From: nrf (noglikirf@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Oct 25 2007 - 08:26:54 ART
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darby Weaver" <darbyweaver@yahoo.com>
To: "nrf" <noglikirf@hotmail.com>; "Schoeneman Steve" <gs@grimnotions.com>
Cc: <smorris@ipexpert.com>; "'istong'" <istong@stong.org>;
<ccielab@groupstudy.com>; <security@groupstudy.com>;
<comserv@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 2:00 AM
Subject: Re: CCIE Lab Price Increase
> Man you never give up.
>
> I'll tell you if you don't think switching is a big
> part of the lab... you've just never been, especially
> lately.
>
> And when I say big, I mean there are two words
> "Routing and Switching"...
>
> Now count the letters in each word...
>
> That's about where the lab topic ratio falls...
>
>
> At a Networkers Conference CCIE RS TechTutorial, in
> 2006 - I believe, one of the speakers said:
>
> "The best tip I can give any CCIE RS Lab Candidate is
> to know everything in the 3550 Switching Configuration
> Guide... It's in there..."
>
> Now... exactly what part did you miss?
No, which part did YOU miss? When did I ever say that there was no
switching to be done AT ALL?
What I said is that there aren't THAT many pure switching tasks to be done,
and my frame of reference, which I thought could be assumed, was the number
of routing tasks to be done. I thought it was quite clear by implication
that I wasn't talking about commands on the switch that are the same
commands that you would configure for a router (as these are really router
tasks).
In other words, if you already know how to route well, then let's be honest,
learning how to configure a 3550 doesn't represent a whole lot more to
learn, right? Be honest - how much more is there, really? Surely I hope
nobody seriously believes that there are people out there who are rock stars
on routers but who wouldn't be able to learn how to configure the 3550.
Once you know the routing, you already know the most difficult part of
configuring the 3550.
>
> Still thinking of the 1999/2000 CCIE RS Labs...
>
> Where you might need to do create a vlan, assign a
> port, create a management interface and then... maybe
> some trunking, maybe an some intervlan routing, maybe
> some SPAN/SPAN, maybe some other misc features?
>
> Things have changed considerably. There are now 4
> switches and 6 Routers and by device/interface count
> alone, one might expect some considerable amount of
> tasks with regard to either be on the switches
> themselves or a task that is found in the 3550/3560
> reference guides.
>
> My advice to anyone... know your switches and
> everything they are capable of and are not capable of.
>
>
> Whew! Maybe you know switching to the nines and it is
> not a problem for you... if that's true, why not
> take the lab... if you got everything in the
> 3550/3560 down pat and its so easy...
>
> (Remember, they do handle routing protocols too by the
> way... - but lets not go there - since there are
> potentially enough points on just pure switching
> topics alone... to almost call the lab CCIE Switching
> as it is...).
>
> If it were not for the fact that switches handle
> routing protocols, they can almost drop the routing
> portion of the name...
Exactly. Right there. THAT IS THE POINT. There aren't that many switch
tasks that are not also routing tasks (and hence, once Cisco has actually
written the routing emulator, Cisco wouldn't have to do that much more work
to then mix in the switching component).
Look guys, it is the ROUTING that is the bulk of the exam. You said it
yourself. Cisco 3550's are routers that use routing commands, with not that
many switch-only commands.
The terms of the debate are that I don't think it's particularly difficult
for Cisco to create an virtualized CCIE lab. THAT is what we are talking
about. Once Cisco builds a virtual router emulator (which I don't think is
that hard to do), then Cisco should also be able to build a virtual switch.
Those are the terms of the debate.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Nov 16 2007 - 13:11:18 ART