Meh! Nothing to CCIE here...

aldous

if you have not got it yet, get "troubleshooting IP routing protocols" you will need it for the first 2 hours of the lab and its a great text

down77

aldous wrote: »

if you have not got it yet, get "troubleshooting IP routing protocols" you will need it for the first 2 hours of the lab and its a great text

That one is sitting next to Developing IP Multicast Networks on my book shelf. I will be reading it right after I re-read Routing TCP/IP Vol 1

down77

Finished up all the Spanning Tree labs, Flex Links, and L2 Tunneling. I know I spent a bit longer on this than I should have but I am leaving nothing to chance. Last night was a few hours of MST and Flex link labs on the home equipment and starting on the Frame Relay Videos. Today will be my "off day" so to speak.

I'll be in Raleigh over the next week sitting in a DCSNS class. My nights will be filled with Frame Relay and PPP, PPPoA, PPPoE authentication labs. Looking forward to more fun!

Forsaken_GA

down77 wrote: »

Finished up all the Spanning Tree labs, Flex Links, and L2 Tunneling. I know I spent a bit longer on this than I should have but I am leaving nothing to chance. Last night was a few hours of MST and Flex link labs on the home equipment and starting on the Frame Relay Videos. Today will be my "off day" so to speak.

If you're going to follow the INE 'How to pass' guide, pay attention to the lab sections they recommend for the first 8 weeks. You shouldn't be doing stuff like l2 tunnelling and flex links right now, as those aren't really core requirements, and the initial steps of the INE method is to build your core competencies so that you don't even need to think about configuring them anymore. Getting to that point is very important for a lab pass.

And for technologies that are way out of core's bailiwick, remember that the important thing isn't to have to know it off the top of your head... you just need to know where to find it in the documentation.

down77

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

If you're going to follow the INE 'How to pass' guide, pay attention to the lab sections they recommend for the first 8 weeks. You shouldn't be doing stuff like l2 tunnelling and flex links right now, as those aren't really core requirements, and the initial steps of the INE method is to build your core competencies so that you don't even need to think about configuring them anymore. Getting to that point is very important for a lab pass.

And for technologies that are way out of core's bailiwick, remember that the important thing isn't to have to know it off the top of your head... you just need to know where to find it in the documentation.

You are right! In my haste to copy down the notes, I wrote 1.1 - 1.50. I just made sure to go back and edit the notes I took. Taking this approach will shorten the time a little bit and make the 8 week stretch a little bit easier to swallow.

This weeks focus will be Frame Relay and to start on IP routing. I'm looking forward to being able to use Dynamips over the next few weeks for studies.

down77

Today's Plan:

Well since it's another travel day I get to continue the Frame Relay review videos and break out the laptop for some lab time. With the 2 flights scheduled, I should get at least 4 hours study time and hopefully 3-4 hours a night this week at the hotel. I may be boring this week, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Starting on 2.1 - 2.8

Forsaken_GA

down77 wrote: »

You are right! In my haste to copy down the notes, I wrote 1.1 - 1.50. I just made sure to go back and edit the notes I took. Taking this approach will shorten the time a little bit and make the 8 week stretch a little bit easier to swallow.

This weeks focus will be Frame Relay and to start on IP routing. I'm looking forward to being able to use Dynamips over the next few weeks for studies.

I'm actually going back over the entire first 8 weeks set of labs right now, in prep for my first Mock exam. I got a little off track with the holidays and the job change, so I'm redoing the week 1 to 8 lab sections to check my retention. Did l2 switching, frame relay, and ip routing last week, and turns out my retention was actually pretty good. Next week I'll do RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP.

down77

Let us know how the mock exam goes! I'll probably got back over the first 8 weeks again down the line to keep it fresh.

I was able to do 2.1 - 2.3 tonight due to interruptions and also troubleshooting a few issues with my GNS3 config. I may try to finish 2.6 and call it a night. About 3 hours of labs done though it seems like I wasted my time than it was worth.... I'm going to try and finish frame relay over the next day or so and move on to IP Routing.

FWIW I'm also going back over the areas from Section 1 that I felt a little shaky on. I figure if I keep working those lab sections for 5-10 minutes every so often they will become like second nature.

down77

Oh the fun of fighting for INE rack time! I have around 1400 tokens left and it seems it'll be difficult to use them over the next few weeks since everything is pretty much booked up. This means time to finish the GNS3 configuration (need to update the SW1-4 configs for L3 labs).

I was able to work through 3.3 Longest match routing. Though I spent 4 hours working labs tonight a lot of time was wasted on slow hotel connections, redoing configurations, and giving up on remote labs to work on GNS! I'm going to try to get through GRE tunneling tomorrow and also go over more of the videos.

Slow but sure is the pace

down77

DCSNS class is done for the day and now I am back at the hotel to spend 5-6 hours (3-4 actually in reality due to interruptions) working on finishing IP Routing labs and starting on RIP core. Let's see how far I can get and I'll update the progress towards the end of the night after the fun is complete!

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

DCSNS class is done for the day and now I am back at the hotel to spend 5-6 hours (3-4 actually in reality due to interruptions) working on finishing IP Routing labs and starting on RIP core. Let's see how far I can get and I'll update the progress towards the end of the night after the fun is complete!

I feel your angst. Been there done that. I look forward to your 100 CCIE lab hour milestone!

down77

Mentally exhausted today after 4 days of DCSNS class. I've been able to squeak by with 75minutes of INE review videos and 1hr of lab so far. I may try to do a little more after taking a break but I have a feeling it may be a short night tonight. Still, 135minutes of total review on IP Routing is better than 0 minutes.

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

Mentally exhausted today after 4 days of DCSNS class. I've been able to squeak by with 75minutes of INE review videos and 1hr of lab so far. I may try to do a little more after taking a break but I have a feeling it may be a short night tonight. Still, 135minutes of total review on IP Routing is better than 0 minutes.

The first year of lab prep is the hardest, and the worst in terms of toll. Just pace yourself this year and do as much as is sensible, but be regular! The work I did in 2008 still stands me in good stead today as I brush up on things for my lab attempt.

down77

I can understand. I took 3 days off studying after last week and will hit the books again tonight. I have a rough travel schedule ahead filled with lots of flights, so I made sure to spend the last few days with my wife and son before the fun begins. I can get plenty of study time in on the road, but as you had said and others have learned... family life is also very important!

Tonight will be to finish Vol 1 Section 3 (3.6-3.11) and start moving on to Section 4 RIP

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

I can understand. I took 3 days off studying after last week and will hit the books again tonight. I have a rough travel schedule ahead filled with lots of flights, so I made sure to spend the last few days with my wife and son before the fun begins. I can get plenty of study time in on the road, but as you had said and others have learned... family life is also very important!

Tonight will be to finish Vol 1 Section 3 (3.6-3.11) and start moving on to Section 4 RIP

Good luck. In a year's time you will look back on this time wryly. Oh the confusion of it all. Things will make a lot more sense in a years time.

down77

Turgon wrote: »

Good luck. In a year's time you will look back on this time wryly. Oh the confusion of it all. Things will make a lot more sense in a years time.

I'm sure it will. Right now there are a few things that I'm not as familiar with as I should be, but most of it isn't that bad. As long as I can get over 500hrs labbed by the end of the year I will be happy

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

I'm sure it will. Right now there are a few things that I'm not as familiar with as I should be, but most of it isn't that bad. As long as I can get over 500hrs labbed by the end of the year I will be happy

That works. And your right, even starting off it isn't that bad. But with hundreds of hours of lab practice the process gets slicker and you do understand things much better. I just solved a redistribution task tonight from memory that I haven't considered in two years. A lot of people do clear the lab in 12 months, but many more dont. A mistake is to try to if it isn't practical. You study in the wrong way and destroy your lab prospects in the future as a consequence. Many candidates have started with bluster only for the homelab to go on ebay. Thousands and thousands of them.

down77

Well it looks like most of last week was spent working on client projects and little on the CCIE Lab studies. I asked my family for some study time today, and with road trips coming up tomorrow I will be able to resume where I left off in no time. I still need to find time to take the DCSNS and DCNID exams which I have to do before the end of the month so I will be trying to mix those in as best as possible. Oh how I love when time management goes out the window!

Today's Goal: Finish IP Routing and move on to RIP.
This Week's Goal: Continue forward progress!

down77

A fun with with no connectivity to the outside world! I was able to get through a bit of the INE videos and review IP SLA, backup interfaces, GRE tunnels, and start on dynamic routing protocols (Welcome to RIP!). I'm hoping for more lab time today/tomorrow and will be working on Vol 1 Section 4. Slow but forward progress. I still need to schedule the other 2 storage exams but, moving forward with the CCIE studies

On a side note: work approved the INE bootcamp in Oct!!!

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

A fun with with no connectivity to the outside world! I was able to get through a bit of the INE videos and review IP SLA, backup interfaces, GRE tunnels, and start on dynamic routing protocols (Welcome to RIP!). I'm hoping for more lab time today/tomorrow and will be working on Vol 1 Section 4. Slow but forward progress. I still need to schedule the other 2 storage exams but, moving forward with the CCIE studies

On a side note: work approved the INE bootcamp in Oct!!!

Good news on the bootcamp. Keep up the Vol 1 work, but I would advise you start to have a crack at the Vol III labs. Doable core labs that will help you before the Vol II no lifer, all topic monsters I speak as someone who has done all three workbooks. Vol II twice, Vol III twice, nearly three now

down77

I'll have to start adding in some of the Vol III labs then. I'll load the PDF on to my iPad tonight.

So I've been going back over some of the labs while on my flights to/from client sites. My digression into Unified Fabric testing is almost over (exams next week) and then back to the CCIE studies hardcore. This "short break" is inopportune but required for work.

TGIF!!

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

I'll have to start adding in some of the Vol III labs then. I'll load the PDF on to my iPad tonight.

So I've been going back over some of the labs while on my flights to/from client sites. My digression into Unified Fabric testing is almost over (exams next week) and then back to the CCIE studies hardcore. This "short break" is inopportune but required for work.

TGIF!!

Isn't it a shame when hours spent on real world work dont help your CCIE studies? Nexus. You had a busy week. Keep on trucking.

down77

Turgon wrote: »

Isn't it a shame when hours spent on real world work dont help your CCIE studies? Nexus. You had a busy week. Keep on trucking.

Its a horrible shame! Last week was filled with DMVPN, FC/FCoE, and helping clients understand the pains of migrating from EoL 6500s to N7K and better.

While I didn't get as much rack time as I'd like (0), I was able to get another 15 of the INE Advanced technologies videos done. Even some progress is better than nothing! I will go back and take notes on a few sections and hopefully continue the lab time this weekend.

Reminds me, I need to download the next set of videos and load them on the iPad as well as Vol 3 and 4 pdfs

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

Its a horrible shame! Last week was filled with DMVPN, FC/FCoE, and helping clients understand the pains of migrating from EoL 6500s to N7K and better.

While I didn't get as much rack time as I'd like (0), I was able to get another 15 of the INE Advanced technologies videos done. Even some progress is better than nothing! I will go back and take notes on a few sections and hopefully continue the lab time this weekend.

Reminds me, I need to download the next set of videos and load them on the iPad as well as Vol 3 and 4 pdfs

I know. We get this in real world. Our time and energies just spent on non CCIE prep stuff. Easy going NOC jobs, hanging out at Cisco with time to prepare for the lab, even unemployment give you more time. But what you did this week adds value to your career. The CCIE will also, it will just take a little time..

down77

Turgon wrote: »

I know. We get this in real world. Our time and energies just spent on non CCIE prep stuff. Easy going NOC jobs, hanging out at Cisco with time to prepare for the lab, even unemployment give you more time. But what you did this week adds value to your career. The CCIE will also, it will just take a little time..

I agree, and as you said before it's a marathon and not a race. I'm fortunate in the fact that I get to play with many technologies others drool over. Jobs like ours don't give as many hours for hard core (CCIE) studies but the hands on experience is invaluable! Good things come to those who are patient!

Turgon

down77 wrote: »

I agree, and as you said before it's a marathon and not a race. I'm fortunate in the fact that I get to play with many technologies others drool over. Jobs like ours don't give as many hours for hard core (CCIE) studies but the hands on experience is invaluable! Good things come to those who are patient!

I think so. Think of the CCIE as being a Master Craftsman. That takes years. What good is it cramming that? Get some experience so that you have gravitas, then the CCIE just gilt edges things. Better that than being another labrat with no form..thousand of them out there.

down77

Turgon wrote: »

I think so. Think of the CCIE as being a Master Craftsman. That takes years. What good is it cramming that? Get some experience so that you have gravitas, then the CCIE just gilt edges things. Better that than being another labrat with no form..thousand of them out there.

Agreed! I've sat in many workshops, classes, and lectures with individuals who have passed the exam and they are still furthering their skill set. I should say the ones who are worth their salt keep advancing that is...

Side note: Realized I'm about 9 months out from when I am hoping to sit the lab exam. That seems like such a long time but it'll come sooner than I think... Since I did a poor job of taking notes through the first 50 videos I'm going to start keeping my Mead Five Star notebook with me at all times and start hard core note taking with the next section on EIGRP and eventually go back and fill in the gaps. I'm sure I'll get a few funny looks on airplanes as I am watching the INE videos while scribbling away in my note pad!

Oh well, off to finish the last RIP video and then move on to something more fun.

down77

Tonight's fun was configuring EIGRP unicast communication, hello/hold timer manipulation, basic authentication, and the fun with split-horizon. Not a very long lab session but beneficial. Way too many times we don't some of these in a production environment (authentication for example) so it's always good to refresh.

Tomorrow is another flight to RTP which will hopefully mean 3-4hrs of Advanced Technology Video review and at least an hour or two of lab time.

down77

DCSNS exam in the morning. It's all just layer 2 right?

down77

DCNID exam tomorrow and then back to the CCIE studies. Unfortunately I had to take a month off to complete the partner requirements but its now done and over with for another 2 years!