Meh! Nothing to CCIE here...

down77

jadouking wrote: »

I scheduled it before even starting .
Well. At least I read the first 2 chapters (L2) from the OCG.
I kinda noticed that the book does not go in depth and also skips many things.
For example, PVlans configuration is not mentioned. Does this mean that the config part is not covered in the written??
I'm thinking about re-using the BCMSN book to review some topics (spanning-tree, PVlans...).

Thats one way to get motivated to prepare for the exam! The OCG is a high level review and is meant to refresh your knowledge of the topics that are generally learned through other means; CCNP Prep, the exhaustive reading list, hands on exp, etc. Just because a topic isn't mentioned in the book does not mean it's not a valid subject for examination. Remember to review the CCIE R&S Written Exam Topics (link below) for what is "generally" tested on, but pay particular attention to the following disclaimer they list above the topics:

"The comprehensive CCIE R&S Written Exam (#350-001) has 100 multiple-choice questions and is two hours in duration. The topic areas listed are general guidelines for the type of content that is likely to appear on the exam. Please note, however, that other relevant or related topic areas may also appear."

IMO the ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT FLGs are an important study tool towards the pursuit of the CCIE R&S. Likewise, the previous BCMSN, BSCI, ISCW, and ONT materials are also great books to keep at your side (especially the first 2!).

Here is a link to the CCIE R&S Written 4.0 Topics:

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-4374

It's a lot to review, but it makes it that much more fun!

down77

Took a few days off studying to spend some time with the family. Back to the books tonight with Security, IPv6, and a review of MPLS. I'm also starting the boson review software right after I redo my laptop. Its time to clear off the crud I collected working on client environments over the last year! I tend to reformat/reinstall about once every 18-24mos.

Turgon

How are your studies going?

down77

I finished the CCIE R&S Written review and have been working on the Boson review questions that came with the book. Filling in some knowledge gaps, and also watching the new INE CCIE Written review videos. I may attempt the exam in 2 weeks when I get back from Atlanta.

The lack of updates has been due to less than adequate hotel connections over the last few days. I'm actually at a Starbucks now where I have been drinking cappuccino's and reviewing material!

Looking forward to re-reading Routing TCP/IP Vol 1 and INE Vol 1 coming up soon.

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

I finished the CCIE R&S Written review and have been working on the Boson review questions that came with the book. Filling in some knowledge gaps, and also watching the new INE CCIE Written review videos. I may attempt the exam in 2 weeks when I get back from Atlanta.

The lack of updates has been due to less than adequate hotel connections over the last few days. I'm actually at a Starbucks now where I have been drinking cappuccino's and reviewing material!

Looking forward to re-reading Routing TCP/IP Vol 1 and INE Vol 1 coming up soon.

Good progress man. I look forward to your updates on CCIE written progress, then the lab.

down77

I've been going over the Boson review questions and quickly realized the the subjects I don't work on day to day I tend to miss. I will be reviewing up on IPv6, Multicast, and some aspects of QoS. Overall I have scored somewhat decent which is a good sign.

So in a "twist" work scheduled the written exam for me for next friday! That is a bit earlier than I would have hoped, especially with me out most of next week for Nexus integrations so it means I will be spending all spare waking hours reviewing for the exam. Wonder if I'll have enough time to carve out a MPLS vdc for some play time...

Roguetadhg

down77 wrote: »

Spanning Tree! Oh how much fun I've had with you in the past...

Tonight was a walk down memory lane with Spanning Tree Protocol and its many editions. It's important to understand the differences between CST, STP (802.1d), MST (802.1s), PVST+, RSTP (802.1w), RPVST+, etc.

To start with, you have to understand how the Root switch is elected, and then on the rest of the switches how the Root Port (RP), Designated Port (DP), and blocking port is selected. Moving forward know the process that takes place when a STP topology change happens (TCN and TCA bits in the hello messages) as well as how to optimize spanning tree.

Next we get in to some spanning tree protection mechanisms. Know when and where to use them and most importantly WHY! Also make sure to review how Spanning Tree is affected by port-channels and trunks.

I can honestly admit I've made a fair amount of money as a consultant working on poor spanning tree design issues. This particular topic is one I feel is one of the most neglected topics in the majority of campus infrastructures! I've actually had another consulting agency tell me that the easiest way to deal with STP issues is to just turn it off and all works well.

I'm also planning on powering up the 3550 switches for a review on configuring the various spanning tree types, as well as playing around with port priorities and load balancing. I can see a number of fun troubleshooting scenarios that can come out of this topic alone.

Next on the agenda for tonight's review is IP addressing, CIDR, and NAT theory. Total time spent reading tonight will be ~3hrs.

Wait a minute. You're reviewing what the CCNA level do? So I guess you really -do- need to know everything? Hmm. I need better notes.

Why turn off STP? I mean, yes, it solves not having to deal with STP afterwards. When an AT&T contractor bumps the rack one of my trunk ports died and the entire production floor died. I like Redundancy. Cheap cables (Don't ask, Im not allowed to touch anything just to look)

down77

Roguetadhg wrote: »

Wait a minute. You're reviewing what the CCNA level do? So I guess you really -do- need to know everything? Hmm. I need better notes.

Why turn off STP? I mean, yes, it solves not having to deal with STP afterwards. When an AT&T contractor bumps the rack one of my trunk ports died and the entire production floor died. I like Redundancy. Cheap cables (Don't ask, Im not allowed to touch anything just to look)

At the CCNA level you get introduced to this thing called Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and its basic forms. At the CCNP level they expand on STP and add other various flavors such as 802.1s (MST) and get deeper into 802.1d and 802.1w (RSTP). They also go over manipulation of root bridge selection, root port selection, and design best practices. Now lets fast forward to the CCIE level... know everything! Know how the various flavors of STP interoperate, the minute details of the headers for the various types, troubleshooting and debugging advanced scenarios, etc.

Everything a CCIE candidate knows is introduced through the CCENT/CCNA and expanded on through the various CCxP studies. Once you get to this level they not only expect you to know the topics, but they expect you to be an outright expert in the configuration and troubleshooting for advanced scenarios. This is one reason why many of us have said to build a STRONG foundation because it pays off royally down the road!

down77

Tonight is a 2 hour review with the Boson questions and reviewing IPv6 and Multicast which are my 2 weakest areas. I;m planning to read Developing IP Multicast Networks over the next few weeks (while traveling of course) and re-read Routing TCP/IP Vol 1. I also loaded INE Vol 1 on my iPad to bring with me and will more than likely be reviewing that in the airports.

Less than a week to the written, making the most of my study time!

down77

Long drive to Atlanta tonight! Just checked into my hotel room and now off to spend a few hours reading Routing TCP/IP vol 1 and go over another set of review questions. I should be able to get in another 2-3hrs of review tonight. I made sure to listen to the INE Multicast, QoS, EIGRP, and OSPF videos during the car ride.

I hope my clients understand that I'm skipping the entertainment this week and heading to the hotel to study after hours.

down77

More review... going back over BGP and MPLS tonight. I'm also going through the review questions at the end of each chapter to see how well I am doing. It seems like a lot of review time and I know it'll build up over the next few days. I started adding to my notes to keep track of areas that I am consistently missing, as well as to add notes on areas I want to revisit before friday and to add complexity to when I begin the labs.

I mentioned earlier that as I do the labs I am going to shake things up a bit... part of that as well is to try the lab with both IPv4 and IPv6 configuration, as well as converting between the two for some portions of the lab. I have a number of rack tokens through INE, but will be adding more through other vendors for some additional time slots. I need to rebuild my laptop this weekend (time allowing) and redo my dynamips installation to add some "rack" time through that as well.

If I include the last few sections of the CCIP attempt then I am well over 200 hours of studies/lab at this time... my how time flies!

On another note I am meeting with my boss later this week and plan on asking him to send me to either the INE or Narbik review sessions before the exam. I'm leaning towards the INE session especially for Option B (voucher for the lab fee). I already have an iPad and plenty of rack tokens through them.

Oh yeah, anyone else starting to see cli in their sleep? I'm sure at this point I'm snoring MPLS configuration commands!

down77

Just over 4 hours of study time today. I went over 3 hours of INE review videos during the drive home (hooked iPad to car stereo and listened to audio), and another hour of various other topics. I made sure to go back over spanning tree, etherchannel, wccp, uRPF, prefix lists, distribute lists, and route maps tonight. I am hoping for one more day of review tomorrow and then get to bed early. Less than 2 days left until the written

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

Just over 4 hours of study time today. I went over 3 hours of INE review videos during the drive home (hooked iPad to car stereo and listened to audio), and another hour of various other topics. I made sure to go back over spanning tree, etherchannel, wccp, uRPF, prefix lists, distribute lists, and route maps tonight. I am hoping for one more day of review tomorrow and then get to bed early. Less than 2 days left until the written

Two days left until the written? My advice is to put the books down now and just concentrate on the practice tests. Focus particularly on the switching and routing questions as that is the bulk of the test.

jamesp1983

Good luck on your written! Kill it!

down77

Turgon wrote: »

Two days left until the written? My advice is to put the books down now and just concentrate on the practice tests. Focus particularly on the switching and routing questions as that is the bulk of the test.

Taking your advice and doing that today. May look up the answers I miss but spending some time just going over practice tests.

down77

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Good luck on your written! Kill it!

Thank you. I'll be happy with just a passing score... looking forward to INE Vol I - IV dedicated studies and lots of mock labs. One every 2mos is my goal

jamesp1983

down77 wrote: »

Thank you. I'll be happy with just a passing score... looking forward to INE Vol I - IV dedicated studies and lots of mock labs. One every 2mos is my goal

I'm right with you on that statement. I can't wait to clear the written and get moving with the lab. Good luck again!

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

Thank you. I'll be happy with just a passing score... looking forward to INE Vol I - IV dedicated studies and lots of mock labs. One every 2mos is my goal

Get through Vol I first, then at least half way through Vol II before your first mock exam. 300 hours lab practice before a mock. Good luck with that written test. Once done with that, join the rest of us on lab practice rack hours. I just hit 940.

down77

Turgon wrote: »

Get through Vol I first, then at least half way through Vol II before your first mock exam. 300 hours lab practice before a mock. Good luck with that written test. Once done with that, join the rest of us on lab practice rack hours. I just hit 940.

Wow very nice! I will be tracking lab hours after the written is done. I have close to 100 right now, but will be resetting the counter back to zero to make sure I keep myself focused and honest on the attempt.

You will know if I passed or failed tomorrow depending on if you see a counter added to my signature. Regardless I need to stop being "lazy" and build out an updated Dynamips/GNS3 travel lab for when I am flying or in a hotel. I actually have one client who offered to donate a bunch of 3550 PoE switches towards my attempt.

Back to the practice questions after my 2-4pm EST client call

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

Wow very nice! I will be tracking lab hours after the written is done. I have close to 100 right now, but will be resetting the counter back to zero to make sure I keep myself focused and honest on the attempt.

You will know if I passed or failed tomorrow depending on if you see a counter added to my signature. Regardless I need to stop being "lazy" and build out an updated Dynamips/GNS3 travel lab for when I am flying or in a hotel. I actually have one client who offered to donate a bunch of 3550 PoE switches towards my attempt.

Back to the practice questions after my 2-4pm EST client call

Good luck with it all. The lab hours you have amassed on the written journey still count for lab prep in my book so just stick them up and increment from there. It all helps!

down77

For those of you who are contemplating the CCIP before attempting the 350-001 CCIE Routing and Switching Written Exam I say this: It's well worth taking the extra time to study! The hours that you spend getting deep into BGP, MPLS, QoS, and Route will only help to make the exam experience more familiar. I am VERY glad that I went down this path as a stepping stone towards my 5 digit number.

I actually finished with about 25 minutes left and felt pretty good about the attempt. There were a few things I wasn't as familiar as I should be, but I understood the theory well enough to answer the question. I'm also glad I took Turgon's suggestion and started reviewing the Boson questions as they helped to highlight areas that I was not as strong in, and gave the the opportunity to review those sections before the attempt. This alone made a huge difference in the overall experience. Turgon, thank you!

As far as how things went... Gentlemen there will be frothy beverages served tonight!

Now it's time to get serious about cabling the equipment at the house, preparing the GNS3 topology, and breaking out the INE Workbooks that I have on my iPad.

I'll also be following INE's "How to Pass" week by week plan located here:
How to pass the CCIE R&S with INE's 4.0 Training Program

Let the fun begin!

reaper81

Well done! Congrats!

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

For those of you who are contemplating the CCIP before attempting the 350-001 CCIE Routing and Switching Written Exam I say this: It's well worth taking the extra time to study! The hours that you spend getting deep into BGP, MPLS, QoS, and Route will only help to make the exam experience more familiar. I am VERY glad that I went down this path as a stepping stone towards my 5 digit number.

I actually finished with about 25 minutes left and felt pretty good about the attempt. There were a few things I wasn't as familiar as I should be, but I understood the theory well enough to answer the question. I'm also glad I took Turgon's suggestion and started reviewing the Boson questions as they helped to highlight areas that I was not as strong in, and gave the the opportunity to review those sections before the attempt. This alone made a huge difference in the overall experience. Turgon, thank you!

As far as how things went... Gentlemen there will be frothy beverages served tonight!

Now it's time to get serious about cabling the equipment at the house, preparing the GNS3 topology, and breaking out the INE Workbooks that I have on my iPad.

I'll also be following INE's "How to Pass" week by week plan located here:
How to pass the CCIE R&S with INE's 4.0 Training Program

Let the fun begin!

Congratulations! Print that score report out and frame it. That's what I did with my first in 2001. For those who don't ****, preparing for and passing the written is an accomplishment in itself..think what you have learned

Most written passers never sit the lab. Of those who do, most never pass the lab. Now the hard work begins..lab, lab, lab. Try hard to be hands on everyday, even if it is only for an hour and mount up that counter.

I would start on INE Vol II straight away. Expect to spend a full week of elapsed time completing a lab and being forced to look at the solutions time and time again. Try and do some study on workstime if you can. If you cant, it's evenings and weekends for you, but be sure to discuss with your wife and take time out when you both need it!

After 400 lab hours take a mock exam.

Good luck.

down77

Turgon wrote: »

Congratulations! Print that score report out and frame it. That's what I did with my first in 2001. For those who don't ****, preparing for and passing the written is an accomplishment in itself..think what you have learned

Most written passers never sit the lab. Of those who do, most never pass the lab. Now the hard work begins..lab, lab, lab. Try hard to be hands on everyday, even if it is only for an hour and mount up that counter.

I would start on INE Vol II straight away. Expect to spend a full week of elapsed time completing a lab and being forced to look at the solutions time and time again. Try and do some study on workstime if you can. If you cant, it's evenings and weekends for you, but be sure to discuss with your wife and take time out when you both need it!

After 400 lab hours take a mock exam.

Good luck.

Thank you. Well after reading more than a dozen books, reviewing almost 80 hours of video, and sitting endless hours doing labs and practice review all just for the written exam I would say that my knowledge has gone up just a little bit. My brain hurts right now from all the studying!

I will be attempting the lab exam, but I am not exactly sure when yet. I am giving myself time to see how things progress and how fast I can get to the 200, 400, 500, etc. hour mark for hands on lab studies. I'll be working on both the Vol I and Vol II materials starting sunday (I need a day off) when I take off to memphis. I have pre-paid for 4 mock labs and I have no problem picking up more if needed to gauge progress. I was thinking of scheduling one around 300hrs, 500hrs, 700, and just before the exam to monitor progress. I am also considering the INE 10 day track (free lab fees) one month before my attempt.

There is a lot of hard work ahead and I have still just scratched the surface on my journey towards the 5 digit number. I'll be spending at least an hour a day, but generally a lot more on the material. I will be taking one day off a week because everyone needs a rest at times and I do not want to burn out with everything else I have going on.

Since I am a traveling consultant I will be studying mostly on the road, but for the days I am at the house I intend to spend the entire day if possible working on labs and workbook materials.

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

Thank you. Well after reading more than a dozen books, reviewing almost 80 hours of video, and sitting endless hours doing labs and practice review all just for the written exam I would say that my knowledge has gone up just a little bit. My brain hurts right now from all the studying!

I will be attempting the lab exam, but I am not exactly sure when yet. I am giving myself time to see how things progress and how fast I can get to the 200, 400, 500, etc. hour mark for hands on lab studies. I'll be working on both the Vol I and Vol II materials starting sunday (I need a day off) when I take off to memphis. I have pre-paid for 4 mock labs and I have no problem picking up more if needed to gauge progress. I was thinking of scheduling one around 300hrs, 500hrs, 700, and just before the exam to monitor progress. I am also considering the INE 10 day track (free lab fees) one month before my attempt.

There is a lot of hard work ahead and I have still just scratched the surface on my journey towards the 5 digit number. I'll be spending at least an hour a day, but generally a lot more on the material. I will be taking one day off a week because everyone needs a rest at times and I do not want to burn out with everything else I have going on.

Since I am a traveling consultant I will be studying mostly on the road, but for the days I am at the house I intend to spend the entire day if possible working on labs and workbook materials.

I can tell you, if you have a full schedule at work and at home, 500 hours of labtime takes some amassing. Its rather different from reading where one can glance and take things in. Quality lab prep is very time consuming and requires insulation from distractions. You say when you are in the house you will spend the entire day doing lab practice..is that the weekends? Be sure to leave downtime for your wife/gf and chores at home.

down77

I'll be spending the 8a - 5p hours studying when I am at home and not on conf/calls or doing design for clients. I fully intend to make sure I spend time with my wife and son because they are the two most important things to me and nothing can replace them, not even a CCIE. They are very good about leaving me alone when I am "working from home," but I also understand how important it is to take study breaks so that I don't burn out. Even now I'll often come out of my office and chase my son around, play a 15min match of soccer outside, spend time with my wife, etc. There are ways of getting lots of study time in AND balancing family life.

down77

I started on Workbook Vol I tonight using my 3550s and 1841s. I had to give the 3750s back to work which means I'll most likely pick up a few 3560s to replace the 2 devices that I lost. Thank gosh for partner discounts!

I'm starting to make notes of the areas that I need to review, or that I haven't done in a while. These sections I am bookmarking as well as writing down to go back over a few times. Lets a brief review of the fun I had tonight:

Put a base configuration on the C3550s and upgrade one of them from an SMI to EMI image.

The first fuzzy moment came when I had to remember how to prune the VTP Prune-Eligible List... since I almost never use VTP (cisco best practice is vtp mode transparent of course) I made sure to look this up and its pretty easy:

switchport trunk pruning vlan 2 - 10, 12-20 for example
or switchport trunk pruning vlan remove 11

The next fuzzy area was configuring 802.1q Tunneling. This is another topic that I have done, but not as frequent as I'll need to. I made sure to bookmark this section from the doc cd and will lab it up a few times.

I finished with one of my favorite topics, Spanning Tree! Like I said I have had a lot of fun with spanning tree in the past so I will definitely give this the attention it deserves. I see how such a "trivial" takes down networks on a weekly basis.

So 1.1 - 1.32 is done for now and the corresponding videos are in progress. My plan is to review 1.33 - 1.50 while traveling tomorrow.

Time spent in labs today: 4hrs

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

I'll be spending the 8a - 5p hours studying when I am at home and not on conf/calls or doing design for clients. I fully intend to make sure I spend time with my wife and son because they are the two most important things to me and nothing can replace them, not even a CCIE. They are very good about leaving me alone when I am "working from home," but I also understand how important it is to take study breaks so that I don't burn out. Even now I'll often come out of my office and chase my son around, play a 15min match of soccer outside, spend time with my wife, etc. There are ways of getting lots of study time in AND balancing family life.

Cool. Just be careful that your studyhours on works time dont pressurize your work deadlines. What I try and do when some window is available at work is get all the email and issues dealt with first thing to open up a couple of hours later in the day. But when I have to focus on work I let the studytime go and simply concentrate on the job. It's a long game and people can start to feel that your workrate is not as good as it used to be if you are not careful. Work first, study second is how I play it. Work goes well, the CCIE is taking time

down77

I was able to make the most of the morning. Up at 7am to cook banana chocolate chip waffles for the little one and mommy, a quick cartoon on the couch, and then off to put together some GNS3 lab files to bring with me. I put together 2 project files to work on labs and loaded videos 1 - 85 of the ATC on my iPad 2. I also spent close to 2 hours going back over some of the material from last night, and starting on MST and STP path manipulation. I have more to do this afternoon but I should get 4-6 hours of study time by end of day.

Plan for today:
Review 1.1 - 1.32 (done)
Continue 1.33 - 1.50 (in progress)
Read more of Routing TCP/IP Vol I during taxi/take-off/landing when laptops aren't allowed!

down77

Spent 4 hours on sunday, 2 hours per night monday/tuesday, and 4 hours on wednesday going over 1.1 - 1.50 and starting on the videos. There are some rough spots that I need to continue to review (like Q in Q and flexlinks) but those are less core functionality and more bonus points.

Today is a work from home day so I'll be doing another 4-6 hours of labs/video on the home gear to work on some of the weak spots and start moving on to frame relay shortly.