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

and36y wrote: »

Congratulations on the little un. Been there have the scars to prove... good luck

Thank you! It has certainly been an experience, but well worth it.

jamesp1983

I'm continuing to sneak in time where I can. Whenever the baby is asleep I try to study. My wife and I have been sick for the past week, but we're both getting better so hopefully we'll be 100% soon.

I took all of the QoS videos and converted them to audio for the ride to and from work. (I've watched almost the entire INE ATCoD with the exception of the IPv6 videos, but can always use a refresh on QoS.) Keep up the good work all.

jamesp1983

I was able to get in 3 lab hours yesterday and around 2 hours of reading. I made it to 10.58 RSVP and SBM yesterday. RSVP is making a lot more sense now due to the Vol I explanations.

jamesp1983

I had to push back my lab date back a month to March 2013 due to the fact that I have to get this Hyper-V cert. I'm trying to make a hard push on the CCIE now to get through the QoS workbook and then I will start studying for this Hyper-V cert. My other option is moving slooowly so I'm not going to be saved from taking this MS test.

jamesp1983

I'm thinking this Hyper-V test won't take more than a month to pass and then I can resume my CCIE studies. I'm on page 355/465 in the QoS section of WBI so I will wrap up 10.62, start studying for hyper-v, then come back and pick up at pg 363, 10.63.

jamesp1983

I just wrapped 10.62 and it was a helpful activity. Now I will put all of my energy into Hyper-V for the next few weeks or so and come back to 10.63, p 363. I started studying lightly for this Hyper-V test last week so hopefully it won't take long.

jamesp1983

I still continue to make flashcards and lab. We have some family in town so I've been trying to put some time in at work when I can. I have about 44 pages left in the QoS workbook. My plan is to wrap it up this week.

jamesp1983

Helpful link on 3560 ingress queueing:

My CCIE by Adrian Brayton: The 3560 Ingress Queue

jamesp1983

I just wrapped up the QoS section of WBI. I ended up with about 64 pages of notes in a Wordpad doc, and 90 flash cards about the various topics and implementation. I will look over them from time to time to keep it fresh. Here is the next part of the mission:

Week 29: VOL2 Lab 11
Week 30: VOL4 Labs 3+4
Week 31: VOL2 Lab 12
Week 32: Mock Lab 2

I am about 6 weeks behind where I wanted to be by this time so hopefully life will settle down a little bit since my son is finally sleeping regularly.

Zartanasaurus

I see you made it a point to bump everyone's CCIE thread today.

Did you watch the Troubleshooting vseminar yet? I was only able to catch a small part live, but I've watched it all except the last video now and I scheduled the free troubleshooting lab for this Sunday, although I think I might push it out another week or so. I've seen multiple people say that INE's troubleshooting material is easier than the real lab, and the config portion is harder. I always rock the troubleshooting portion and I'm glad they are responding to customer feedback. From the vseminar, they definitely throw some curve balls your way. Can't wait!

jamesp1983

I figured I would see how everyone is doing

. I haven't watched that vSeminar yet, but I will now. I just downloaded all of the updated WBI material so thanks for the heads up.

Side note...Lab 11 in WBII is hard! I'm really enjoying this one since it is really detailed. It's also a nice departure from nothing but QoS for 1.5 months.

ipSpace

Dear James,

When is ur lab scheduled ?:)

jamesp1983

ipSpace wrote: »

Dear James,

When is ur lab scheduled ?:)

My lab is scheduled for the end of March 2013. Hope all is well.

Danielh22185

Good to hear things are going well and the studies are staying consistent. I myself will be enduring the CCIE before 30 journey soon too. I am sure I will end up reading every single page of this thread by that time. Keep it up and good luck!

jamesp1983

Good read on a MVR:

Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Software Configuration Guide, 12.1(12c)EA1 - Configuring IGMP Snooping and MVR [Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series Switches] - Cisco Systems

jamesp1983

Danielh22185 wrote: »

Good to hear things are going well and the studies are staying consistent. I myself will be enduring the CCIE before 30 journey soon too. I am sure I will end up reading every single page of this thread by that time. Keep it up and good luck!

Good luck on your journey and thanks for the kind words.

jamesp1983

I'm on ticket 9 of WBIV Lab 3. This lab has been pretty fun, and has some great mutual redistribution issues.

WBIV Lab3 notes:
-Don't forget "ntp trusted-key <key#>" when configuring ntp authentication.
-Check "sh ip policy"
-Make sure map class is assigned to correct DLCI.
-There are ways to make devices in isolated private-vlans communicate.

jamesp1983

I'm starting WBIV Lab4 now. These troubleshooting labs are great at jogging your memory about some of the details if you've been away for awhile.

Week 30: VOL4 Labs 3 (complete)+4
Week 31: VOL2 Lab 12
Week 32: Mock Lab 2

Plazma

Hehe.. i never officially did the INE Vol 4 labs.. but I did a bunch of the mini TS labs during my work downtime and at home .. over at Dan's Network - Home . They are small and quick, but some are quite challenging.

jamesp1983

Plazma wrote: »

Hehe.. i never officially did the INE Vol 4 labs.. but I did a bunch of the mini TS labs during my work downtime and at home .. over at Dan's Network - Home . They are small and quick, but some are quite challenging.

Thanks for the link! I will have to try them out.

jamesp1983

Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement: Ruth C. Clark: 9780787988449: Amazon.com: Books

Excellent non-technical resource recommended by a coworker.

jamesp1983

I just wrapped up WBIV, TS Lab 4. Lab 4 had some tricky MPLS issues as well as a few other surprises. Well, they were tough for me since I have very little experience with troubleshooting MPLS...

Now on to Lab 12.

Week 31: VOL2 Lab 12
Week 32: Mock Lab 2

jamesp1983

Some good posts on interpreting the OSPF Database:

Interpreting the OSPF Database | CCIE Blog
Interpreting the OSPF Database Part II | CCIE Blog

jamesp1983

I still have a good amount of WBII Lab 12 to do, but I scheduled mock lab 2 for tomorrow at 9am. My availability is awful for the next 2 months so I figured this would be the best time for me to complete it.

Zartanasaurus

jamesp1983 wrote: »

I still have a good amount of WBII Lab 12 to do, but I scheduled mock lab 2 for tomorrow at 9am. My availability is awful for the next 2 months so I figured this would be the best time for me to complete it.

I'm right behind you. I scheduled mock lab 2 for this Sunday. I will be doing WBIV Lab 4 + WBII Lab 12 this Wednesday since I'm off.

jamesp1983

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I'm right behind you. I scheduled mock lab 2 for this Sunday. I will be doing WBIV Lab 4 + WBII Lab 12 this Wednesday since I'm off.

Nice! Good luck!

jamesp1983

I did about 8 hours of labbing today to wrap up WBII Lab 12. I am hoping for the best tomorrow on Mock Lab 2.

jamesp1983

I should have spaced out WBII Lab 12 and Mock Lab 2. I got beaten up by some funky issues that my initial config had and INE said they have been corrected now. Those issues killed a lot of time since I had to fix them myself in addition to configuring the device.

I think I did pretty well in troubleshoot section since I only missed 1. The config section helped me identify some weaknesses and that's always a good thing. Better to stumble in the mocks than in the real lab.

Efforts must be doubled. I need to start getting back in to the gym and having long labbing sessions like I used to so I can build up my endurance again. I had to keep fighting to stay focused after about 5 hours.

MrBrian

Sounds like you're doing great work! And yea, I hear you about the gym. Whenever I have a weekly workout regimen it seems like I have much more energy. Then when I don't workout for a long period it seems like I can't focus for as long.

So now that you have WBII pretty much complete, what's next, WBIII? Or just reviewing things learned from WBII?

jamesp1983

I just got my grade for Mock 2. I didnt do nearly as well as I had hoped, but it was due to small issues on the tasks that killed me as well as 1 instance of misunderstanding of what they were asking. I couldnt verify my configs because of lack of time due to a bug that consumed a lot of my time that INE later fixed for future candidates.

I passed TS since I only missed 1 ticket, and failed config due to a series of small mistakes that beat me up later.