Just Halabi's book OK for BGP test?

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.

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Comments

mikej412

wolverene13 wrote: »

passed

Congratulations!!

Good Luck with your MPLS studies

Ryan82

APA wrote: »

Read Internet Routing Architectures by Halabi & BGP Design and Implementation by Rhandy Zhang.

Agree 100%, the Design and Implementation book is awesome.

tomaifauchai

This book (BGP DI) is very, very good!
It is certainly a good source of information for the CCIE SP and i'm sure every network engineer working with BGP must have this book in their library?

I'm feeling a lot overwhelmed when i read it...

But it's better to know more than enough

APA

Congratz on your pass!

wolverene13

burbankmarc wrote: »

Big congrats! Now you just need MPLS and QoS, no?

Yep, currently I'm reading the MPLS Fundamentals book by Luc De Ghein. Is it just me, or does each paragraph repeat the same idea over and over again in each sentence, but merely rephrased?

To paraphrase: "If a prefix is reachable via labeled and unlabeled paths, Cisco IOS does not consider the unlabeled path when load balancing. This is because a packet may lose its label when it hits a link where MPLS is not enabled. If a packet hits a link where MPLS is not enabled, it will lose its label and cannot be forwarded. This is because P routers may not have the VPN routing tables or the forwarding tables needed to forward the packet. As a result, the packet cannot be forwarded because it does not have a label..."

So far so good, though!

Forsaken_GA

wolverene13 wrote: »

Yep, currently I'm reading the MPLS Fundamentals book by Luc De Ghein. Is it just me, or does each paragraph repeat the same idea over and over again in each sentence, but merely rephrased?

To paraphrase: "If a prefix is reachable via labeled and unlabeled paths, Cisco IOS does not consider the unlabeled path when load balancing. This is because a packet may lose its label when it hits a link where MPLS is not enabled. If a packet hits a link where MPLS is not enabled, it will lose its label and cannot be forwarded. This is because P routers may not have the VPN routing tables or the forwarding tables needed to forward the packet. As a result, the packet cannot be forwarded because it does not have a label..."

So far so good, though!

I really dislike MPLS Fundamentals. I don't know what it is, but I just feel the material was not presented well, at least not for someone coming fresh to MPLS. I actually purchased INE's MPLS course, and that cleared up all of my questions, and allowed me to actually make sense of MPLS Fundamentals.

And I guess that's my biggest gripe with MPLS Fundamentals... for something with the word fundamental in the title, it assumes an awful lot of prior knowledge

burbankmarc

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

I really dislike MPLS Fundamentals. I don't know what it is, but I just feel the material was not presented well, at least not for someone coming fresh to MPLS. I actually purchased INE's MPLS course, and that cleared up all of my questions, and allowed me to actually make sense of MPLS Fundamentals.

And I guess that's my biggest gripe with MPLS Fundamentals... for something with the word fundamental in the title, it assumes an awful lot of prior knowledge

Thank god I'm not the only one. I did the exact same thing. I read the first 8 or 9 chapters of MPLS fundamentals and I was completely lost. Bought the INE track and Keith went over the basics which then made everything else I learned much clearer. The info in MPLS Fundamentals is good, I just do not like the way it was written.

Turgon

burbankmarc wrote: »

Thank god I'm not the only one. I did the exact same thing. I read the first 8 or 9 chapters of MPLS fundamentals and I was completely lost. Bought the INE track and Keith went over the basics which then made everything else I learned much clearer. The info in MPLS Fundamentals is good, I just do not like the way it was written.

We are still waiting for a really good book on MPLS that meets the requirements of designers and operations new to the technology. Many writers have tried and failed to come up with one.

burbankmarc

I think it's because MPLS is just such a meta topic. I mean once you understand it it's not terribly hard, just like anything else. But I would be hard pressed to explain it to someone:

Well MPLS uses labels instead of layer 3 information to communicate, well you see...to know MPLS you need to know LDP/TDP...well you see to know LDP/TDP you need to know CEF...well you see to know CEF you need to know how the routing protocol works

And so on and so forth in a large recursive manner. I don't envy authors who are taking on the challenge.

Turgon

The theory on the subject is challenging. For me the books out there need more configuration examples to help make sense of things. Odom for the written just doesn't have them.

networker050184

I thought the MPLS Fundamentals book was really good although I wasn't new to MPLS when coming into it.

ITdude

burbankmarc wrote: »

I don't envy authors who are taking on the challenge.

I hear you on that one!

Forsaken_GA

burbankmarc wrote: »

Thank god I'm not the only one. I did the exact same thing. I read the first 8 or 9 chapters of MPLS fundamentals and I was completely lost. Bought the INE track and Keith went over the basics which then made everything else I learned much clearer. The info in MPLS Fundamentals is good, I just do not like the way it was written.

Yup, I think it's an EXCELLENT reference manual now that I actually get it. Horribly mislabeled as a learning tool though.

Forsaken_GA

burbankmarc wrote: »

I think it's because MPLS is just such a meta topic. I mean once you understand it it's not terribly hard, just like anything else. But I would be hard pressed to explain it to someone:

And so on and so forth in a large recursive manner. I don't envy authors who are taking on the challenge.

Don't forget you need to know BGP if you actually want to do stuff like implement the VPN's!

I think MPLS is probably the coolest network technology around right now. It is, essentially, based on deception and smoke and mirrors and is a wonderful hack. Seeing all the elements fit together and actually work is exciting!

But man it's a ***** to learn how all those parts fit together at first.

wolverene13

networker050184 wrote: »

I thought the MPLS Fundamentals book was really good although I wasn't new to MPLS when coming into it.

I can definitely see your point on this one. I think the only reason I understand it is because I work with MPLS on a daily basis. The book just sort of clarifies some details that I only had a vague notion of prior to reading it. I'm not usually involved in the TE side of the MPLS world and normally my day-to-day work has to do with troubleshooting why two ends can't talk to one another. Typically something is physically down or some routes are misconfigured somewhere. The QoS part of it and RSVP was what the book is helping me with primarily.