SDM Sims

Guys,

I'm curious to know whether all of the stuff that i'm currently labbing in the SDM will actually be on the exam, or will I need to know those things in CLI only?

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mikej412

You'll have to remain curious until you take the exam -- since anyone telling you what they saw or had on the exam would be a violation of the Cisco NDA and Cisco Candidate conduct policy.

Is SDM even mentioned in any of the CCNP exam blueprints?

dynamik

Telling you would be a violation of the NDA, but the knowledge is never going to hurt you, so I wouldn't sweat too much about learning too much

Edit: too slow

SysAdmin4066

There are a few things that point to it on the blueprint. It's definitely in the labs for the ISCW, I havent seen it in any other labs for the other exams just yet, the only lab portfolio I havent done yet is ONT. So, I am continuing my labbing for whatever the labs subscribe, but i'm curious to know whether what the blueprint says will be whats on the exam, specifically configuring using SDM and specifically on ISCW.

As for the NDA, it's SO open ended, anything can be considered a violation. Even telling your score, or how many questions you got on your exam is a violation. EVERYTHING related to discussing the exam is a violation. So anything in these forums COULD be considered a violation, although I understand the reluctance to discuss any specifics.

So let me phrase it differently. For those of you who have worked on the exams, have you labbed heavily with SDM, or did you focus more on the CLI? Up till now it's been only CLI for me. That better? Problem for me is that SDM is pretty twitchy, at least it has been so far. I would much rather use the CLI, which I'm very comfortable with. SDM is easier, but it's not as accurate. That's been my experience at least, it adds another dimension that is not a very good one in my opinion. First, it didnt work at all till I downgraded my java version. Now it wont save my configurations for VPNs. It'll get all the way through, then say there was a problem and restart itself. I like the monitoring, and most of the other things, but of course, I dont need to work with those things right now. I just need the VPN stuff, which is where the problem is.

Forsaken_GA

If it's on the blueprint, and the Cisco Press material covers it heavily, there's usually a very good chance it will be on the exam.

So even if you're a CLI monkey like I am, it doesn't hurt you to learn Cisco's piece of *beep* java GUI

mikej412

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

EVERYTHING related to discussing the exam is a violation.

Huh? The NDA mentions "You agree that the contents of the exam are confidential" yada yada yada -- not sure how you jump from what you see on the exam to any topic related to Cisco Certification being a violation.

Asking if something will "actually be on the exam" seems to be a question that can only be answered by someone violating the Cisco NDA and/or Cisco Candidate Conduct Policy.

The possible exam topics are published by Cisco on their website (now on the Cisco Learning Network). The published exam topics are discussed in the official training classes and the 3rd party books (like Cisco Press). The publicly listed exam topics are fair game for discussion on Cisco Certification Forums Worldwide -- as long as you don't violate the Cisco NDA and Cisco Candidate Conduct Policy.

If the exam blueprint mentions, hints, or in a round about way suggests you should know something -- then it's probably a gook idea to know it. If you have an "Official Certification Guide" you can check the book reviews and see if anyone b*tched about it not covering certain exam topics -- and use the Cisco online documentation to fill in any gaps. And if it's in the book and seems to match a topic in the exam blueprint, then it's probably a good idea to read that part of the book.

Cisco Career Certifications and Confidentiality Agreement

You agree that the contents of the exam are confidential and that the disclosure of that information could compromise the integrity of the Program and of Certifications. Cisco makes exams available to you solely to test your knowledge of the exam subject matter for which you seek Certification. You are expressly prohibited from disclosing, publishing, reproducing, or transmitting any exam and any related information including, without limitation, questions, answers, worksheets, computations, drawings, diagrams, length or number of exam segments or questions, or any communication, including oral communication regarding or related to the exam (known collectively as “Proprietary Information”), in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, oral or written, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the prior express written permission of Cisco.

Cisco Candidate Conduct Policy

No candidate will take any action that will compromise the integrity or confidentiality of a Cisco Certification examination or otherwise compromise the integrity of the Cisco Certification program. Such actions include but are not limited to:
• Disseminating actual exam content via web postings, discussion groups, chat rooms, study guides, etc.

SysAdmin4066

Great, thank you Forsaken. I take it you've seen it in action too lol.

networker050184

I think it will be damn near impossible to pass the exam without being fairly proficient with the SDM and CLI configurations. They are both fair game on the exam and you might get heavy to one side or the other, but I wouldn't take the risk hoping you get mostly CLI questions.

SysAdmin4066

It's on your post. We are prohibited from "any communication... regarding or related to the exam... without the prior written consent of Cisco". That says to me, anything related to the exam, it's clear as mud

I did say I understood your stance though, we'll leave it at that...

SysAdmin4066

I appreciate the input. I figured as much, just was hoping to get others opinions on the matter. I guess my biggest worry is that the SDM labbing is not going well for me. It's very glitchy and i'm not getting the experience I think I will need. So I was hoping to find out if I need to spend more time figuring what the problems are with SDM. I'm sure troubleshooting SDM wont be on the exam lol. At any rate, it's not my favorite tool at the moment.

tiersten

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

It's on your post. We are prohibited from "any communication... regarding or related to the exam... without the prior written consent of Cisco". That says to me, anything related to the exam, it's clear as mud I did say I understood your stance though, we'll leave it at that...

Discussing possible exam topics doesn't count as "Proprietary Information" in regards to Cisco certifications or actual exam content.

If everything counted then you wouldn't be able to talk to somebody about BGP, VLANs or anything else since its on an exam somewhere. The first rule of Cisco cert club is that you don't talk about Cisco cert club?

SysAdmin4066

Honestly, the NDA for most vendors is very open and left up to interpretation. Obviously, there are some obvious things. I worded my question wrong, which was rephrased. I dont want to know how many SDM simulations are on the exam. I wanted to know how important, which i've seen others say on these forums. XXX is very important etc. NDAs are like most other legal documents, purposely left very open so as to be flexible and long lasting. Thus, the wording above could seriously be ANYTHING. Discussing the exam is prohibited, that's how I read it. That would mean saying I passed with this score, violation. I got this many questions, violation. It took me this long to complete, violation.

Not BGP in general, but stating, without Ciscos express written consent, that BGP is going to be on the exam, is a violation and could at least result in the loss of your certification if Cisco or any other vendor for that matter wishes it. Actually, Cisco's NDA states they can remove your cert for any reason, with or without cause. "I hate Cisco" could be grounds for loss of your certs legally speaking. Hence my comment, ANYTHING, at the sole discretion of Cisco. More of a joke than anything, which is why I said I understand the stance.

It's a slippery slope so why play anywhere near it. The answers I recieved are all adequate and very helpful. I appreciate them. But Cisco can declare you violated the NDA for most if not all communication regarding the exam. That could translate to telling someone where you took the exam lol. I mean, it's silly, but it's meant to be open and flexible to accomplish whatever they may want to accomplish.

Forsaken_GA

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Great, thank you Forsaken. I take it you've seen it in action too lol.

I'm a little more familiar than I ever wanted to be with it thanks to studying for the ISCW exam.

But yeah, I'm not fond of SDM. It's semi-useful for the monitoring aspects (most of them are available via open source software that polls via SNMP, or you can easily write your own with a bash script and RRDTool, but that's only if you're so inclined), but I would never in a million years even dream about using it to configure anything on my production network. The one time I did let it commit changes in my lab environment, there were several undesired side effects (like turning off proxy arp in an environment that needed it!).

Then there's the issue with it not playing friendly with Firefox in Mac OS X. Had to boot a Windows VM just to be able to use the damn thing. SDM is another cutsey poo little piece of software that I will never use unless I'm forced to. Kind of like the entire CiscoWorks suite.

mikej412

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

So I was hoping to find out if I need to spend more time figuring what the problems are with SDM.

From the ISCW exam blueprint

* Configure a site-to-site IPSec VPN/GRE Tunnel with SDM (i.e., preshared key).
* Describe and configure Cisco Easy VPN solutions using SDM.
* Describe, Configure, and verify AutoSecure/One-Step Lockdown implementations (i.e., CLI and SDM).
* Configure Cisco IOS Firewall with SDM.
* Verify Cisco IOS Firewall configurations (i.e., IOS CLI configurations, SDM Monitor).
* Configure Cisco IOS IPS using SDM

Unless you're feeling lucky, those are 6 things related to SDM that you SHOULD be prepared to demonstrate that you know. If you can't do them now, you probably haven't suffered enough in SDM.

Cyanic

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

I'm a little more familiar than I ever wanted to be with it thanks to studying for the ISCW exam.

But yeah, I'm not fond of SDM. It's semi-useful for the monitoring aspects...

This is something I really dislike about Cisco, is they sometimes force you to learn unnecessary things.

I wish they tested more like RedHat. No questions, 100% hands on, and they do not care how you reach the end goal as long as you can get there. So you are not forced to learn any specific tool.

Forsaken_GA

Well, it's things like testing for on SDM that make you remember that Cisco is a vendor specific certification. Most of the time, Cisco learning is valuable, but every once in awhile you have to suck it up and learn the 'Cisco way', even if it's something you would never actually deploy (and knowing when not to use the Cisco way is the mark of a good engineer).

Fortunately, they're not *nearly* as bad as other vendors when it comes to doing it their way. Microsoft's attempts to redefine reality drove me batty enough that I was one exam short of the MCSA and I could never bring myself to complete it

SysAdmin4066

Yeah, and honestly learning it wouldnt be so bad if not for the fact that for me, it just doesnt work properly. Everytime I figured out an issue with it, I find a new one that stops me in my tracks. And GNS3 is not easily setup to use it, so it's not like I can just bust a lab in between project work. It's just not my first choice, the monitoring is cool, but there are better programs for even that as forsaken said (nagios comes to mind). Microsoft is much worse though for "their way", very annoying exams.

When i write procedural documentation at work, I tend to try my best to leave the method of accomplishing the configuration as open as possible. Nothing like being stuck doing something a certain way thanks to the procedure specifying it has to be done that way.