Ccie# 29431

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I passed my lab yesterday in San Jose! Was my first attempt, and I am extremely relieved. Like I said in another post, I have to thank God, my loving family, coworkers, and friends. It has been quite a commitment, that took the better part of a year. I passed my written last November, and put myself on a pretty strict labbing regime. Now, I didnt completely quarantine myself from having a life, but I was close. I used INE's material almost exclusively, with the exception of a Narbik boot camp, and some Cisco 360 labs ( I highly recommend these mocks through Netmasters).

I studied about 4 hours a day per weekday, but I took 1 night off per week to spend with my wife and kiddo. On the weekends I would at least hit 6 hours per day, but shoot for 8. The real key to this is just to get super familiar with everything, and thats pretty much just rinse and repeat. I.E. Do the same INE vol 2 lab 6 times...you will learn something every time.

The lab overall was extremely hard. The TS section is a beast in the time they give you, but it is doable. You really have to concentrate on not becoming overwhelmed with the topology and massive configs. The config section was exactly what everyone says it is.."alot to do in that amount of time." But if you are well prepared you should be able to do it and have plenty of time to review for errors. Thanks again everyone...I have been in these forums since my pre-ccna days, so to be able to finally post this is awesome. Now to spend some much needed time with my son, and pregnant wife!

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Comments

jason_lunde

froggy3132000 wrote: »

It depends on the day you take it.

Don't take on Friday, you might not get results till Monday.

During M-Th it usually takes 3-6 hrs.

This is spot on, and exactly why I took it on a Monday. My boss took it on a Friday and didnt get his results until Sunday. Took about 3 hrs for the email to arrive.

Essendon

Big big achievement!!!

Congratulations!

P.S. Not that it matters too much, update that cert list of yours too!

down77

Major congrats! What a wonderful accomplishment

Webmaster

Congratulations!

jovan88

Thats great news, its been a long time since we've seen a pass. It won't be too long until CCIE 30,000!

TheShadow

A very big congratulations shout out.

Forsaken_GA

jason_lunde wrote: »

Ya reaper I kind of kept this date close to my chest if you know what I mean. Just wanted to be able to focus on it without the pressure of announcing it. During work I would read the doc-cd, and that is about it. I would spend 45 minutes during lunch vpn'd to home on my rack labbing as well. Besides that I dedicated from abou 8-11:30 to getting my time in. With the help of monster drinks at 8 pm this was possible. Thanks guys!

Understand entirely, I'm the same way. I won't be announcing anything in advance, not even to my co-workers. Since I'm off Sunday/Monday, it'll be a Monday date, drive over to RTP on a Sunday, and get it done. Lord knows you'll put enough pressure on yourself, last thing you need is the pressure from your peers.

Congratulations though man, you kept up a hellishly good pace, and I'm glad to see it paid off. Make sure you stick around and help out the next generation!

Ahriakin

ccnaomkar

congrats

Turgon

jason_lunde wrote: »

Hey Turgon. I went through Rauf at Netmasters...I think they were about $350. I dont know really how it works if your not a member of the program, but I am pretty sure you can get them through the Cisco store too, but they are way more expensive.

Thanks Jason. So were you a member of the 360 programme? I hear it's very expensive.

APA

Well done!!!!! Go have that well earned keg of beer now..

shednik

Congrats Jason!! Glad to hear it payed off for you!!!!!!

EmpoweredBizTech

Congratulations I bow to you sir

NOC-Ninja

jason_lunde wrote: »

1. About 9 months I think...that included my trip down the CCIP path though.
2. I passed the written in November...so like 7 months of intense lab prep.
3. My tally is about 15k..that includes my lab, All Access Pass-INE, Narbik boot camp, books, travel, written and lab fees, mock labs, etc... This all came out of my pocket too, as work wouldnt really pay, and I really didnt want them too. I didnt want to feel tied down and I am fortunate enough to be in a position where I did not need them too.
4. Ahh..man..lets see. Routing TCP/IP vol1/2 , Odoms Qos, MPLS Fundamentals, LAN Switching, Odoms CCIE R/S v4 Guide, All my CCNP books, Halibi's BGP...and probably some more but I cant think of them right now.
5. I have a home lab of 2600xm's and 3640's, 3550/60's that I used to do labs from INE. If I couldnt do a task on there, I would pop open a 3725 image on GNS3 and do the task. I used remote racks of course for the mock labs (graded labs, and cisco's remote racks for the 360).

Thanks for the info.

Is it better to have your own lab rather than doing rack rentals aka tokens?
Can you explain to me whats in 360, where can i get that (is it at cisco?) and how much did it cost you?

Im talking to INE right now about the pricing.

ConstantlyLearning

Well done man.

Make sure to focus on family and friends now, especially those that supported you.

Bl8ckr0uter

Wow dude! Awesome!

jason_lunde wrote: »

Ya reaper I kind of kept this date close to my chest if you know what I mean. Just wanted to be able to focus on it without the pressure of announcing it. During work I would read the doc-cd, and that is about it. I would spend 45 minutes during lunch vpn'd to home on my rack labbing as well. Besides that I dedicated from abou 8-11:30 to getting my time in. With the help of monster drinks at 8 pm this was possible. Thanks guys!

Looks like I can learn from you in this department (and others I am sure):)

So what's up next for you (after your 90 day break)?

TesseracT

That's huge buddy, I'm glad you passed. Thanks for your process as well as it lets us hopefuls know how much effort is needed

Chris_

Massive achievement, well done - gives us all hope, doubt I could ever sacrifice that much family time though.
Bog Congrats.

hono

Congratulations Jason,
This envourage others like me... I hope to pass my lab before the end of this year

chrisone

jason_lunde wrote: »

1. About 9 months I think...that included my trip down the CCIP path though.
2. I passed the written in November...so like 7 months of intense lab prep.

This statement here motivates me to get a CCIE Security cert, since I am going down the CCNP Security path , this would cut my CCIE Security written study time down massively.

jason_lunde wrote: »

3. My tally is about 15k..that includes my lab, All Access Pass-INE, Narbik boot camp, books, travel, written and lab fees, mock labs, etc... This all came out of my pocket too, as work wouldnt really pay, and I really didnt want them too. I didnt want to feel tied down and I am fortunate enough to be in a position where I did not need them too.

This statement here frustrates me because of the costs invovled

NOC-Ninja

chrisone wrote: »

This statement here motivates me to get a CCIE Security cert, since I am going down the CCNP Security path , this would cut my CCIE Security written study time down massively.

This statement here frustrates me because of the costs invovled

Loan

I might sell my baby (STi) to get that budget.

jason_lunde

Ya it was pretty expensive, but mind you when I built my lab out on ebay I wasnt really the savviest of shoppers. I usually did the "buy it now" because I hated bidding wars, and I bought some stuff in quantity. This unfortunately is higher costs, but less hassle (imo). Then I said INE all access pass, but really it was the CCIE R/S self study bundle, which is basically all their R/S stuff. Supposedly if you call them, they will work with you to get it down to a reasonable cost. Then on the travel side, I just hate shitty hotels. I still need to do the "final tally." I will let you guys know the actual cost when I get that done.

Turgon, I was in the Cisco 360 program through Narbik's boot camp. Now that his program is affiliated with them, you get admitted as a 360 student, as well as a Narbik student. Its a pretty good deal I think as his class costs are still reasonable.

chrisone

The only issue with the CCIE security is that not only do you have to buy routers and switches, you need to purchase, IPS, ASA, ACS Server, Mars i believe. I think i can get it done with 10k to be honest with you and that is not that bad, it will just take some time to build. I can probably build most of it during my CCNP Security studies. Well see how far i get with the CCNP security as far as building that lab goes. I think about pulling the trigger on the CCIE Security exam every month evey time i study new concepts about security. I wont make any final decision until after i get that CCNP Security cert

I just like the fact that there are only 2,500 CCIE security's in the world. I also dont like the CCIE RS so much, i think they overkill the bgp, mpls, qos, stuff. I think the RS touches every technology including some security.

StrontyDog

Congrats!

Ahriakin

chrisone wrote: »

The only issue with the CCIE security is that not only do you have to buy routers and switches, you need to purchase, IPS, ASA, ACS Server, Mars i believe. I think i can get it done with 10k to be honest with you and that is not that bad, it will just take some time to build. I can probably build most of it during my CCNP Security studies. Well see how far i get with the CCNP security as far as building that lab goes. I think about pulling the trigger on the CCIE Security exam every month evey time i study new concepts about security. I wont make any final decision until after i get that CCNP Security cert

I just like the fact that there are only 2,500 CCIE security's in the world. I also dont like the CCIE RS so much, i think they overkill the bgp, mpls, qos, stuff. I think the RS touches every technology including some security.

If you aim to emulate the full lab then yes the home version is costly but you don't need to. Remember the mantra, 'Study the technology - NOT the lab itself'. With that in mind you can put together a small home lab to explore and practice core concepts relatively cheaply (and with PIX/ASA support in GNS3 this is even easier now, put the 90 day trial of ACS into a VM etc.), then use rack time for full blown labs.

416_guy

Monumental achievement!!!

I can only dream of one day being in your shoes.

esswok

Very Sweeeet! i am sure that you must feel ontop of the world.

CONGRATS!

hkechoes

Super awesome!

Posts like this are giving me courage to move forward, like you!

davidspirovalentine

jason_lunde wrote: »

I have been in these forums since my pre-ccna days, so to be able to finally post this is awesome.

HUGE ACHIEVEMENT!!! Congrats, it must be an awesome feeling! I hope I have a similar success story next year in November...

jason_lunde wrote: »

Now to spend some much needed time with my son, and pregnant wife!

Congrats again!!!

Kind Regards,
David

bertieb

Late to the party as ever, but just wanted to say awesome! Well done indeed sir, thats a great achievement - thoroughly deserved with the efforts you have put in!

Enjoy some relaxation time with your family, and party hard