CCNP: Security....check! Passed IPS 642-627

936/1000....still not as good as Iris's ROUTE domination but I'll take it as that completes my CCNP:Security requirements.

Have to thank everyone here who participates, puts in their two cents, study suggestions, exam experiences and motivation.

Bryguy, excellent review of your IPS exam experience. The first 2-3 weeks I basically lived in the Cisco IME Demo to practice since I had no dedicated IPS sensor on hand.

I was able to get an AIP SSM for a lab ASA 5510 around week 3 so I was at least able to live in the CLI, IDM and IME on a live sensor for a good bit of time. Very surprised, and a little disappointed, at how little focus the CLI gets in the Official Cert book and exam.

Thanks to maced129 for the suggestion to use IPExpert's proctorlabs. I did about 30-40 hours of lab time on their rent-a-racks. I had never used rental racks for my studies before but I was very pleased with the performance, documentation and availability.

Next up for me is the CISA exam in June and then the ISSEP CISSP spcecialization exam later in the summer or fall.

I would love to immediately go for the CCIE Security but at this point I don't think I have the time to invest. I bought and read Your CCIE Lab Success Strategy: The Non-Technical Guidebook and I think it does a good job of explaining exactly how much time and effort (and support) is involved. But since the IE Security blueprint was just updated I may start collecting materials and equipment for an attempt.

As for study recommendations for the IPS exam:

Official Cert guide (obviously)
CBT Nuggets IPS Series

IPS CLI Guide
Cisco IPS IDM Guide
Cisco IME 7 Guide
Cisco IOS IPS Deployment guide
Cisco IPS Command Reference
O'Reilly Mastering Regular Expressions

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Comments

networker050184

Congrats!

Maced129

Excellent Job! I'm glad the proctor labs worked out well!

For when you do go down the IE sec track, bookmark this, great free material on ISE
Video: Security | Lab Minutes

webgeek

Nice!

Master Of Puppets

Congrats

dover

Thanks everyone!

Maced,

Thanks. The link took me to a page not found though - but I'll do some googling in a minute.

I see there's an ISE book coming out pretty soon. I would love to dive into the IE but I did the budget and it just doesn't look like its going to happen. Even if I rack-rental everything the cost of the recommended book list, INE and/or IPExpert materials and 1-3 lab attempts plus travel would put too much on my family. My wife decided to stay home with the two year old this year so we're already up against the budget wall.

There's always time later though, right?

Maced129

dover wrote: »

Thanks everyone!

Maced,

Thanks. The link took me to a page not found though - but I'll do some googling in a minute.

I see there's an ISE book coming out pretty soon. I would love to dive into the IE but I did the budget and it just doesn't look like its going to happen. Even if I rack-rental everything the cost of the recommended book list, INE and/or IPExpert materials and 1-3 lab attempts plus travel would put too much on my family. My wife decided to stay home with the two year old this year so we're already up against the budget wall.

There's always time later though, right?

Here is the youtube channel link
labminutes - YouTube

It's great for real world deployment too, and for others that may view this thread!

inscom.brigade

yeah there's always time to get on the IE trak.

congrats on the NP security,

bryguy

Congrats, on the pass!

lsud00d

Congrats Dover!

PCHoldmann

Congrats!

YuckTheFankees

Congrats! If you decide to go for the CCIE: SEC, definitely keep a blog/thread here, that would be interesting to follow.