MPLS passed, CCIP done!

stuh84

So I passed the MPLS exam today, and am now a CCIP!

The exam itself wasn't terribly difficult. I've been going through MPLS Fundamentals, and also Cisco's own Partner Learning online courses that my company gets due to being Cisco partners. Besides that though, labbing and the odd Google to confirm a couple of concepts (mainly SoO, once it clicked it was fine, but before that it didn't make much sense).

As a tip for people taking it, just make sure you know your MPLS VPNs inside out, MPLS TE, and make sure not to just glance over the Complex MPLS VPNs. Hopefully I'm not giving anything away here, it's in the exam objectives anyway but if this crosses the line then delete this.

Now it's on to the CCIE, the journey begins...

down77

Congrats on the pass!

How did you like the Partner content for MPLS?

stuh84

For both the BGP exam and MPLS, it is really well presented. The guy going through it doesn't get overexcited and take away from the material (I find Jeremy Ciora in the CBT Nuggets can make it hard to focus as the anecdotes get remembered as much, and sometimes more than the material), but he knows it well enough and can present it clearly and concisely. He doesn't sound bored by it either, which I have found with some of the other ones at times (the one for BCMSN sounded like the guy was depressed).

The QoS one I found difficult to get through, as while the guy seems to know his stuff, he would pause mid-sentence for a second or two at a time where it didn't make sense to. The material was okay but it could have been presented better.

Overall though, they are very useful, and they help tie in any missing concepts. The Complex VPNs in MPLS made more sense, BGP Confederations became childs play in the BGP material, and for QoS the best practices was easy to get through.

SteveO86

Congrats!

Do you recommend any other books apart from MPLS Fundamentals?

stuh84

I never used any other books for it. MPLS and VPN Architectures volume 1 and 2 are highly recommended for it, but I decided to go without them due to time constraints. They definitely aren't essential to the exam, you can easily pass without them. You don't even need all of the MPLS Fundamentals book, theres no VPLS, AToM or anything like that.

Obviously they will be useful subjects to know, but if you're trying to get the exam out of the way first they aren't essential. They are definitely going to be something I'll pick up and go through in my own time.

jovan88

congrats, good luck on the CCIE and keep everyone posted on the progress!