It's 106 hops to CCIE, we have a full tank of bandwidth, half a packet of IP....

vinbuck

It's dark fiber and we're wearing Sunglasses....Hit it!

I'm planning my run at the CCIE and so i've decided to start my CCIE Study Thread to get it in the queue

I'm "officially" still on break from passing the CCNP, but i'm having to do a Cisco360 CCIE IPv6 training course for work, so I decided to go ahead and begin studying for the CCIE written a little early and will probably ramp it up later this summer or early fall. Right now i'm just going to begin studying just while i'm at the office and figure out which books I want to use. I will likely use the Odom book for the written along with my volume of CCNP material for reference and review as it seems to have much of the same content. I've been continuously studying Routing and Switching for the CCNP during the last year and a half, so hopefully the written will be a familiar transition. Thankfully, I used many different CCIE labs and resources during my NP studies, so the content isn't totally foreign to me.

I'm planning to take the written towards the end of the year with my first lab attempt by the end of 2013. I've already got a decent lab at work that I have 24/7 access to on a DigiCM 32 port console server and I do daily troubleshooting/design on a Cisco 7606/7609 OSPF/BGP/MPLS Service Provider network that is wonderfully complex albeit sometimes frustrating .

Several years ago, even attempting the CCIE seemed like a pie in the sky dream and now I feel like i've got a really good shot at earning a number in the next two years.

jamesp1983

Welcome! I look forward to following your progress.

networker050184

Good luck man! Hope to see you complete the journey. Keep us updated on the progress!

PsychoFin

Welcome to the wild side! Good luck and don't give up!

vinbuck

Thanks y'all!

Looking forward to an epic journey. I can't even fathom how much of a knowledge jump it will be from CCNP to CCIE. When I finished my CCNA studies, I looked towards the CCNP and it seemed complex and incedibly difficult to attain. Although it was a difficult journey, it doesn't seem nearly as tough in restrospect as it did in the beginning. As I attempt to raise the difficulty level for myself, I seem to keep learning how much I really don't know

MrBishop

Good luck on your journey!

Zartanasaurus

Good luck.

and36y

I've found that the people that are serious about going for a CCIE are the ones that understand how little they actually know and admit it. They only gain this knowledge by studying and so identifying the gaps/canyons in their knowledge. The techies that say "I could do the written". Don't generally stand a chance and are basically full of @*?£.... (unfortunately the market place is crammed full of the second sort)

Andy

MrBrian

Good luck on your journey vinbuck!! Looking forward to following the thread

vinbuck

Thread resurrection!!!!!

So it's about a year later and I've had a job change which took me from a service provider network engineer to the lead network engineer at a large enterprise. Also added another little one to the family, so CCIE has been on the back burner for a while but never forgotten.

I'm finally at the point where I'm getting serious about planning my run at the R&S track. So far I began with the written OCG to refresh my CCNP knowledge, but I've had a Safari account for a while, so everything else on the INE reading list is on tap.

Going to probably get an INE all access pass and follow their study outlines. While I wait for the training dollars to get approved, I've been doing labs from GNS3 vault to get back into the routine of labbing. I've got a full lab at work that I can use complete with 6500s and more 3750s and 3560s than I will prob ever need. I've got several 2821 and 3800 series routers to use as well.

I'm pretty pumped and ready to start the journey that I've spent 15 years telling myself that I would one day complete.

vinbuck

Working heavily on BGP since I'm right in the middle of it anyway for work. Started going through all the BGP labs at GNS3Vault.com and have knocked out about 4 of them:

BGP Multipath Load Balancing
BGP AS Path Access List
BGP IBGP/EBGP Local Preference MED
BGP Route Reflectors

I've found these to be great for refreshing the fundamentals before diving into larger scale labs. I don't get to do as much large scale routing on a daily basis as I would like to, so the labs are a huge help.

aragoen_celtdra

I hope to see you continue on with this quest until you achieve your goals. I myself have been preparing for the written but just could not get into a comfortable routine due to work and family. But I hope to get into a nice rhythm.

vinbuck

Thanks...I too have had the same issues and am trying to get myself back into study mode. The biggest problem for me was figuring out where to begin. I did a pretty decent amount of reading on CCIE approaches and decided to go ahead and start labbing and reading as I have time while i work out a long term plan. I will ultimately use INE and follow their study outlines as they seem to be both efficient and successful.

Spent some time this morning before work labbing BGP filter lists with AS Path access lists. Right now i'm just making myself go into work an hour and a half early and using that time to get a study routine established and rebuild the foundation i had coming fresh off of CCNP last year.

I've read in more than one place that studying for the lab immediately rather than studying exclusively for the written and then starting lab prep is more efficient. Once I have a solid labbing foundation in all the areas of the blueprint, i'll do the Boson practice questions and go take the written.

wintermute000

I don't tend to have issues grasping any individual topic. The issue is remembering stuff you did a month or two ago, leading one to worry about what happens in the lab exam when every topic will be randomly thrown at you. e.g. I did a q-in-q lab two months ago, I understand the theory perfectly but just cannot remember the exact syntax and/or where the various lines are deployed.

Conversely in real life its not so bad as I keep good notes/links/evernote snippets/dropbox notepad collection etc. and can usually skim over a subject and sample configs in 10 minutes.

vinbuck

I discovered these two gems late in my CCNP studies:

Evernote | Remember everything with Evernote, Skitch and our other great apps.

Anki - powerful, intelligent flashcards

They are invaluable and will be very much a part of my CCIE studies to improve my ability to recall information on demand. Now that Cisco is getting in the GNS3 emulation game with a commercial offering in the Cloud Services Router VM, I will probably utilize that as a study resource as well.

Cisco Cloud Services Router - CSR1000v

vinbuck

Made some decent progress with BGP this week and was able to work part of it it into my day-to-day responsibilities

1) Had a BGP traffic engineering problem to solve between two routers with multiple peerings into the same MPLS cloud. Ended up using in and out route maps with local pref to prefer out bound paths and as-prepend to prefer inbound paths. I considered flirting with the MED, but after speaking with some of the Verizon design engineers about BGP attributes across the MPLS segments, they advised against using MED because they had encountered issues passing the MED between Cisco and Juniper routers...not sure if that's accurate or not but didn't have the time to investigate

2) Finished up as-path access lists and spent a bit of time playing with REGEX commands

3) Knocked out two new labs in GNS3 vault:

BGP Conditional Advertisement
BGP Traffic Engineering Unsuppress-Map

I'm supplementing the labs with focused reading from the following books in Safari:

BGP Design and Implementation - Randy Zhang
CCIE Written OCG - by Wendell Odom

vinbuck

Had some meetings with the bosses and they are fully on board with the CCIE. Waiting to hear back on what our training budget is, but It looks like I may get the whole thing funded if I commit to a couple of years there which I am totally cool with as it is a great environment with great pay.

I'm trying to get these covered: INE All-Access pass, INE (or maybe Micronics) Boot Camp and one lab attempt with travel

I'm really looking forward to getting my CCIE with this company - when I interviewed for their Lead Network Engineer position, I was very up front about the CCIE and that I would be actively pursuing it during my tenure there. I made it a point to tell them that I was looking for an environment that would support professional development and certification.

I've even gotten the go ahead to study on the clock when time permits....looks like a good time to go number hunting

aragoen_celtdra

It's a great plus if you can study on the clock as I find I'm able to concentrate more since the environment is somewhat suited for it. It's specially beneficial for me when there's no distraction from kids, all coworkers gone, and I still have some energy left for the day. Night time is the worst time for me to study.

Glad your work is behind you on your goal. It's very expensive to self-fund this quest, as I am doing.

gorebrush

aragoen_celtdra wrote: »

It's a great plus if you can study on the clock as I find I'm able to concentrate more since the environment is somewhat suited for it. It's specially beneficial for me when there's no distraction from kids, all coworkers gone, and I still have some energy left for the day. Night time is the worst time for me to study.

Glad your work is behind you on your goal. It's very expensive to self-fund this quest, as I am doing.

Interesting, I prefer night shifts - I can get boatloads done.

Guess I am a nightowl!

Self funding can be cheap if you are savvy, though.

vinbuck

I am definitely a morning person - my wife had to give me an NCIS slap last night as I had fallen asleep sitting up in bed slumped over my GNS3 lab.

This morning I am powering through more BGP mini labs. I'm going to do several big BGP labs once I finish all the small labs

aragoen_celtdra

I actually have more time to study at night because I essentially have all the time I want from the time the kids fall asleep (around 9pm) until whenever I wish. The problem with that is that my body is tired, brain is too fried to absorb anything by then. Although I can certainly still do productive stuff like put information on my notes or Anki flash cards that I don't necessarily need to digest at the moment in time. I find that mornings are best for me to remember things. That could change though as I start to adjust to my schedule.

vinbuck

Had a network cut that lasted all night Friday and on into Saturday morning so this weekend was a bust but I got a couple of small labs knocked out, went through some flash cards and listened to some videos on BGP while in the car.

Will be hitting it hard again this week now that i've recovered from working a 24 hour day

vinbuck

Back on the horse again this morning with BGP and GNS3. Feels good to back into the labs

silver145

Goodman, im moping with manflu and my neighbors over the road have my blasted 3750's as UPS guy left them there!!!! haha

vinbuck

Man that sucks...go claim your kit!

I am still plugging away at BGP and learning a ton! I've been using debug and verification for everything that I do and it's really starting to pay off as i'm getting very comfortable with what I expect to see for 'debug ip bgp updates'

vinbuck

Powered through several BGP labs again this morning and really starting to appreciate the value of in depth verification. I try to verify everything I do in my day to day work, so I've always avoided sh run as the fix for all problems. I've loaded the INE expanded blueprint into Evernote and am starting to fill in notes under the BGP section - right now i'm only entering definitions, configuration and verification info. I will translate these into Anki cards this week.

My goal is to have a familiarity with the material by establishing a baseline set of notes through labbing and then add the detail as I start diving into various section in depth. For me, I absorb more if I know the subject at a basic level and can focus on the details.

silver145

Looking good, what video/reading materials have you used for BGP so far?

vinbuck

I'm still waiting on my INE access, so i've been using freebies from INE and YouTube for Videos.

I have a Safari account and am using Internet Routing Architectures and BGP Design and Implementation to supplement my gns3vault.com labbing.

vinbuck

Got an hour of labbing in last night and at work early to put in another 2 hours. I'm about halfway through the BGP labs section in gns3vault.com. I've got a lab workbook from Cisco Press in my Safari bookshelf

Amazon.com: CCIE Routing and Switching v4.0 Configuration Practice Labs (2nd Edition) (Practical Studies) eBook: Martin J. Duggan: Kindle Store

Anyone used this? Comments?

vinbuck

Traveling to the big apple for a network migration. Already got some great lab time on the first flight exploring bgp DMZ bandwidth.

What a cool feature...didn't know bgp could account for bandwidth.

vinbuck

Been off and on due to a long travel week and multiple early AM network cuts. Back at home finally and working my way through BGP again. I'm already seeing the benefits of studying at work. Had a conversion from an old RIP network to iBGP and had an issue with no BGP routes being set as "best" and thus not being entered in the routing table. Ended up being a problem with a route-map that set local pref applied to a WAN peering - it essentially made the next hop unreachable. Was able to correct the route-map and get all the BGP routes into the routing table.

I know if I hadn't been hitting BGP so hard in the last few weeks that i would have overlooked checking the reachability of the next hop for the route.