My CCNP Data Center thread

I've moved on to start studying for my CCNP: Data Center as of the beginning of this month. I'm going to go ahead and start charting my progress here to keep myself moving and motivated. Since there are no dedicated CCNP DC resources out there, I'm utilizing the CCIE DC reading list, the INE CCIE Data Center videos, the configuration guides and the INE DC rack rentals to get me there.

Here's the reading list I own and progress I've made on each book so far:
Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals - 75% done [should be finished within the next week or two]
Data Center Fundamentals - 50% done [Reading of this book is on hold - It's very dry and I had to mix up my studying]
NX-OS and Cisco Nexus Switching - 0% [Not Started]
Cisco UCS - 0% [Not Started]
I/O Consolidation in the Data Center - 0% [Not Started]
Storage Networking Fundamentals - 0% [Not Started]

INE Videos:
CCIE Data Center: Written - 30% done [Very easy to follow]
CCIE Data Center: Unified Computing Course - 0% [Not Started]
CCIE Data Center: Unified Communications on UCS - 0% [Not Started]
CCIE Data Center: Storage Course - 0% [Not Started]
CCIE Data Center: Nexus NX-OS Primer - 0% [Not Started]
CCIE Data Center: Nexus Course - 0% [Not Started]
CCIE Data Center: Nexus 1000v on UCS - 0% [Not Started]
CCIE Data Center : Implementing Nexus - 0% [Not Started]

DC Rack Rental hours Completed (since late February): 42

It's probably going to take me forever to get through this track because I'm am going to read/watch all the books and books above but the goal is to learn as much as I can. After I'm done reading and watching the above, I'll start going through the configuration guides and play around more with the DC rack rentals. I'm not going to bother setting dates for when I am going to take these exams but rather take them when I feel comfortable with my skillset in the topics of the exam.

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Comments

Danielh22185

Awesome!

metelica

Iristheangel wrote: »

Edit: Here are my notes so far
CBT Nuggets 642-999: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11SrfY24uxiC6WZu4CzMRRXIwzF6fg8h6CMq2mpTTqTQ/edit?usp=sharing
INE DC Written: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11SrfY24uxiC6WZu4CzMRRXIwzF6fg8h6CMq2mpTTqTQ/edit?usp=sharing

Unfortunately, links are the same.
(Had to register to say this.)

Iristheangel

Oops. I'll post later with the correct links when I'm home

Iristheangel

https://app.box.com/s/axbl3a1tr4x59zb13j8u

There is a zip file of all the notes I've taken so far. I still need to finish my notes on DC and DCV but that's quite a bit right there

metelica

Thanks a lot!

Roy4USA

Iristheangel wrote: »

https://app.box.com/s/axbl3a1tr4x59zb13j8u

There is a zip file of all the notes I've taken so far. I still need to finish my notes on DC and DCV but that's quite a bit right there

Thank you for sharing them with us. You do an EXCELLANT job on your note taking.

ninjaturtle

This is an awesome thread to follow! I'm currently working on my CCNP ROUTE, but I occasionally do some reading for the data center as it's needed at work.

What I wanted to ask you Iristheangle, is how do you get so much reading in with a full-time job? Do you even sleep!? It's so inspiring and it makes me want to really step up my reading! Simply reading through this thread, and your status updates has given me such a boost of inspiration. So thank you so much for taking the time to share.

Cheers,

Iristheangel

I usually get up early to read before work (less now than I used to), stay up late, and spend a lot of my free time on weekends studying. I definitely don't get as much fun time in as most people but I can't stop and go with my studying. When I dedicate myself to getting something, I push myself until I get there. I blame it on an semi-OCD nature

Iristheangel

The pressure is on:
Scheduled 642-999 for 8/8/2014 and 642-035 for 8/22/2014

That gives me a month of straight labbing to push myself through those tests. Wish me luck!

ninjaturtle

As much as we hate the pressure, it really helps. When you schedule an exam, you know it's game time and the preparation becomes a strategy. From the history of this thread, I really think you will smoke both exams! I won't wish you luck, as I believe everybody makes their own luck.

SteveO86

Tackling the UCS half of the CCNP:DC first, Good luck!!!

That's the opposite of what I did (tackled the Nexus half first). I need to borrow a page from your book and just book my exams!

down77

Iristheangel wrote: »

The pressure is on:
Scheduled 642-999 for 8/8/2014 and 642-035 for 8/22/2014

That gives me a month of straight labbing to push myself through those tests. Wish me luck!

I would say you are ready to take them right now. DCUCI was surprisingly easy, and DCUCT wasn't much worse. The nexus exams, IMO, were more difficult.

Good luck!

Iristheangel

I know I mentioned I was reading this book already but for anyone currently pursuing the CCIE DC or CCNP DC, buy this book now: Implementing Cisco UCS Solutions: Farhan Nadeem, Prasenjit Sarkar: 9781782170662: Amazon.com: Books

I'm halfway through after only starting it a couple of days ago. It stands apart from the Ciscopress UCS book because it actually goes through how to configure each important part of the UCS. The problem with the Cisco Press book is that it focuses on outdated hardware (1st gen IOM, FIs, M1 servers, etc) and doesn't have any focus on configuration. This book goes through 1st and 2nd gen IOMs, FIs, M1/M2/M3 servers, etc but doesn't waste more than the 1st chapter on hardware. It quickly jumps into explaining each part of the configuration and walks you through doing it. It's like a configuration guide-lite in that sense.

Even though the book is 330 pages, it's VERY easy to take notes and read the whole book cover-to-cover while labbing with the UCS Emulator in a week.

ninjaturtle

I'm trying to get UCS in our data center, but I'm getting a lot of resistance from a price perspective. I just want to get in here so I can learn and do a UCS implementation. Looks like the UCS Emulator will have to do. How's it work for you? Does it provide the level of interaction to learn UCS?

Book has been added to my Amazon cart. Thanks for the recommendation. That's how you find great books!

Iristheangel

You can do 95% of UCS tasks on the UCS Emulator. You can even restore the configs from a real UCS to the UCS Emulator. It's awesome. Definitely a must-have for DC studies

ninjaturtle

Really? Oh that's so awesome!! I'm going to download it now.

Iristheangel

Finished up Implementing UCS. Notes are here: https://app.box.com/s/lsbqrwj28cipnzjt03bt

I'm pretty much in non-stop lab mode until my tests on August 8th and 22nd. I'm going to do some organized labs during the week and then do a "free for all" with the configuration guides during the weekend.
Schedule for this week:
Today - Configured FCoE on UCS and N5Ks - Done
Tuesday - Configuring VM-FEX in UCS
Wednesday - Advanced Service Profiles
Thursday - A small lab on exploring UCSM
Friday - The full 8 hour UCS Sandbox PEC lab

I'll spend the weekends going through these configuration guides:
UCS GUI Guide: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/2-0/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_0.pdf
UCS CLI Guide: Cisco UCS Manager CLI Configuration Guide, Release 2.0 - Cisco

Zartanasaurus

I remember trying to get VM-FEX working back when I was studying for this. Was quite a pain when I thought I had everything right, yet it still didn't work. Came down to being an order of operations problem, which is something you'll see on the Nexus platform in general. I dunno what's on the NP blueprint, but it looks like you'll be ready for the IE in August

Iristheangel

Hey Zartan, I'm hoping to get the written out of the way in December if I'm feeling comfortable with it. The written is a whole different beast than the lab though.

VM-FEX wasn't horrible but I definitely ran into some problems. I reran the lab three times last night. The first time took me about 2.5 hours to do and I was sweating bullets the whole time. I kept messing up and resetting the configs on the lab pod because I thought it was something wrong with the pod I was in. Nope. Just me messing up

Once I finally got it down, I did it again in under an hour. By the third time, I was down to 30-40 minutes from the creation of the Service Profile to the moment I could manage the port profiles from UCS.

I'm trying to rerun through the labs several times in the night if I can just so I can increase speed and familiarity.

BroadcastStorm

Wow thanks for all that information Iris!

Iristheangel

Labbing this week was fun.

I started out going through the PEC labs and while it was fun to follow along on the PEC manuals, I found it was a LOT more beneficial to open up the Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals book. I started by reading the section in the book about whatever technology I was working on like VM-FEX and then I would read through the PEC manual. Between the two sources of information, I usually could find multiple ways of doing the same thing.

I have a friend at work who is a triple CCIE including the CCIE DC so he's agreed to help me lab some of this stuff. After I feel comfortable in the core technologies, we're going to set up a lab at work and he's going to break things for me. At that point, I'll have to troubleshoot and fix it. I think this sort of labbing will be the next step after this year.

I have an 8 hour lab tonight where I'm going to focus on service profiles and configuring UCS from scratch. I'll probably lab tonight and Sunday. Next week I'll probably do do VM-FEX, building UCS from scratch, FCoE, advanced service profiles, and Nexus 1000v. Instead of using the PEC guide, I think I'll use the configuration guides (GUI and CLI) just so I can get some more practice and get more comfortable with finding the information on the Cisco documentation.

I moved my blog over here: krmnetworks.com
I haven't really done much with it and the majority of what I wrote has been late at night so don't just me too harshly on my lack of content. I'm thinking I'm going to do a series of high-level posts on navigating through the GUI and write about whatever I'm labbing that week. If anyone here wants to help keep me on my toes, give me some ideas on what to lab or practice and I'll do a write up on it when I'm done

Since I'm working on getting ready for the UCS CCNP DC exams, please keep it UCS-focused for now

ninjaturtle

The blog is looking good, it already has a ton of information! Those links you have listed under configuration guides, kept me busy last night. I was just browsing them out of curiosity, but I should be focusing on my ROUTE material. But I just can't kept myself, this data center stuff is sooo interesting!

That's pretty awesome that you have a triple CCIE that can shed some knowledge. I would love to sit down and pick his brain. 3x CCIE ...wow!

Is your 8 hour lab straight through, no break minus the minor 5 to 7 min breather?

Iristheangel

I can't pause the labs but I can obviously walk away for breaks if I need to. I just try to avoid it so I don't waste additional time. Once I'm in the labbing zone, I'm usually pretty focused. Just getting into the "zone" is the hard part...

ninjaturtle

Yea, I can certainly relate that getting into the "zone" can be difficult. But I will say this, this thread in particular gives me that push to get into the "zone" and crank out those deep readings and labbing sessions. I don't know if it's my drive to get to the DC stuff, or the fact that others are digging deep too. This thread just helps.

SteveO86

I'm going to have to check out that UCS book when I wrap up the Nexus side.

Awesome stuff Iris, great blog. I'm really liking the layout & content!

Happy labbing!

Iristheangel

Labbing is going well. I'm feeling so confident in UCS that I've decided to push my exam up a week and take it on 7/30/14. Fingers crossed. If I do well on that, I'll take the second UCS exam the following week.

fredrikjj

Coming from an RS background, what aspect of the DC track have you found the most surprising or enlightening?

Iristheangel

@Fredrikjj - So far the stuff I've been working on isn't really leveraging my R&S background. I'm sure I'll be leveraging it more when I start working my way through the NX-OS book next month. To answer your question about what was the most surprising/enlightening:

I am surprised by how easy UCS was to pick up. After you learn the GUI, some basic rules, and learn about the hardware, it actually is pretty easy to pick up with a little practice. You really could do 95% of the labbing with the UCS Emulator. I'm still learning my way around VMware for stuff like installing VEMs and migrating to DVS. I'm able to do it reading the instructions but I feel like that aspect I need to learn a bit better.

I haven't deep-dived into NX-OS yet but my experience so far is that it's a lot more straight forward CLI-wise than IOS. Everything is "ethernet" instead of GigabitEthernet, Ten, etc. No more "do" commands. I've configured OTV and vPC on INE and found it pretty easy once you understood the fundamentals behind it.

While I don't think that any CCIE track is probably "easy," my opinion is that the biggest limitation that probably keeps people from getting the CCIE DC is access to the equipment. Not sheer difficulty of the material.

fredrikjj

A part of what makes CCIE RS difficult is that you are using IOS which is plagued by 25 (?) years of continuous development. There are too many ways to do the same thing. Too many special knobs. An inability to remove features because they could still be used somewhere. You're then expected to know all these things because you're an "expert". I've never used NX-OS, but it seems likely to me that it's more streamlined due to starting "fresh" and not having to keep supporting arcane things. I also get the feeling that the DC features in generally are more systematically put together, not the organic mess/ecosystem of features that is RS. Just me speculating though and ranting because I like that sort of thing.

Iristheangel

No, I definitely agree with you. Even though I have R&S experience and fairly fresh off the CCNP R&S, I think it would take longer for me to get to the CCIE R&S level than it would to get to the CCIE DC level. The technology covered is actually a lot more tight-knit, cleaner, and newer for the most part.

To some degree, I'm taking the "easier and faster" route to my CCIE number (not that it's every easy or fast). With the CCIE R&S, I feel like there are a lot more variables in the lab and there's a crazy about of troubleshooting that you don't see on other tracks. Even though R&S is one of the most common CCIEs out there, it's probably one of the hardest just due to the format.