It's my time: Mrock's CCIE thread

Mrock4

Firing up the racks to *hopefully* finish BGP today. Put off studying yesterday because it looked like I was going to travel on monday for my work, but that got cancelled. Probably will only get about 3 hours or so in today. Better than nothing!

Mrock4

Stopped just shy of finishing Vol I BGP. Going to knock the rest out tomorrow, starting with BGP ORF.

Also going to put in some regular doc review since I've slacked on that. Spent a few minutes reading through BGP docs and realized I can pick up a lot just by reading through there. Even if I don't master some of the more obscure features, I think knowing where to find them in CCO will go a long way for the lab.

Mrock4

As usual, firing up the racks to lab! I ended up not finishing the last 3 labs the other day (football was on, can you blame me?), but I'm going to do it right now.

Mrock4

Finished the last 3 labs pretty quick- they were pretty straightforward (ie: one-line configuration). Now I can erase BGP Vol I from my whiteboard! As mentioned before, I'm going to review EIGRP today and tomorrow (which includes videos/reading/configuration), then I'll begin on multicast. I'm going to have somewhat of a lull in my labbing, because multicast is truly my weakest area, and literally one of the only things on the blueprint I have NEVER worked with extensively. That being said, I'm going to use the rest of the week to do a lot of multicast review since it's been a long time since I sat the written.

jamesp1983

The INE ATVoD BGP Videos are really good. Did you spend much time on them?

Mrock4

jamesp1983 wrote: »

The INE ATVoD BGP Videos are really good. Did you spend much time on them?

I do really like them James. What I was doing in the beginning, was watching videos prior to doing any hands on labs. I really liked that method, and think for the rest of the Vol I prep I will try to adopt that style again. For the BGP stuff, though, I relied a lot on Jeremy Ciora's BGP videos for CCIP (CBT Nuggets).

For multicast, I'm going to pretty much exclusively watch the INE videos before any labbing, along with some brief review on docs/books. If you've been following, my "circle around" method of studying will include some theory review (books/INE/CBT Nugget videos) when I attack topics for a second time.

Have you had a hard time with multicast? I'll admit, a lot of my anxiety about it is probably unfounded. It's just one of those things I know very little about, besides the basic stuff they covered in the written. Even then..that knowledge is somewhat stale for me.

Mrock4

Got about 5 1/2 hours done today. Not going to go through 100% of the labs during my review sessions, mostly just picking topics/areas I know I'm rusty with. Going to get another 4 hours of EIGRP review in tomorrow, then I'll (hopefully) start watching the INE/CBT Nuggets multicast videos tomorrow.

Mrock4

Got about 2 hours of my EIGRP review done today. I had allocated about 8 hours of EIGRP review, but am stopping at 4- I was able to go completely through the Vol I labs quickly today, and felt pretty good. There were a couple of tiny things I forgot, so I am glad I did review, and I'm sure this won't be my last time doing so.

Watched two multicast videos today (INE ATC), and am gonig to watch a few more tomorrow. Will probably start multicast labs on Friday at this rate. I'm about to begin a customer engagement which is going to have me on the road constantly for the next two months, so I'm going to get a lot of studying in on flights and such, but finding a large block of time is going to be tough. I'll find a way though.

Mrock4

Only got about 2 hours in today, was really busy preparing for a customer engagement I'm heading out on for work. Hoping while I'm there I can get a lot of study time in. We'll see!

Ended up starting the multicast labs, because after watching the INE videos (watched 2 or 3 vids) I felt pretty good..so once I hit the lab it really didn't seem too bad. I do need to continue my multicast studies for sure, but I think two weeks from now (or sooner) I'll feel a lot better about it.

Mrock4

No studying today/tomorrow since I'm going to be traveling for work a lot for the next couple of months..will be plenty of time to study on the road, would rather spend family time now.

That being said, bought my oldest her first ATV. She's very excited. I'm picking up either an ATV/dirtbike for myself as well to accompany her. Going to try to set one day a month aside of no studying, that way we can all keep our sanity, and hit the trails.

spiderjericho

Family comes first. How's the new job treating you? You miss Macdill Pickle?

Mrock4

Well, as if the CCIE needed more of a challenge, my new job (and first project) have been immensely time consuming, and finding studying time has been near impossible (and that's while not having any family obligations, since I'm on the road..)

My schedule now has me working long hours onsite with one of our customers during the week, then being at home on the weekends- doing this means I can't (correction: won't) study on the weekends since I'm spending so much time away from my family. That being said, my only study time is M - F.

Now the good- very challenging work on a daily basis (Which is 100% cisco oriented, so that has to count for something), and I'll be able to squeeze in about 2 hours/day of study. The bad, is I won't be able to get large blocks of study in, but you have to work with what you have!

Going to get my multicast topology/configs setup on GNS3 tonight, and then study with the remainder of my time.

Mrock4

Again, not a whole lot in the way of study- got about 2 hours worth of multicast studying done (labbing). I'm home next weekend for a long weekend, so i should be able to catch up a little bit then.

I spent today (at work) getting to work on my customers network- probably configured 50+ devices today. Mostly optimizations (configuring automated backups, evaluating current configs so I can make recommendations, etc).

So, I'm moving forward, even if it is a crawl. I should be able to get more study time in as I settle in with this project- I think the first couple of weeks will be insane (they have been already, and it's only day 4!), but after that it should calm down.

PsychoFin

Wow sounds like you are learning tons, and configuring loads. That should surely count for something with the CCIE.

Mrock4

Thanks PsychoFin- I hope it is!

Decided today that since studying time has been hard to come by, I'm going to adopt sort of a "scrambled" approach- using smaller blocks of time, to study smaller subjects (subjects you can cover in one sitting..such as an IP services feature, or something along those lines).

Got some IP services labbing in tonight..went pretty well. Also put some of my prior studies to work today..we have a device with CPU spikes to 100% throughout the day, so I configured an EEM script to keep an eye on the CPU utilization, and send a syslog message, as well as several "Show" outputs to our clients FTP server. This will give us a shot of what the device looks like when it spikes momentarily to 100%. My preliminary thoughts are it's due to a large volume of packets being software switched, but I'm not entirely sure why yet. That being said, this is the kind of stuff that I feel is beneficial towards my studies.

jamesp1983

Good thinking. We have to do whatever works for us to get the hours in. Keep it up!

Mrock4

Got some IP Services labbing in today. Decided I'm going to go down the list of topics covered in the INE IP Services lab book, and do very focused one-day labs on each topic..basically immerse myself in that topic for a day, between labbing/reading/videos, etc. This is basically what I said I was going to do before, but I'm making an extra effort to do it.

Mrock4

Have been studying, but done a poor job of updating this thing. Still covering multicast since it's always been my weakest area, and I've had to resort to smaller study blocks to keep the momentum moving forward. I'm hoping I can tie up the multicast videos this week, and lab all the multicast labs next week.

Mrock4

Got a couple of hours of solid multicast labbing done today..it went pretty good. Tonight if time allows I'm going to document my GNS3 topology (which is large, but not particularly mapped to any vendors materials) so that I can continue my labbing while on the road. I've been on the road for business for the majority of the last 6 weeks, so I'm going to continually rely on GNS3 more while on the road at least.

jamesp1983

Good to hear from you! You're doing a great job. Multicast is a tough subject.

Mrock4

It really is. I understand it conceptually, but trying to get comfortable with it would be a lot easier had I worked with it in production. I'm inching forward though. Going to write up a series of short blog posts to help solidify my knowledge. My studying has been steady, but still probably 1/4 the amount I was getting prior to this project. I'm now thinking a more realistic lab date might be 6/2013 (3 months later than my current date). I don't want to put it off, but with my employer paying for it- I really want to make my first attempt count.

All of that aside, I got a couple more hours of multicast down yesterday. At this rate it's going to take me a month! But- gotta do what ya gotta do.

Mrock4

Had somewhat of a break in the last few weeks. I'm undergoing a business venture and things are really taking off more than I expected, so I'm placing a lot of focus there. Plus, I was waiting for approval from my work to purchase rack rentals on the company dime. they just approved that, so I should be underway again soon!

Side note- if anyone has not been following along, I'm working in a consultant capacity now, so I'm pretty much living on the road.

Mrock4

Changed bosses recently (reorg of management structure), and the new boss insists that I have no option but to pass my CCIE lab in 2013. My previous boss was "supportive" - but his actions said otherwise to be honest. So that's a refreshing change.

Been busy lately developing training material, working on the new website for our training business (myself and a couple of really smart engineers)- and just generally staying busy.

jamesp1983

Good to hear from you and it sounds like your new boss is supportive of your efforts...to say the least.

Mrock4

You too James- I have been following along in your thread. You're definitely moving along, which is awesome.

Oh, and one thing that kind of sucks, I'll have to retake my written. My lab date was March 14th, and my written expires on the 13th. Since I'm going to push it back a couple of months..not sure for how long, since it depends on my projects, I'm kind of stuck with having to take it again. Really disappointing, because I was looking forward to knocking out my first attempt in 18 months. Oh well, what can ya do.

Zartanasaurus

Mrock4 wrote: »

You too James- I have been following along in your thread. You're definitely moving along, which is awesome.

Oh, and one thing that kind of sucks, I'll have to retake my written. My lab date was March 14th, and my written expires on the 13th. Since I'm going to push it back a couple of months..not sure for how long, since it depends on my projects, I'm kind of stuck with having to take it again. Really disappointing, because I was looking forward to knocking out my first attempt in 18 months. Oh well, what can ya do.

Just remember that Cisco Live is at the end of June, and everyone is expecting them to announce the new version of CCIE:R&S. You might want to get an attempt in before that so you'll have time to schedule attempt #2 if necessary before the changes are announced.

Mrock4

Absolutely- I should be there @ Cisco Live for it. The good news is generally once they announce a change there's a good lead time before the change takes place. Another factor is, depending on the change- it could actually help me.

My thought process with regards to lab changes has always been pretty simple: Know the core technologies solid, and any changes will be pretty minimal. I think if I prep well, I *should* be able to adjust towards almost any change within a couple of months and be ready for a new exam. We'll see though..my project schedule is really running the show, so hopefully it's gentle to me!

Mrock4

Just stopping in to say "I'm not dead!"

My lab date was March 15th, but because of projects at work, I decided to reschedule- but unfortunately my written will expire March 17th or so- so I need to retake my written exam. Thankfully, my work has been pushing me hard to attain the CCIE, so they're covering the charges on the written (and lab) which make it a little bit easier to swallow.

So, more to follow. I am going to take the written in a month. I've been doing primarily Cisco Nexus-based projects, so I'm going to use these 30 days or so to brush up on any topics I haven't worked much with lately. Once the written is knocked out I'll reschedule my lab.

down77

Sorry to hear you are rescheduling. Good luck on the written!

Mrock4

No worries! My employer is really set on me passing the lab in 2013, so the financial support is all there which is going to help me make the final push. I'm tentatively thinking I'll sit the lab in early October- right before my wife and I travel to Hawaii. This will give me some A) celebration time after a pass, or relaxation time to get away from routers for a bit, and come up with a new plan of attack for a 2nd attempt.

We'll see though, I'm going to likely schedule my attempt around whichever bootcamp I decide to attend, so that'll definitely have an impact on whether the lab date is sooner/later..but it WILL be in 2013!