New guy going for CCIE

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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Finished all of the security labs. Lots of stuff, IOS firewall, ZBFW, IPS etc etc. Good to have seen this stuff at least once. Been labbing like hell this week so now I'm taking a few well deserved days off and I'll be back next week.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Break is over. Had a great christmas even though I have had a cold for a few days. My son decided to sleep longer than usual so got some extra sleep to recharge my batteries :) I'm excited to start studying again and today MPLS is on the menu. After MPLS is finished I will spend my final 2 months doing ASET labs, INE Vol2 labs and Vol1 topics from System management and IP services and some QoS. Will also try to do some TS labs and mock labs.

    Will be tough having time for everything so I might have to prioritize.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    reaper81 wrote: »
    Break is over. Had a great christmas even though I have had a cold for a few days. My son decided to sleep longer than usual so got some extra sleep to recharge my batteries :) I'm excited to start studying again and today MPLS is on the menu. After MPLS is finished I will spend my final 2 months doing ASET labs, INE Vol2 labs and Vol1 topics from System management and IP services and some QoS. Will also try to do some TS labs and mock labs.

    Will be tough having time for everything so I might have to prioritize.

    Look at doing mocks fairly soon. I will be starting my first end of January once I have amassed a couple of good weeks of lab time to refresh my hands on skills.
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Late night yesterday doing MPLS labs. Hoping to finish them off tonight. Need to catch some sleep on the commute in to my job. Will be a tough road ahead until the lab. Still plenty of preparation needed.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    reaper81 wrote: »
    Late night yesterday doing MPLS labs. Hoping to finish them off tonight. Need to catch some sleep on the commute in to my job. Will be a tough road ahead until the lab. Still plenty of preparation needed.

    Pace yourself. A little lab time each day now on different topics.
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Yes. Need to get the revision going. Need to do some reading every day of notes and labs to keep things fresh.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Finished MPLS. System management and IP services left now. Will try to do full scale ASET lab on friday.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • jamesp1983jamesp1983 Member Posts: 2,475 ■■■■□□□□□□
    reaper81 wrote: »
    Finished MPLS. System management and IP services left now. Will try to do full scale ASET lab on friday.

    How do you feel on MPLS?
    "Check both the destination and return path when a route fails." "Switches create a network. Routers connect networks."
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  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    reaper81 wrote: »
    Yes. Need to get the revision going. Need to do some reading every day of notes and labs to keep things fresh.

    That works. For MPLS know enough, just a few marks. Like ISDN in the old days. Dont be a guru, they have CCIE SP for that ;)
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    jamesp1983 wrote: »
    How do you feel on MPLS?

    It feels pretty good. I thought I had a good grasp of it but I found some mistakes/misconceptions while doing the labs. It's good to catch them now. I think I do know enough for now for the RS. Just need to keep it in my memory by revising labs/notes. That is the biggest issue and also where to find everything in the DOCCD.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    600 lab hours passed. Making good progress. Almost finished with System management, I have Kron and EEM left. Planning for more labbing tomorrow and then chill in the weekend.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    System management finished, some cool stuff with EEM :) Moved on to IP services, DHCP, IPCP etc. Was planning on doing an ASET lab but they were closed for the year so more Vol1 instead.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    First lab hours of 2012 put in. Doing IP services.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    reaper81 wrote: »
    System management finished, some cool stuff with EEM :) Moved on to IP services, DHCP, IPCP etc. Was planning on doing an ASET lab but they were closed for the year so more Vol1 instead.

    Dont forget to find all these things on the DoCCD. Thats one of my tasks for the new year. As I go through my revision notes I will be locating examples for the obscure topics. Being able to find a configuration example for these topics in the documentation can be a life saver in the lab.
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Turgon wrote: »
    Dont forget to find all these things on the DoCCD. Thats one of my tasks for the new year. As I go through my revision notes I will be locating examples for the obscure topics. Being able to find a configuration example for these topics in the documentation can be a life saver in the lab.

    Yeah. That's what I'm doing now. Even for easy stuff like HSRP etc I do make sure I know where the stuff is. It's great knowing your way around the DOCCD, I almost never use Google any longer for my Cisco needs to lookup commands etc. I just navigate to the right page and get it straight from the horses mouth.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    More labs done. Lots of NAT labs. I need to do those, it is a bit of a weak area so I'm doing all the NAT labs and watching ATC for it as well.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    More labs...More NAT... Now enough, time to watch some world juniors hockey.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Labs labs labs... Coming to the end of IP services. When I'm done with that I will fully focus on Full scale labs, mock labs and TS.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    reaper81 wrote: »
    Labs labs labs... Coming to the end of IP services. When I'm done with that I will fully focus on Full scale labs, mock labs and TS.

    Good plan. I know what you mean about NAT, so many options. DocCD!
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  • jason_lundejason_lunde Member Posts: 567
    reaper81 wrote: »
    Labs labs labs... Coming to the end of IP services. When I'm done with that I will fully focus on Full scale labs, mock labs and TS.

    Looks like your settling into the homestretch now (its the funnest part b/c all the components come together). Just dont psyche yourself out at this point, it is completely doable!
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    jason_lunde wrote: »
    Looks like your settling into the homestretch now (its the funnest part b/c all the components come together). Just dont psyche yourself out at this point, it is completely doable!

    Thanks Jason. Great to hear from you. Some days it feels great and others not but I will go in knowing I did all I can. And if I don't pass first time around I'm not giving up. Would be great to have a quick chat with you if you have the time. Thanks.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    jason_lunde wrote: »
    Looks like your settling into the homestretch now (its the funnest part b/c all the components come together). Just dont psyche yourself out at this point, it is completely doable!

    Yes I agree with you on that. Of all candidates regularly blogging you are closest. Just keep staying regular on the studies and you should be good in one or two attempts before the summer.
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    More labs done. Mostly netflow. Finishing off IP services tomorrow.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    IP services done. Final labs were using IOS router as DNS server and IP event dampening. Whole of Vol1 has now been completed. Will now focus on Vol2 type labs and TS. Will only come back to Vol1 for things I don't recognize/have forgotten.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    reaper81 wrote: »
    IP services done. Final labs were using IOS router as DNS server and IP event dampening. Whole of Vol1 has now been completed. Will now focus on Vol2 type labs and TS. Will only come back to Vol1 for things I don't recognize/have forgotten.

    Good plan. You are way past Vol 1 now so concentrate on the Vol2 labs and mock exams.

    I would be wary of TS. Im thinking of investing in INE Vol 4. With only 2 hours and 8 out of 10 tickets to close in the lab exam its going to be important to get lots of practice in. Some of the scenarios I have seen in the WB example are devilish.
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Yes, TS seems to be the biggest hurdle for many people. I will use Vol4 from INE and the two ASET TS labs and mock labs to prepare for TS.

    Hopefully I can complete at least two Vol2 labs per week, depends if I have the speed or not but from now on I will do the entire lab without using SG and we'll see where I'm at.

    Going to buy two Cisco360 mock labs, too bad they cost a shitload.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Started with a TS lab tonight. Tough stuff indeed. Will do some more TS tomorrow.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    Did an ASET 6h lab. Finished in 4h so my speed seems OK. Haven't check through all the configs yet but I think I got it mostly right. Good practice. Working on my stamina and mixing topics.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • reaper81reaper81 Member Posts: 631
    For anyone whondering how a day looks like for a CCIE candidate pushing for the lab:

    05:45 - Wake up
    08:00 - Arrive at job
    17:15 - Back home
    17:15 - 19:30 - Spend time with family
    19.30 - 24:00 - Lab
    05:45 - Wake up

    Rinse and repeat.

    It's not an easy journey but hopefully it will be worth it.
    Daniel Dib
    CCIE #37149
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  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    reaper81 wrote: »
    For anyone whondering how a day looks like for a CCIE candidate pushing for the lab:

    05:45 - Wake up
    08:00 - Arrive at job
    17:15 - Back home
    17:15 - 19:30 - Spend time with family
    19.30 - 24:00 - Lab
    05:45 - Wake up

    Rinse and repeat.

    It's not an easy journey but hopefully it will be worth it.

    That will pretty much be my regime once my wife and kids are away in February for a few months overseas. Im heading out to join them later on. We can see how any time to study on workstime really does take the pressure off those long and late study hours at home.
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