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 purchased Top Down Network Design, 3rd edition today. I've been reading it off and on for a few weeks now via our Books 24x7 account at work, but reading it on a webpage is inconvenient for something of this size. I was thinking it would be helpful for the presales gig if I get it and if not, itll be a good reference.

x5150

Ok, found out you can book it pretty quickly... there was a date available for June 5 two seats open. So less than 2 weeks. I thought you might need a few months. Of course based on availability though.

jamesp1983

Good luck man!

jamesp1983

I've been averaging around 3.5 hours a day because I've been sick for the past 1.5 weeks. I wrapped up OSPF and I'm now in the BGP section. I hate not having the energy, but I'm still logging some hours.

jamesp1983

I've been staying steady at around 3-4 hours a day, sometimes more. I've also been reading articles on any of the topics that trip me up. I think my next course of action is to review all of the lab notes that I've taken to this point to keep myself fresh. I certainly see the issues with doing WBI in a linear fashion so I'm glad I have made notes that I can review periodically.

jamesp1983

From time to time I look over Cisco config guys to keep my brain fresh on the material. A point that is often forgotten:

"In VTP versions 1 and 2, the switch must be in VTP transparent mode when you create private VLANs and when they are configured, you should not change the VTP mode from transparent to client or server mode. VTP version 3 also supports private VLANs in client and server modes. "

jamesp1983

I read the 3560 Config Guide all day today. I only have Multicast Routing and MSDP left to read. I like to read over these guides every so often to get a refresh on the commands and features. I'll read over this tomorrow once I finish Multicast Routing and MSDP in the 3560 Config Guide:

Cisco IOS Software Releases 12.4 Mainline Configuration Guides - Cisco Systems

jamesp1983

I've been reviewing theory all this week, but haven't getting any labbing done (unless you count day to day work). I'm going to pick back up on labbing next week. I've yet to hear anything from that presales gig, but I did have a network engineer interview for 10k more than I'm making now with 1/3 of the commute, as well as a Sr Network Engineer position with relocation. I have the face to face interview for the 10k more and closer job on Friday in the afternoon, as well as a 1 hour long tech phone interview for the Sr Network Engineer position on Friday at lunch time.

jamesp1983

I got in a good amount of reading in Internet Routing Architectures and some DMVPN documentation from cisco. http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/en/us/guest/netsol/ns171/c649/ccmigration_09186a008075ea98.pdf. I labbed for a few hours and tomorrow I will wake up early to get in about 10 hours of labbing.

jamesp1983

BGP community lists: BGP Named Community Lists - Cisco Systems

jamesp1983

Anybody else feel guilty about being inside labbing on really nice days?

jamesp1983

I'm contemplating doing a VOL2 lab instead of just continuing in a linear fashion through WBI. I just wrapped up VOL I Section 7 (BGP) and I was contemplating running through all of the multicast labs. I need help in that area so I will most likely do that.
Here's the next phase:

Week 13: VOL2 Lab 4
Week 14: VOL2 Lab 5
Week 15: VOL2 Lab 6
Week 16: VOL3 Labs 3+4

Week 17: VOL2 Lab 7
Week 18: VOL2 Lab 8
Week 19: VOL2 Lab 9
Week 20: VOL3 Labs 5+6

Week 21: VOL2 Lab 10
Week 22: VOL3 Lab 7+8
Week 23: VOL4 Labs 1+2
Week 24: Mock Lab 1

jamesp1983

On Multicast again. Its been a crazy couple of days with job interviews, offers, and baby related tasks but I'm getting back into my studies.

jamesp1983

Does anyone have any really good multicast links that they would like to share? I have read a lot of Cisco docs and some books, but I'm always looking for more.

Zartanasaurus

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Does anyone have any really good multicast links that they would like to share? I have read a lot of Cisco docs and some books, but I'm always looking for more.

CCIE - The Beginning
If you put it in google reader, it's easy to go back and see which posts he did on multicast. A lot of the ones from 2008 were on the subject. I love that they all come with little flash animations to describe the process visually.

IGMP
PIM-SM w/ Auto-RP
PIM-SM w/ BSR

jamesp1983

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

CCIE - The Beginning
If you put it in google reader, it's easy to go back and see which posts he did on multicast. A lot of the ones from 2008 were on the subject. I love that they all come with little flash animations to describe the process visually.

IGMP
PIM-SM w/ Auto-RP
PIM-SM w/ BSR

Thanks man! I'll check these out tonight.

jamesp1983

I was offered a new job with an 18% higher base than i'm making now with an option of overtime. Most guys average an additional 20-30% in OT. I'm now a Sr Network Engineer for the country's largest Availability companies. (MASSIVE network) This came just in time for the company I'm working for now to be purchased by a larger company that really has no need for us. The commute will be about half of what I'm currently doing now.

I am almost done the multicast section. I'm on 8.28 - DVMRP Interoperability. My goal is to finish multicast before the end of today.

jamesp1983

Excellent page explaining multicast routing table:

note paper: Understanding the multicast routing table

jamesp1983

I just finished up the Multicast section of WBI (all 34 of them). That was by far the hardest lesson to date. Well, I'm back to full scale labs now.

Week 13: VOL2 Lab 4
Week 14: VOL2 Lab 5
Week 15: VOL2 Lab 6
Week 16: VOL3 Labs 3+4

Week 17: VOL2 Lab 7
Week 18: VOL2 Lab 8
Week 19: VOL2 Lab 9
Week 20: VOL3 Labs 5+6

Week 21: VOL2 Lab 10
Week 22: VOL3 Lab 7+8
Week 23: VOL4 Labs 1+2
Week 24: Mock Lab 1

jamesp1983

I feel kind of bad now, but I had to accept the new offer. My current employer was purchased by a much larger entity who said they were going to evaluate our positions and salaries, and the future is uncertain. We are expecting a baby in October so I couldn't play the guessing game. I start the new gig in a few weeks. I put my 2 weeks in yesterday and I feel extremely bad.

Iristheangel

Don't feel bad. You have to do the best for your family. Keep going for the CCIE. It'll pay off in the end

Zartanasaurus

I understand feeling bad when you are leaving a bunch of coworkers that you enjoy being around. I am at the point when I am ready to move on from my current job. And, to date, I've never with and for a better group of people. I will feel kind of bad, but I'm sure the extra $$$ in the paychecks will help me get over it.

jamesp1983

Iristheangel wrote: »

Don't feel bad. You have to do the best for your family. Keep going for the CCIE. It'll pay off in the end

Thanks. That's what I keep telling myself. Life has certainly improved since I started my CCIE Journey.

jamesp1983

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I understand feeling bad when you are leaving a bunch of coworkers that you enjoy being around. I am at the point when I am ready to move on from my current job. And, to date, I've never with and for a better group of people. I will feel kind of bad, but I'm sure the extra $$$ in the paychecks will help me get over it.

That's what I'm thinking. I will feel a lot better once I see the difference the increase in pay makes in our lives.

jamesp1983

Well into WBII, Lab 4 now. Today I'm taking some time out to really beat up on Multicast theory between INE vids and books.

N2IT

Keep strong James! Can't wait to see you come back with a winner.

jamesp1983

N2IT wrote: »

Keep strong James! Can't wait to see you come back with a winner.

Thanks a lot! It has been quite a journey so far, but I'm enjoying every minute...

jamesp1983

I'm on 6.1 in WBII, Lab 4. Its ZBF with some MPLS/VRF trickery. Learned quite a bit about ZBF. Wow...

jamesp1983

I'm into WBII, Lab 5 now. I'm glad that I went back and did all exercises from the first 8 sections of WBI. That really helped judging from my performance in Lab 4. I also watched all of the multicast videos and have read a good deal about the different topics I covered in Lab 4, and what I've covered so far in Lab 5. I'm starting to get nervous about the new job, but I have two weeks before I start. The wife and I have been looking for a new place to live so that is exciting as well.

jamesp1983

new one for me:

%BGP-6-NEXTHOP: Invalid next hop (254.192.2.52) received from FEC0:234::3: martian next hop

http://cciepursuit.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/little-green-men-in-my-router/