put it into some context. You should spend 4 weeks hammering the Bosen questions and all the questions in the test engine in Odom's Routing and Switching Cisco Presss book and then sit the real test in January.

reaper81

Finished with multicast, doing IPv6 next, after that only QoS is left and then I will do repition and buy the Boson software and start practicing questions. Added blogpost about MPLS, multicast will be up within a few days.

reaper81

IPv6 is done. Doing QoS next and then a total review of the certification guide. After that it's time to cram questions in the cert guide and from Boson. Shooting for January or at latest February as a date for the written.

reaper81

Added blogpost on IPv6. Shooting for 200 hours study before new years eve. Closing in on 170 right now.

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

Added blogpost on IPv6. Shooting for 200 hours study before new years eve. Closing in on 170 right now.

Good hours. You are looking at 1000+ to make CCIE. With 200 in you are already ahead of many blogs on here. Stay motivated. If you are still loggig hours in one years time you have a shot.

reaper81

Studying QoS in the cert guide right now. I have read the QoS exam certification guide earlier when I did ONT for the CCNP track so I feel I have a pretty good grasp of QoS. When QoS is done I will go through the certification guide and then start cramming questions.

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

Studying QoS in the cert guide right now. I have read the QoS exam certification guide earlier when I did ONT for the CCNP track so I feel I have a pretty good grasp of QoS. When QoS is done I will go through the certification guide and then start cramming questions.

I would start hitting the practice questions in the Odom engine and Boson daily now if I was at this stage. Going by your blog you have covered a lot of material. Working the questions now will help you retain and make sense of it all. I applaud your efforts. 200 hours on the written is the way to do it. Not many people in the world put that kind of effort in these days now there are easier ways..

reaper81

Thanks Turgon, I value your comments as you are someone who knows what it takes to achieve the CCIE and seem to have a great deal of professional experience. I will take your advice and start with some of the questions from the cert guide and place an order at Boson ASAP

reaper81

Boson ordered and downloaded, time to get busy

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

Boson ordered and downloaded, time to get busy

Yep. Practice questions everyday now, followed by a chapter in Odom to read.

reaper81

Reading a chapter a day and doing questions. I'm around 70% on the Boson tests right now. Going on a train trip on monday to meet a customer, 6 hours one way and back home on tuesday. Will be plenty of time to study.

killuah72

reaper81 wrote: »

Reading a chapter a day and doing questions. I'm around 70% on the Boson tests right now. Going on a train trip on monday to meet a customer, 6 hours one way and back home on tuesday. Will be plenty of time to study.

Good Luck! Reading in a vehicle always make me dizzy and want to throw up