One Network Engineer's journey to the CCIE

While at my CCIE lab 10-day bootcamp, I was told of another way to reduce CPU usage on my box that is running Dynamips. The original link is from here. I was checking on my dynamips stuff and here is a before/after picture. I was sitting at 100% CPU at all three cores on my AMD box, and after following the instructions here, I was able to drop CPU on two of the cores in half to about 40~50%. Here are the before/after pics:

Before:

After:

I have been making some good progress on the Vol 1 workbook. Petr Lapukhov’s How to pass the CCIE R&S with INE’s 4.0 Training Program guide estimates 8 weeks to complete Vol 1, i am proud to say that I am more than halfway done after only 5 days. In the next 11 weeks I will have to complete Vol. 1, do as much of Vol 2 as I can as well as watching the Advanced Technologies Video on Demand. To be quite honest, I think I have set myself up at a good pace and cannot wait for the bootcamp to be here.

Here are the sections I have completed thus far:
Completed:
Bridging & Switching: 1.1-1.15
Frame-Relay: 2.1-2.8
IP Routing: 3.1-3.11
RIP: 4.1-4.11
EIGRP: 5.1-5.10
OSPF: 6.1-6.14
BGP: 7.1-7.6

To be completed:
BGP: 7.7-7.12
IPv6: 9.1-9.9
Multicast: 8.1-8.10
MPLS VPN: 14.1-14.7

Just completed the INE IP Routing section of Vol 1. I feel I am making very good time on these Vol 1 labs as in INE has suggested it would take 8 weeks to get wholly familiar with these topics and I have done the first 3 in 3 days. I am pretty happy with my progress and plan to keep going forward. Overall, my plan is to complete the aforementioned sections of Vol 1, then move onto Vol 2 and work that while also listening to the Advanced Technologies Class on demand and having both of them complete before going to my 10-day bootcamp. WIth only 11 weeks left, it sounds do-able, but you never know. Either way, I will keep this blog updated with progress. Thank you.

I have started my studying again and have completed the INE Workbook vol. 1 section 1.1 through 1.15. The topics in this section are all review and to be honest are a section that I work on quite a bit on a daily basis, but its always good to review. The included sections are:
1.1 Layer 2 Access Switchports
1.2 Layer 2 Dynamic Switchports
1.3 ISL Trunking
1.4 802.1q Trunking
1.5 802.1q Native VLAN
1.6 Disabling DTP Negotiation
1.7 Router-on-a-stick
1.8 VTP
1.9 VTP Transparent
1.10 VTP pruning
1.11 VTP Prune-eligible list
1.12 Layer 2 Etherchannel
1.13 Layer 2 Etherchannel with PAgp
1.14 Layer 2 Etherchannel with LACP
1.15 Layer 3 Etherchannel

I look forward to moving onto the Frame Relay section, as it is one that I am not that familiar with. I have already completed this entire section once, but am reviewing as part of my study plan for the 10-day bootcamp I am attending in June. I plan on completing Vol 1 sections detailed in my previous post, as well as completing watching the Advanced Technologies Video on Demand from INE.com. If i have time left over, I will start some Vol 2 labs, just to be ahread before the class begins. I feel I have ample time to complete these goals before the actual class. Until tomorrow…..

I have signed up for the 10-day INE.com bootcamp in Seattle, WA from Jun 18th – Jun 29th, 2012. In order to be prepared for the bootcamp, they recommend you complete Vol 1 of their self-study material as well as the Advanced Technologies Video on Demand. I have done the key sections of Vol 1 as one of their guides had instructed. For those of you interested in what exactly I have done, here are the sections:

Bridging & Switching: 1.1-1.15
Frame-Relay: 2.1-2.8
IP Routing: 3.1-3.11
RIP: 4.1-4.11
EIGRP: 5.1-5.10
OSPF: 6.1-6.14
BGP: 7.1-7.12
IPv6: 9.1-9.9
Multicast: 8.1-8.10
MPLS VPN: 14.1-14.7

I have started watching the Advanced Technologies Video On Demand which consist of 81h 59min of Brian McGahan teaching a two-week course going over the fundamentals of what will be on the lab exam. I have about 3 months to prepare for the class and according to INE.com, I will need about 3-4 months after the class of self-prep to be truly prepared. Either way, I am trying to update this site more regularly as I back into studying hardcore.

It has been quite awhile since I have done anything CCIE related. I have started with watching the Intro video to the INE.com Advanced Technologies. To be honest, it was mostly a recap of stuff I have seen/heard before from the CCIE Written Class on Demand, but its good to hear again and remind myself of these things I have long forgotten. The things that stuck with me the most are the steps to success in this journey towards attaining the CCIE:

Step 1:Gain Basic understanding
Step 2:Gain basic hands-on experience to reinforce and expand your understand
Step 3:Gain an expert level of understanding
Step 4:Gain an expert level of hands-on experience

Brian McGahan also said something that I know is VERY true. “CCIE is not only a financial investment. Its also a time investment.” This rings so true for me as the time to study has become more scarce with so much going on in my personal as well as professional life. That being said, the CCIE is something important and something that I will begin to make the time for. As I write this on a Saturday night, I am at home listening to these videos instead of doing other things, so its a good start. Either way, until the next update.

I ran into some issues with section 3 of the INE Vol 1. For starters, I had my schedule pushed back a few days due to some issues with my SW4 device. For some reason, the console port stopped working all of a sudden. I tried a known-good cable and USB serial and it wasnt working. I contacted the eBay seller who I bought the devices from, Candela Networks, who happens to be conveniently located here in NJ about a 20 min drive from my house. I went to their warehouse and a tech tested the device and of course it works all of a sudden. He says he did nothing, but I dont know if I believe him The important thing is that the console works again and I was able to continue working on my labs making some decent progress.

The true test will be next week when I goto Chicago for work purposes. I will be there for 1 week and will need to work remotely on my rack. I have toyed with the idea of getting rack space and putting these devices on the internet, but I have reservations about these types of changes. I prefer to have them physically close so I can do whatever changes are necessary. Either way, I am continuing with the lab studies and will update with any relevant.

I have created a page called CCIE Lab Progress where I will try and keep track of my progress. I will be updating it with milestones as I move along the study path. As of now, I have completed the first section of the Vol 1 scenarios. I will now be moving onto Section 2 which is frame relay. I will be reloading all of my lab gear with blank configs and will keep this blog updated. I am happy thus far with the progress. I have also received two new books which I need to start reading, but we will see where the time for that gets made.

I have begun my studies for the CCIE lab. It will be a long journey and like any journey, it begins with a single step. I took that step tonight, when I began to follow the directions of this INE post. The post is named “How to pass the CCIE R&S with INE’s 4.0 Training Program” and just gives a general overview of how you should attack the studying for the lab including a study schedule.

The article assumes you will be studying 3 days a week, for 4 hrs a day for a total of 12 hrs per week. Based on that, they give you a 48-week breakdown of study times and where to focus your studying.

It consists of 3 phases:
Warm-up Phase (Weeks 0-12) Gets you started for CCIE studies. Covers core topics, develops basic hands-on and speed skills.
Core Training (Weeks 13-24) This phase develops solid hands-on skills and cements fundamental knowledge.
Advanced Training (Weeks 25-48) Gets you to the advanced level of technology understanding and perfection in hands-on skills.

The 48-week timing just feels too long and I feel like I should be able to complete this in 6 months (24 weeks). That being said, I will revise the study schedule as follows. I will be studying for 8 hours on Saturdays and Sundays as well as 8 hours during the week for a total of 24hrs study time. This may mean that I study two days a week for 4 hours of 4 days a week for 2 hours, but I am not sure which yet. I will give myself 6 weeks to complete the recommended material before moving on to Vol 2.

By my calculations, here is what MY schedule will look like.

Warm-up Phase (Weeks 0-6)
Core Training (Weeks 7-12)
Advanced Training (Weeks 13-24)

I know that this is an aggressive schedule, but I know that I can make it work and will force myself to stick to it as much as possible. For work reasons, I will be spending 1 week a month at work headquarters in Chicago, so I will need to maintain the remote access to my home box going in order to be able to continue with my studies.

For the next six weeks, I will be working on completing the following sections of the Vol. 1 study material from INE.
Bridging & Switching: 1.1-1.15
Frame-Relay: 2.1-2.8
IP Routing: 3.1-3.11
RIP: 4.1-4.11
EIGRP: 5.1-5.10
OSPF: 6.1-6.14
BGP: 7.1-7.12
IPv6: 9.1-9.9
Multicast: 8.1-8.10
MPLS VPN: 14.1-14.7

I am trying to do bi-weekly page updates but it has been tough keeping up. I will be trying harder to fulfill this small goal.

So I had my CCIE Written re-take today and I passed my exam with a score of 868. The required score to pass was 790. I am very happy I did as well as I did and think my dedication to study the things I did poorly on the first time around made the difference. Here is the breakdown from my score report on this exam versus my first exam.

From the comparison you can see the largest gains came in “Implement IP Multicast” as well as the “Optimize the Network” section. After my failed attempt at the Written exam, I focused my studies on both QoS and Multicast. I believe that focus helped me with the gains in my score.

The sad part is that after all that studying, that was the easy part. The time to truly begin studying has begun and I will need to come up with a schedule to study for my lab. I will continue using my INE.com products to do the bulk of the studying although I would like to take an instructor-led training course. As of now, I am leaning towards going with Nova Datacom, which is the company owned by Scott Morris, the famous 4-time CCIE. I took various classes taught by both Scott and Keith Barker at Cisco Live 2011 and really liked their teaching style. I will update here when I make a decision on which training course to take.