Failed ONT. :(

Well, I now can say I've failed a certification exam, but I think I know what I need to do to pass the next go 'round AND Cisco is kind enough to offer a free second chance. Here's my thoughts on the exam, in case it helps anyone else (I can't get too specific because I don't want to violate NDA)...

1. The exam guide is NOT enough. Even if you're acing the practice tests it comes with, you may not be prepared for the actual exam. You've got to get practice actually configuring configs using the objectives and this includes both the QoS material as well as the wireless.

2. Just because something is a minor part of the exam guide does NOT mean that it will be a larger part of your actual exam. It might be the luck of the draw, but I had a lot of questions on some of the exam areas that were barely touched in the exam guide, so make sure you know each and every objective thoroughly...they're all fair game!

3. Knowing the theory and "how" of the objectives IS important, but knowing how the actual QoS configurations are entered is incredibly important as well.

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Comments

aueddonline

hard luck, yeah that ONT cert guide doesn't look much but you know that's it's kind face

Are you doing the ONT first?

btowntech

Sorry to hear about that, but you'll get it next time. Thanks for the info too!

Paul Boz

If you rely on Cisco Press material exclusively to get you through professional level and higher exams you are bound to meet failure at least once. How much did you practice configurations prior to sitting the exam?

mikej412

The SECONDCHANCE just makes this a recon.

The Odom QoS book may be overkill for the ONT exam, but it may be worth a look.

The Reference Sheets aren't that expensive -- you could check those out and see if my theory is correct that they are a good indicator (along with the exam blueprint) of the topics you definitely want to have prepared for.

Good Luck on your real attempt!

scheistermeister

Sorry to hear that you failed too. I failed my ONT last Monday and I am sitting for it again this Monday. I had used the online Net Acad stuff only the first time around and nearly had it.

If you don't mind how my did you miss it by? I was off by 13 points.

During my restudy I got a hold of the Cisco Press Study Guide and it is great. It seems that questions were taken from it word for word as I remembered seeing a lot of the questions from my test as I have been reading.

Good luck on the next go around.

jamesp1983

good luck on your next attempt!

redwarrior

Yes, I did not do enough practice with the MQC or the SDM. I'm already making plans to hit that WAY harder in the next few weeks. I did do a lot of supplemental reading from the Cisco website, but I think I was just focusing too much on the theory behind QoS and not enough on the actual configuration guides, which I'll definitely work harder on. I did very well on the questions that were about theory...it's the ones about configuration that killed me. I also got hit with a ton of questions on WCS and WLSE that I really wasn't prepared for. I'm not sure where I can get any hands-on time with those since we don't even use wireless controllers at work, but I'm going to poke my nose around and see if there's anyone out there that can at least get me a look.

I'd have to check my test sheet (which I don't have with me because I'm on a trip), but I wasn't too far off from passing. I'm actually kind of glad I did fail, though, because I'd rather study harder and have a stronger grasp of the material than squeak by and be missing something. I guess everyone has to fail a cert exam sometime and this time was mine.

I may grab that Wendell Odom QoS guide since, besides this exam, we are thinking of rolling out more QoS at work and it would be good to have it down cold.

Thanks guys!

Paul Boz

Here are some tips for acing the MQC:

First of all, remember that it's MODULAR. That means that the commands will be MODULES within the overall configuration.

Next, remember that you have to first classify traffic before you can actually do anything with it. This is where the CLASS-MAP comes in. The next time you're labbing the MQC make a class-map and use the ? to view all of your available options. The thing about the MQC is that it's extremely versatile. You can classify based on CoS, DSCP, an access list, a protocol (NBAR is its own subject), etc.

Once you have classification down, understand that you now have defined classified traffic. Naturally the next step is to make a policy based on that classification. This is the hardest part to me because of all of the options. Again, use the ? to view your options. Shaping, policing, prioritizing, granting bandwidth percent, etc. This took me the most amount of time to wrap my head around because this is where the actual work happens.

The last part, the Service-policy, is the easiest part. All you do here is assign it to an interface, either inbound or outbound.

C - CREATE FIRST
P - PROVIDE POLICY
S - STICK IT ON AN INTERFACE

APA

May I suggest getting the Cisco Press ONT Lab portfolio...

This will help you get the practical configuration side of things under control

http://www.ciscopress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=1587132168

I've been using this to work with labs at home and also to help with some commands that you don't use everyday....

Only gone through the BSCI and BCMSN books and I have to say they are brilliant when complemented with the exam guide and self-study guide (Oh my god I sound like a salesman for Cisco Press.... Where's my kickbacks!!! ;p)

When ONT comes around for me personally I'll be using the exam guide, odom's book and the lab portfolio, only because I wish to knock out the CCVP\CCIP QoS exam at the same time ;p... (Give this trio a go and I'm sure you will ace ONT on your next go

)

scheistermeister

A.P.A wrote:

May I suggest getting the Cisco Press ONT Lab portfolio...

This will help you get the practical configuration side of things under control

http://www.ciscopress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=1587132168

I've been using this to work with labs at home and also to help with some commands that you don't use everyday....

Only gone through the BSCI and BCMSN books and I have to say they are brilliant when complemented with the exam guide and self-study guide (Oh my god I sound like a salesman for Cisco Press.... Where's my kickbacks!!! ;p)

When ONT comes around for me personally I'll be using the exam guide, odom's book and the lab portfolio, only because I wish to knock out the CCVP\CCIP QoS exam at the same time ;p... (Give this trio a go and I'm sure you will ace ONT on your next go )

Only problem with the labs in ONT is that unless you have a traffic generator you can not tell if you configured it right or not (or if you are doing it in production which I would advise against).

APA

Yeah that's true, but you can find some pretty good traffic generators

But if you want to get your head around how to configure via MQC etc the books look the goods. You should learn the basics on spotting configuration errors anyway.

scheistermeister

A.P.A wrote:

Yeah that's true, but you can find some pretty good traffic generators

That isn't something I have looked into. Can you name a few or are there any free ones? The only one I know of and been able to play around with is Pagent from Cisco.

Paul Boz

You HAVE a traffic generator. You're using it right now

For QoS, what I did was used my PC to generate traffic (downloading huge FTP files, bittorrent, http files, etc.)

If your lab isn't internet-facing you can always use a cheap secondary PC, throw a LAMP install on it, and generate some FTP and HTTP traffic with large file transfers.

To simulate priority queuing you don't HAVE to use voice traffic. I used my xbox 360's IP addresses for the EF class so that my xbox live traffic would get priority and it works nicely.

dtlokee

You can also use the SLA monitor on the router as well as change the telnet dscp value to test things like that.

APA

Paul Boz wrote:

You HAVE a traffic generator. You're using it right now

Precisely