What not to do on the test, this is pretty funny

God I feel so stupid. I took the ICND on Thursday and failed with a 797. I didnt quite understand why, I thought I kicked some ass. I think I just figured out why I failed. This is pretty funny

I had 2 sims, Im not going to divulge on what, but i will say they both involved modifying/and or creating configurations on some devices, and then testing the results. I perfomed the requested criteria, and everything worked afterwards exactly as it should have, I had all my layer 2 and layer 3 connectivity and all frames and packets were doing what they were supposed to do.

I was just going throuh a preplogic quiz, and it asked me to configure an ip address on a serial interface, just an IP address, nothing more. Peice of cake, no sweat, I can do that in my sleep.

CCNA>enable
CCNA#Configure terminal
CCNA(config)#interface serial 0/0
CCNA(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.0
CCNA(config-if)#no shutdown <

edited this, I typed it out wrong in the original post, this is how I did it on the sim for PrepLogic and Exam.

This what I typed exactly, and this is how I carried it out on my sims on the exam. Now before reading below, can anyone figure out what I did wrong? (answer below)

I didnt exit out of global config mode, let alone interface config mode.

If I could, I would be litteraly kicking myself in the ass right now! According to the PrepLogic exam, I got knocked like 50 percent for not exiting config mode, and rightly so. There went my pass!

Lesson learned

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Comments

AceAll

It happens. wish you good luck next time .

cdad2000

That sucks dude!, If you dont know, now you know. I would've done the same thing. Better luck next time.

mctoffer

thanks for the tip..

sunny_evander

Personally i think the best practice is when ever config is finished press Ctrl^Z and copy run start....

Doing this is not going to hurt

and to be on the safe side.... Well in the last exam in which i passed i did copy run start twice

just for my satisfaction!

janmike

Well, as those of us with any sense know, we're not perfect, just technicians. But, we can learn from out mistakes--I think, much better than perfect.

Good luck next time!

EdTheLad

Are you sure u lost marks for that? Seems a little harsh!
Anyway i agree with Sunny,everytime i change a config i do a wr mem.
So if you failed over this its due to your own laziness

2lazybutsmart

johnnynodough wrote:

CCNA>enable
CCNA#Configure terminal
CCNA(config)#interface serial 0/0
CCNA(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.0
CCNA(config)#no shutdown

This what I typed exactly, and this is how I carried it out on my sims on the exam. Now before reading below, can anyone figure out what I did wrong? (answer below)

I didnt exit out of global config mode, let alone interface config mode.

Commands you execute from global config mode are carried out immediately.

But your problem isn't you didn't exit global config mode. Your problem is that you forgot to bring the serial interface up. The no shutdown command should've been executed from the interface config mode, not from global config.

So this:

CCNA>enable
CCNA#Configure terminal
CCNA(config)#interface serial 0/0
CCNA(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.0
CCNA(config-if)#no shutdown

..would be the right sequence of commands

be careful next time.
2lbs.

johnnynodough

The interface wasnt shutdown. The exhibit showed the interface as being not administrively down, I checked. Plus in the exam I had all my layer connectivity. The problem was I didnt exit config mode. Its dangerous to leave routers and switches in config mode, especially when telnetting, or when you have logging console enabled. Thats why I got docked. I checked with our Cisco training admin and he said the same thing, you dont have to save your config unless its specifically states to, but you absolutely have to exit priveleged exec mode. Big No No.

johnnynodough

Doh, I see what you are saying 2lazy, I just typed it out wrong in my post ( just fixed it) , I did enter the No shutdown command in interface mode, but It still wouldnt have mattered as the interface wasnt administratively shutdown, I just always do that out of habit now.

2lazybutsmart

You don't have to exit global config mode in order for changes to take effect. I've actually tried it on my router and here are the results. Notice how my OSPF debugging finds out that the interface went down while i'm in interface config mode:

LAB_A#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
LAB_A(config)#int s0/0
LAB_A(config-if)#shutdown
LAB_A(config-if)#
00:23:08: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 192.168.0.3 on Serial0/0 from FULL to D
OWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached
LAB_A(config-if)#
00:23:10: %LINK-5-CHANGED: Interface Serial0/0, changed state to administrativel
y down
00:23:11: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0/0, changed sta
te to down
LAB_A(config-if)#

...as you can see, i'm still in interface config mode and the serial interface has been changed to administratively down.

changes take effect immediately from global config mode.

2lbs.

Webmaster

Sorry to hear about that Johnny. Since you do get partial credit for the sims, I very much doubt that exiting config and priv exec mode would have made 'the' difference. But I agree it's a big no no in a real life situation and it may have marked the sim partial incorrect because of that. imo they should just make saving the config the final step in every sim. Good practice in general and it would prevent minor things like this from having so much influence.

What are your scoring percentage on the different topics/domains?

johnnynodough

2lazybutsmart wrote:
You don't have to exit global config mode in order for changes to take effect. I've actually tried it on my router and here are the results. Notice how my OSPF debugging finds out that the interface went down while i'm in interface config mode:
LAB_A#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
LAB_A(config)#int s0/0
LAB_A(config-if)#shutdown
LAB_A(config-if)#
00:23:08: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 192.168.0.3 on Serial0/0 from FULL to D
OWN, Neighbor Down: Interface down or detached
LAB_A(config-if)#
00:23:10: %LINK-5-CHANGED: Interface Serial0/0, changed state to administrativel
y down
00:23:11: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0/0, changed sta
te to down
LAB_A(config-if)#
...as you can see, i'm still in interface config mode and the serial interface has been changed to administratively down.

changes take effect immediately from global config mode.

2lbs.

I know they take effect immediately, but they are looking for you to exit config mode. I checked with our training admin at Cisco and he confimed it. If you dont exit you will get knocked.

What are your scoring percentage on the different topics/domains?

80's and 90's, the implentation is what killed me due to my missing steps. That and ISDN, still need to cover that some more.

netadmin

CCNA exam seems to me pretty touch to pass

2lazybutsmart

johnnynodough wrote:

I know they take effect immediately, but they are looking for you to exit config mode. I checked with our training admin at Cisco and he confimed it. If you dont exit you will get knocked.

yeah.... Cisco is picky, eh.

Wish you good luck next time.
2lbs.

johnnynodough

Im gonna get it next time for sure. I could probably take it today and pass now that I discovered my errors, but the new Fable for PC is coming out Sept 20th, ( I dont get to play many games these days, but I am making an exception for this

) so I am palnning on taking it on the 19th or so, that way I can maximize the retention of knowledge before I dive into my HPQ ASE renewal, then on to the CCNP.

Good times.

johnnynodough

And full on Football season is fastly approaching, and I tend to get a lot less done during that time. But then again with how great (sarcasm) my teams 2nd and third string is doing so far this year, I may be spending more time studying then going to games this year.

darkmagic

Wow, that will certainly help some of us who have still to appear for there certification.

Well, to be honest when i read the post without reading the rest of the replies i thought the problem was that the serial link was a DCE & you did not put a clock rate on it.

But that was too lame of me to think that way i guess, you all are expersts, only a layman can think that i guess