From: Pavel Stefanov (pavel.stefanov@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Mar 14 2009 - 09:22:06 ARST
Thanks everyone.
To Scott:
Yes, the NMC's Catalyst VoD is great. It really
helped me clear things up because apart from IE's blog and the configuration
guides, there are very few resources on this topic.
To Ravi:
Yep, 18. I've
got about a year and a half professional experience, but I've been in
networking for 3 years.
In my opnion, experience is not what the CCIE
certification is about, it's about knowing the technologies, knowing how to
implement and troubleshoot them and knowing how to work under pressure. You
will encounter (I myself did) a lot of people that will tell you if you don't
have enough experience, you will fail. But that's absolutely wrong. Exprience
can actually play a bad part in the lab. Here's a few reasons - it's a lab so
it's not a production network, they might ask you to do some obscure things
you'd never do in a live network; some experienced engineers might do some
overconfiguration or think too much about implications of a certain solution;
not to mention that I personally know a bunch of people that underestimate/d
the lab and that's one of the reasons they failed/could fail.
For the
written, I used mainly Cisco Press books. Configuration guides were mainly
useful for IOS features. I did a lot of labs on core technologies as well as
IPv6 and Multicast, but also explored some very corner-case scenarios,
practically all that I could think of was labbed. I read the following books
for the written:
7 Cisco Multicast Routing & Switching
7 CCNP Self-Study
BCMSN Official Exam Certification Guide, 4th Edition
7 Cisco Press 2000 -
CCIE Developing IP Multicast Networks (skipped some chapters)
7 Cisco Press
2000 - MPLS and VPN Architectures
7 Cisco Press 2001 - Routing TCP-IP Volume
II (CCIE Professional Development)
7 Cisco Press 2002 - Traffic Engineering
With MPLS (skipped some chapters) (that's not really necessary to read, I
needed that in work)
7 Cisco Press 2003 - Cisco Self-Study Implementing IPv6
Networks (skipped some chapters)
7 Cisco Press 2003 - MPLS and VPN
Architectures Volume II
7 Cisco Press 2005 - CCIE Professional Development
Routing TCP-IP, Volume I, Second Edition
7 Cisco Press 2005 - Cisco QOS Exam
Certification Guide IP Telephony Self Study 2nd Edition
7 Cisco Press 2006 -
CCIE Routing and Switching Official Exam Certification Guide 2nd Edition (the
Switching and the NAT part only)
7 Cisco Press 2006 - Deploying IPv6 Networks
(skipped some chapters)
7 Cisco Press 2006 - IPSec Virtual Private Network
Fundamentals (1st, 2nd and 7th chapter)
When I first started reading those
books, bridging the gap between a the level of knowledge of a CCNA and a CCIE
was really hard. You read about some technology, see another one mentioned,
then you go and read about the latter. It was a mess :) Although, the written
exam is required just to schedule the lab, I considered it a step that I had
to make cause there are a few technologies not in the lab blueprint and didn't
want to spend too much time on them.
Regarding my lab preparation strategy, I
copy/pasted both the official lab blueprint and IE's one in a doc file. Then I
listed all the configuration guides I wanted to read.
7 Cisco IOS IP
Addressing Services Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS IP
Application Services Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS Bridging
and IBM Networking Configuration Guide, Release 12.4 (Bridging Overview,
Transparent bridging (includes IRB, CRB))
7 Cisco IOS Configuration
Fundamentals Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS Dial Technologies
Configuration Guide, Release 12.4 (PPP only)
7 Cisco IOS Interface and
Hardware Component Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS IP Multicast
Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS IP Routing Protocols
Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS IP SLAs Configuration Guide,
Release 12.4 (except for VoIP Gatekeeper Registration Delay, VoIP Call Setup
Operation, DLSw+)
7 Cisco IOS IP Switching Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7
Cisco IOS IPv6 Configuration Guide, Release 12.4 (R&S related stuff only)
7
Cisco IOS LAN Switching Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS NetFlow
Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS Network Management Configuration
Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS Quality of Service Solutions Configuration
Guide, Release 12.4
7 Cisco IOS Security Configuration Guide, Release 12.4
(R&S related-stuff only/blueprint, and without 802.1x authentication)
7 Cisco
IOS Wide-Area Networking Configuration Guide, Release 12.4 (Frame-Relay only)
7 Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Software Configuration Guide, Rel.
12.2(25)SEE (QoS section only)
7 Catalyst 3560 Switch Software Configuration
Guide, Rel. 12.2(25)SEE
I read those end-to-end (of course, I skipped some of
the features/protocols not tested in the lab). It took me 5 or 6 months and I
realized it was an enormous amount of work, but I also wanted to improve my
IOS culture so it was not only about the lab. Then I watched the CoD and VoDs.
Then went on and completed 10 labs from one vendor, moved to the other vendor
and the back to the first one. I also had 8 9-hour ASET lab sessions booked
where I did 11 labs (6 of them are built-in).
As for the actual lab exam:
I
read a few checklists written by other members of GroupStudy, but I decided to
write my own simpler one. I didn't draw any diagrams and rarely ever did in my
preparation. I wanted to keep things simple and not spend too much time on
additonal stuff. I read the lab twice, noted down some of the issues I
could've encountered during the lab, drew a table with four columns as
suggested by the Brians - Task, Points, Y/N, Notes. Then I opened 6 IE windows
- IOS config guides and command references, 3560 and 3550 configuration and
command references. I also copied the running-configs in flash just in case I
had to check how something was configured at the beginning.
Anyway, I
started the lab very slowly, but I was done with about 65-70% of the lab by
lunchtime. During lunch I was thinking of which tasks to complete next in
order to get 80 points. I was done with the whole lab in exactly 5 hours so I
had 3 full hours to verify and possibly troublehshoot. I asked the proctor a
lot of questions during the exam and although the proctor was a bit grumpy
after my 10th question :), I didn't really care about that and continued to
check with the him all that seemed obscure to me. I also used TCL scriping and
macros, which I highly recommend making use of in the real lab and in your
preparation. I made two full verifications and had 20-30 minutes left, but as
Brian Dennis had suggested, I didn't leave the lab early and drank as many
free drinks and ate as many fruit as I could :) I honestly expected a more
difficult lab and I was quite sure I'd passed after I left the lab.
So that's
pretty much all about the lab.
Pavel
________________________________
From: Ravi Singh <way2ccie@googlemail.com>
To: Pavel Stefanov
<pavel.stefanov@yahoo.com>
Cc: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Sent: Friday, March 13,
2009 4:59:36 PM
Subject: Re: Passed R&S in Brussel
Congratulations Pavel !!!
And if I am not wrong how old are you now ..18 I guess ??
If you don't mind
me asking, could you please let me know a bit about your professional
experience. I obviously don't doubt your certification but the reason I ask
this is that it could be a source of inspiration for me and some people here.
I mean there are people who have been working in the industry for say 10-15
years and have attempted the lab N times. But since you passed on the first
attempt at such a young age, could you please guide us on the strategy you
took.
Forgive me being so inquisitive but I just couldn't help it.. Hope you
don't mind !!
Congrats Again
Ravi
On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 2:18 PM,
Pavel Stefanov <pavel.stefanov@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello,
I just wanted to say
thank you all for the great questions, answers and advice I got from this
forum. I remember the day when I first posted in groupstudy -
http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=121109&t=121109 and would like
to say a big thanks especially to Joseph Brunner and Jun Kim. Also big thanks
to my brother, Brian McGahan, Brian Dennis, Scott Morris, Petr Lapukhov,
Himawan Nugroho, Scott Vermillion and others.
I passed the R&S lab in
Brussels in the beginning of February, this year, on my first attempt. It took
me 2-2.5 years to prepare (9-10 months for the written, and the rest for the
lab). I used mainly Cisco Press books, blogs, IE's CoD, workbook volume 1 and
2, IE's forums, IPExpert's v9 workbook and forums, Netmaster's Catalyst QoS
VoD, ASET labs and last but not least - GroupStudy. I didn't have my own home
rack, used dynamips, PEC and some 2960s I had access to in the academy I used
to teach courses. Now I've got to pass the matriculation exams after high
school and then I'm starting my preparation for the SP track.
Once again,
thanks everyone for the great posts.
Pavel
Blogs and organic groups at
http://www.ccie.net/
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