Cisco Certification Study (CCIE)

It actually began prior to my attending Heinz Ulm’s CCNP boot camp. As a matter of fact it was my deciding to go for the CCIE that made me go for the CCNP boot camp. I knew that his boot camp was not one that teaches the test, but rather one that teaches you the how and why something works. I gained a lot of knowledge in that two week boot camp and it really gave me the push to fully commit to taking the path that others have taken to get their CCIE.

As you have seen I have passed my final two exams for the CCNP. Having the CCNP under my belt helps to establish a base or core of knowledge from which I will add more knowledge and experience. It is only the beginning of this journey.

IP Expert came out with a special weekend discount last weekend, so I purchased their $2200 bundle for $700. It includes the three volume set, Video on Demand courses, and rack time. I have almost finished watching day one’s videos for the first time. Oh, believe me I will definitely have to watch them more than once.

My next investment will be to order a CCIE router and switch kit. I’ve been using GNS3, but there are times it is limiting and I really need to work some of this more in-depth layer two stuff than can only be done on Cisco switches.

My current plan is to take the written exam the first week in April, 2012. And do one of Heinz Ulm’s labs the following week so I can better judge where I stand at that time.

Okay, that’s it for now, need to do an hour of study tonight before I hit the rack!

Yes, I passed the CCNP TSHOOT exam! Now I am a CCNP. Therefore, I cannot call this the “Cisco Certification Study (CCNP)” page, but will have to rename the “Cisco Certification Study (CCIE)” page after I’m finished posting this.

Main preparation for the TSHOOT exam was building the lab from the Cisco provided topology on GNS3 multiple times. You learn a lot about the technology by configuring the devices and protocols because you will make mistakes that you will have to find and fix and they could be similar to what you’ll see on the exam. Even if you don’t make the same mistakes you will know what the correct configurations will look like because you’ve made it work from the ground up.

I hope to put a lot more here on my journey to CCIE than I have for my CCNP because it will help me to learn what I am studying, as well.

I scheduled my CCNP SWITCH exam for about 3 weeks after returning from the CCNP boot camp in Competa, Spain at Heinz Ulm’s boot camp. The problem with not having your own lab and trying to use packet tracer or GNS3 was that neither one did a good job of emulating the configurations that needed to be done on the switches to prepare for the simulations on the test.

I thought it was ridiculous that I had to type commands repetitively in notepad to practice for the exam; however, that was the only thing I could do at that time. I spent almost the entire three weeks of my off time reading the CCNP SWITCH Foundation Guide; however, it wasn’t in-depth enough for the exam. I did my best to set up labs on GNS3, but like I said in the beginning of this paragraph it was not very good. At work I have two 6504s on my desk; however, I could not study on work time and couldn’t get the serial port to work to use the rollover cable. I think it is locked down like everything else on the office PCs.

The long and short of it, I passed the switch exam on the first attempt. Just like the ROUTE exam, though, it had me sweating at the end because I didn’t know if any more simulations were going to pop up in the last 10 questions or not.

One of the catch-22s is that I cannot afford to buy the CCIE rack I want until after I pass the SWITCH and TSHOOT exam and get reimbursed for the boot camp and the exams. So, after I’ve earned the CCNP I will have the hardware I need to practice anything I want.

My TSHOOT is scheduled for November 2nd, 2011. I am studying for it every day. I am almost finished reading Bryant’s ebook on the CCNP TSHOOT. I really like his writing style and would recommend his books to anyone going for any of the CCNP exams. The next book I have to read is the Foundation Series TSHOOT book. It appears to be in a better format than the Certification Guide in this case, a lot more in-depth with practical problems and solutions.

I’m getting antsy about studying for the CCIE and looking for ways to improve my GNS3 platform until I actually have my own rack! I’m thinking of loading an extra drive with Ubuntu and upgrading my PC to 8GB of RAM since it can run in 64-bit mode. Woohoo!!!

After working two months in my new job, several things were apparent to me.

1) My contract is good until January 2013.

2) The company will pay me a nice amount of money for educational expenses each year.

3) Even though the CCNP is better than the CCNA, almost everyone in my office has their CCNP. How can I compete against them or anyone else who already has several years experience working at the enterprise level??? I knew I could get my CCNP finished by the end of 2011 by self-study since I passed the hardest test first.

4) Even though it is easier to pursue my area of interest in photography in Germany, the better half does not appreciate it and it remains an area of contention for us. Since I wanted her to really get to like Germany after her arrival, I decided I would have to put a hold on my pursuit of publishing a fine art nude coffee table book. Even though I already have several hundred dollars invested in model shoots up to now.

I started looking for local bootcamps in Germany and Europe to see if anything was available when I stumbled upon Heinz Ulm’s CCIE boot camps that are held in Germany, Spain and the United States. That also got me to thinking about the four things that I came to realize above. I had been thinking about going for the CCIE for several months, after I was hired to work at the enterprise level I knew it would give me the exposure and experience I needed to round off the certifications that I had/would obtain. I decided that if the company would reimburse the boot camp I could go to Hein Ulm’s CCNP boot camp and get a glimpse of how his students are doing in their CCIE boot camp at the same time. That would also give me 12 months to prepare for the CCIE boot camp because I could only use the educational money on a yearly basis.

The boot camp that I attended was held in his house in Competa, Spain! Talk about being in the middle of nowhere! But, if you want to really study and have no distractions in the area then that is the place to go!!! I have posted some photos on my FB album if you want to see.

The bottom line is, I am now committed to going for my CCIE!

Here’s the plan: 1) Finish my CCNP SWITCH and TSHOOT exams by early November 2011. 2) Take and pass the CCIE written exam in early April. 3) Buy one of Heinz Ulm’s labs with 10-hour rack time to judge my progress in May. 4) Attend his boot camp in October/November 2012. 5) Take the CCIE lab exam in December 2012.

I have some catching up to do here since my last update. As you know I needed to either retake the CCNA exam or push for the CCNP ROUTE exam. I needed the cisco certification to qualify for a new job that I was being hired to do in Germany. The pressure was on and I decided to go for the CCNP ROUTE exam. I failed my first attempt; I didn’t even finish the exam in the time given to take it. :-O The good thing coming out of the exam, even though I failed, was that I only failed by a small margin and that was with at least 6 problems that I didn’t even do.
So, I was fairly sure that I could pass it on the second attempt. After taking the exam and getting a feel for my strengths and weaknesses I knew what I had to study prior to the second attempt.
While taking the ROUTE exam the second time I could not get the router to ping the endpoint that it was supposed to ping on a mutual redistribution problem. I could see the address when I did a SHOW IP ROUTE, but couldn’t ping it. On the first attempt I spent too much time on this problem and didn’t finish in time so I decided that I had configured it correctly and staying on the problem would not help any. After the first attempt, I went home and setup the lab on GNS3 as best as I could remember and practiced getting everything to talk and route as it was instructed to do.
The most stressing part to me is you could be down to 10 questions left and not know how many more simulation type problems were left and with only 20 minutes left it was a real concern. Answering the multiple choice questions isn’t very time consuming and in most cases you either knew it or didn’t.
To make a long story longer, I passed the CCNP ROUTE exam on the second try. Whew!!!

An excellent way to run Cisco IOSs on your PC by using GNS3; Graphical Network Simulator (Emulator) that can be downloaded for free. To go along with it you should also download a terminal emulator (PuTTY) and some wire capture (Wireshark) software, also for free.

A collection of books that covers all three exams on the new CCNP certification series: CCNP Routing and Switching Foundation Learning Library. Amazon shows mediocre reviews for this set.

A single book that covers only the 642-902 exam: CCNP ROUTE Official Certification Guide; a book that covers the 642-813 exam: CCNP SWITCH Official Certification Guide; and finally a single book that covers the 642-832 exam: CCNP TSHOOT Official Certification Guide. Probably better off buying these books as you need them rather than the above bundle as each author here has gone in depth into their own area of expertise.

I am setting up this site because I see a need for things relating to CCNP studies. My CCNA expires on 7 July 2011 and I must retest CCNA or take a higher level test. I am currently studying for my CCNP ROUTE exam. I am mastering how to use GNS3 to emulate multiple routers on my PC, which is the least expensive method for setting up lifelike labs using Cisco IOSs. I want to share what I have learned in setting up the GNS3 lab configs because I see a lot of other people just assume the user knows how to set things up and we are left on our own to figure it out.

I have figured out how to configure Cisco routers to behave as Frame-Relay switches and I will share that information, as well.

Let’s do this!

Les