CCIE at Age 21: Zeeshan Zanaullah’s Story

“Our father bought our family computer initially for his video recording business. I started using the machine at home at first for games, but then I also used to corrupt the machine and then fix everything again on my own,” says 21-year-old Zeeshan Sanaullah, CCIE #25196. He earned his Cisco CCIE® in 2009. Sanaullah’s early family experiences inspired him to attend classes at the local learning institute in Karachi, Pakistan, where he still lives. “I was working on going into a career in web design, and my teacher was working on his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification. He would bring books into the class and talk with me about what IT and networking was all about,” says Sanaullah.

An early turning point for Sanaullah was when one of his distant relatives, who already worked in IT, advised him to steer toward a Cisco CCNA® certification. “I found the subject matter much more interesting and appealing,” he says. Sanaullah earned his CCNA at age 15 and had to prove himself to the CCNA class instructor, who initially turned him away, insisting that he was too young and that he would be wasting his money to attend a class at such an early age. “At the end of a few weeks time, I found myself helping the older students in the class [in their 20s] to learn the concepts.”

Sanaullah says his personal connections with instructors and relatives, as well as online resources, were useful tools for CCIE preparation. “The Cisco Learning Network and blogs really helped me in getting my CCIE certification,” he says. “I used to read blogs to get motivated. The Cisco Learning Network, blogs, and online community really helped me out. Theseresources will continue to be helpful to me as I move on to studying for upcoming Cisco certifications.”

Sanaullah now works for Future Technology, a Premier Cisco Partner in Pakistan. As a result of his experience and certifications, he is the team lead for the Routing Team. He works with individuals of all ages and finds friends who share his passion for technology. “In my work life, I find very few people who started their careers as early as I started,” he says. “I study Cisco because I love it. I study technology because I have a real passion for it. Money is important, but what motivates me most is the technical challenge.”

Sanaullah says that he plans to pursue a Cisco CCDE® after many more years of work and network design experience. He is now working on his CCIE Security certification to help with his job at Future Technology. As a personal interest, the blueprint topics that are associated with the CCIE Service Provider are next on his list. As a final area of focus, Sanaullah is in search of a Learning Partner in Pakistan who is willing to sponsor him so that he can become a Certified Cisco Systems Instructor. With as much passion as he has for technology, it is a lot for him to look forward to in the coming years.

From https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-6112

CCIE Study Tips

Disclaimer

Listed here is the collection of tips and strategies that I found helpful in passing my CCIE exam on my first attempt. This information is provided as my personal recommendations, and are not endorsed by Cisco Systems. Furthermore, I took the exam before the switch to the one-day format. Unfortunately I do not have much advice to offer based on the new format (except to type fast!), but the core topics and advice below should still apply.

Basic Strategy

I cannot provide any better strategy than that already provided by Bruce Caslow and Val Pavlichenko in their book Cisco Certification: Bridges Routers and Switches for CCIEs. (I’ll refer to this as the BRS book for short) The strategy they provide for test preparation AND test taking was vital to my success in passing the exam. If I had to try and summarize the 900+ page book into a single key concept, it would be the explanation of how the CCIE lab exam attempts to test your networking knowledge and an appropriate preparation strategy. This concept is often described by the phrase "spot the issue", which has become sort of famous among CCIE candidates who are familiar with this book (which is quite a few; see for yourself on Amazon.com or Groupstudy.com).

The strategies outlined in the BRS book is the basis for the 5-day course Routing and Switching NetMaster Class (RS-NMC-1) [NOTE: This is the new version of the famous Expert CCIE Preparation 1 (or ECP1) class which was offered by Mentor Technologies, but is no longer available. Bruce and Val, as well as Fred Ingham, teach this class regularly and can be scheduled by visiting the website for the class. There is also a follow-on course called RS-NMC-2 that will be offered in 2002. Both of these courses are some of the most intense, hands-on classroom training offered anywhere. You can expect to work from 8:30am until close to midnight most every day of the course.

People often ask what is so special about the RS-NMC-1 course; there are other 5-day courses available for less money. I had the very fortunate opportunity to work as a lab assistant for the class 4 times before I took my exam. Based on this experience, I would answer the question this way: It is the "issue-spotting" and test taking strategies that are taught by the instructor and through the specially designed lab scenarios.

In addition to reading the BRS book and attending the RS-NMC-1 course, a basic home lab and a commitment to spend a lot of time studying is necessary. I’ve listed other study resources below that I personally used and believe are critical for CCIE preparation. One of the most important is the creation of your own personal study notes for all of the relevant CCIE topics and your checklists. While the BRS book covers this, I provide my own recommendations and example of how to create the notes below.

Outline

Self-Assessment and Schedule >

Probably the first step as you begin preparation for the CCIE exam; you want to assess your strengths and weaknesses; a good guide is the blueprint for the CCIE available on the Cisco website; you may consider using the spreadsheet I created based on the blueprint, available here. I highly recommend filling in the Due Date column-you really need to set milestones to get through this long process!

Develop Personal Study Notes >

See below for recommended technique; these notes should include a summary of tricky configuration tips, things to watch our for (landmines!), key show commands, and key debug commands BUT, do not try to re-write CCO!

Develop Your Checklists >

Trust me, these will save you in the exam! You need to have at least the following lists: Getting Started, End-of-day Wrap-Up, and Desperation. The details of these are covered in the BRS book and even more in RS-NMC-1.

Build a Home Lab >

Yes, it is expensive, but you really can’t get around this necessity. Hopefully you have some resources at work to augment your home lab for very expensive items such as ATM, LAN Switching, ISDN, and Voice. You should be able to cover a lot of topics with just 3 routers (BGP, OSPF, and the other core topics you need to know forwards and backwards). The good news is that most of the equipment maintains its value over time and is easy to sell. Check out some of the deals offered by Brad Ellis at Optimized Systems or on eBay. If you don’t have resources available at work, check out the various remote labs that will rent rack time (e.g. ccbootcamp and vLab listed below)

Practice Lab Scenarios >

The more lab scenarios you can get the better! Keep practicing various scenarios in your home/work lab until about a week before your exam (take a break during the last week so you’re fresh for the test). Once you think you know how to configure a protocol or technology one way, do it again using another technique. Remember, the lab will not tell you how to do a given task, but it will often tell you what you are NOT allowed to configure. Therefore you need to be able to accomplish the same task 2 or 3 different ways (when IOS provides the opportunity).

Get a Study Partner >

While not critical, this sure makes the long process easier. Try to find someone at or above your skill level so that you can push each other along. If you can’t find someone locally, the idea of a virtual study group is how www.groupstudy.com got started (see below).

Other Resources
Books
  • Routing TCP/IP Vol 1, Jeff Doyle (note: Vol 2 recently came out. I have not read it, but I do know that it covers additional topics such as NAT, Multicast, BGP4, etc.)
  • Internet Routing Architectures, 2nd Edition, Basam Halabi and Danny McPherson (the definitive BGP4 source)
  • Enhanced IP Services, Don Lee (source for IPSec and QoS)
Online Information
  • www.groupstudy.com This is a virtual study group that has grown quite popular among CCIE candidates. You can subscribe to the email list for the lab after you pass your written, though it may take a while to get added. In the mean time, you can read the archives online. TIP: Despite what the welcome message for the list may say, do NOT introduce yourself to the list with a ‘hello’ email. Also, it is probably better to ‘listen’ for a while before posting a question and you should check the archives first to see if the question has already been answered. Ignore this tip at your own peril or if you enjoy being flamed!
  • www.certificationzone.com If you need some good white papers to get up to speed quick on a topic you are weak on, this is a great site and worth the $99 for a 6-month membership. This site is also very useful if you are still prepping for your written exam.
  • Cisco Technologies Page Yes, a Cisco site might seem a bit obvious. However, this is a link to the Technologies support page maintained by the TAC. It often offers much clearer explanations and examples for certain concepts that the IOS documentation. This was one of my favorite sites during my study time.
Labs
  • vLab Since we developed this technology and host the labs, you shouldn’t be surprised to see this link. Our latest version of vLab, vLab Assessment, should be available soon and will provide the additional value of providing instant grading of a given lab scenario. Stay tuned for a version of vLab Assessment that will specifically assess your readiness for the CCIE lab exam. [This resource was lost with the demise of Mentor Technologies–there was some talk that a company bought the rights, but I am not sure the status]
  • www.fatkid.com This site gives quite a few good, FREE lab scenarios to practice your skills on various technologies.
  • www.ccbootcamp.com Probably the most popular site for complex, multiprotocol lab scenarios specifically designed to prepare you for the type of scenarios you may see in the exam. These are not cheap ($650.00) and you only get paper copies of the labs with the solutions sent to you electronically. One nice feature is that it is like a subscription service where you get new labs for free. It is also probably worth noting that our last 6 CCIEs all used these labs.
Personal Study Notes

As mentioned previously, I feel that creating your own personal study notes is one of the most important test preparation tasks. I considered providing a copy of my notes as part of this web page, but decided against it because I feel the real value is the effort required in creating your own set of notes. Instead, I want to provide some tips for creating your notes and will also provide the MS Word Template that I used to create my notes. Several people will think that this is way to much trouble for taking notes, but I think it pays off in the long run (if you can type, which is a skill you will need in the exam anyway!) The template should save you significant time in getting your notes file setup.

To see how I would recommend you create your own personal notes, please see the "Taking Electronic Notes" tip in the Consulting Tips and Tools section of my web page. A snapshot of the file I used for all my notes is below. The advantage of this method is that it helps you to keep your notes organized as you make them and allows for very fast lookup for almost any topic. It is probably not visible in the graphic, but my notes were about 38 pages long. However, I could very quickly jump to any topic using the document map feature in MS Word.

As can be seen in the graphic below, the document map on the left side of the screen is organized according the strategy described in the BRS book. Underneath each of the major headings for each level of preparation, there is a standard set of headings for each technology. These headings include ‘How to Configure’, ‘Landmines!’, ‘Key Show Cmds’, and ‘Favorite Debug Cmds’. The significance of each heading is apparent after reading the BRS book and/or attending the RS-NMC-1 course.

Example of Personal Notes:

Download MS Word Template for Electronic Notes: You will want to save this file to your templates folder (you can verify location from the Tools | Options | File Locations menu). To create a new electronics notes file, select File | New and the new template name (‘electronic-notes’ if you didn’t change it). For more info on taking electronic notes, see my Tips and Tools page. ELECTRONIC-NOTES Template

From: http://www.wgustavus.com/CCIE-tips.htm.

A Sneak Peek at the CCIE R/S Lab

The recently announced changes to the CCIE R/S written and lab exams took effect this week. I recently had the chance to take the R/S lab again, as part of the Beta testing – so I decided to save up some observations and post them around the time the new exam has come out. Today I’ll look at a variety of things about the lab exam, and make another post next week concentrating on the biggest change: The 2-hour troubleshooting section.

You know, the strange thing is that many times over the years, I’ve wondered if they’d let me take the CCIE R/S Lab again – and not take away my CCIE number if I failed. It has certainly changed a lot since I took it back in 1995. I’ve always had the itch to try for another CCIE, but I think I’ve had a cumulative 3-4 weeks in the last 5 years without a book to work on (that’s definitely not a complaint), and it obviously takes more than casual effort to prep for another CCIE lab. And getting a CCIE in your spare time pretty much changes your life until you get it done, and I’ve never wanted another CCIE bad enough to make that sacrifice. But, I just always thought it’d be interesting to sit the lab again. And then Maurilio asked a few of us Cisco Press CCIE authors, plus others I’m sure, to sit the lab and give it a test. And it was fun.

OK, on to stuff you folks might care more about. I came to the exam with several specific items to keep an eye out for – things like the impact of adding a 2-hour troubleshooting section, how the config section would be different now that it’s 5.5 hours instead of 7.5, and the supposedly-dreaded open-ended questions. But the biggest surprise was obvious from the first few minutes of lab time – they changed the user interface of what you see to access the lab, and as a result, there’s no printed lab exercise book. The only paper for the lab is the note paper they give you to write on.

In the old days, you got a lab booklet that you couldn’t write on, but you could do the natural thing and pick up the book to look at the various lab requirements. I believe it’s true that the book had some lab diagrams as well. Now you get a GUI interface from which you can pull up the many different lab diagrams, read the various lab exercises. My gut reaction was that I didn’t like not having a book. After experiencing it, I thought the replacement GUI would have been reasonable if I had had time to practice with it.

The good part of the GUI was that once I was used to it, I could navigate to the next topic for both troubleshooting and config easily. The GUI essentially indexed the main lab exercise tasks, which may be a bit more convenient than flipping pages in a booklet. Once I got used to it (20 minutes maybe), I stopped to ask myself if the user interface itself would slow me down compared to the paper booklet, and I decided that if the small bugs were removed (e.g., no back button on the browser to get to the docs), AND if I had a chance to practice before the lab (so that 20 minute learning curve wasn’t part of the timed test), that it wouldn’t have hurt. Otherwise, call it a 20 minute hit for the day, wild unscientific guess. (I did ask, and as of now, there is no tutorial available before the exam; if it’s your first lab with this interface, you’ll get to learn it concurrent with doing the troubleshooting. I’d suggest asking as many questions as you can about the user interface before starting the timer.)

There were negatives to the GUI, but of course GUIs often have to do with personal preference. In this case, a few of my author friends and I were allowed to discuss amongst ourselves our impressions, and we all agreed that the navigation in the GUI was a bit of a problem. EG, to view a figure, you click, and a window pops, which is fine. However, you can’t minimize the window so that the bigger window behind it, where you access the console windows, is hidden. You can re-size, and move, but not minimize. To see another figure, the figure shows up in the same window, so to view both – like a cabling reference and a different VLAN reference – you have to toggle back and forth, and never see both at once. Then, to see the console term emulator windows, you have to move the figure window to the side, and then drag it back to see it again. No minimize/pop-open toggle like with Windows. Each figure required a different window size/shape to see the whole figure, and all the figures showed up in this one window, so there was no ability to make it the right size and find a good place on the screen for it.

Sorry for the ramble, but I wanted enough detail out to make a point: If I were taking it again to pass, I’d consider drawing a few of the figures for the config section, particularly the LAN layer 2 figure – both cabling and VLANs – on paper before even beginning to configure. (I would do this for the config section, but not for the t’shooting section.)

Next, let me give you some idea on the whole "is it too much" issue.

Most CCIE lab candidates that pass seem to do so with at least a little time to spare, and those that fail often run out of time, or don’t have time to review. So, I came to the test asking myself "if I were truly prepared for the lab, could I have finished on time enough to review my work?" This question has a new twist, now that it’s 3-part: open ended questions, then 2 hours of t’shooting, and then 5.5 hours config. (FYI, I didn’t study except on the flight to Raleigh, and I don’t stay current on everything so I could go fast enough to pass – so I estimated what "well prepared" meant.) The short answer is that I think that the troubleshooting section was attainable for a well-prepared candidate, and maybe a little too much (maybe shave 10% of the tasks to be fair), but the config section was too much by at least 20%. (My buddies co-authors thought roughly the same on config, and maybe that the t’shooting needed to be shaved more than my 10% guesstimate.)

Sitting back contemplating the whole "is it too much" thing, I came to two conclusions:

  • 1) It was a Beta, and Cisco needs some experience with specific lab exams to figure out how much is too much. I’m sure they didn’t write all new lab exams, so the trick is to figure out how to compress the former 7.5 hour lab into 5.5 hours. They want you to pass if you know your stuff, and fail if you don’t. They don’t want you to fail if you truly know your stuff but they just gave youtoo much . From a systematic perspective, I think they’ll get the right mix. (Granted, I’m sure some of you have contradictory experiences on this point!)
  • 2) I wonder if Cisco considered that the shrinkage from 7.5 to 5.5 hours on the build section was like removing the final 2 hours – the hours in which you are most familiar with the lab – rather than removing the first two hours. By the end 3rd hour of the build section, I needed the figures less and less. From a sheer mechanics perspective, I worked faster. Call it 3 hours in the config section before I was somewhat comfortable with the topology. With a 5.5 hour build, that splits the unfamiliar/familiar time as 3/2.5 hours. The old 7.5 hours would have given a 3 /4.5 hour split, so it felt like I was losing 2 hours of very productive time.

The next thing I was particularly curious about was the open-ended question section. Frankly, I’m a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde on this one. Wendell the cert guy looked at my open ended questions, and asked himself: "If I was truly prepared for the lab, would these questions be a problem?" Absolutely not. As a guy who has an interest in seeing Cisco certs thrive, I see the open-ended questions for what Cisco claims them to be – a cheating prevention tool. However, Wendell the imaginary CCIE R/S lab candidate says that the whole idea scares me to death, and may be too unfair to use as a cheating prevention tool. If I had been taking the lab on my nickel for real, rather than just kicking the tires, I would’ve been pysched out by the open-ended questions. You could get an unlucky draw of questions and get sent home. For real CCIE R/S candidates, I think this means that you don’t get ready for 70% of the topics, and go take the lab to experience it – you may not get past the questions. However, from what I saw, and from other discussions, I think if you’re ready for all aspects of the lab, you’ll be ready for the open-ended stuff. It’s just a little scary.

Last thing for today: general difficulty. I tried to imagine myself as a well-prepared candidate, but not over the top – you know, if I took the classes, did labs from a few lab books, read Doyle/Halabi/etc, practiced a lot for speed, then the lab I got was not too difficult. In fact, I did not see a single item that I viewed as a "trick" – no wording that made me do function X using methods no one in their right mind would try. Everything I saw was detailed – it required mastery of a lot of topics – but it was all stuff that you might come across as something you’d really use in the real world. Really. That was a nice surprise. The difficulty level comes from seeing the requirements, mentally putting it all together, deciding what to configure, configuring, t’shooting to make sure it works, and doing that 5X faster than you would have to do in real life. But it was refreshing to not see anything that looked like tricks just to make sure you knew how to make one parm on one command do its thing.

One more note on the difficulty level: I think if you prepared with the traditional tools – books, classes,  lab books, lots of hands-on practice, and understood it, that the difficulty level was very fair and reasonable.

OK, that’ it for today. Next time, I’ll look at the Troubleshooting section in particular.

From: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/46561 By Wendell

CCIE Methodology

This is from a doc I created related to non-technical (almost) aspects of the CCIE labs. It may help many people that fail for some reason that may not be technical sometimes. It does not apply to a specific track.

CCIE MYTHS

· Lab is impossible to pass

· 2000 hours of lab practice are necessary

· 10 years of experience

· Sacrifice your life for the lab

PLANNING TO TAKE THE LAB

· Blueprint is very important

· Try to see where you will have to make an effort

· Understand the parts of the labs

· Speak with your family – sometimes they may not understand why you work so hard and it may not help

· Where will you practice labs?

· Relax

PREPARATION OF THE LAB

· Work every part separately (if possible). By doing a lot of master practice labs you might lose precious time that you could spend on getting a deeper knowledge of some point ofthe lab. Usually we do not have infinite time to prepare for the lab so time management is a key point.

· Be sure to know every way a technology (protocol…) can be configured

· If you think you don’t understand some point at 100% then work harder to understand it.

· If you think “ this topic will not come at the exam” you are probably wrong

· Do scenarii "mentally" and repeat step by step how to configure any topic of the lab blueprint

· When close to the lab date I (you don’t have to do it) enter in "lab mode" where I recheck mentally again and again everything so at lab time configuring a specific topic should be easier.

DAY BEFORE THE LAB

· Sleep well

· See where the lab will take place

· Remind all the steps for configs to refresh what you know

· Try to avoid last minute work , just do it to sleep well if needed!!

· Relax (if possible)- Stress is your worst ennemy at the lab. Many people I know failed because of the stress even if technically ready!! This point is 50% of your lab, don’t forget it.

DURING THE LAB

· Write down all configuration steps that you may forget later.. This would depend on the lab you are taking

· Read the lab

· Spot tricky points (and annotate not to forget later)

· Better go slow but well instead of fast and bad

· Try to avoid troubleshooting more than 10 minutes

· If there is a question you don’t know then don’t fight, do not do it, you would lose time for what you know

· At the end of the lab check if what you have done is still working

· Do not change a critical part at 30 minutes of the end

Between Attempts

· Learn from failure

· Try to figure out what you did not understand well

· Prepare for next attempt

· There should be a short time between attempts not to forget what you’ve learnt

That’s it.

Fabien CCIE #6684 R&S/Security/Voice

CCIE Warm-Up Advice and Learning Labs

One of my goals in pursuing the CCIE was to be able to write a book about how to prepare for the CCIE Lab. This is the book, with practical advice and practice scenarios meant to impart to the reader many of the important lessons I learned during CCIE Lab preparation.

The intended audience is CCIE candidates in the first six months or so of focused preparation for the CCIE Lab exam. The CCIE Lab I took was in the Routing and
Switching Track, but many of the central lessons I learned should be useful in other tracks. The labs in this book focus heavily on therouting protocols BGP, IS-IS, OSPF, EIGRP, and RIP version 2, and covers numerous Quality of Service features such as priority queueing, custom queueing, class-based weighted-fair queueing, frame-relay traffic-shaping, PPP multilink fragmentation and interleaving, and rate-limiting. The scenarios also address IP Multicast, IPSEC, IOS firewall, and basic DLSW+. The reader will configure a Catalyst 3550-EMI as a switch and as a router, but the labs focus more onrouting than on switching.

The advice and scenarios emphasize lessons that candidates preparing for the CCIE Lab Exam need to learn. This book is not intended for use in preparation for the CCIE written qualifier exam, which is a very different test, covering much material that Cisco has expressly and publicly removed from the CCIE Lab Exam, such as IPX, ATM LAN Emulation, and Token Ring.

As of the release of this Lulu Press edition, Cisco has announced that ISDN is soon no longer going to be tested on the Lab. I am sorry that I do not have the time now to rewrite the Scenarios to take out all reference to ISDN.

The scenarios would, incidentally, serve as excellent lab material for the student preparing for the Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI) Exam, which is required for the CCNP, CCDP, and CCIP certifications, as well as for theRouting and Switching Specialization for Cisco Partner resellers. The student could simply ignore the QOS tasks and other tasks that are obviously beyond the scope of the BSCI Exam, and enjoy some very challengingrouting labs.

I designed the five practice scenarios in this book to teach crucial CCIE lessons, not to resemble the CCIE Lab Exam. Since I use an affordable lab topology that includes only one Catalyst 3550-EMI, it will never be said of any of these labs that, “it was just like the real lab exam.” I want readers to know this up front so that they will not expect scenarios that are “dry runs” of the Lab exam. My tasks involve very little cryptic language, so you will usually know what you need to do. You just may not know how to do it until you do some research or read my solution configuration scripts and explanations. Much of the value of this book lies in the explanations of the tasks that require explanations.

The lessons run the gamut from efficient CLI practices, diagramming techniques, and technology-specific tricks and traps, to subtleties of route redistribution. I am obsessed with route redistribution. I found it challenging while preparing for the CCIE Lab Exam, and still find things to learn about it.

CCIE Warm-Up Advice and Learning Labs .Pdf  | Download

Cisco Revising CCIE R&S Certification (V4.0 351-001)

The upcoming Version 4.0 of Cisco CCIE® Routing and Switching certification will test hands-on troubleshooting, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and VPN networking

To reflect the growth of the network as a service platform, Cisco is revising the certification requirements for CCIE Routing & Switching (CCIE R&S)–the expert level certification for network engineers. The new requirements were developed with assistance from Cisco enterprise customers and reflect the expectations of employers across industries.

The competencies required for CCIE R&S v4.0 certification were released on May 5, 2009, and are available on the Cisco Learning Network under the CCIE R&S v4.0 Written Exam topics and CCIE R&S v4.0 Lab Exam topics. Exams based on the new requirements are scheduled for release on October 18, 2009, and will immediately replace the currently available v3.0 exams. Candidates who plan to take their exams on October 18, 2009, or later should prepare usingthe new v4.0 exam topics.

Both the written and lab exams will be refreshed with new questions and will cover MPLS and VPN networking. The written exam will add scenario-based questions to the multiple choice questions, and the lab will now require hands-on troubleshooting of preconfigured networks, in addition to configuration. Exam duration and pricing will remain the same, with the two-hour written exam at USD$350 and the eight-hour lab at USD$1400.

A beta version of the new CCIE R&S v4.0 written exam (351-001) will be available to all customers in the July–August 2009 timeframe at a discounted price of USD$50. An announcement will be made when scheduling begins.

Frequently Asked Questions

1  -  Q: What exactly is being changed on the CCIE R&S written exam?

A: The CCIE R&S v4.0 written exam will be refreshed with new questions to reflect the current job role expectations of employers. Scenario-based questions will be added to the multiple choice questions. New topics include the skills associated with planning and evaluating network changes, implementing MPLS, Layer 3 VPN, IPv6, EIGRP and multicast; and configuring performance-basedrouting.  More information is available on the CCIE Written Exam Overview page.

2  -  Q: What exactly is being changed on the CCIE R&S lab exam?

A: The CCIE R&S v4.0 lab exam will be refreshed with new questions to reflect the current job role expectations of employers. The equipment in the testing lab will be updated with Cisco 1800 and 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers running Cisco IOS® Software Version 12.4(T) and Cisco Catalyst® 3560 Series Switches running Cisco IOS Version 12.2 Advanced IP Services. The biggest change will be the testing of hands-on troubleshooting for the first two hoursof the eight-hour exam. Candidates will be presented with a series of trouble tickets for preconfigured networks, and they will need to diagnose and resolve the network fault or faults—a realistic and challenging job task. Candidates who finish the troubleshooting section early can move on to the configuration section, but they will not be allowed to go back to the troubleshooting section, since their equipment will need to be reinitialized for the configuration portionof the exam.

To make time for new material, CCIE R&S v4.0 exams will put less emphasis on equipment operation and concepts generally understood at the professional level. These skills are still assumed, but will not be the sole objective of CCIE test questions. Go to the Lab Exam Study/Learn section for more information.

3  -  Q: Now that the CCIE R&S v4.0 has been announced, can I still take the CCIE R&S v3.0 exam? How long will it be valid?

A: The CCIE R&S v3.0 written exam will be available through October 17, 2009, at all Pearson VUE testing centers. Passing the v3.0 written exam qualifies a candidate to take any available version of the CCIE R&S lab exam. As with all CCIE written exams, a passing score on v3.0 written exam will remain valid for three years, as long as the candidate attempts the lab exam once within the first 18 months. If the lab is not attempted, thewritten exam becomes invalid and the candidate will have to retest using whatever written exam is available at that time.

4  -  Q: If I take the CCIE R&S written beta test in July or August 2009, will I still be able to schedule the CCIE R&S v3.0 lab exam?

A: Scores on CCIE written beta tests are not available until 4 to 6 weeks after the close of the beta period. At this time, there is no guarantee the CCIE R&S v3.0 lab exam will still be available when a beta test candidate receives his or her score. Beta testers should plan on taking the CCIE R&S v4.0 lab test to achieve certification.

5  -  Q: If I don’t pass the CCIE R&S v4.0 written beta exam, can I take it again in five days?

A: No, a candidate can only take a CCIE written beta test once during the beta testing period.

6  -  Q: Will there be any changes to the recently-added Core Knowledge portion of the exam, the part with the short-answer questions?

A: The questions in the Core Knowledge section of the lab exam may cover any area on the CCIE R&S v4.0 Lab Exam topics.

7  -  Q: What can a candidate expect in the troubleshooting portion of the lab exam?

A: Troubleshooting is allotted two of the eight hours required for the CCIE lab exam. Candidates will be presented with a series of trouble tickets for preconfigured networks and will need to diagnose and resolve the fault or faults. As with previous CCIE labs, the network will need to be up and running for the candidate to receive credit.  Candidates who finish the troubleshooting section early can move on to the configuration section, but they will not be allowed to go back to the troubleshooting section.

8  -  Q: Does a candidate have to pass both the troubleshooting and configuration sections in order to pass the entire CCIE R&S v4.0 lab exam and earn a CCIE?

A: Candidates will receive a single pass/fail grade on the entire exam, including both configuration and troubleshooting. Failing score reports will give an indication of where the candidate scored lower, to help the candidate prepare for another attempt.

9  -  Q: Will the CCIE R&S mobile lab exam also be updated?

A: Yes, CCIE R&S mobile labs use the same lab version as Cisco office locations, and they will switch to the v4.0 lab exam on October 18, 2009 as well.

10  -  Q: Which exam will be used for recertification?

A: As of October 18, 2009, CCIEs who take the CCIE R&S written exam for recertification will be given the v4.0 exam and should prepare using the exam topics found on the Cisco Learning Network.

11  -  Q: Are the previous Cisco 360 components applicable to the CCIE R&S v4.0 exams? Should candidates studying for CCIE R&S v4.0 exams wait forthe new Cisco 360 materials to begin work?

A: The learning components available at first launch of Cisco 360 are still relevant to candidates studying for the CCIE R&S v4.0 certification exams. No Cisco 360 Learning Program components are being retired.  There is no need for candidates to wait for revised Cisco 360 material to begin their study and practice. The subscription model ensures that Cisco 360 customers can take advantage of all new content as it is released and do not need to wait.

Troubleshooting and its Role in the new CCIE Blueprints

Troubleshooting has always been a part of the CCIE lab in one form or another. Whether we look back to the days when the lab was a 2-day lab and the 2nd half of the 2nd day was entirely set aside for troubleshooting, or moving to the 1-day format where your own careless mistakes could mean you were in for a world of debugging to see what you did wrong, or even more recently up until now where Cisco began building small inherent errors into your initial configurations and then giving you a heads up with a task and points associated to fixing it. By the way, for you conspiracy theorists out there, they put the errors in before you get to your lab – and NO, they do not perform any ‘live’ error introduction while you are inside of your 8 hours, thus my word “inherent”.

Well moving on from those days till now, we come up against a new blueprint change recently for Voice and Security. This past year at Cisco Live! Networkers ‘08, we got to talking with a fewof the Cisco Content Managers for various tracks (mainly Voice and Security) and also listening to their presentations and Q&A time with the crowds after the Techtorials. What we very solidly came to understand was that it is Cisco’s goal moving forward with the CCIE program to largely increase the amount of troubleshooting they request the candidate to perform, hoping to increase the amount of expertise they garner from said candidate while they have them captive in the lab. I mean let’s face it, configuration is absolutely necessary and fundamental – no one is contesting that – but without a solid understanding and ability to troubleshoot, that knowledge only goes so far in the field.

Simply put, the ability for an engineer to be able to troubleshoot effectively in the field is paramount. So now Cisco hopes to certify you ability not only to configure well, but also troubleshoot errors that they might have put there for you. Just the same as if you walked into a situation with a client on a network that you had never seen – you would need to be able to perform there as well.

This is the reason behind our decisions to not only mirror the new v3 blueprints for both Voice and Security, but to breakout each section into sub-sections – A & B. The A part of any given section deals with the configuration of a given technology, but the B partof the given section deals with troubleshooting that technology.

For more of a convincing argument simply take a look at the new v3 Voice blueprint and take a look at every section header. Notice that every section begins with “Implement and Troubleshoot”.

Now candidates may ask themselves if they really have time to debug protocols and look at traces (in the case of Voice) while in the CCIE lab. Many candidates that have gone before and ultimately passed have argued in favor of both views, some that there is time enough, and others that there simply isn’t. The argument for not having enough time has been loudest argued (at least that I have heard) by Voice candidates who, up until now, have had so many menial building-block tasks to accomplish to get to the stage to be able to configure the more complex technologies. While I believe that there was very little time in the previous lab for such a thing, I still think there was in fact time, but believe that in the new formatof the lab where much more emphasis (and points) are placed on troubleshooting, that you will be given more time to do so. This might mean that the proctors have prepared a lab for you in which many of the more menial tasks that take up a great deal of time, but don’t necessarily prove expertise (registering phones, assigning line text labels, etc), are already configured for you and built into the “Initial” configuration when you go to sit down and begin the lab. How much time you have fortroubleshooting also largely depends on your familiarity and comfort level with debugging and trace output. So if you haven’t found that “comfort” (oxymoron?) with them yet, time to dig in and get comfortable – you’re going to need to be!

Source

12 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Lab Time

Often times you may have rack time only to find that much of it is wasted away. At the end of the session you sit asking yourself where all your time went. Here are  12 Ways to Get the Most out of Lab Time:

  1. Download the pre-configuration files from whatever vendor you are using ahead of time.  There is no reason why you shouldn’t have them prior to starting you lab.
  2. Choose the scenario you want to work on prior to the start of your lab time.
  3. Once you have the scenario selected look at the default (pre-) configurations for that lab.  Add things to them like the “no shut” command on interfaces you need to use or the “enable” and “config t” commands at the beginning of the configuration file.  This makes it faster when you past the configurations into an empty router.
  4. Write a perl or expect script. You can quickly write a perl or expect script to log in and load a configuration.  This automates much of the initial process.  More lab time for you!
  5. Don’t waste your lab time reading the lab. You should have already done this.  Lab time is Lab time.
  6. Put it on the calendar and set a reminder. If its in writing and you are reminded about it you are more likely to start on time.  You are committed.
  7. Shut the door. If you study at home let your family know that you will be busy for a while and shut the door.
  8. Go to a coffee shop: This gets you away from the demands of the family.
  9. If you study at Work then put a sign up that tells people you are busy.
  10. Shut off your phone.
  11. Turn off your email.
  12. If you are using a Mac you can download “Isolatorto block out distracting windows.  This brings focus to just your terminal window.  If you are using Windows try DropCloth.

So – What do you think?  How do you make lab time more effective?

10 CCIE LAB TIPS

1. Read the entire exam – now I know everyone is saying that and even Cisco it advising that in there site, but this is one of the important things you need to do before you start configuring as when you start configuring, your mind is set to different mode and you will miss important details.

2. Take Notes – In addition to step 1 you must know to take notes, what I mean you ask yourself?! Well when you read the exam you will probably be thinking “am I wasting my time reading when other are typing and almost finishing their exam” I say NO you are not but because you all stress and your brain is speeding in almost 200mph you will not remember if you will not take notes.

3. Work Your Way UP – After first two steps are done you are probably 30 min – 40 min into your exam do not panic, work in a step by step layer 2 to layer 3… 4. Ask The Proctor – there was in my lab a real nice person that I am sorry I didn’t ask for his name but for me his name was Mr. Proctor and whenever I had a question about something that I didn’t understand or I thought that it is not well asked then I got up from my seat and went to his desk and ASKED, no shame, If you do not understand ASK that is one of his jobs, Accept for escorting you to the dining room.

5. Don’t ASK Dumb Questions – The Proctor will not give you an answer to your lab question, he will only answer “yes” or “no” format and only if he understand from your question that you know what you are talking about, so do not go and ask “question 1.1 what do you want me to do here” (In CCIE Routing and Switching Practice Labs, Cisco Press book you can see a lot of questions / Answers like that).

6. Be Polite – the proctor doesn’t work for you so be nice, that is the end of proctor candidate relation advice.

7. You Can Jump Back and FWD – the exam is open to your judgment you can say I will do first security then multicast or I will do IPv6 last

8. Keep Track – the exam have a lot of questions and sections, you need to write down questions and/or sections you finished, I myself written every question and its points, when done I have marked with “ok” when skipped marked with “later” when I have finished I looked on my paper and made sure I didn’t left any question without “ok”

9. Know How to check – after every question I did a check to make sure that what they want to work dose work, it is not always sufficient to put the commands as some time one section is relaying on another and putting the command relating to that question will not work until you add or remove other commands, I hope that is not to confusing, but most of the exam time went in my exam to verification. Also once you go to sections like security that may brake other sections, I would go back and verify the sections all over again and if they don’t work I know where is the problem, if I didn’t check every step it would be hard and more stressful when something would not work at the end.

10. Do not panic – that is important and for some it is more for other it is less, when you see the exam for the first time do not panic take it and brake it to small pieces, and do it one step at a time, if you face a problem skip ahead do not try to solve it for 2hr you can come back to it later.

Become CCIE with Simulator FAQ

Should I use emulator like dynamips or buy real lab?
Well, it depends. Dynamips is an emulator that somehow “tricks” the real IOS image so it will boot and run on standard PC. So far it can run IOS for 7200 routers, 3600, 3700 and 2600 series. So if you need to practice features outside those IOS, then you can’t do it with dynamips and must go with real lab.

What does exactly dynamips lack of?
Performance, even it doesn’t matter for CCIE practice lab, features that must be run in hardware such as certain QoS, and all the features outside the supported IOS for example L2 and switching features from a normal 3550 or 3560 switch. And we need to be aware that if there is any issue, we need to be able to identify if the issue is from wrong config, IOS bugs, or bug from the dynamips itself. With real lab, it’s just wrong config and IOS bugs.

Which CCIE track do you think can be done with emulator only?
For Service Provider track, you can practice almost 100% of the topic. The focus of the lab is on SP infrastructure so personally I don’t think you need to spend much time to practice L2 switch features. For Routing & Switching I think dynamips can still be used to cover almost 90%. Despite it has support Ethernet module but it still can’t be used to test real L2 switch features such as VTP and STP. But all L3 features from 3550/3560 switch can be tested or will have the same behavior just as if we use normal router. For Security track the emulator can be used to test IOS FW, IOS IPS, VPN between routers and security features in routers (NAT, ACL, RTBH etc). But more than half of the features for this track require Firewall, VPN, IDS and Cisco Secure ACS. For the rest of tracks, I would say the emulator won’t help that much. Check the CCIE lab blueprint and CCIE lab equipments to give you the idea.

What would I miss from the real lab?
Using real lab we would be able to test all the features required in CCIE lab, real router with real performance, capable to test hardware-dependent features, ability to sell it back when we are done and last but not least, the noise I guess. I used to sleep next to my lab for months so sometime I feel that I can still hear the noise inside my head until now.

What would be your suggestion to cover the lacks from dynamips?
There are several options. You may invest and buy a complete real lab. The challenge to have real lab is we need to replicate as close as possible to the lab equipments. It means, it can be expensive. But the good thing is, if our lab is still in decent condition after we are done, we may be able to sell it again (to another CCIE candidates) without losing a penny at all. Another option is to rent an online rack. It has advantage since we can connect to it as long we have Internet and we don’t need to invest big pile of money in the beginning, but obviously the money won’t go back after we are done. The option that you may want to consider is using dynamips to practice and cover as many features as possible (such as R&S and Security) then go to online rack rental a couple of weeks before the exam. For track like security, you may want toinvest in Firewall and VPN hardware, then connect them to dynamips. To practice IDS and for final preparation before taking the exam, you can use online rack for several days. List down all your options then make the pros and cons from each of them before you decide.

Do you know people who passed using dynamips only?
Yes, I know many people have passed CCIE lab using dynamips/emulator. In fact, for my third lab which is Service Provider track I practiced only using the emulator similar like dynamips. And no, I won’t tell you what it is nor I would discuss about it in this blog.

Do you think the people who passed using dynamips/emulator only are not real CCIE, since they never touch real routers?
No, there is no such thing. Passing CCIE lab just means you pass a lab exam. What makes a difference later on is your experience and expertise in real life. So someone may pass CCIE using only emulator and never touch the real routers, and he is still a CCIE. Later on he can gain experience and expertise with real routers. That’s what matter at the end of the day.

Will you teach me how to configure dynamips/other emulator?
No. RTFM. Googling.

Will you send IOS for me to use in emulator?
No. It’s actually illegal to run IOS software without license, but for practice lab at home I don’t think Cisco would bother chasing you. But I won’t send any IOS.

How to find info if I have issue with dynamips?
Again, RTFM and googling. And you should join the forum and become active member to discuss it. As I mentioned above, if there is any issue when you practice CCIE with emulator, it may come from wrong config, IOS bugs or bug in dynamips. So by becoming active member in the forum, and if you are willing to use the emulator heavily, you can contribute if you think the issue is from dynamips itself. Help the community to maintain and develop this wonderful emulator.

So should I use emulator or buy real lab to practice CCIE?
????!@#$%^&* Scroll up and read again from beginning.

How to Pass CCIE Lab Insider’s Tips

Himawan Nugroho, CCIE #8171

Just another guy who wishes to be an expert one day. Discovers the future one day at a time. His greatest fear is becoming a guy without specialties.
The first and the only Indonesian Triple CCIE till date.

◆ Triple CCIE #8171 in Routing & Switching, Security and Service Provider track
◆ 8+ years experience in Networking: SP, Data Center, UC, Wireless, Security
◆ Broad experience within Asia Pacific and Middle East
             2000 – 2001 Schlumberger Omnes, Indonesia
                 NOC Engineer to maintain the internal network within Asia and Australia
             2001 – 2002 IBM Global Services, Indonesia
                 Pre-sales and Network Consultant
             2002 – 2006 Emirates Computers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
                 Pre-sales, Lead Engineer, Network Consultant, Technical Project Manager
             2006 – now Cisco Advanced Services, Asia Pacific, based in Singapore
                 Network Consulting Engineer
◆ Currently working in several projects in different countries for Petronas (Malaysia), CAT (Thailand), Starhub Cable Vision (Singapore), VDC (Vietnam) and Telkomsel (Indonesia)

More Detail: How to Pass CCIE Lab Insider’s Tips |  PDF

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