It's my time: Mrock's CCIE thread

SteveO86

Congrats man!! A great accomplishment that you definitely earned!!!

colemic

Big, huge congrats to you, you have worked hard for it!

Mrock4

spiderjericho wrote: »

Didn't you also build a lab for the exam?

And I got my job to pay for the 10-day INE class along with the lab voucher. I plan on going twice. The first time just to dip my feet. And the second time for real. You're like why? Well, I PCS from here next year, so if I have to go back to the good 'Ol Corps, they probably won't pay for the training.

And is the reason they paid for it due to being a gold, silver or whatever partner? And out of the SP, UC, SEC, DC, which do you actually work with?

Thanks.

I built a lab for it..cost was probably about $3k. I don't blame you for attending twice, I would have loved to resit the bootcamp before the attempt, but I just didn't have the time. I also wanted to actually sit a bootcamp with Brian Dennis, but again..time wasn't on my side, and unfortunately that's not how our bootcamp played out. Oh well. It worked out regardless.

Out of all the areas I work with SP/Security/DC/R&S technologies. I'd say the order goes something like: R&S, DC, Security, SP (in the order of how much exposure I get). I get no exposure to wireless/UC, but probably could if I wanted to.

jason_lunde

congrats man! Welcome to the club! Did you go to Cali, or to NC?

YFZblu

Congratulations! Huge accomplishment, very happy for you.

Mrock4

jason_lunde wrote: »

congrats man! Welcome to the club! Did you go to Cali, or to NC?

I went to NC. I originally planned to go to San Jose, but changed my mind for some reason. I'm glad I went with NC though, it worked out really well since I was able to make it home at a decent time that night.

jdballinger

Congratulations dude! I've said it in other threads and I'll say it again (and many more times hopefully!) You guys are the reason I keep coming back to these forums. The work you put in, the dedication you have, and the ambition that drives you towards these goals, are all enormously motivating to me. The fact that you are willing to share as much of your journey with the rest of us as you do is something that I personally am very grateful for, as it makes the road that much easier to travel. It takes some of the uncertainty out of things for me, and that makes it easier. You truly are an inspiration and I wish you all the best!

carterw65

Nice cake; I want one.

Asif Dasl

Congrats! Happy for you man..

powmia

Congrats. Enjoy the shiny new digits!

carterw65

Hey Mrock! Would you care to share your tcl script that you used??

Thanks!

Mrock4

Sure! I used the following which I found real easy to remember:

tclsh
foreach ADDRESS {
10.1.1.1
10.1.1.2
10.1.1.3
} { ping $ADDRESS }

That's it!

carterw65

Thanks!!!

silver145

Congrats mrock!!!!!!!!

Mrock4

Frame switch (2522) put up on ebay for sale. Bidding starts at $129, buy it now for $169 (minimum they'd let me put)...this appears to be far below most other 2522 auctions. Just wanted to let people here know so they could snag a good deal if they're in the market for one.

Cisco 2522 Ccie Frame Relay Switch NOT Only Tested IT Helped ME Pass MY LAB | eBay

aaron0011

Congrats, from skimming this thread from time to time you definitely put the work in.

Pseudo_node

Congrats!! Just noticed that you started the thread almost two years ago--seems like quite a bit of blood, sweat and tears went into this journey. You must feel exhilarated (and relieved)!

Mrock4

Yep. I had about 2 false starts during this journey. If you were to read through the thread, you'd see I had gaps in studying for months. I finally decided 2013 was "do or die" and thankfully it was "do" !!

carterw65

What do you think helped you the most?

Mrock4

It sounds obvious, but I think labbing various scenarios out- not using workbooks, but just saying "I wonder if I could configure technology X on this router to do this......" and then trying to do it. Things like that really went a long way. I don't believe in buying every product under the sun for prep..it's not necessary. At the end of the day, INE, IPX, Narbik- they're all out there to make money. I'm not saying that's wrong, they're making a living..but is it NECESSARY? Are workbooks, audio recordings, videos, a MUST? Not in my opinion. What is needed, is gear, documentation, and lots of curiosity, hard work, and determination.

This is just regarding the lab, by the way. I found a lot of value in videos for my written preparation. But at the end of the day, I passed because I labbed a lot. The other stuff surely didn't hurt though.

carterw65

I appreciate the comments. I don't get to work on the stuff daily so I can get rusty. I am sure I will get creative as time goes on.

aragoen_celtdra

I'm super late but CONGRATULATIONS on the digits. It was only a matter of time seeing the amount of dedication you have been devoting to your pursuit.

carterw65

Mike - I've been curious about something here, if you can answer without violating the NDA. Is there any config at all on the rack they give you, or do you start absolutely from scratch. I guess I don't understand how you get from TS to config. Are they 2 separate racks?

reaper81

It's two totally different sections. The TS topology is much larger and obviously preconfigured. The config section is smaller and some things may already have been configured but it's pretty much setting up everything from scratch.

carterw65

Thanks Reaper! It makes more sense now. Did you take your lab in Brussels? That is were I am going.

Mrock4

One thing to note about the config section is that I think it's very likely the config section will convert to an all virtual lab (via IOU/VIRL) in the next year, and when that happens, I would not be terribly surprised if they increased the amount of devices in the topology. On one hand, that could be good - more devices could mean slightly less depth as you do a lot of busy work. Alternately, they could start with more preconfiguration, and leave only the advanced topics for you..so who knows..just a thought, though!

carterw65

Ugh, thanks Mike! Now I need an anti-depressant! Really though, I hope they can go virtual, but if they make such a major change, wouldn't that spawn an update (5.0)?

Mrock4

carterw65 wrote: »

Ugh, thanks Mike! Now I need an anti-depressant! Really though, I hope they can go virtual, but if they make such a major change, wouldn't that spawn an update (5.0)?

It definitely would be an update. I'd venture to guess that the pending release of VIRL is the ONLY reason we didn't see a blueprint change at Cisco Live this year. I would be willing to bet money that Cisco is waiting on VIRL to be in a release stage, so they can work out the bugs on it- and then update the CCIE at the same time with the new format.

You'll be OK either way. I always said- I don't care which CCIE I take, you have to learn the blueprint regardless, so what's an extra topic or two when you've put in 1,000 hours anyways? Take those extra hours spent worrying about the changes, and put that time into prep! You'll get your digits!

reaper81

Yeah, Brussels. If you need to know anything about the environment I can tell as long as it's not under NDA. Good luck!

carterw65

Sent you a PM Daniel, don't want to tie up Mrock's thread.