It's my time: Mrock's CCIE thread

Mrock4

Got bored and decided to give Lab 6 a crack (Difficulty 7). Finished my initial configs/basic verification (didn't completely finish verifying it all) in 4 hours. I will say I felt this lab was a LOT easier than the others- but I'll just let myself believe my studies are paying off!

That being said, I still had 2 hours on the clock, so I'm going to save my configs and start up again tomorrow morning doing nothing but verification and tying up my final tasks via the documentation. The points I had issues with were:

-Some odd task that sounded a lot like a sham-link situation, but nothing in the MPLS section alluded to a sham-link..I realize they won't just say "configure a sham link" - but I didn't even get a hint that it would be necessary..so I guess this wasn't a technical hurdle but an interpretation one.

-IPV6. I felt stupid here, I forgot one of my frame mappings and spent about 30 minutes troubleshooting it, only to realize the frame map outbound was there, but the return path device did not have one. This is one of those times you realize you're tired I guess!

-Lock and Key ACL- I only used the documentation and did successfully configure it, but it took a few minutes because I haven't configured dynamic ACLs in a while. I'm happy I got it without googling, though.

Think that is it!

And on a side note I am interested in everyones input on the TS..it seems to be a love/hate thing. What worries me is at the INE bootcamp there were several individuals there who passed the config section but failed TS.

Mrock4

Logged a bit over 9 hours today, and am now back to labbing some redistribution in GNS3 this evening while watching some basketball. I configured a topology with about 12 routers, running EIGRP/RIP/OSPF, and created the topology with plenty of links to provide for ample loops. One of the things I need to work on is seeing potential issues with loops/route feedback in a topology- so I think this should help as a little exercise.

Mrock4

Back at it early this morning. Setting the timer to two hours to finish Lab 6. Hoping I can tie up some loose ends and maybe manage to pass it.

Mrock4

Well, it appears I should have done more review before calling Lab 6 over! I tried to grade it like a proctor would (strict)- and the results weren't good. The good news is there was only a couple of minor tasks I missed completely (ie: my solution was way off the mark), but the vast majority I was correct, but literally missed one keyword, or an ACL entry..something along those lines. In short, 90% of the points I missed were stupid mistakes. For example, I lost 3 points because I forgot to enable EIGRPv6 on the loopback interfaces that I created for the task. I also mixed my logic up on a route-map which was otherwise correct..3 more points there.

Live and learn. I guess I'd say I am on the right track, but hopefully I can get my stuff together before my lab.

Mrock4

After analyzing my failure a bit more (reviewing sections I failed), I realized that I knew all of the required commands to pass this exam minus one, which was:

ip tcp compression-connections

Other then that, I knew the commands, so the issue is not there..I think my ultimate problem is attention to detail. I need to slow down and think of how many ways I could accomplish a task, and what the side effects of that configuration may be. If I did that, I think I would have had a chance at passing this thing.

Anyway, back to labbing!

Blackout

Keep trunking (Good play on words!) No doubt in my mind that you will get this, your determined!

Mrock4

Thanks for the kind words! Didn't get much done today, spent the vast majority of the day in the hospital with a family member. I've slept 3 hours in the last 36 hours, but I did manage to lab a bit of misc topics this evening before crashing. I like to think in some way that it's moments like these where I manage to study instead of get an extra two hours of sleep- that might just contribute to a pass in a couple of months. Who knows. It's a nice thought at least.

This weekend will be sparse as far as study time goes, but I am hoping to squeeze in a few hours here and there anyways. I'll be attempting another lab on Monday, review on Tuesday, and probably another full lab on Wednesday. Thursday I will likely devote to troubleshooting practice (which will probably consist of an INE TS lab, plus building some random topology with all the technologies I can think of, and breaking things).

spiderjericho

What are you using to run GNS3 (meaning machine and OS)?

Get some sleep!!

Mrock4

I'm kind of using a wide variety of platforms. When home, I use my real rack as much as I can- to avoid GNS3 bugs primarily. When I am either home or on the road, I use GNS3 on one of these three machines:

Home PC: Win7, Dual core Intel w/ 4GB RAM (built it in Iraq in 2006..it's still running strong!) - this is for smaller labs where I want to test one or two features.

Work laptop: HP Elitebook w/ Win 7 and 8GB Ram, this is the primary machine I use GNS3 on. I use this mostly out of habit, and since I'm on the road a lot. I save ALL of my GNS3 files to my Google drive folder, so I can reopen my topologies on any of my systems:

Personal laptop: Macbook Pro w/ 16Gig Ram, 256 gig SSD (and 500gb secondary drive for storage of images/videos/etc)

Although the macbook pro can run a lot more devices, I really am accustomed to running GNS3 on the windows 7 laptop since I use that most of the time when working.

Finally, when I'm on the road and want to do more structured labs, I'll either A) access my home rack remotely, or utilize my rack rental tokens through INE

spiderjericho

Guess I'ma have to go through this thread to see what your hardware lab is.

Mrock wrote:

Well, it’s all coming together again. My new lab is almost complete, and should be within 2 weeks. As soon as it’s here, the hardcore lab prep begins. Here’s the lab:




3x 1841′s
3x 3550′s
1x 3560
3x 2610XM’s
1x 2611XM
1x 2522
1x 2501
Digi CM terminal server
Misc stuff: 1x ASA 5505, 2x dell poweredge servers.

I have 2-year old Lenovo laptop with 16GB RAM, 256 GB Solid State Hard Drive, 1st Generation Mobile I7 Quad core with Windows 8.

I also have a Windows 7 desktop with 32 GB Ram, 128 GB SSD, 500 GB drive and Ivy Bridge Quad Core.

I don't have a lab yet. I have 2 38XX ISR1s, a 2801, a 2611XM, 2621XM, 4X 3560s, a 3750, a CM32 and parts for a rack mounted GNS3 server.

I'm thinking of buying a few more hardware pieces but waiting for next week's news to make a decision.

During your time at, did they have decent equipment they were DRMOing?

Mrock4

Funny story about that. I was a contractor, and the only equipment I had a crack at was some BRAND NEW APC racks they were getting rid of. There was probably 20 of them. I asked the NCOIC about them, he said "take them." I should have left it there, but insisted on asking the property book owner- he said "nope, must go to DRMO" - so I lost out on one of them.

But yeah, I love my home rack. I'm actually planning to expand it further beyond the CCIE into a proof-of-concept lab for customer projects, which means including some ASA's, Checkpoints, F5's, etc. I'm also in the middle of adding an additional 2 20Amp circuits in my home office which will be dedicated to my nerd gear. After the CCIE is done, if I decide to keep all the gear, we are planning on bringing in an HVAC company to possibly run another vent into my office. The heat there is tolerable, but barely- I don't think it's enough to justify another zone, so I am hoping another vent will do the trick.

Sounds like you have some nice gear. I love the Digi CM's..I'm a huge fan after owning the 32 for a while also.

Mrock4

Back to the grind today! Going to attempt Lab 7, which has a difficulty of 9. Trying to emphasize getting the right solution and not speed today- I think going for speed first is what caused me issues in Lab 6.

Mrock4

As a side note, according to INE, it sounds like there was NOT a new version of the CCIE that was announced at cisco live's CCIE R&S session. Funny thing is, I don't care which version I take ultimately, but since I've been prepping for v4 I want to have at least 2 attempts at v4 before being forced to take a new version. The good news is if there is no change, this will give me a minimum of 6 months to knock out the v4 exam.

Mrock4

Well..loaded up my initial configs, and went to start Lab 7..then realized I've already done it! Moving onto lab 8.

silver145

ha that made me chuckle, ty for the advice about not changing.....still doesn't help on the decision whether to invest in kit or not!

Mrock4

Me personally, I would invest in one. I LOVE GNS3/IOU- and they both have their place in my preparation (and work! I use GNS3 to lab up things I'm having issues with so I can find solutions), but having a physical rack is fantastic. I love being able to power it up and start labbing immediately.

That being said, I would try to get as many IOS 15-capable devices as possible, but I honestly think it's going to be 6 months until Cisco makes an announcement, then another 6 months till they deploy v5. On the other hand, even if you run only IOS 12.4T, you'd be OK, because you could always utilize rack rentals for any topics which you want to run on IOS 15 (EEM, PfR are the first two that come to mind). Just my $.02!

spiderjericho

Mrock4 wrote: »

As a side note, according to INE, it sounds like there was NOT a new version of the CCIE that was announced at cisco live's CCIE R&S session. Funny thing is, I don't care which version I take ultimately, but since I've been prepping for v4 I want to have at least 2 attempts at v4 before being forced to take a new version. The good news is if there is no change, this will give me a minimum of 6 months to knock out the v4 exam.

I'm going to Cisco Live U.S. (albeit with an explorer pass) the next two days.

I think they're just going to save the announcement for the fall.

I'm interested in seeing this Virtualized Appliance that's supposed to be free. Not much details about VIRL. I'm curious if it does switching. It looks like it does most of their OSs but is limited by data on hard wire.

Mrock4

I agree completely- I believe there will be announcement sometime around September/November, and then that'll give us a 6 month lead on the new version..and for myself, that'll give me about 12 months to pass this version, which should be plenty..I hope.

It's unfortunate, in retrospect I could have made CLUS, but I think I'm glad I didn't. Don't get me wrong, I want to go, but I need to put some more hours in labbing, and had I gone, I wouldn't have done that. I definitely hope I can make it next year though.

TheNewITGuy

Good luck!

aragoen_celtdra

Mrock4 wrote: »

I agree completely- I believe there will be announcement sometime around September/November, and then that'll give us a 6 month lead on the new version..and for myself, that'll give me about 12 months to pass this version, which should be plenty..I hope.

I was really hoping they would make the announcement now. That would suck if I build my lab gear now and have to change it drastically when the change is announced. I put myself on an 18-24 month study regimen and I'd hate to have to make changes in the middle.

Oh well, I guess there's no point worrying about it now and allow it to affect my studying. I just gotta keep plugging away and deal with it then. Good luck on your quest.

Mrock4

I hate to sound like I'm in any position to tell others what to do, but here's my humble opinion based on my experience. I was studying for v3 (2009) and had a lab, the whole nine. The change was coming and I was terrified it'd be something way different, and some family factors came into play (a couple of additions to the family!), so I bailed on it. In retrospect, I could have used the SAME gear and labbed 90% of the new blueprint just fine. My lesson learned was exactly what you said aragoen- focus on the task at hand, and if they change it, you adjust then and only then..don't let it slow you down now.

Plus, I see it like this- we all set out to be experts, right? Experts shouldn't be bothered by the addition of new technologies, we should embrace it. It's easier said than done..but you get the idea!

Good luck aragoen.

Mrock4

Today was a bit of a grind but I got through half of the lab. I only spent 4 hours on the lab today- got through all IGP/BGP, and this time I feel confident about my solutions being correct. I still need to beat it into my head that I need to READ the entire lab first, because I still don't do that, and constantly keep going back re-configuring things to fit within the guidelines of the lab. I swear the next time I do a full lab I am going to dedicate 20 minutes to just reading the lab and drawing diagrams (I'm good on the diagram part already).

That being said, it went well. I will start early tomorrow morning on multicast and try to finish the lab and grade it tomorrow. I'll take a day after this to go over several misc trouble areas- review MLS QOS again, and work on IPV6 multicast, then take Lab 9 later this week.

What's pretty scary is, I've got 63 days left till my lab!

vinbuck

Wow that is scary! How would you rate yourself on prep at this point? Are you going to push for multiple long labs to build up to the exam or are you still going to be drilling down into various technologies with some shorter labs?

Mrock4

I'd say I'm at about 70% of where I want to be. I'm never going to be 100% (because there's always stuff I can learn), but I'd like to be at 85%+ before I sit the exam. I've made a lot of progress in the last month, so I am very hopeful in the next 60 days that number will rise to my goal of 85%+ as far as personal comfort level. I will say it's getting more and more rare to encounter a topic I've never done- it's mostly been smaller features that I can locate in the documentation..so that's good.

That being said, I wish I had an extra 30 days, but I don't. Don't get me wrong, I think I'll put up a good fight on test day, I just don't know what the outcome will be. The pass rate of 13% for first time candidates is pretty daunting. I feel like I am pretty good at my job but I'm not sure I'm in the top 13% of candidates..so hopefully I get some extra luck on test day!

Mrock4

Today is rough. I hit the multicast section on Lab 8 and flopped. I configured the RP's correctly, the announce filters (autorp), and resolved some RPF failures, so I thought all was well. Then I ran into an issue between spokes. I enabled NBMA mode on the hub, everything looked pretty good, then I realized when the SPT switchover happens I lose my traffic from spoke to spoke. Ran some debugs, and it's weird- although I know I could normally resolve this, right now my brain is just empty. I feel like I'm awake but unable to move when it comes to this issue for some reason. I can think of commands I'd use to check it, but it's like I'm drawing a blank when it comes to the theory behind multicast.

My normal answer to this would be to step away and let it go, but I don't feel like that is the right answer. I want to resolve it 100%, even if it takes all day. Off to figure this thing out.

Mrock4

Well....this is dumb. Here's the deal:


VLAN A (SOURCE) -- R5 --- FRAME RELAY CLOUD -- R1 (RP)

---

FRAME RELAY CLOUD --- R4 -- VLAN 4 (RECEIVER)

VLAN 4's interface on R4 was configured to join 226.0.0.4. Pinging from R5's FR interface worked fine while on the shared tree, then when it switched over it'd die. Turns out the registers were sourcing from VLAN A's address- so when it switched over it was failing because the source was not in the mroute table. I sourced the traffic from the VLAN A interface- and it switches over fine.

Any thoughts on why R5 was registering with the RP with a source of VLAN A's interface? Here's a snippet of the hub:

*Mar 1 08:48:58.673: PIM(0): Received v2 Register on Serial0/0 from 174.1.145.5
*Mar 1 08:48:58.673: for 192.10.1.5, group 226.0.0.4

174.1.145.5 = R5's FR interface (PIM enabled)
192.10.1.5 = R5's VLAN A interface (PIM enabled)

Edit: Realized after vinbuck's post that I mistakenly said "works fine in dense mode" - when I meant "shared tree"

vinbuck

So this happens when you switch from dense to sparse? if so, did all the IP interfaces in the path switch to Sparse?

Mrock4

This is when the group switches over from forwarding on the shared tree to the source tree (from *,G to S,G)

Mrock4

edited my post vinbuck- I realized after your post that I should reread what I said. Made a typo..said "it works fine in dense mode" but meant "on the shared tree" - my brain is fried!

Mrock4

So I decided tomorrow is an ALL DAY multicast INE video marathon. My issue from earlier turned out to be an issue only with my testing- the device which was generating the traffic was the DR for that segment, and as a result wasn't triggering a PIM Register (at least that's the theory)- this coincides with Brian McGahan's multicast video in the INE deep dive series, so I think I got that ironed out. I'm going to read the RFC on PIM a bit to figure out why the source address was the VLAN A interface..but that's not a huge issue.

That being said, I've noticed in the last few labs I've performed I know 90-95% of the necessary multicast commands (both config and TS), but I need to bone up on my multicast theory to fill in some knowledge gaps. I'm going to go through the entire deep dive tomorrow (10 hours worth of videos...I'll likely not watch 100% of them though), and then thursday I will hit a few other smaller topics I've had issues with. Friday morning will be review, and possibly a TS lab.

As a side note, I have nothing but good things to say about the INE multicast deep dive so far. I've been a harsh critic of training companies in general, but I think it's only fair to give credit where credit is due- and Brian McGahan did a good job with this series..HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who is weak on multicast.