Another Hi, I'm going after my CCIE Thread!

Hi, I am creating the obligatory thread announcing I have joined the forum, and have the intention of going after my CCIE. Been working on Cisco gear for a few years, passed the Written for the first time 2 years ago, but life got in the way of pursuing the lab. Now I have to do my written again to keep all my certs from expiring, and this give me the excuse I needed to start studying for the lab again. Written by the end of Aug. Lab attempt within 1 year!!!

...I must be crazy. Qrilock

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Comments

reaper81

Welcome aboard. We'll be following your path to the CCIE. Good luck with written. If you have questions we are several here that have passed the written.

qrilock

Thanks for the welcome reaper81

I am not overly worried about the written. I passed it 2 years ago just before the change to v4, so I just need to refresh and add a few new things like MPLS to my knowledge-base.

Qrilock

Turgon

qrilock wrote: »

Hi,
I am creating the obligatory thread announcing I have joined the forum, and have the intention of going after my CCIE.
Been working on Cisco gear for a few years, passed the Written for the first time 2 years ago, but life got in the way of pursuing the lab. Now I have to do my written again to keep all my certs from expiring, and this give me the excuse I needed to start studying for the lab again.
Written by the end of Aug. Lab attempt within 1 year!!!
...I must be crazy.

Qrilock

All the best and keep the blog running! I get a few moaning about how long it's taking me to get mine done but Im too busy to do it and the ones complaining aint CCIE's! Good luck on the journey!

qrilock

Thanks Turgon,
Isn't it terrible how life will conspire to keep you from having the time needed to reach this goal.
Doesn't matter how long it takes, as long as we get there someday!

Turgon

qrilock wrote: »

Thanks Turgon,
Isn't it terrible how life will conspire to keep you from having the time needed to reach this goal.
Doesn't matter how long it takes, as long as we get there someday!

Very true, tired after work? Wife and kids need you to be there after work? Of course! And the ones moaning about your lack of progress wont get there. What do they know about your personal situation. A CCIE helps Cisco's share price and you dont get dividends..do it in your own good time. Keep on trucking and fire Chalmers.

qrilock

Agreed, naysayers never know anyone else's personal situation. (Hell, half the time I don't know my own personal situation) They make noise while the rest make progress

Here's to hoping that by the time I get there; Cisco and the CCIE program will have rounded the corner and getting back in front of everything. (Starting by replacing Chambers)

Turgon

qrilock wrote: »

Agreed, naysayers never know anyone else's personal situation. (Hell, half the time I don't know my own personal situation) They make noise while the rest make progress
Here's to hoping that by the time I get there; Cisco and the CCIE program will have rounded the corner and getting back in front of everything. (Starting by replacing Chambers)

Sack Chalmers. He's a billionaire and past it.

jakeichan1986

qrilock...
All the best with the written..
and do let us know of your path towards the lab..
i am definitely looking forward to it..

Webmaster

Welcome at TE and good luck with your journey!

qrilock

Bumping my own thread because I passed the written test yesterday. Would have done it sooner if work had not gotten in the way. Now I just have to start the real work.

jamesp1983

qrilock wrote: »

Bumping my own thread because I passed the written test yesterday. Would have done it sooner if work had not gotten in the way. Now I just have to start the real work.

Congrats! What study materials did you use?

qrilock

I read the CCIE R&S Cert Guide Vol 4, and routing TCP/IP Vol 1 & 2. Add that to a fair bit of direct work experience and I was able to get that first step passing score.

jamesp1983

qrilock wrote: »

I read the CCIE R&S Cert Guide Vol 4, and routing TCP/IP Vol 1 & 2. Add that to a fair bit of direct work experience and I was able to get that first step passing score.

Nice. Good to hear. Good luck with your lab!

Turgon

qrilock wrote: »

I read the CCIE R&S Cert Guide Vol 4, and routing TCP/IP Vol 1 & 2. Add that to a fair bit of direct work experience and I was able to get that first step passing score.

Cool. Time to get that lab time clock recorded on the thread and keep us updated with progress. About 5 of us on here sticking at it so good to swap notes

qrilock

My boss has agreed to supply me with the equipment I need to for a full lab. I just have to figure out what we already have and get a list of the needed equipment. I do have to use it to teach some of our other techs more about routing and switching, but evenings and weekends it's all mine!

qrilock

Turgon wrote: »

Cool. Time to get that lab time clock recorded on the thread and keep us updated with progress. About 5 of us on here sticking at it so good to swap notes

This is probably a really dumb question, but is the lab clock you all have in your userinfo manually updated, or is there some kind of tracker field thing on the forum somewhere.
I have spend sadly little time in my life actually posting in internet forums (I am historically a notorious lurker)

down77

qrilock wrote: »

This is probably a really dumb question, but is the lab clock you all have in your userinfo manually updated, or is there some kind of tracker field thing on the forum somewhere.
I have spend sadly little time in my life actually posting in internet forums (I am historically a notorious lurker)

Manual... its a way to keep yourself in check while also staying honest about the time and effort you have put into preparing for the CCIE.

Good luck!

jamesp1983

qrilock wrote: »

My boss has agreed to supply me with the equipment I need to for a full lab. I just have to figure out what we already have and get a list of the needed equipment. I do have to use it to teach some of our other techs more about routing and switching, but evenings and weekends it's all mine!

That's excellent! congrats man.

Sirsamon

Great news.

I hope to be in before x-mass.

qrilock

While I am waiting on equipment for my lab I am going to begin reviewing the more in depth parts of EIGRP and OSPF, mainly going through the relevant sections of Routing TCP/IP Vol 1.
My boss has also purchased the INE R&S workbooks Vol 1-4. I hope these will be a good path to practice my labbing. Anyone have any comment on this?

qrilock

Curses... I have no idea where my routing tcp/ip books are. I moved a month ago, and they are not in the stack of boxes I thought they were in. Now I have to spend my time looking instead of incrementing my reading counter

Turgon

qrilock wrote: »

Curses... I have no idea where my routing tcp/ip books are. I moved a month ago, and they are not in the stack of boxes I thought they were in. Now I have to spend my time looking instead of incrementing my reading counter

Simply look at the recommended white papers on the reading list for the CCIE written and start reading those. You should do so anyway even if you find Jeff's books. I did

jamesp1983

Online Resources - CCIE - Cisco Systems

Turgon

Its the weekend. Study hard if you want to be a CCIE..

qrilock

Wow, work got really busy last September, spent almost 2 months putting in 70 hrs a week. Took a few weeks off for the holidays, and now it is July. What the hell have I done to myself.... Oh well, I started back on it today. I have scheduled my first attempt for Dec. Now I have no choice but to study hard.
See if I can get my sorry ass back on track!

jamesp1983

Good luck man! Life has a way of doing that.

qrilock

Spent a few hours today refreshing my understanding of spanning tree. Did some extra reading outside the book i had, and finally understand the proper use and difference between bpdu guard and bpdu filter, and how they can interact with each other. Then I spend a few hours starting on the layer 2 INE lab. I can't believe how slow I have become...

qrilock

Spent some time this morning playing with BPDUGuard and BPDUFilter and how they interact with dynamic trunking. This is really a lot more complex than I thought it was. Unless you set ports with switchport mode access; you can bypass BPDUGuard by setting a new switch to DTP desirable before you connect it.
I am sure this is nothing surprising to most who have been studying for a long time for their CCIE, but it is new to me.

qrilock

Spend some time this evening reading about VRF and related configuration. Took a break, then read the config guide for 802.1q tunneling and layer2 protocol tunneling. I have followed the doc on these beofre to get them to work, but I think I understood it much better this time. I loaded the section 1 of INE vol1 - bridging and switching, and managed to get up through 1.32 - covering trunking, port channels, vtp, q-in-q, spanning tree, bpduguard/filter, udld, etc. Most of this is as easy as I remember it being, but good god am I slow...
Yay for study time.