Working towards CCNP...

While I fully intend to tackle the CCIE R&S when I'm done, I'm finding it hard to keep motivated at the CCNP level.

Switching was fairly easy for me, but routing is kicking my ass hard. I understand all of it, I just have a hard time memorizing all the little details.

My goal was:
Switch February
Route March
Tshoot April

So far, I passed Switch at the beginning of March. Had scheduled Route for this friday (march 30th) but rescheduled to april 10th (undergoing 2nd cataract surgery next monday (had the right eye done march 10th... I'm 42 years old... the joy...)). Tshoot, I'll have to see.

Don't know if the stress of the surgeries are what's taking a toll on me, but concentration isn't there, I'm beat these days. I love this stuff, and I want to reach this goal for sure... Should have done this years ago

Was easier to study this much in my 20s lol

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NetworkVeteran

SUBnet192 wrote: »

routing is kicking my ass hard. I understand all of it, I just have a hard time memorizing all the little details.

Setup some labs. Most "fine little details" worth learning have practical value that become apparent when you're labbing. For example, without looking it up, what does the 0 in offset-list 0 refer to? It's not so theoretical when you use it.

Roguetadhg

There's a lot of Routing content - I just covered OSPF and EIGRP in the ROUTE OCG book. 8 chapters worth. Im spending time on these 8 chapters before I go on to through the rest of the chapters. I'd rather not overload my mind with Path control, BGP, more IPv6 (Subnetting IPv6) and elsewise. I'd rather keep building on what I know prior to giving me BGP, which I know I'll be interested in

The best thing anyone can do is to actually do it, along side with the text. It does make that theory into something tangible and meaningful. I can only guess that it becomes even more so if you setup a home lab, and then you can see the parts work. You know it works, and you can unplug to affect the network.

SUBnet192

Roguetadhg wrote: »

There's a lot of Routing content - I just covered OSPF and EIGRP in the ROUTE OCG book. 8 chapters worth. Im spending time on these 8 chapters before I go on to through the rest of the chapters. I'd rather not overload my mind with Path control, BGP, more IPv6 (Subnetting IPv6) and elsewise. I'd rather keep building on what I know prior to giving me BGP, which I know I'll be interested in

The best thing anyone can do is to actually do it, along side with the text. It does make that theory into something tangible and meaningful. I can only guess that it becomes even more so if you setup a home lab, and then you can see the parts work. You know it works, and you can unplug to affect the network.

I have built the INE CCIE topology in preparation for that stage of training, so it's more than sufficient for CCNP

I've watched 2 complete CBTs for Route and am now tackling the OCG book before jumping into labs. At work, I'm currently designing and deploying an EIGRP topology for a mid-size client (collapsed core, 10GigE backbone, etc...) so I'm fairly comfortable with EIGRP. It's OSPF and the various LSAs and redistribution rules that bug me.

SUBnet192

Hmm....

ROUTE is really being a pain for me. The OCG book bores me to death. I actually rescheduled my exam for the 23rd of April now, as I can't kick myself in the butt hard enough to get ahead in this book.

I need to find another book that'll actually be readable.... FLG?

bermovick

SUBnet192 wrote: »

Hmm....

ROUTE is really being a pain for me. The OCG book bores me to death. I actually rescheduled my exam for the 23rd of April now, as I can't kick myself in the butt hard enough to get ahead in this book.

I need to find another book that'll actually be readable.... FLG?

I had that problem too the first time through it - for me I think because it was just TOO MUCH. The FLG I found easier to digest, and once I had it down, the OCG was much easier to use as the final stretch pre-exam.

Edit/Addon: And if you think ROUTE is a beast to absorb/get through, HOLY CRAB NUGGETS, the IE material is brutal.

SUBnet192

bermovick wrote: »

I had that problem too the first time through it - for me I think because it was just TOO MUCH. The FLG I found easier to digest, and once I had it down, the OCG was much easier to use as the final stretch pre-exam.

Edit/Addon: And if you think ROUTE is a beast to absorb/get through, HOLY CRAB NUGGETS, the IE material is brutal.

I have a good understanding/grasp of the concepts, it's the details... I'm not a telecom guy, just doing this for fun (after 22 years of Microsoft, and Vmware for the last 6 years) I wanted to try something new

I found SWITCH fun and "easy", and I keep reading that people find it hard so I assumed ROUTE would be a piece of cake... Urgh lol...

I can only imagine what CCIE level stuff is like

Thinking of doing CCDA after CCNP, to get more conceptual stuff down before tackling CCIE.

Roguetadhg

FLG is very not the same as OCG. The OCG is very much a test-focused book. Although it's hard for me to recommend one over the other as both as really good books.

vinbuck

The details are a major part the increase in difficulty level from CCNA to CCNP. Mainly, because the details are considered part of the core concepts for CCNP exams and not just footnotes and filler. Expect to see questions on the exams that are drawn from those pesky little facts that you didn't bother to commit to memory.

In fairness, the details are what kill you when you get into more complex networks. I've stopped counting the number of times that I've encountered a footnote situation in a production network and the thought to myself "so that's why they put it int the book."

Just last week, I was troubleshooting an OSPF adjacancy issue that turned out to be an MTU problem because a switch that was connecting two routers tried to automatically use jumbo frames while the routers were still using 1500. The devil is in the details

SUBnet192

Spent 3 hours labbing OSPF tonight. I'm using the INE workbooks. I can't believe it takes me that long to go through a few questions. Time to think about it, analyse the topology, figure out the commands and where they should be run etc...

Can't imagine the CCIE lab lol... One step at a time... Baby steps

Next step: BGP.

xxjojoxx

SUBnet192 wrote: »

Can't imagine the CCIE lab lol...

I can imagine it for you. CCNP (R&S), with elements of CCNP Provider and CCNP Security. QoS, MPLS, BGP (from point of view of user at least), and DMVPN are necessary to environment. As are ASA firewalls/IPS... Keep trucking...I am.