My CCNP Journey

Danielh22185

Slight update. Well... May 10th didn't happen. I have been insanely busy with personal things going on in my life and work has me busier than ever. I actually have not been able to study for a solid 2-3 weeks. However, things now have calmed down a bit for me and I can re-establish my focus. I have completed reading the OCG book a little while back and am just going through additional material covered in the INE videos. The INE videos are great though! Very in depth explanations. I am taking notes on these as I go. I actually created 8 full pages of notes just on OSPF alone! After I finish this off I plan to hammer through the Acedemy labbook once more and toy around with the 101 CCNP labs while doing some practice tests from Boson. I have re-secheduled my exam for the end of June, so that shouldd give me a solid 6 more weeks of study.

Danielh22185

Hard to believe I started this thread over a year ago. I have a few interruptions in my life that has put studying on the back burner. Though, I have tried to keep up with some studies here and there. I recently bought a house and moved in, that can be a very taxing process. I also took on some new roles at work so that has also removed some availability to study. However, NOW I feel like my life has more normalized. I am all moved into my new house, I have my study materials available, and I'm back at it. I began labbing again and reading again. I am focusing on reading over the FLG book now. I have read the OCG book 1.5 times and feel I got about all I can get from it. I also feel like the FLG is better in-depth reading so I am using this in my final preparations. I plan on going pretty hard as I want full CCNP before the years end at this point. Glad to be normalized and have time again to progress with studying!

FloOz

Goodluck man, keep it up!

ptlinva

Union222, you will need more. I would recommend a 3550 (probably two of them) off of Ebay for the 'np switch exam. I see them starting at $10. Keep an eye out for a good deal. If you can, get one PoE for your Voice studies in the future. The 3560 and 2960 are definately nice to have. Good Luck!

ptlinva

I'm enjoying these forums tremendously as it helps keep me motivated. I don't personally know anyone that does what I do and have been self-taught for 20 years for my lively hood. It's great to have everyone here posting in these forums!

To add my part... Passed the 'np switch test. On to Route and I've just got through EIGRP and moving on to OSPF using Jeremy's videos.

I'm excited about getting closer to the exam time and have set a goal for August 15th...!!

Good Luck everyone!

Danielh22185

Happy to report I am flying through FLG. I actually skipped the 1st introductory chapter that talks about network designs. I read through it once or twice already when I first cracked open FLG but then went to OCG. I am about 20 pages away from being done with chapter 3 OSPF which puts me past the 300 page mark; I should be able to tackle that tonight no problem. I am very happy to have made this progress all last week. I had 4 days off from work so made some great reading progress. Most of it is review as I have read the OCG book but good review for sure. I am excited to finish the tougher concepts of OSPF, like Area Types and LSA types to see how well it is explained when compared to OCG.

I am also as always pairing with labs. I was doing some BGP labs prior to cracking open FLG again so I am finishing that up now. I've done all of the labs from the lab manual book once already so I can hammer through the OSPF labs pretty quick to catch up with my reading. I may just skip on some of the very basic stuff.

This week's goal:

More labs and Finish off another chapter in FLG which should net me another 150+ pages read. These chapters are huge!!! However, great content and I enjoy the FLG way more now that I have a basis for comparison to the OCG book!

I am going to try and post weekly goals as I go to help keep myself motivated and on track.

Ivanjam

@Danielh22185 - you are making tremendous strides - keep on going!

ndonaghy

Good luck Daniel, keep at it!

Danielh22185

Thank you for the words of encouragement! It is most helpful!

Danielh22185

I am now on chapter 5 in FLG (Page 415). Finished OSPF and Route Manipulations (Route Maps/ Prefix Lists, Distribute Lists, Redistribution). I still feel pretty weak with the Route Manipulation topics so I will be labbing a lot to grind the topics to a better understanding. OSPF I feel pretty confident about. Fished the chapter and labs from the lab book.

I also just received the CCNP route simplified book. I think as a primary resource I am going to use it for an area to further brush up on my weak topics and do the labs. Not sure if I need to read it cover to cover, especially after reading the OCG book and FLG book. I will focus on extra reading after I feel more confident on my weaker areas. I do like how big and user friendly it is though. Wish I would have got the book sooner.

This week's focus:
I have wed-sat off of work. I am going to try again to focus on atleast 4hrs of study each day I am off work. Its my wedding anniversary on Wednesday though so might not get much accomplished that day.

More Updates to come!

Danielh22185

I am regrettably informing that I wasn't able to make much of any progress this past week. I had a short work week and then took some time to be with the wife for our anniversary. I also had some other events going on with friends that had me busy. I got a good chunk of chapter 5 knocked out in the FLG book before the events took place that kept me busy till now so I should be able to finish the chapter relatively quickly from here.

This weeks goals:

Finish chapter 5 in FLG
Finish chapter 6 in FLG
Complete at minimum of 6 hours of labbing or more regarding Route Re distributions, Optimizing, and Path selection.

Danielh22185

Well Ch.5 had to have been the shortest chapter yet for the FLG book. Went through it pretty quick. On to BGP, one of my favorite topics!


This weeks goals revised:

Finish chapter 6 in FLG
Complete at minimum of 6 hours of labbing or more regarding Route Re-distributions, Optimizing, and Path selection.

Danielh22185

Had some unexpected family items crop up over the last week. I only had time Friday and some of Saturday to study.

I still managed to get in a few hours of labbing in as well as finished Chapter 6: BGP. It was a big one 120+ pages. I loved this chapter though and the FLG book has helped me really understand BGP more as well as filtering tools. I am still working on labbing route filtering topics to further ingrain my knowledge. Next chapter is Branch Routing concepts. If it is anything like what was covered in the OCG book it won't be very indepth. This should give me time to catch up with labbing.

Plans for this week:

1.) Finish Chapter 7, Branch routing concepts
2.) Get deep into Chapter 8: IPv6 Concepts. (This is where I feel OCG was lacking). The IPv6 Chapter is over 200 pages in this book. Should be interesting. I am excited to build more depth into my knowledge of IPv6.
3.) Lab 8 hours minimum

I have also rescheduled my exam for first week of October. So I have a hard set date to chase.

ToddB

I'm ready to start, Passed CCNA with Chris Bryant but for CCNP I'm inbeteen Chris Bryant (12933) and INE. I can only get 1 and both seem real good, I was ready for bryant but heard some say his CCNP training was not as good and detailed as CCNA.

Danielh22185

ToddB wrote: »

I'm ready to start, Passed CCNA with Chris Bryant but for CCNP I'm inbeteen Chris Bryant (12933) and INE. I can only get 1 and both seem real good, I was ready for bryant but heard some say his CCNP training was not as good and detailed as CCNA.

To be honest I haven't used anything from Chris Bryant yet. I've heard he is good but I never got around to using his stuff. So far I have read the OCG book and am on the last chapter of the FLG book. I have gone through all the CBT nuggets and several INE videos. I am also labbing with GNS3 using the official lab book for practice and plan to use the back of CCNP simplified for labbing as well and an additional theory learning resource. INE is great; to be honest I like it more for its informative information over CBT but CBT is more entertaining.

Danielh22185

FLG DONE!

That makes 2 Cisco press books completed. Now I am just going back through it for review purposes making notes, doing practice questions, example scenarios to lab, etc.

I also maintained doing a lot of labbing. I was able to lab quite a bit with PBR topics and IPv6. I can honestly say these were my weakest topics and now I am feeling MUCH stronger. I will still continue to lab and do some additional reading. I will make an attempt to read completely through the Simplified Book as well as doing some labs from the back of that book.

Goals for this week:

* Make notes from the key topics in the FLG book in my note books. (I am going to try to cover the entire book this week)

* Continue to lab (8hrs minimum)

* Crack open the CCNP Simplified Book. (I am not sure yet how to gauge if I will be able to read this entire book before my test date) I think I can as I feel I tackled the FLG book rather quickly and its a much more indepth read.

Danielh22185

I also started using this book as some supplementary reading as it is a quick and the point read:

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/11892-102-1-45119/CCNP%20ROUTE%20Complete%20Guide%201st%20Edition.pdf

Danielh22185

Not a major update for this week. It was my longer week at work (4days) this week. I also had to move a friend out of their apartment on Thursday and my Wife to a new place of work later that day. Needless to say I didn't get much done Thursday.

Friday I got 6 hours in, all labbing. I finished all the IPv6 labs in the SLM, which now I feel very very confident with Ipv6. I plan to do some more labs within the SLM and pair it with labs from CCNP Route Simplified / CCNP Route Complete Guide on other subjects as refreshers. I have also looked into the labs published online from the same authors that created the 101 CCNP Labs.

I am running back through my FLG book making hand written notes on the key topics I highlighted while reading. At this point I think I have enough core understanding of the topics so I will ramp my labbbing efforts to about 75% of my total study and leave writing notes / re-reviewing book material with the last 25%.

For supplemental review style reading I am also reading "CCNP Route Complete First Guide" during down time at work. Its a pretty useful guide for reviewing topics. Should be a quick read.

Goals for this week:

* Run through EIGRP / OSPF labs (it’s been a while) in SLM
* Run though labs on Route Summarization, Optimizations, and BGP in SLM.
* Map out new labs in CCNP Route Simplified.
* Continue to make had written notes (try to finish making notes with FLG book)
* Ramp up study efforts to 6hrs a day minimum on my days off 2 hours during work days.

Danielh22185

A quick thing to add. I am going to nab my JNCIA cert after route is complete as I am told by work colleges it should be a quick one, and the tests are much cheaper than Cisco.

Iristheangel

Nice! You're making some good progress. I always like peering into this thread and following your progress.

Do you have an ETA for your test yet? Have you checked out RouterGods on Meetup? They do regular meetups on Google Hangouts where they lab routing exercises on GNS3

Danielh22185

Iristheangel wrote: »

Nice! You're making some good progress. I always like peering into this thread and following your progress.

Do you have an ETA for your test yet? Have you checked out RouterGods on Meetup? They do regular meetups on Google Hangouts where they lab routing exercises on GNS3

Ya I've heard of it, haven't done much really with I'll have to check that out.

Thanks!

Danielh22185

Iristheangel wrote: »

Nice! You're making some good progress. I always like peering into this thread and following your progress.

Do you have an ETA for your test yet?

ETA on test is Oct. 3rd

Iristheangel

Nice! My ETA is around the middle of October. Have you taken Switch yet?

Danielh22185

Iristheangel wrote: »

Nice! My ETA is around the middle of October. Have you taken Switch yet?

No Switch yet, I hope to knock it out within 2 months or less after taking Route. I'll probably take TSHOOT a couple weeks after Switch.

Iristheangel

Very nice! The Switch content is infinitely easier to swallow than Route. There's just a lot less to study for so it's a bit better. I get mixed reviews on TSHOOT. A coworker of mine told me it was the hardest of the three just because of the style but I see way too many people on this forum knock it out on the same day as other tests or get perfect scores. Hopefully I can give you a review of it before you end up taking it!

Danielh22185

Iristheangel wrote: »

Very nice! The Switch content is infinitely easier to swallow than Route. There's just a lot less to study for so it's a bit better. I get mixed reviews on TSHOOT. A coworker of mine told me it was the hardest of the three just because of the style but I see way too many people on this forum knock it out on the same day as other tests or get perfect scores. Hopefully I can give you a review of it before you end up taking it!

Ya I'd appreciate anything you have! Right now I am trying to decipher what is the best study material to jump to (books, etc) I also need to organize what physical equipment to get too, haven't really given that much thought / research yet.

I am under the impression I will want at least 1 3560 and at least 2-3 2950s for physical. (I really wish GNS3 emulated switch too...)

Iristheangel

Pretty much 2 L3 switches (3650s aren't bad) and 2 L2 switches (2960s) would probably be enough. It'll probably cost you a few hundred dollars but if you plan on going for the CCIE in the future, you'll need some toys to play. You could do PVLANs on 3650s as I recall as well. All of the switch labs I went through just required 2 layer 3 and 2 layer 2 switches so you should be fine with those.

Danielh22185

Iristheangel wrote: »

Pretty much 2 L3 switches (3650s aren't bad) and 2 L2 switches (2960s) would probably be enough. It'll probably cost you a few hundred dollars but if you plan on going for the CCIE in the future, you'll need some toys to play. You could do PVLANs on 3650s as I recall as well. All of the switch labs I went through just required 2 layer 3 and 2 layer 2 switches so you should be fine with those.

Great to know! CCIE at some point in time will be something I will reach for so I will opt to try and get the proper equipment the first go round.

Iristheangel

If you can, get equipment that can run the 15 code. I was lucky enough to get some 7200s, 3845s, and 2821s from my work but those are power hogs. Mrock modeled his homelab off of the INE CCIE rack and was able to pass on the first try

Danielh22185

Iristheangel wrote: »

If you can, get equipment that can run the 15 code. I was lucky enough to get some 7200s, 3845s, and 2821s from my work but those are power hogs. Mrock modeled his homelab off of the INE CCIE rack and was able to pass on the first try

Ya that could end up being expensive. I wish my company would release equipment to us but they have even end of life equipment on serious lock down and won't release it to anybody. I do however work with a Cisco Contractor that works in the NOC that has expressed the idea that he may be able to get us equipment cheap directly from Cisco. I'll have to explore that option.