A metalhead takes on the CCIE - My progress thread

Not the most inspiring thread title I know, but everything else was either too inapproriate for a public forum or too similar to other thread titles.

So a little background, I've been in networking for about 5 years in total, but part of that was working on the front line customer support at an ISP. I did the odd bit of home router troubleshooting, nothing like what I'm doing now. I've been using Cisco stuff for just over 4 years now, and have been adding certifications and experience along with job promotions in the mix for about 3 years. I got my CCNA back in 2009, CCNP last August, and passed my CCIP this week. I also have a couple of Juniper certs.

My job currently is working 2nd/3rd line network support. My company is kind of like an ISP, except its almost purely for transactions (real time, settlement files, etc) rather than all sorts of different forms of data. I get involved in the customer facing side (the transaction side) and also the office side (the enterprise network side) so it gives a good mix of both worlds.

I decided to go for the CCIE as I want to gain the knowledge that comes from it. As much experience as I can get in my day job, there will always be holes in it (for example multicast is very rarely used where I am, nor is IPv6, and MPLS is quite limited) so I'm looking to fill the gaps with this. Also, it doesn't harm that it will be a great certification to go with my experience to help me advance my career further.

As the title suggests, I'm a metalhead (not the only form of music I listen to, but at least half of it) so while I will be putting as much as I can into studying, reading and labbing, at the end of the day I work for three things currently. To eat, to keep a roof over my head, and to fund music (playing, recording and listening). There will be days where I'm too busy with band stuff to study, and vice versa. This is kind of my work-life balance that I'll manage during the CCIE journey.

My resources currently are: -

CCIE Routing And Switching Certification Guide
Internet Routing Architectures
MPLS Fundamentals
QoS Certification Guide
Any notes from previous exams (the BCMSN will come into use I'm sure)
Anything from the Cisco Partner Learning resources
The internet and this forum.

I'm aiming to have my written at least close, if not done by the end of this calendar year, so that I can dedicate 2012 to the lab. I'll see how this goes.

So thats it for now!

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stuh84

And my first reply already...

Been through the first chapter in the CCIE R&S guide (Ethernet Basics), a lot of it isn't new but a good refresher. The SPAN and RSPAN section is something I haven't used a lot of (I've configured it once or twice at work, but not enough to remember it inside out) so that is very useful.

I also started going through the Boson exam given with this book, and it's about what I expected. BGP is good, OSPF wasn't bad to say I've not studied it for a year, however the extras like NTP and the like I'm rusty on. QoS I'm a bit rustier than I'd hoped but thats mainly as I've not used it all since I did the exam in it so this will need some refreshing. I still remember a lot of it, but theres some bits which aren't as fresh as I like. I would have gone through more but there was a power cut when I was around question 30.

My approach to studying from books is take notes from every chapter, and go through a chapter at a time. I don't like just reading, as it's easy to get distracted, and it also means I can double check what I've been through. This helps for them moments when I'm not sure if I've been over something before and forgot it, or have never come across it in the books.

I'd also appreciate some suggestions on books (I'm guessing Routing TCP/IP Vol 1 and 2, but is there anything else glaring I'm missing?), and also whether to go INE or IPExpert when I get to the labbing. INE seems more likely at the moment as it seems better priced without being cheap (i.e. paying less but getting less).

NOC-Ninja

Welcome to CCIE journey Stuart!

I recommend INE. Why?

Best support when it comes to CCIE. They have an active forum that helps out people ALL THE TIME. The thing that sold me to Narbik is the bootcamp. Its just dirtcheap to pass away unlimited bootcamp and workbook.
They also have a better audio. Nothing against Mike but Brian's audio is more understandable for me. However, Scott Morris audio beats everything else. Scott just gets to the point and explains it to me like I am a little kid.

Goodluck

stuh84

Thanks!

Those sound like some great points too. As I say I was already leaning that way. Ideally I'd like to get hold of both, but its more than likely one will have to do.

Turgon

Welcome to the PhD in Pain, at least in terms of hours to complete. Good to have you along Stuart!

jamesp1983

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

Welcome to CCIE journey Stuart!

I recommend INE. Why?
Best support when it comes to CCIE. They have an active forum that helps out people ALL THE TIME. The thing that sold me to Narbik is the bootcamp. Its just dirtcheap to pass away unlimited bootcamp and workbook.

They also have a better audio. Nothing against Mike but Brian's audio is more understandable for me. However, Scott Morris audio beats everything else. Scott just gets to the point and explains it to me like I am a little kid.

Goodluck

Where can you find the Scott Morris audio lessons?

jamesp1983

Good luck man! Good to have another candidate aboard.

Bl8ckr0uter

Good luck!

All of you guys are really making me want the CCIE...

down77

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Where can you find the Scott Morris audio lessons?

I remember he did some recordings for INE and IPExpert but I'm not sure if those are still the current audio lectures, or even available anymore! Many of the providers have re-recorded content to remove any reference to instructors who have parted ways.

Stuh - looking forward to the progress notes! Good luck

reaper81

Welcome Stuh! I've seen you on other forums. The learning experience will be immense no matter what so just give it a good shot!

stuh84

Thanks for all the welcomes so far, already I'm learning and I've scarcely started!

Another chapter down in the CCIE R&S Guide. A lot of it is going over information I knew, but again a good refresher (VLANs, PVLANs, VTP etc). The PPPoE part of the chapter is useful though as I've never studied it before, and always look at it with a bit of confusion. This definitely helps a bit more, I won't be doing a full PPPoE DSL infrastructure yet but I could probably get a router or two up and running with it now I expect.

This week is going to be telling, as I'd like to see how much I get through during a standard working week. I'd like to do some every night, but it depends on how work commitments go and my level of concentration/tiredness after a day at work.

Turgon

stuh84 wrote: »

This week is going to be telling, as I'd like to see how much I get through during a standard working week. I'd like to do some every night, but it depends on how work commitments go and my level of concentration/tiredness after a day at work.

I know what you mean. Put up a reading and labbing hours counter on your signature. Its a good motivator and with people at different stages of their prep it's good to compare progress.

stuh84

Today hasn't been too bad, a little tired due to the fact that the UK doesn't seem to realise its not summer any longer so way too hot at night and making sleep hard.

Even so, my concentration is just about enough to get through this stuff, so when I'm alert I can probably get through a couple of chapters at a time (more than likely at weekends) quite easily.

Went through the Spanning Tree chapter in the R&S Cert Guide, again mostly a refreseher. There were a couple of points of note that I had either forgotten or were not something to immediately commit to memory, but I can see being tested on. Overall though, I remember STP, MST, PVST+, RPVST+, LACP, PaGP and the like from BCMSN quite vividly and from using a lot of it in the workplace.

Looking ahead in the book, the next chapter is IP Addressing. I think that is going to be a cursory glance over as I've not had a problem with subnetting in about 3 years. The few pages on NAT will be good, as it's something of an achilles heel for me. I don't know why but I always find myself having to second guess myself whenever I configure NAT, so the refresher on this will be very useful.

After that it's IP Services, probably the first chapter where most of it will be new to me, I'm looking forward to it.

stuh84

I got through the NAT section in the IP Addressing chapter, and also got through half of the IP Services chapter. The IP Services chapter is teaching me a lot. As a bit of background, I've never been in a full implementation role, it's always been either building from templates, or now its troubleshooting already existing services, so while I had setup routing and the like in studies, SNMP and NTP were something I had rarely touched.

Also, the explanation of NAT made it sit in my head for the first time. I always knew what NAT did, but I always had to double check myself on the directions and how it matched the configuration. It clicked last night and now I don't have an issue with it.

I would have liked to finish the IP Services chapter last night, but I'd had a long day teaching a service provider how BGP works, and they are still having issues with it. I'm sure it should be the other way round....

Turgon

It's the weekend. Study hard!

stuh84

I didn't get as much done as I wanted to this weekend, as a lot of Saturday was spent car shopping (my first car upgrade since I got my first car 4 years ago).

I did managed to get through Chapter 6 in the book, going through things like CEF, and also PfR/OER. I am very intrigued by this PfR, it's a very different style of configuration than I'm used to, and I have never seen it in production so its a learning experience.

I'm averaging roughly just under a chapter a night, so I should hopefully be done with this book in the next couple of weeks. I'll then get to work on the Routing TCP/IP books, and then consider when to have a try for the written exam.

Turgon

stuh84 wrote: »

I didn't get as much done as I wanted to this weekend, as a lot of Saturday was spent car shopping (my first car upgrade since I got my first car 4 years ago).

I did managed to get through Chapter 6 in the book, going through things like CEF, and also PfR/OER. I am very intrigued by this PfR, it's a very different style of configuration than I'm used to, and I have never seen it in production so its a learning experience.

I'm averaging roughly just under a chapter a night, so I should hopefully be done with this book in the next couple of weeks. I'll then get to work on the Routing TCP/IP books, and then consider when to have a try for the written exam.

Its all good. So long as you can read daily those hours clock up. You will be at 50 before you know it. 100 - 200 hours is usually enough for the written. Once you have a 100 reading hours in start hitting the Boson practice tests.

stuh84

I've had a couple of nights where I haven't be able to get much done. Tonight we had a major outage so I came home a lot later than usual and I'm on call just in case anything else goes awry.

I'll be back on it tomorrow though all things being equal, and should hopefully be a few chapters through by the weekend.

Turgon

Cool Stuart. Just put up a new thread on 2011 objectives! Declare your intentions there! Ramp upto 50 reading hours asap. Its a good place to be and puts you on your way.

stuh84

Cheers, I'll take a look!

The EIGRP chapter is done, some nice reminders for most of it again. The different methods of load/traffic balancing are new, but most of it is mainly review.

The OSPF chapter looks like a big one, however I much prefer OSPF to EIGRP so it should hopefully be enjoyable enough to get through quicker than EIGRP.

I pick up my new car on Friday, so there may be a few breaks in studying, but overall I think I should be able to at least get to the BGP chapter in the book. The good thing with this is that as I've already done the BGP exam, and I use it every day, there is going to be a lot that is reviewing. I may not even have to bother making notes on this as I already have about 80-100 pages worth already from the exam itself. I envisage something similar when I reach the MPLS chapters too. QoS will be worth another go over as its 9 months since I really did much with it, but thankfully I won't be learning brand new concepts (token buckets, dual-rate policers etc).

All in all, I actually see a fair few of the upcoming chapters in this book to be ones that are quite fresh in my memory, so progress should be good!

stuh84

I managed to get a bit of labbing in on PfR/OER. I wanted to break up the reading a bit, still have some CLI relevance going on. It's an interesting concept this PfR deal, and definitely going to take some more work to get it into my head, but its a good start at least, even if it was mostly just to get the commands in my head.

stuh84

That has taken longer than I expected!

Got the OSPF chapter out the way, it has taken a bit longer than I'd hoped. I felt wiped out at the weekend, fairly tired all the time and just couldn't get my head into it. However I've finished it in the past two nights after work. I do wonder if I have my best thinking head on a work day as its when I tend to get most done, or if its due to the fact I have to fit it in due to limited time so I force it. Not sure.

A lot of the chapter was review, as I have said I'm a fan of the protocol, but a lot of it is just deeper than I had known before. Some of the options for authentication on virtual links and the like were new, but overall just a nice review.

Route Redistribution is next, and then a lot of the next few chapters should be light works. BGP, QoS and MPLS make up a significant portion of it, which I'm doubting will bring a lot new than I've already learned (especially as it's Odom teaching QoS, and I've already made notes and taken an exam based upon the full book he made on it)

Turgon

stuh84 wrote: »

That has taken longer than I expected!

Got the OSPF chapter out the way, it has taken a bit longer than I'd hoped. I felt wiped out at the weekend, fairly tired all the time and just couldn't get my head into it. However I've finished it in the past two nights after work. I do wonder if I have my best thinking head on a work day as its when I tend to get most done, or if its due to the fact I have to fit it in due to limited time so I force it. Not sure.

A lot of the chapter was review, as I have said I'm a fan of the protocol, but a lot of it is just deeper than I had known before. Some of the options for authentication on virtual links and the like were new, but overall just a nice review.

Route Redistribution is next, and then a lot of the next few chapters should be light works. BGP, QoS and MPLS make up a significant portion of it, which I'm doubting will bring a lot new than I've already learned (especially as it's Odom teaching QoS, and I've already made notes and taken an exam based upon the full book he made on it)

You will be fine Stuart. You are looking at 150 hours of study to clear the written so just take that at your own pace. If you are still blogging in 12 months time you have a shot at the lab. Good luck!

stuh84

Turgon wrote: »

You will be fine Stuart. You are looking at 150 hours of study to clear the written so just take that at your own pace. If you are still blogging in 12 months time you have a shot at the lab. Good luck!

Thanks man, it's been a weird couple of weeks. My head hasn't been in the right place a lot of the time, but I appear to be getting back to normal.

I started on the Redistribution/Route-Maps/Prefix-lists etc chapter last night and found it okay going. Went to get some more done on it and ended up finishing it today. Some useful tricks, especially the tagging of routes. I'm sure I've seen it done in the past, but I've never used it myself so I was unfamiliar with its benefits. Can definitely see it now though.

So now its onto the BGP chapters. Whether I start them later today or tomorrow I'm not sure, but as mentioned a few times, these look like mostly review from what I already know. A quick scan through brings up nothing I don't remember seeing or learning or using already. I'm guessing I should be on to WANs and Multicast by the end of the week.

Turgon

stuh84 wrote: »

Thanks man, it's been a weird couple of weeks. My head hasn't been in the right place a lot of the time, but I appear to be getting back to normal.

I started on the Redistribution/Route-Maps/Prefix-lists etc chapter last night and found it okay going. Went to get some more done on it and ended up finishing it today. Some useful tricks, especially the tagging of routes. I'm sure I've seen it done in the past, but I've never used it myself so I was unfamiliar with its benefits. Can definitely see it now though.

So now its onto the BGP chapters. Whether I start them later today or tomorrow I'm not sure, but as mentioned a few times, these look like mostly review from what I already know. A quick scan through brings up nothing I don't remember seeing or learning or using already. I'm guessing I should be on to WANs and Multicast by the end of the week.

Its the weekend. Any study plans or busy at home?

Turgon

stuh84 wrote: »

Thanks man, it's been a weird couple of weeks. My head hasn't been in the right place a lot of the time, but I appear to be getting back to normal.

I started on the Redistribution/Route-Maps/Prefix-lists etc chapter last night and found it okay going. Went to get some more done on it and ended up finishing it today. Some useful tricks, especially the tagging of routes. I'm sure I've seen it done in the past, but I've never used it myself so I was unfamiliar with its benefits. Can definitely see it now though.

So now its onto the BGP chapters. Whether I start them later today or tomorrow I'm not sure, but as mentioned a few times, these look like mostly review from what I already know. A quick scan through brings up nothing I don't remember seeing or learning or using already. I'm guessing I should be on to WANs and Multicast by the end of the week.

It's been nearly a month. Any progress since?

stuh84

Work became very busy so I had to put everything aside to get on with that. I've got a few weekends coming up where I'm in purely on cover so I may get some chance to do some work on them. I got a couple of chapters out the way in the meantime but nothing like the pace I was going before.

I tend to go through phases where I do a lot, and then work kicks in and I have to ignore it for a while and then force myself to pick it back up again. Still, it's only been a couple of months now so I'm not doing terribly, my goal of the written by the end of this year is gone, but beginning of 2012? More than likely.

Turgon

stuh84 wrote: »

Work became very busy so I had to put everything aside to get on with that. I've got a few weekends coming up where I'm in purely on cover so I may get some chance to do some work on them. I got a couple of chapters out the way in the meantime but nothing like the pace I was going before.

I tend to go through phases where I do a lot, and then work kicks in and I have to ignore it for a while and then force myself to pick it back up again. Still, it's only been a couple of months now so I'm not doing terribly, my goal of the written by the end of this year is gone, but beginning of 2012? More than likely.

Happy New Year Stuh84, how are your studies going?

Turgon

Any update on your CCIE progress this year?

stuh84

Turgon wrote: »

Any update on your CCIE progress this year?

Hey!

It's been a while, my situation didn't change for months, where I posted about being too busy to study. I have done about 60-70 extra hours in the past month or two to get projects done. However, I'm changing jobs as of next week to a much better role, with little to no expectation for overtime (the salary makes up for it) so I should be free again and back to studying this. I have picked up the book a couple of times to go through and hadn't forgotten nearly as much as I thought I would have.

I'm currently working on the BCNE (Brocade) for my new job but the exam for that is tomorrow so I expect to get back into this within the next couple of weeks!

jamesp1983

Great to hear and I look forward to hearing about your progress.