My CCIE Journey Has Officially Begun.

jamesp1983

I have decided that it is time to pursue the first goal I had when I entered IT, the CCIE. I know its going to be an EXTREME challenge, but I'm just pushing forward and trying to stay confident. I'm going to use this thread for tracking my progress throughout my CCIE journey. I purchased the INE Ultimate bundle last week and have been studying and labbing ever since. I'm still trying to figure out what the right balance of lab vs study is at this point, but I'm just reviewing all of the ATVOD material now (over 80 hours), to refresh myself. I'm open for any suggestions on how I should balance lab vs study time. I've been running Dynamips and working with my home switches while watching the videos as a way to get more hands on. I passed BCMSN, BSCI, and ISCW back in 2008, and wrapped up ONT in August of 2010. I have been working with the equipment at my job so that has kept me fresh on a lot of the info, but I'm still studying like I'm just starting out. I research topics in the videos that I don't really remember and that seems to be really helping. I will keep this updated as a motivator and also as a way to keep track of all that I have studied when it comes time for my final review. It feels great to finally get started on this path. My wife and I worked out a schedule and I'm going to try to hit 30-36 hours a week.

My resources:
-INE Virtual Lab
-The INE workbooks
-INE Written VOD
-Routing TCP/IP, vol I.
-Home lab (a few routers and some 3550s.)
-Cisco LAN Switching by Ken Clark
-Routing and Switching, Time of Convergence?
-My CCNP Library.
-Dynamips
-Cisco.com
-INE ATVOD 4.5

Should I buy Odom's exam guide? I think the Boson Exsim for CCIE will be the next addition.

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Comments

jamesp1983

MrBrian wrote: »

So now that you have WBII pretty much complete, what's next, WBIII? Or just reviewing things learned from WBII?

Absolutely. I still have about 8 WBII labs to do and then continuing to follow Petr's schedule found here:
How to pass the CCIE R&S with INE's 4.0 Training Program

I think I will make my first lab attempt once I complete this schedule (about 16 weeks to go) and go back to WBI and WBII if I fail.

I am considering going back through the WBI sections on Multicast, BGP, IPv6, QoS, Security, and MPLS anyway (in weeks 41 and 42).

jamesp1983

Handy link that lists 10ms frame relay fragment sizes for a given speed:

Cisco IOS Wide-Area Networking Command Reference - fdl through frame-relay lapf n200* [Support] - Cisco Systems

Scott Morris note:
Generally @ 10ms it's 80 bytes per 64K of speed.

jamesp1983

I got in about 3 hours of labbing today. I've had to stay up late and wake up early to fit in studying with taking care of the baby, but it will be worth it. I'm on lab 13, part 3. This is a difficulty 9 lab and you can certainly feel it.

Zartanasaurus

jamesp1983 wrote: »

I just got my grade for Mock 2. I didnt do nearly as well as I had hoped, but it was due to small issues on the tasks that killed me as well as 1 instance of misunderstanding of what they were asking. I couldnt verify my configs because of lack of time due to a bug that consumed a lot of my time that INE later fixed for future candidates.

I passed TS since I only missed 1 ticket, and failed config due to a series of small mistakes that beat me up later.

Just finished Mock Lab 2. No score yet obviously. What was the bug that INE had to fix?

jamesp1983

I got my score back in about 1 day. My R3 initial config was from another lab or something.

jamesp1983

I was using the Cisco IOS Cookbook last night to compile some text files of some configs I forget easily. I found a vbscript on Hey, Scripting Guy! that compares 2 text files and then tells you the differences in a msgbox and logs them to another text file. I'm going to use this from time to time for review. It's sort of like custom flash cards, but a little better since it highlights the differences.

Here is a link to the script:
How Can I Compare the Contents of Two Text Files? - Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

You will have to customize it to fit your needs, but you'll get the idea.

Zartanasaurus

jamesp1983 wrote: »

I got my score back in about 1 day. My R3 initial config was from another lab or something.

Ah okay. They should've given you a free retake or something. Just got my score back. They're definitely on top of that. I think it's weird that they only require a 60 to pass config, although in the real lab you'd need a 64.

jamesp1983

Did you do better/worse than you expected? What'd you think of lab 2?

Zartanasaurus

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Did you do better/worse than you expected? What'd you think of lab 2?

I did as well as I expected. The couple that I missed, I knew that I missed. Only made one outright blunder that I shouldn't have.

jamesp1983

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I did as well as I expected. The couple that I missed, I knew that I missed. Only made one outright blunder that I shouldn't have.

Nice. Keep it up.

jamesp1983

I just wrapped up lab 13 and it was a tough one. I need a refresher on QoS again.

jamesp1983

Pretty good sign that there's a loop:

Rack1SW3(config)#do sh proc cpu his

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
100 **********************************************************
90 **********************************************************
80 **********************************************************
70 **********************************************************
60 **********************************************************
50 **********************************************************
40 **********************************************************
30 **********************************************************
20 **********************************************************
10 **********************************************************
0....5....1....1....2....2....3....3....4....4....5....5....
0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5

rakem

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Pretty good sign there's a loop:

Rack1SW3(config)#do sh proc cpu his

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
100 **********************************************************
90 **********************************************************
80 **********************************************************
70 **********************************************************
60 **********************************************************
50 **********************************************************
40 **********************************************************
30 **********************************************************
20 **********************************************************
10 **********************************************************
0....5....1....1....2....2....3....3....4....4....5....5....
0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5

LoL...
Production network or lab?

jamesp1983

Thankfully lab. WBII lab 14.

jamesp1983

I'm having a great deal of difficulty with lab 14. They do a lot of interesting configuration at l2. This is by far the hardest WBII lab that I've attempted up to this point.

Some of the configs aren't supported in the IOS they tell you to run on your 3550s (like FlexLinks). I researched on Cisco's Feature Navigator and found that c3550-ipservicesk9-mz.122-25.SEE.bin supported this lab's requirements as far as I can tell. I'm hoping this will save others time if they run into this.

jamesp1983

I just found this:
http://www.subnetonline.com/wrappers/ipv6cheatsheet/ipv6.pdf

That's pretty nice.

jamesp1983

I just wrapped up Vol.II Lab 14 and it was the hardest lab I've done so far. I'm now on to Week 35: VOL3 9+10.

jamesp1983

Anyone have any experience with this feature? I'm going to lab it up a few times in GNS3 to get the hang of it:

Network Address Translation on a Stick - Cisco Systems

jamesp1983

On to WBIII, Lab 10. Moving right along... I moved through WBIII Lab 9 pretty easily, but after WBII Lab 14 most tasks feel pretty simple by comparison.

jamesp1983

I just wrapped up WBIII, Lab 10. It was a good one.

Schedule going forward:

Week 36: VOL4 5+6

Week 37: VOL2 Lab 15
Week 38: VOL2 Lab 16
Week 39: VOL2 Lab 17
Week 40: Mock Lab 3

jamesp1983

I wrapped up WB4, Lab 5 and started Lab 6. I've been able to move through these relatively quickly, but a few issues still trip me up. I have about 4 tickets left of TS lab 6 then I'll move forward to WB2 lab 15.

jamesp1983

I just wrapped up WB4, Lab 6. It had some interesting tickets, but was enlightening. I was way off at first with ticket 4 due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the tunneling method. That was a learning experience and I'm glad I ran into it.

On to Week 37, WB2, Lab 15.

Week 37: VOL2 Lab 15
Week 38: VOL2 Lab 16
Week 39: VOL2 Lab 17
Week 40: Mock Lab 3

jamesp1983

Resources for BGP ORF:

Understanding BGP Outbound Route Filtering (BGP ORF)
BGP Prefix-Based Outbound Route Filtering [Cisco IOS Software Releases 12.2 T] - Cisco Systems

jamesp1983

These hints are basic, but helpful:

http://www.oreillynet.com/network/2002/01/02/ciscotips.html

jamesp1983

Completed WB2, Lab15 today. Starting WB2, lab 16. Lab 15 was tough.

Zartanasaurus

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Completed WB2, Lab15 today. Starting WB2, lab 16. Lab 15 was tough.

Just did 15 today also. I thought it was way easier than 13 or 14.

jamesp1983

I felt 13 and 14 were a lot easier, and 16 has been pretty simple so far. Do you have time to answer a PM on lab 15?

I'm well on my way to my goal of 700 hours by the end of December. Keep pushing!

Zartanasaurus

PM away.

jamesp1983

Definitely have a look at this:
Optimized Edge Routing Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS Release 12.4M - Setting Up OER Network Components* [Cisco IOS Software Releases 12.4 Mainline] - Cisco Systems

jamesp1983

Excellent PfR/OER posts. I highly recommend reading these OER/PfR links before attempting WB2, lab 17. I like getting stuck on these exercises because it forces me to research the topic and learn more about it.

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/PfR:Solutions:EnterpriseData
http://www.netcraftsmen.net/resources/archived-articles/468.html