wolverene13 wrote: » So it seems like the general consensus is that Halabi's book doesn't provide enough in the way of current BGP commands that exist in more recent versions of the IOS. BGP-4 Command and Configuration Handbook seems to take care of that, but what about BGP theory? Is there more needed in that area, or is Halabi's book still relevant in that respect?
Forsaken_GA wrote: » For theory, Halabi is generally fine as far as the architectures of BGP are concerned. But as I've said before - it's a good idea to look over the BGP command guide, look for commands Halabi didn't cover, and then do some research into the use of those commands. The configuration guides on cisco.com will cover it adequately.
wolverene13 wrote: » I am currently studying for the BGP test and I got Sam Halabi's "Internet Routing Architectures," which is supposed to basically be the "BGP Bible." However, it's a little dated being that it refers to MPLS as "an emerging technology" and seems to be almost too easy being that I already read half the book in 3 days. In the experience of those who have taken the BGP test, is this book sufficient? Because I was also thinking about getting BGP Design and Implementation as well if Halabi's book is not enough.
creamy_stew wrote: » From what I've heard, ISP guys who deal with BGP on a daily basis and have worked in that capacity for a couple of years seem to think the IRA does a great job of bringing it all together (they have generally worked with all kinds of IOS versions, all of which are more recent than what you'd see on the exam ) As a single resource, it's probably not enough; but I haven't heard of anyone being asked to take the CCIP who wasn't already employed by a national ISP (Sweden)
Ryan82 wrote: » NG2F, Those two are the exact resources for books that I am currently using. I additionally am thinking about picking up either the O'Reilly BGP book or BGP Design and Implementation. For video resources I am using Internetwork Expert's BGP bootcamp which is pretty good.
Ryan82 wrote: » INE pretty much always has a ~30% discount going on. If you plug in the current discount it comes out to 206.50 Keith Barker is the instructor and is pretty engaging. I would spend the money again, but not if I had to eat Ramen noodles for a month or anything like that . I haven't read them yet, but I believe the O'Reilly BGP and Design and Implementation books are probably more useful for the real world "why is it done this way?" design approach than directly helping with the exam. But again, I haven't read them so I can't say for sure.
Forsaken_GA wrote: » Keith is too damn cheerful sometimes, makes me want to smack him, but he's loads better than Sequira. The O'Reilly BGP book is good for folks familiar with BGP. It's a decent reference manual, and a good primer for those with solid grounding in BGP fundamentals, but it is not an all in one guide. Most BGP books are sadly outdated on how BGP operations work, at least if you're multihomed. The lack of mention of using communities to influence local pref that alot of SP's use is noteworthy.
notgoing2fail wrote: » I've noticed this too. Everytime I look at a book, I check the published date. Not that it means I won't purchase them, but it helps give me a reference of how outdated the material could be. I don't know enough about BGP to know if there have been major changes in BGP-4 since the year 2001? Most of the BGP books seem to have been written around 2001 - 2003....... Same goes for MPLS as well...?
Forsaken_GA wrote: » The command and configuration guide is the perfect complement to halabi's book. Work through the scenarios halabi presents in his book, that will give you a solid understanding of BGP fundamentals. Then look through the command and configuration guide for any commands halabi didn't cover and learn them. If you ever take the BGP exam, at least in it's current state, you will be glad you did this.
tomaifauchai wrote: » Started reading it and having read already about BGP in the ROUTE book, i can easily recognize some outdated stuff already, but the introduction chapter was very cool to read about, NSFNET and pre-1992 history! When i've seen that the next chapters from the MPLS book will be "Advanced MPLS", i decided to switch to BGP, because i felt it was already advanced when i've read about LDP. There was some references to VRF's and MP-BGP which i don't know at all.
