Starting CCIE Written. Just had "the talk" with Mrs. Zartan.

MrBishop

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Funny you should mention this. I didn't study their CCNP material, I made that association on my own while reading the Doyle book. I was watching the ATC videos on BGP last night and I saw the video where Brian made that same comparison. I've thoroughly banished the idea from my mind though, I promise!

If you haven't got your hands on their study material, try to get it. I'm looking forward to watching their CCIE ATC 4.5 series but not so much the CCIE written 4.0. It's very hard to listen to that instructor voice for that specific course. I've also heard that IPexpert offers some really good CCIE training material.

Zartanasaurus

Day 35 - 4 hours
Total - 180 hours

IP routing: 3.1 - 3.11 Rep 2. Was supposed to do this on Thursday but skipped it. No big deal, nothing real complicated there.
BGP: ATC Videos 100-103. I wasn't feeling mentally sharp enough to start on BGP labs, so I decided to wait until Monday.
IPv6: First 3 chapters of IPv6 Theory, Protocol & Practice from the INE recommended books list. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of reading this week as it pertains to IPv6. This book is 500 pages, 80 page chapter in Routing TCP/IP Vol 2 and 500 pages of Implementing Cisco IPv6 Networks. Slowly nibbling away at that elephant.

The OSPF book I ordered 10 days ago still isn't here. That's the one downside to going with the cheaper 3rd party sellers on Amazon. You never know if they are going to be on top of their game or not, despite feedback.

thiagomh

When I was studying for ccnp - routing (2010), I studied the ospf design guide form Cisco. It was a 60 page detail explanation about ospf, very good to read.

Zartanasaurus

Day 36 - 6 hours
Total - 186 hours

OSPF book finally arrived today and in very good condition. Considering how long it took, I thought maybe it came via media mail, but it was UPS. It's here now and I wasn't planning on reading it anytime soon, so no big deal.

EIGRP: 5.1 - 5.10, Rep 3.
BGP: The moment I've been waiting for. 7.1 - 7.12, Rep 1. I think 7.1 is designed to show you how annoying the full mesh requirement is.
IPv6: Chapters 4-6 in the Lushin IPv6 book. Not quite a fan of this book yet, although it's still early. The way he draws packets is really odd. Looking ahead and it seems like it starts to pack in a ton of useful info although I think I'll skip the chapters on configuring IPv6 on Windows NT and FreeBSD.

Zartanasaurus

Day 37 - 3 hours
Total - 186 hours

IPv6: Chapters 7-10 in the Lushin book. It's finally starting to get into some technical details instead of 30,000 foot overviews. Seems like each chapter up to this point was a list of features "that we'll go into detail starting in Chapter 19". I'm actually taking some notes here and there.

42% done according to Kindle, although probably 50% done in actuality since some of the later chapters are skippable.

Zartanasaurus

Day 38 - 4 hours
Total - 190 hours

OSPF: 6.1 - 6.14 Rep 3.
IPv6: Chapters 11 - 16 in the Lushin book. Basically done now. Chapters 20 & 22 cover configuring routers for IPv6 and IPv6 transition technologies. Nothing else looks like it's required to read. Mostly OS specific configuration and services like DNS/BIND & IPF. It feels good to be pretty much done with this book. When it's all said and done, it's about 360 pages out of a total of 530. It's a pretty easy read and doesn't go into much detail on any topic, but it's a good first book on IPv6. I can see why it's on the INE reading list. Two chapters left here, and the chapter in the Doyle book and I should be ready to start section 9 in WBI on Friday. Maybe I should brush up on OSPFv3 and RIPng from Vol I as well.

Then it's on to multicast, which is a topic I've been especially looking forward to.

jamesp1983

You're really putting in the hours. Good work!

Zartanasaurus

I guess asking here is as good as any place.

If you were taking someone on as a networking apprentice, and that person was completely new to networking, what book(s) would you recommend they read to get started in the field?

Forsaken_GA

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I guess asking here is as good as any place.

If you were taking someone on as a networking apprentice, and that person was completely new to networking, what book(s) would you recommend they read to get started in the field?

There is no one book. Radia Perlman's Interconnections, and Comers TCP/IP book would be a bare minimum. If you can't converse with me about how layers 1 through 4 work on a fundamental level, you need to go find something else to do.

After that, Doyle's Routing TCP/IP, Vol 1 at the very least. While it's very Cisco centric, those two books are probably the best one-stop shop for the practical application of routing. I'm still a big fan of Kennedy's LAN Switching book for layer 2, though it's definitely dated now, and the nature of layer 2 has changed so much, what with technologies like Q-in-Q and VPLS becoming so commonplace.

But to be really good at this gig, you have to be insatiably curious and willing to tinker and find your own answers. Relying solely on stores of other peoples knowledge is lazy, which means you need to be a big enough geek to actually go read Cisco documentation and white papers, along with RFC's. The only thing any singe book is going to give you is a high level overview. As you read the various books, if questions don't occur to you, and then you don't go looking for the answers to those questions when you find the author either didn't answer them at all, or to your satisfaction, you're doing it wrong.

Zartanasaurus

Day 38 - 2 hours
Total - 192 hours

IPv6: Chapters 20 & 22 in the Lushin book. :done: Videos 112 - 113.

As you can see, mostly a rest day.

Zartanasaurus

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

There is no one book. Radia Perlman's Interconnections, and Comers TCP/IP book would be a bare minimum. If you can't converse with me about how layers 1 through 4 work on a fundamental level, you need to go find something else to do.

No hand holding with you, huh? I thought I might try to bring him along a little more slowly, but maybe baptism by fire is the right play here.

jamesp1983

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I thought I might try to bring him along a little more slowly, but maybe baptism by fire is the right play here.

Baptism by fire is how I learned. It is tough, but you can't baby people forever.

Forsaken_GA

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

No hand holding with you, huh? I thought I might try to bring him along a little more slowly, but maybe baptism by fire is the right play here.

Far too much crap to do, and too little time to do it in. I like working with self-starters and highly motivated people. If I wanted to teach, I'd take an adjunct position at my local community college instead of merely functioning as a guest speaker every few months. I've dealt with far too many people that are really nice people, but simply aren't cut out for netengy roles. I only care about one thing, and one thing only, can you do the job, or can you learn to do it really quick like. I work on a network whose parts service 20+ million customers for voice, video, and data. There is a certain level of proficiency required to play at that level, we don't have time for interns.

Zartanasaurus

Day 39-41 - 14 hours
Total - 206 hours

Finally cracked 200 hours of study time.


BGP: 7.1 - 7.12 Rep 3.
IPv6: 9.1 - 9.9 Rep 1. ATC Videos 114-119.
Multicast: Williamson Multicast book Chapters 1-8, 10-11. About 85% done Chapter 12. Book is a remarkably easy read up until Chapter 11 on PIM Sparse Mode. All previous chapters are 20-30 pages. Chapter 11 comes in at 70 pages. The remaining chapters are short like the others. About 170 pages left, then 350 in the Doyle book then I'm mostly done reading on multicast. Some people on the IEOC forums recommended the Multicast deep dive, so I may watch those videos in addition to the ATC videos. That's 20 hours worth of videos and maybe 2 days more worth of reading. Looks like I'm married to multicast for another week before I start on the labs.

Zartanasaurus

Day 42 - 5 hours
Total - 211 hours

Frame Relay: 2-1 - 2.8 Rep 4
Multicast: Chapters 12, 14-17. I went back over chapters 10 & 11 to take some notes. Will do the the same for chapter 12 tomorrow. Having finished the book, I feel like chapters 3,11,12 are hands down the most valuable. Not that anyone should be skipping much, but those 3 are the foundation IMO. I skipped the chapter on DVMRP although I see there's a later task in Vol I about DVMRP, so I guess I'll go back and re-read tomorrow.

PsychoFin

Wow man, you are killing it! What are you using for repetitions? Some kind of SRS like MnemoSyne or Anki?

Regards,
Fin

Zartanasaurus

PsychoFin wrote: »

Wow man, you are killing it! What are you using for repetitions? Some kind of SRS like MnemoSyne or Anki?

Regards,
Fin

Just writing questions in Word and using Google Calendar to keep track for when I'm due for either review questions or labs. As I go through new material or rereading of old material, I'll update the questions. Following the suggested intervals from SuperMemo.

PsychoFin

Alright, cool. It must be time consuming though. I just use an SRS for the same purpose, makes reviewing and scheduling much easier.

Keep on truckin'!

Regards,
Fin

jamesp1983

You can download AnyMemo if you have a Droid based phone. They have study decks for each chapter of the CCIE Exam Guide.

Zartanasaurus

jamesp1983 wrote: »

You can download AnyMemo if you have a Droid based phone. They have study decks for each chapter of the CCIE Exam Guide.

Downloaded this and did a quick search for CCIE. Seems like there's a ton of flashcards out there, and no real way to see how good they are without going through them. I'll search around some more tomorrow.

Zartanasaurus

Day 43 - 4.5 hours
Total - 215.5 hours

Multicast: ATC Videos 119 - 127. Can't quite put my finger on it, but this series of videos seems subpar. The topics for the multicast deep dive look promising though. I decided against reading the multicast chapters in the Doyle book. Instead I got a Safari Online sub and I'm going to read the Interdomain Multicast Routing book recommended by Brian and someone over on the IEOC forums. It looks a little more up to date on coverage of things like BSR, Anycast RP and MSDP. Plus it's relatively short and focused, so it shouldn't take long to go through. Probably should've just gone with this one from the start.

Zartanasaurus

I was having a problem with an OS Deployment via SCCM today. Thanks to all the material I've been watching and reading on multicast, I was able to troubleshoot the problem and get it fixed relatively quickly. There's such a huge difference between knowing how to configure something and knowing how things are supposed to work to come up with an educated guess for where you should start to verify where the process is broken.

thadizzy

Thats my main motivation right there. Working became so much more pleasant when you have great knowledge on the subject.

Zartanasaurus

Day 44-45 - 12.5 hours
Total - 228 hours

Basically took W-F off this week. Reading Safari Books on a tablet sucks. The basic mobile site okay but clunky/buggy. They have an iPad app but not an Android app.

Multicast: Lab 8.1 - 10 Rep 1. Skimmed through the first chapter of IMR and decided to skip everything that I had already covered. If you've already read a multicast book, Chapters 5-7 will suffice here to fill in the gaps from the older multicast books. This book might be sufficient on its own, although I can't say 100% since I didn't read those chapters.
MPLS: Based on an IEOC post, the relevant chapters in this book are 1-4, 6-7. I've read everything except chapter 7. This book is a pretty easy read, despite some Amazon reviews. I *feel* like I understand it, but I won't know for sure until I get to the ATC videos and Vol I labs.

I don't feel like I'm getting much out of my repetitions once I get to rep #4. At this point I think the best course of action is to do other labs in Vol I. By the time I come up on rep 3 for MPLS, I should have more bases covered for starting Vol II. I need to go back and do some more notes for PIM and come up with review questions for IPv6 and Multicast, since none of the books I read had end of chapter questions. I might just use the end of chapter questions from Doyle even though I didn't read the book, and supplement with questions I come up with after reading Cisco docs.

After tomorrow, I will technically be done the warm-up phase, although I'm doing this in modified form since I didn't pass the Written yet, which is assumed in the INE program. From here I will read the QoS book, Network Technologies and Solutions and finish up with the Official Cert Guide. I think I'll start each chapter by just doing the end of chapter questions to see what I know and don't know before I actually read.

Remaining books on the INE recommended list:
Internet Routing Architectures
Implementing Cisco IPv6 Networks
Network Design and Case Studies
Inside Cisco IOS Software Architecture

Has anyone read the Network Design and Case Studies book?

Zartanasaurus

Day 46 - 5 hours
Total - 233 hours

MPLS: Chapter 7. ATC Videos 104-106. There's a lot of ground that's covered in Chapter 7. Takes a long time to read if you are being thorough.

Zartanasaurus

Day 47 - 6.5 hours
Total - 239.5 hours

I'm retracing my steps some. I was getting so focused on the finish line that I forgot about the race. I haven't been keeping the best notes nor have I done any Q&A questions for repetitions from IPv6 on.

IPv6: I got the expanded blueprint from the INE website and went down each item, looked up the topic in the IPv6 book and made Q&A questions. Completed Rep 1.
BGP: Internet Routing Architectures Chapters 4-5.

Not sure why I wasn't following the blueprint more closely before, but I will make sure that I cover every item in my Q&A.

Zartanasaurus

Day 48 - 2 hours
Total - 241.5 hours

Multicast: Went over the blueprint and re-reading sections that map while making some Q&A for later.

Should be caught up on my back log by tomorrow and moving forward on IRA for the rest of the week.

Zartanasaurus

Day 49-50 - 11 hours
Total - 252.5 hours

I didn't get a chance to watch the INE vSeminar on CCIE lab prep, but a blog post detailed some of Brian's new book recommendations. As it turns out, I already read Interdomain Multicast Routing so I'm slightly ahead of the curve there. An interesting note about most of the books on this list is that they seem to be a lot shorter than the 1000+ page Cisco Press versions. I hope they get the video uploaded soon. I'm keeping up with checking the expanded blueprint as I go over a topic to make sure I haven't missed anything. I've been using the RFCs a lot more as a supplement which is an exercise in itself.

BGP: Based on the new book recommendations, I added Practical BGP to my Safari bookshelf. Read chapters 1-6. This is a really great book, I can see why it's on his list. I started off a little skeptical, but I'm definitely a fan. I think it's a better BGP learning book than Doyle. Can't compare to Halabi because I dropped that before I got too deep in favor of this one. The authors seem to spend a little more critical thinking time on getting you to understand how the basics work and why they work that way. I'm having an easier time reading this than Doyle, but that could just because I know more BGP going in. By the time I get done with this, I think I'll be ready to jump back into MPLS with more confidence.

IPv6: Completed Q&A Rep 2. Still owed rep 3 of the Vol I labs.

Multicast: Q&A Rep 1. Still have to do rep 2 of the Vol I labs.

My goals for tomorrow are to catch up on the two labs I am behind and finish the BGP book. The last chapter is on MPLS L3 VPNs, so it seems like a natural transition to getting back to MPLS after that. Chapter 7 in MPLS Fundamentals really broke me down.

Zartanasaurus

Day 51-52 - 9 hours
Total - 261.5 hours

All caught up on the labs I was behind.

Bridging & Switching: 1.16 - 1.32 Rep 1. ATC video #22. Since I have lots of time b/w reps past #3, I'm going deeper into the Vol I workbooks to fill in some time. For successive reps I will only do 1.16-21, 1.26, 1.30-32. Skipping the ones that I already know pretty well from my day job or are just 1 or 2-liners with no gotchas.

Frame Relay: 2.9 - 2.16 Rep 1. ATC videos #26-28.

BGP: Chapter 7 in Practical BGP. 3 Chapters left.

IPv6: 9.1 - 9.9 Rep 3.

Multicast: 8.1 - 8.10 Rep 2.

6 weeks ago I said I was 10 weeks away from being done with Phase I and being ready for the written. I think I'm just about on pace for that, even though I keep adding more books to the list I want to read. Before I sit for the written I definitely will read the QoS book, R&S Guide and Network Security Technologies & Solutions. I'll see where I'm at then with the Boson practice exams.

Zartanasaurus

Day 53 - 5 hours
Total - 266.5 hours

Bridging & Switching: ATC Videos 29-32.
RIP: 4.12 - 4.22 Rep 1. ATC Videos 51-52.
Multicast: Q&A Rep 2.