CCNP SWitch

Having been going over the old BCCMN topics over the last few week, I thought I would get the SWITCH official certification guide to flick through before I took the exam to make sure I havent missed any major topics. (plus work paid)

To be honest its seems to cover pretty much the same topics. There is still the basic QOS ip phone and wireless in there.

the first 200 odd pages are on VLAN's, trunks and spanning tree mostly.

then 60 pages on campus design and high avalibility (hssrp.. etc )

60 pages cover ip voice, qos and wireless (so basic stuff)

and 50 pages on switch and vlan security.

So i think its clear to see that the SWITCH exam really if focucing on the layer 2 of the network bith a bit of layer 3 switching thrown in for good mesure, but only in so far as layer 3 vlan interfaces and single switch routing. There is no routing protocol to be seen.

I need to read it through to see the depth it goes in to but it seems to me a good over view of the topics. Having a lot of switch experince its hard to know how much this covers, but having played in layer 2 for the last 3 years i see a lot of the topics i have covered at least introduced.

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Comments

mikem2te

DevilWAH wrote: »

I thought I would get the SWITCH official certification guide to flick through before I took the exam to make sure I havent missed any major topics.

Ooooh, where did you find it? The book retailers I know of in the UK still don't have it.

DevilWAH

I ordered direct from cisco press about a week ago.

CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide

I was going to order them all but as work are paying they like it if i order the books for the exam I am studying for.

free shipping to

(and i know for a fact it was only posted a few days ago as well so shipping is fast if its oversea)

DevilWAH

Just finished reading chapter 16 out of the 17 in the SWITCH book, all seems fair enough, going to book the exam as soon as it is available on VUE, (should be around the 10th I hope) thinking I have a week of starting the 15th so think I will take some time then to play around and go for it.

Looking forward to getting this one out the way as it has been a bit of a review course, and getting on to the ROUTE topics as I know there's lots more to learn there.

Now I just waiting on two serial cables and my lab is ready to go. I was thinking of getting a few more switchs for that. I have 3 X 3550's, but i was wondering if its worth getting some 2950's or just sticking with it till I can add a 3650.

I also have a 2610 and 2 X 3640 routers, which I am hoping will do for the ROUTE topics, but if i was to go for another router any suggestions what I might be lacking at them moment in what I have?

CiskHo

DevilWAH wrote: »

Just finished reading chapter 16 out of the 17 in the SWITCH book, all seems fair enough, going to book the exam as soon as it is available on VUE, (should be around the 10th I hope) thinking I have a week of starting the 15th so think I will take some time then to play around and go for it.

I'm in the same situation. Just finished the book a couple minutes ago myself.

DevilWAH wrote: »

Looking forward to getting this one out the way as it has been a bit of a review course, and getting on to the ROUTE topics as I know there's lots more to learn there.

Indeed! I'm looking forward to getting past SWITCH but I can't say I am looking forward to the ROUTE book LOL

DevilWAH wrote: »

Now I just waiting on two serial cables and my lab is ready to go. I was thinking of getting a few more switchs for that. I have 3 X 3550's, but i was wondering if its worth getting some 2950's or just sticking with it till I can add a 3650.

Why would you/we need a 3560 as opposed to a 3550, other than to enable HSRP MD5 authentication? I do know a 4500R or a 6500 with dual SUPs is needed to run some of the redundant supervisor card stuff like RPR, RPR+, & SSO.

My SWITCH lab consists of a 3560, a 3550, and two 2950s. I can't think of anything mentioned in the book that would require more than that (except for what I mentioned above and I'm not buying a 4500R or 6500 just to run 8 or so commands!)

DevilWAH

CiskHo wrote: »

My SWITCH lab consists of a 3560, a 3550, and two 2950s. I can't think of anything mentioned in the book that would require more than that (except for what I mentioned above and I'm not buying a 4500R or 6500 just to run 8 or so commands!)

Not for CCNP nope, 3 3550's are plenty. And I mange a number of 4506's at work. But I'm thinking of long term, are 2950's going to be useful later on after the CCNP? I do want some 3650's so i can do prvt VLANS. This is a topic i want to get on top of soon.

CiskHo

Other than just acting as a "dumb" switch I wouldn't think they would be very useful as far as more advanced topics go. Might be a good question to ask those currently studying for the CCIE.

The PVLAN supported switches and required IOS are listed here:
Private VLAN Catalyst Switch Support Matrix - Cisco Systems

mikem2te

CiskHo wrote: »

Indeed! I'm looking forward to getting past SWITCH but I can't say I am looking forward to the ROUTE book LOL

I'd love to join you both on the "Switch" quest but the challenge of "Route" is too much of a temptation. If BSCI/BCMSN is anything to go by Route is going to be the difficult one out of the two. The books not too bad, BGP is awesome - 13 different rules for selecting the best path

CiskHo wrote: »

Why would you/we need a 3560 as opposed to a 3550, other than to enable HSRP MD5 authentication? I do know a 4500R or a 6500 with dual SUPs is needed to run some of the redundant supervisor card stuff like RPR, RPR+, & SSO.

I have my eyes on a 3750.

Good luck guys with Swtich.