My CCIE Journey Has Officially Begun.

jamesp1983

I have decided that it is time to pursue the first goal I had when I entered IT, the CCIE. I know its going to be an EXTREME challenge, but I'm just pushing forward and trying to stay confident. I'm going to use this thread for tracking my progress throughout my CCIE journey. I purchased the INE Ultimate bundle last week and have been studying and labbing ever since. I'm still trying to figure out what the right balance of lab vs study is at this point, but I'm just reviewing all of the ATVOD material now (over 80 hours), to refresh myself. I'm open for any suggestions on how I should balance lab vs study time. I've been running Dynamips and working with my home switches while watching the videos as a way to get more hands on. I passed BCMSN, BSCI, and ISCW back in 2008, and wrapped up ONT in August of 2010. I have been working with the equipment at my job so that has kept me fresh on a lot of the info, but I'm still studying like I'm just starting out. I research topics in the videos that I don't really remember and that seems to be really helping. I will keep this updated as a motivator and also as a way to keep track of all that I have studied when it comes time for my final review. It feels great to finally get started on this path. My wife and I worked out a schedule and I'm going to try to hit 30-36 hours a week.

My resources:
-INE Virtual Lab
-The INE workbooks
-INE Written VOD
-Routing TCP/IP, vol I.
-Home lab (a few routers and some 3550s.)
-Cisco LAN Switching by Ken Clark
-Routing and Switching, Time of Convergence?
-My CCNP Library.
-Dynamips
-Cisco.com
-INE ATVOD 4.5

Should I buy Odom's exam guide? I think the Boson Exsim for CCIE will be the next addition.

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Comments

jamesp1983

I just hung up the LAN Switching book for now. The design case studies were a little useless due to how outdated they were, but I will reiterate the fact that the switching knowledge contained in this book is plentiful, but you just have to jump around a lot. I just ordered Routing TCP/IP, Volume II and Inside Cisco IOS Architecture (it was $2 and recommended by INE). I need to dial in on multicast, QoS, and IPv6 to ensure that I have eliminated most of my weak areas. I will start reviewing multicast at work tomorrow and continue until I have a much better grasp on it (I used to have it down cold, but have lost some of the knowledge over time). I have to start really putting in the time now to ensure a written pass by December.

The icing on the cake is two-fold. We are in the midst of moving while I am changing jobs. Hopefully my wife and I don't go insane over the next couple of months. We will be in a much better position come January both mentally and financially.

down77

Did you feel that the LAN Switching book provided much value towards the CCIE Studies? The Routing TCP/IP Vol I/II books are essential and I agree with you on the need to dial in on QoS and IPv6. For those two I have End to End Qos and Deploying IPv6 Networks. Multicast is an important topic, but I get the feeling that as long as you understand the basics to mutlicast you should be fine. Regardless, I picked up Developing IP Multicast Networks to fill in some additional gaps.

Sounds like you are well on your way towards a pass in December!

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

I just hung up the LAN Switching book for now. The design case studies were a little useless due to how outdated they were, but I will reiterate the fact that the switching knowledge contained in this book is plentiful, but you just have to jump around a lot. I just ordered Routing TCP/IP, Volume II and Inside Cisco IOS Architecture (it was $2 and recommended by INE). I need to dial in on multicast, QoS, and IPv6 to ensure that I have eliminated most of my weak areas. I will start reviewing multicast at work tomorrow and continue until I have a much better grasp on it (I used to have it down cold, but have lost some of the knowledge over time). I have to start really putting in the time now to ensure a written pass by December.

The icing on the cake is two-fold. We are in the midst of moving while I am changing jobs. Hopefully my wife and I don't go insane over the next couple of months. We will be in a much better position come January both mentally and financially.

Sounds like a challenging time for your personally. Good luck with all that.

jamesp1983

down77 wrote: »

Did you feel that the LAN Switching book provided much value towards the CCIE Studies? The Routing TCP/IP Vol I/II books are essential and I agree with you on the need to dial in on QoS and IPv6. For those two I have End to End Qos and Deploying IPv6 Networks. Multicast is an important topic, but I get the feeling that as long as you understand the basics to mutlicast you should be fine. Regardless, I picked up Developing IP Multicast Networks to fill in some additional gaps.

Sounds like you are well on your way towards a pass in December!

I feel like some things are a bit clearer now that I read some sections of that LAN Switching book, but I'm not sure its necessary if you have the BCMSN exam guide. I skipped around in the LAN Switching book a great deal. I only read the chapters on STP, advanced STP, trunks, VLANs, and all of the design chapters. I didn't read any of the CatOS config steps, nor any of the device specific information.

Maybe we can have Turgon take this one...how in depth should we know multicast? Should we spend a lot of time on it?

Thanks man. I hope so! Good luck!

jamesp1983

I haven't used this yet, but apparently it helps you test your multicast infrastructure:

Nortel: Corporate Information: Nortel On Nortel: IT Tools: Multicast Hammer

Other useful multicast links:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2/ip/configuration/guide/1cfmulti.html
Decent info on how multicast is laid out.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk828/tk363/tsd_technology_support_sub-protocol_home.html

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Internet_Protocol_Multicast

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

I feel like some things are a bit clearer now that I read some sections of that LAN Switching book, but I'm not sure its necessary if you have the BCMSN exam guide. I skipped around in the LAN Switching book a great deal. I only read the chapters on STP, advanced STP, trunks, VLANs, and all of the design chapters. I didn't read any of the CatOS config steps, nor any of the device specific information.

Maybe we can have Turgon take this one...how in depth should we know multicast? Should we spend a lot of time on it?

Thanks man. I hope so! Good luck!

Multicast?

1.How to light it up..dense mode/sparse mode
2.RP variations
3.BSR Auto RP
4. Filtering
5. IGMP
6 multicast helper
7. Tunnelling
8. Timers etc

jamesp1983

Thanks! I just got done rereading Chapter 16 (Intro to IP Multicasting) in the Exam Guide. It was nice having a look at IGMP, CGMP, IGMP snooping, and RGMP again. I continue to find little facts that I didn't notice during the first read through. Forming the group MAC address from the IP seems to be easier for some reason after reading through the steps a second time. I didn't get as much study time in this weekend as I would have liked to because we were in NY for a wedding from Thursday until late Saturday night. We have people coming to look at our house tomorrow so we spent most of today cleaning and repairing. I had a job call me out of nowhere last Wednesday that really had me think twice about taking the job I had accepted, but after a lot of thought this job is higher level and a lot more stable. Back to multicast:

First 4 bits of a multicast address are always 1110. Group multicast mac addresses always begin with 01-00-5e-0. You replace the first 4 bits with the oui 01-00-5e. The next 5 bits are always replaced with 0 (this can lead to duplicate mm addresses). Take the last 23 bits and convert them to hex. Combine the new OUI (01-00-5e) and the 0 with these last 23 binary-to-hex converted digits and this will give you your multicast destination mac.

IGMP - host and router communications
CGMP - cisco proprietary, router to switch communications (routers talk, switches listen)
RGMP - allows routers to tells switches what groups they want to hear multicasts for

Permanent multicast - 224.0.0.0 - 224.0.1.255 (the 224.0.1.0/24's are routable)
SSM - 232.0.0.0-232.255.255.255
GLOP - 233.0.0.0-233.255.255.255
Private - 239.0.0.0-239.255.255.255
Transient - the unused multicast addresses can be used globally by anyone

Well known multicast addresses:

224.0.0.1 - all multicast hosts
224.0.0.2 - all multicast routers
224.0.0.5 - all ospf routers
224.0.0.6 - all ospf dr's
224.0.0.9 - ripv2 routers
224.0.0.10 - eigrp routers
224.0.0.13 - pim routers
224.0.0.22 - igmpv3
224.0.0.25 - rgmp

Message types:
Reports - hosts send these to routers to let them know what groups they want to belong to (either in response to queries (Solicited), or not (unsolicited)
Queries - sent by routers to find group members (can be generic or group specific)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk828/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094821.shtml

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/ipmulti/command/reference/imc_04.html#wp1042158

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Thanks! I just got done rereading Chapter 16 (Intro to IP Multicasting) in the Exam Guide. It was nice having a look at IGMP, CGMP, IGMP snooping, and RGMP again. I continue to find little facts that I didn't notice during the first read through. Forming the group MAC address from the IP seems to be easier for some reason after reading through the steps a second time. I didn't get as much study time in this weekend as I would have liked to because we were in NY for a wedding from Thursday until late Saturday night. We have people coming to look at our house tomorrow so we spent most of today cleaning and repairing. I had a job call me out of nowhere last Wednesday that really had me think twice about taking the job I had accepted, but after a lot of thought this job is higher level and a lot more stable. Back to multicast:

First 4 bits of a multicast address are always 1110. Group multicast mac addresses always begin with 01-00-5e-0. You replace the first 4 bits with the oui 01-00-5e. The next 5 bits are always replaced with 0 (this can lead to duplicate mm addresses). Take the last 23 bits and convert them to hex. Combine the new OUI (01-00-5e) and the 0 with these last 23 binary-to-hex converted digits and this will give you your multicast destination mac.

IGMP - host and router communications
CGMP - cisco proprietary, router to switch communications (routers talk, switches listen)
RGMP - allows routers to tells switches what groups they want to hear multicasts for

Permanent multicast - 224.0.0.0 - 224.0.1.255 (the 224.0.1.0/24's are routable)
SSM - 232.0.0.0-232.255.255.255
GLOP - 233.0.0.0-233.255.255.255
Private - 239.0.0.0-239.255.255.255
Transient - the unused multicast addresses can be used globally by anyone

Well known multicast addresses:

224.0.0.1 - all multicast hosts
224.0.0.2 - all multicast routers
224.0.0.5 - all ospf routers
224.0.0.6 - all ospf dr's
224.0.0.9 - ripv2 routers
224.0.0.10 - eigrp routers
224.0.0.13 - pim routers
224.0.0.22 - igmpv3
224.0.0.25 - rgmp

Message types:
Reports - hosts send these to routers to let them know what groups they want to belong to (either in response to queries (Solicited), or not (unsolicited)
Queries - sent by routers to find group members (can be generic or group specific)

Multicast Quick-Start Configuration Guide - Cisco Systems

Cisco IOS IP Multicast Command Reference - ip pgm host through ip pim version [Support] - Cisco Systems

You may get a couple of questions on this sort of thing. Dont get hung up memorising all the addresses, most people cant anyway.

jamesp1983

I finished up a reread of the chapter in the exam guide on routing multicast (chp 17). (PIM-SM, PIM-DM, RPs, SPT, RPT, etc). I picked up a lot more than I did the first read through. I also did about 130 questions out of the 203 that come with the book. I want to make a complete pass through the book disc then start using the actual Boson Exsim questions. I have been using the book test as a way to determine my weak areas. I have read a lot of the LAN Switching book now and feel pretty confident in that knowledge, but now I am filling in multicast, QoS, MPLS, IPv6, security, and IP services.

jamesp1983

I wrapped up the Cisco Press question pool last night. I have a very good idea of where I'm weak. I really enjoy the explanations for the answers and realized that they have helped me grow stronger in my understanding of a lot of the areas. I've been trying to read as much about my weak spots as I can. I have found that this is really helping me. They help you tie it all together. I did a few of the Boson ExSim questions as well. The explanations for these questions are extremely thorough. The night was completed by watching the INE Written videos on BGP, EIGRP, Advanced EIGRP, PBR, and the MQC. These written videos seem a little light to me, but I'm using them in hopes of learning a little something extra about each topic. My next step is to really beef up my Mnemosyne so I have a ton of notes. I find these help you retain the knowledge as time goes on.

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

I wrapped up the Cisco Press question pool last night. I have a very good idea of where I'm weak. I really enjoy the explanations for the answers and realized that they have helped me grow stronger in my understanding of a lot of the areas. I've been trying to read as much about my weak spots as I can. I have found that this is really helping me. They help you tie it all together. I did a few of the Boson ExSim questions as well. The explanations for these questions are extremely thorough. The night was completed by watching the INE Written videos on BGP, EIGRP, Advanced EIGRP, PBR, and the MQC. These written videos seem a little light to me, but I'm using them in hopes of learning a little something extra about each topic. My next step is to really beef up my Mnemosyne so I have a ton of notes. I find these help you retain the knowledge as time goes on.

Good. Keep hammering the practice tests and take the exam before the pressure in the new job kicks in.

lsud00d

I just realized that the Cisco Routing and Switching book I've been reading is the exam guide for the CCIE test...I'm not a network guy so this stuff is prettttty in depth for my likings. How much easier is the CCNA version? Obviously it will be not as in depth...

jamesp1983

lsud00d wrote: »

I just realized that the Cisco Routing and Switching book I've been reading is the exam guide for the CCIE test...I'm not a network guy so this stuff is prettttty in depth for my likings. How much easier is the CCNA version? Obviously it will be not as in depth...

The CCNA version is significantly easier. A lot of guys read the CCIE texts for their CCNP studies (Routing TCP/IP, vol I and II). I know I did for my BSCI and BCMSN.

jamesp1983

Turgon wrote: »

Good. Keep hammering the practice tests and take the exam before the pressure in the new job kicks in.

I'm planning on setting up my Written date for the 2nd or 3rd week of November. We are moving as well so money is a little tight.

lsud00d

jamesp1983 wrote: »

The CCNA version is significantly easier. A lot of guys read the CCIE texts for their CCNP studies (Routing TCP/IP, vol I and II). I know I did for my BSCI and BCMSN.

Oops, there I go talking about stuff I know nothing about

CCNA --> CCNP --> CCIE...I got it now...I asked how much easier the Associate cert is than the Expert cert...lulz!

jamesp1983

lsud00d wrote: »

Oops, there I go talking about stuff I know nothing about

CCNA --> CCNP --> CCIE...I got it now...I asked how much easier the Associate cert is than the Expert cert...lulz!

You got it! Let me know if you hit any bumps in the road during your studies. There are a bunch of helpful guys in this forum...

lsud00d

jamesp1983 wrote: »

You got it! Let me know if you hit any bumps in the road during your studies. There are a bunch of helpful guys in this forum...

Thanks James! These forums have been great so far and have given me a lot of ideas...I'm torn between furthering my Linux skills, or starting on a CCNA/CCNP track, or starting towards an MCITP:SA...I want it all lol.

jamesp1983

lsud00d wrote: »

Thanks James! These forums have been great so far and have given me a lot of ideas...I'm torn between furthering my Linux skills, or starting on a CCNA/CCNP track, or starting towards an MCITP:SA...I want it all lol.

No problem man. I know where you're coming from. I started out wanting it all, but then realized that networking is what I find the most challenging and rewarding so I started putting all of my effort into that direction.

jamesp1983

I didn't get as much studying done as I would have liked to this weekend due to the move, and a family dinner on Friday and another on Saturday. I made a run through the Boson ExSim questions Test A last night and received a 79. I watched all of the INE Written Bootcamp's QoS and Multicast videos yesterday. I also started reviewing the QoS Exam Guide as well. I'm not planning on reading the entire book, but only the relevant pieces according to the Written blueprint. I tried to decide between BGP and QoS, but I'm a lot stronger with BGP than I am QoS and I need QoS for the first project I'll be running at the new gig. They are implementing a 15 site Cisco VoIP installation.

jamesp1983

My plan is to use this week to cover QoS in detail. I've read the first 2 chapters in the QoS Exam Guide. They lay a foundation and now I will focus just on the specifics covered in the written blueprint. I have also been reading over the INE QoS labs and viewing the QoS ATCoD videos. I want to set up GNS3 and actually go through some of these labs as well. Is IntServ even covered anymore? I don't see it on the blueprint.

A little bit of what I've covered so far:

-mark once at the edge so the rest of your network can just make decisions based off of those markings. This makes the process a lot more efficient.

Layer 3 markings:
-Class Selectors are for backwards compatibility with IPP.
-IPP is 3 bits giving a total of values from 0-7. (8 possible values). not nearly as granular as DSCP.
-DSCP - differentiated services code point - 6 bits of ToS byte. Backwards compatible with IPP. Have 64 total values (values are roughly 8x what the IPP would be)

Layer 2 markings:
-CLP-cell loss priority, for ATM-able to be discarded during times of congestion
-DE- discard eligibility - for frame relay - says this frame can be discarded during times of congestion
-CoS-value for 0-7 (3 bits), found in dot1q or isl. User Priority is technically what its called in dot1q, but its called CoS in ISL, and CoS is actually used to describe the value in both technologies. The dot1q tag is found between the DA/SA fields and type/len field. a CoS of 5 is considered critical and typically describes VoIP payloads (not signaling). 0 is best effort.

Queuing Methods (Congestion Management):
(anything starting with "class based" = implemented with the MQC)
CBWFQ - look for the "bandwidth" command (multiple varieties and implications). Improvement to WFQ. WFQ was flow-based and used the IPP levels. CBWFQ is class-based, and allows you to match on much more granular markings, ACL's (named or numbered), interfaces, and protocols. (DSCP) Define traffic classes (via class-map's), queue for each class, traffic matching your class-map (matching criteria) will be directed to the appropriate queue. There can be up to 64 classes. You assign the various classes bandwidth, weight, and max pkt limits (via policy-map's). The bandwidth is the minimum bandwidth the class will receive during periods of congestion. Don't allocate more than 75% of the interface bandwidth to your classes. (this can be overridden, but bad idea). You can also assign queue limits. The weight is calculated off of the bandwidth you assigned the class. Weight determines which class queue the traffic is placed in. (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_0t/12_0t5/feature/guide/cbwfq.html)

LLQ - an extension to CBWFQ. Allows for a high priority queue for CBWFQ. look for the "priority" command.

Congestion Avoidance
WRED-helps avoid tcp synchronization. randomly drops packets based off of mpd (default 10) between min to max threshold (of queue depth), tail drop is in full effect once the max threshold is exceeded. Takes advantage of TCP's reliability and ACK process. Tail drop is used if this isn't implemented. Tail drop drops traffic recklessly. WRED allows you control of what will be dropped. Don't apply WRED to the same interface as the service-policy. ("random-detect" command enabled WRED.)

Policing-configured either inbound OR outbound. ISP's typically use this to enforce a traffic rate inbound from a customer. This can drop or re-mark traffic to keep it within limits.
Shaping-buffers excess traffic, can only be applied outbound. Typically configured at customer site to smooth at traffic being sent to the ISP. This helps avoid sending too much data on the link to the ISP.

Implementation:
MQC - modular QoS CLI. Modular framework for implementing QoS. You create groupings of traffic with "class-map"'s, apply different actions to the classified traffic with "policy-map"'s, and then apply the policy-map to an interface in or out via the "service-policy" command. You can match on a lot of different values (acl's, dscp, precedence, protocol (nbar), etc), and then apply several different actions to the classified traffic.

General:
-Long queues will delay traffic being dropped, but will impose a long queueing delay on the traffic.
-hardware queue is fifo.
-queueing strategies implement software (logical) queues that queue packets for access to the tx-ring.
-serial interfaces at and below 2.048Mbps use WFQ by default. Faster interfaces use FIFO.
-if you don't see "random-detect" in a policy map, you are using tail drop, not WRED
-WRED can be configured at the interface or in a policy map.

Useful commands:
-show policy (policy-map)= shows entire policy-map
-show policy (policy-map) class (class-name)= shows specified class-map from specified policy-map
-show policy int (int-name)=shows all policy-map configured on the interface, along with class configs
-show queue (int-type int-num)= shows queueing config and stats

jamesp1983

Well, my wife and I completed most of our moving yesterday after work. We didn't end up going to bed until around 12am. I am in my last 1.5 days at my current job. I only got about an hour of studying done yesterday. I watched the last INE ATCOD QoS video during lunch yesterday (1hr). It was on the Catalyst 3560's QoS implementation. I haven't done any huge QoS deployments so this was an eye opener and really helped me tie some of the concepts together. I also decided to investigate advanced NAT topics. I just had the urge to do that so I did. I really want to lab up some QoS over the weekend. We still have some more stuff (including my lab) to move, but the we have our TV, bed, food, kitchen stuff, etc. I was hoping to take my Written 11/19, but I'm thinking I might have to bump it back a week. Good luck everyone.

jamesp1983

I keep doing the Boson practice tests and I continue to stop by Netmasters to do their question of the day. Last night I read chapter 3 (MQC,QPM,AutoQoS), and half of chapter 4 (classification and marking) in the QoS Exam Guide. QoS is really starting to make a lot more sense now. The INE ATCoD videos really helped. I remember reading the QoS Exam Guide when I was doing my CCNP and feeling lost. Fast forward awhile after having some real world experience with QoS and it makes a lot more sense now. This has been a rewarding journey already.

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Well, my wife and I completed most of our moving yesterday after work. We didn't end up going to bed until around 12am. I am in my last 1.5 days at my current job. I only got about an hour of studying done yesterday. I watched the last INE ATCOD QoS video during lunch yesterday (1hr). It was on the Catalyst 3560's QoS implementation. I haven't done any huge QoS deployments so this was an eye opener and really helped me tie some of the concepts together. I also decided to investigate advanced NAT topics. I just had the urge to do that so I did. I really want to lab up some QoS over the weekend. We still have some more stuff (including my lab) to move, but the we have our TV, bed, food, kitchen stuff, etc. I was hoping to take my Written 11/19, but I'm thinking I might have to bump it back a week. Good luck everyone.

My advice is to bump your written back a few weeks so you can settle into the house and then have time to study properly for the exam. Even after you move in, wives have a tendency to need you free to do many things in a new home. Get the house and your wife happy, then worry about QoS and NAT etc. You have 1000 lab hours ahead of you so keep things sweet at home.

jamesp1983

Hopefully finishing up all of the ine written videos today. I have about 6 left. I will cover more qos guide as well as boson tests.

jamesp1983

Day 1 of the new job is over. I was already tasked with 4 projects and a trouble ticket. I met my coworker as well. The campus is huge and pretty modern. He's a little older than me, but did helpdesk for a long time before recently moving into networking. He seems to be a pretty good guy. The job seems like it is really going to be a great experience overall. My first project is to overhaul the network (VLAN'ing, QoS, etc) in order to support the new VoIP infrastructure that is being implemented by some CCIE Voice contractors. The company's core is made up of 6500 series in an HA config, 3750s in the IDFs, and 3800 series routers. I studied some QoS features today in the name of this project so I am still going to get some study time in. This project should really drive home QoS configs.

jamesp1983

Three days in to the new job and I've already been busy redesigning a few of our sites in anticipation of upgrading some edge equipment and removing some legacy load balancers, but I have been studying QoS daily for at least a few hours. I have to implement edge-to-edge QoS on our 23 site network (They told me 15 sites initially, but it increased) for VoIP and video conferencing. Down side, I've been exhausted everyday once I get home (days start earlier and end later due to long commute). I've still been trying to study for a little while before I go to sleep. The weekends will certainly be more important to me now since I'm not getting as much done on the weeknights. Overall, I'm loving this new job and I feel like it will only help me along my journey to the CCIE.

Turgon

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Three days in to the new job and I've already been busy redesigning a few of our sites in anticipation of upgrading some edge equipment and removing some legacy load balancers, but I have been studying QoS daily for at least a few hours. I have to implement edge-to-edge QoS on our 23 site network (They told me 15 sites initially, but it increased) for VoIP and video conferencing. Down side, I've been exhausted everyday once I get home (days start earlier and end later due to long commute). I've still been trying to study for a little while before I go to sleep. The weekends will certainly be more important to me now since I'm not getting as much done on the weeknights. Overall, I'm loving this new job and I feel like it will only help me along my journey to the CCIE.

An excellent job opportunity making you only more employable in the future. Good luck with it and the studying.

jamesp1983

Turgon wrote: »

An excellent job opportunity making you only more employable in the future. Good luck with it and the studying.

Thank you sir.

jamesp1983

I've been doing some practice tests as well as continuing to read about QoS. I've been studying more in-depth information on design and low level layer 2 information. I've already been able to apply a lot of what I've been studying to my day to day. I'm hoping to get the Written in before December.

jamesp1983

Studying PfR... PMACV, PfR = OER. I will complete these notes after dinner. I have to do some more reading on this topic.