From: Nick Shah (nshah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Thu May 30 2002 - 00:46:41 GMT-3
Congratulations...
Nick
----- Original Message -----
From: <jsaxe@Crutchfield.com>
To: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 12:34 PM
Subject: CCIE #9376
> (I put a bunch of "bcc"'s on here to various people who I thought might be
> interested, but who wouldn't want their email addresses posted forever in
a
> public forum for spam harvesting. So that's why you're seeing this, if
> you're wondering.)
>
> I passed yesterday in Research Triangle -- my second attempt, two-day the
> first time and one-day this time. Got the email from their automated
system
> in the wee hours of this morning. Hurray! I actually felt pretty confident
> walking out the door; I mentally flipped through the lab booklet, totaling
> up the things I definitely or possibly missed, and I didn't think it could
> have been more than 20 points. I guess I was right.
>
> I have to say I like the one-day lab format; it's compressed and
> challenging, but they really appear to have succeeded in cutting out the
> "fluff" (drawing diagrams, physical cabling) while concentrating on the
real
> issues. Plus it allows them to schedule more people in the lab, gives
> candidates predictable travel plans, and eases the time pressure on the
> proctors. I know everyone's going to hate me for saying this, but I
believe
> it's true: If you absolutely know everything cold, and you get a little
> lucky, you can actually finish the whole lab with a half-hour to one hour
to
> spare. I started down a blind alley once or twice, so I used up my time
> margin undoing and reconfiguring -- I just barely finished. If you let
> yourself get stuck on one topic, banging your head against it over and
over,
> the time will evaporate before you know what's happening -- keep pace, and
> go on to something else for a while.
>
> Here's a key point, though: You must be at a point where you know with
> almost 100% certainty what's going to happen before you hit "return". You
> must configure systematically, incrementally, in layers (both OSI model
and
> the "levels" of Caslow's book), and from one part of your lab network to
an
> adjacent part. If you just blindly go to three routers of your network,
> mutually redistribute 4 IGP protocols, and then sit back and survey the
> chaos and try to see what's broken and how to fix it, you'll never find it
> all -- recipe for disaster, in my opinion. Just configure a few adjacent
> routers, then add one next door through redistribution and make sure it's
> stable, fixing problems as you see them. But you should be able to see the
> problems coming before they happen; you should see that /28 network over
in
> the far corner, see that you're trying to hand it off to an IGRP speaker
at
> the other end of a /24 subnet, and know that someone, somewhere is going
to
> have to cough up a /24 summary or this guy's never going to hear it.
>
> Remember that routing protocol neighbor formation and normal packet
> switching depend on Layer 2 next-hop reachability, and BGP route
acceptance
> depends on Layer 3 next-hop reachability (among other things). Also
remember
> (when you're in the exam especially, but even when you're practicing) that
> sometimes you're not crazy, and there is a bug in the software, and the
poor
> little router can't keep up with all the wacky stuff you've done and
undone
> and redone. Don't be too hesitant to save the config, reload the router,
and
> go out and get a drink of water or something. Might be when you come back,
> it's working just as you expected it to. Reloading costs time, though, so
> make sure you have something else to work on while it comes back.
>
> Preparation: The usual books, plus the ECP1 course last year before Mentor
> Tech vaporized, and all the playing I could do on my employer's routers
> without breaking anything. :-) Also, recently, one week of in-person
rack
> time at the CCIE Practice Lab at NCSU -- very good, although they didn't
> happen to have a crypto image when I went. (I believe they will be working
> on this.) And the practice labs in the back of the Cisco Press book "CCIE
> Practical Studies, Volume 1"
> <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587200023> are fantastic -- very
> much in the spirit of the real lab, designed with the 8-hour time frame of
> the one-day format, and comprehensive. I never did purchase any practice
> labs, which I slightly regret although of course it doesn't matter now;
but
> I imagine these 5 labs compare favorably, and it's only a $75 book. Note
> that Cisco Press actually has solutions posted on their Web site, which is
> also extremely nice, but I found a couple of oversights in the solutions.
> (Keeps you on your toes.) They're Adobe Acrobat PDF's, so they could be
> corrected.
>
> Thanks very much to my employer, Crutchfield Corporation and Dave Dierolf
in
> particular, for being incredibly supportive, with time off, training
> dollars, and encouragement. It's hard to imagine doing this totally on my
> own, always on personal time, buying a rack full of equipment and staying
up
> late nights typing away at routers all the time. I applaud you dedicated
> folks who are doing it this way, who see so much in this goal to pursue it
> so diligently. Please remember to put things in perspective, though... go
> outside once in a while, and keep in mind that your family is most
> important. Thanks so much to my wife Laura, who's probably VERY glad this
is
> done.
>
> Oh, by the way, IGRP is the devil. Nobody really still uses it in
production
> networks, right? I'm convinced the only reason it's still implemented in
IOS
> images is to screw up CCIE lab candidates!
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