Re: Success

Dale,

I never had doubts about you passing, i can not take any credit for this,
since you were very good to start with.

Once again, congratulations. Good job.

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 7:00 AM, Larry Hadrava <larryh_at_ipexpert.com> wrote:

> Dale:
> Thanks for sharing your comments and experiences. I know that many of us
> can
> relate.
>
> Thanks
> Larry Hadrava
> CCIE #12203 CCNP CCNA
> Sr. Support Engineer IPexpert, Inc.
> URL: http://www.IPexpert.com <http://www.ipexpert.com/>
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 7:40 AM, Dale Shaw <dale.shaw_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi again all,
> >
> > On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 10:51 PM, Dale Shaw <dale.shaw_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I passed.
> > >
> > > CCIE #24464 -- R&S.
> > >
> > > I am very happy and quite relieved.
> > >
> > > More later, I have a hangover to work on.
> >
> > As promised, here's a bit more background.. I hope you can focus for
> > long enough to read the whole way through. This e-mail is almost as
> > long as my CCIE lab notes.
> >
> > I've been in the game for 13 or so years -- started at the beginning,
> > building and repairing PCs. I still think the troubleshooting
> > methodology I developed in this phase has been invaluable. I've worked
> > for systems integrators in the channel the whole time, mostly in the
> > systems (Microsoft / Novell / Citrix and UNIX) infrastructure arenas.
> > I'd always had a keen interest in comms from my early years as a
> > teenager BBS sysop (RemoteAccess/Pro on everything from NetWare to
> > Desqview to OS/2). Around 10 years ago I inherited the responsibility
> > for a cisco 4500M and the company's Internet connection. I was pretty
> > chuffed when I got multilink PPP working over basic rate ISDN, despite
> > taking us off the air and locking myself out of the device several
> > times in the process. I learned about the implicit deny at the end of
> > ACLs this way :)
> >
> > I passed my CCNA exam in the year 2000. At the time I was responsible
> > for a large Avaya (Octel/Lucent) TDM-based unified messenger
> > installation based on Unified Messenger (very cool for its time). I
> > had more experience and interest in the messaging (Exchange) side than
> > on the voice side. I sometimes wonder how things would've turned out
> > if I'd dug into the voice stuff a bit more.
> >
> > In the years that followed I'd been given several opportunities to
> > install and configure cisco PIX firewalls (the 'Classic' and 500
> > series devices) and dabbled with IPSec VPNs. By this stage I was still
> > working for a systems infrastructure outfit but we had the
> > VPN/Security partner specialisation so we got the occasional gig in
> > that market. Around this time I passed the exams to become a Cisco
> > Qualified Specialist (CQS) in Security. This cert later morphed into
> > CCSP and I think I just had to pass one or two more exams for that.
> > That was 2004 or so. I also started working on CCNP, which was a great
> > learning experience. I used the Cisco Press self-study set. Going
> > through this process filled in lots of gaps and exposed me to some of
> > the technologies used in larger enterprises. I failed BSCI first go
> > but got it second time around. Up till then, despite being a MCSE
> > (since '98, when it meant something), CNE (since '99) and a handful of
> > other less meaningful certs, I had never failed an exam. It was a rude
> > shock! :-) CCNP was wrapped up in the same year, 2004.
> >
> > In 2006, despite enjoying the work environment with the company I was
> > employed by, I made the decision to focus on networking and I needed
> > to move. I'd just finished a large Exchange implementation, which was
> > fun, but my heart was at the command line :-) I switched employers and
> > started working for one of Australia's larger Gold partners. It was a
> > network design gig, but in reality there was/is a great mix of
> > hands-on and design work. It's been a long time since I installed a
> > Microsoft service pack for a customer, and while I sometimes miss
> > being a 'systems' guy, I consider that a good thing!
> >
> > I originally booked my CCIE lab in Sydney a year ago (May '08), having
> > passed the written in March, but I moved to Canada for a working
> > holiday and with all those novel animals like bears, moose, squirrels,
> > skunks etc. there was never going to be enough time to prepare -- I
> > was kidding myself. I first postponed to September '08, then January
> > '09. I returned to Australia in mid-November and realised I had a
> > unique opportunity to give this thing a real go. I booked myself in to
> > Narbik's January boot camp in Sydney and started working my way
> > through his "Soup To Nuts" workbook about a month earlier. Attending
> > the boot camp was a real eye-opener for me. Up till that point, I knew
> > how much I knew, but not how much I didn't know. I didn't get as much
> > out of the boot camp as I could have if I was better prepared, but it
> > was critical to setting my focus on the end goal. I met some nice
> > blokes that week -- some of which are occasional GroupStudy
> > contributors (hi guys!).
> >
> > For the next couple of months, I worked through Narbik's advanced and
> > boot camp workbooks. I wanted to complete them from start to finish
> > before locking in a lab date. When I finished pass #1, I booked and
> > paid for my lab -- April 21st. I lined up some ASET lab sessions
> > through my local Cisco SE and was pretty comfortable with the content
> > and happy with the results I was seeing, noting that they're scored
> > differently than the real lab and the wording of the tasks tend to
> > steer you toward the 'right' solution. I was only working part time
> > throughout my study, so I was able to dedicate about 20-30 hours per
> > week to study without too much trouble. I don't know how anyone does
> > it with a family and/or full time work.
> >
> > Leading up to attempt #1, I was already starting to suffer from 'study
> > fatigue'. It's hard to stay motivated for so long, as I'm sure many of
> > you know. Nevertheless, I was quietly confident, and went into the
> > first attempt thinking that I had a real chance. Apart from the
> > occasional case of 'butterflies', I wasn't all that nervous. I stayed
> > at the Urban Hotel in St Leonards and got allocated room '224', which
> > I thought was pretty cool (it's on the corner facing the Pacific Hwy,
> > so take ear plugs if you're a light sleeper!). Even walking down to
> > the office, I was feeling good. I had that "well, there's nothing you
> > can do to improve your chances now!" feeling, which was comforting. I
> > guess that feeling could work for or against you.
> >
> > There were three candidates that day, including me -- one for SP, one
> > for Voice and me, for R&S. We got our name labels and made our way
> > into the briefing/lunch room. There's a CCIE surfboard in there, for
> > some odd reason. I guess the marketing department had some extra dough
> > to throw around :-) I was still feeling good -- no nerves. Once the
> > briefing was over and we moved into the lab room, I can't explain why,
> > but my heart rate started to increase and the nerves kicked in good
> > and proper.
> >
> > First I had to log in and take the OEQs. Man, I was so relieved when I
> > saw them -- they were easy! I didn't time myself, but I guess I took
> > 10-15 minutes working on them. I was as verbose as I felt I needed to
> > be to indicate my understanding of the content. Some questions needed
> > more; others needed just a short sentence. When I clicked 'Submit', I
> > had no doubt that OEQs would not be a problem for me that day. All
> > I'll say about the OEQs is this: IF you have a chance at passing the
> > configuration portion of the lab -- i.e. you've done the hard yards,
> > learnt the technology and practiced enough -- the OEQs will not
> > challenge you. It's as simple as that. I know some people pass the
> > configuration section but fail based on OEQs and that flies in the
> > face of what I've just said, but that's my view. My hat goes off to
> > those of you who speak English as a second (or third.. or fourth)
> > language. Amazing.
> >
> > Once you've done the OEQs, you need to log out and back in again using
> > a different set of credentials. This is all made clear to you, so you
> > don't need to worry about the details -- pay attention though;
> > apparently it's not uncommon for candidates to approach the proctor
> > with login problems. Once you've logged back in, you're able to access
> > your lab equipment and begin the configuration portion. Reading
> > through the workbook, I didn't see any "gotchya!s", but by this time,
> > I was really on edge. I shouldn't have had that coffee at the hotel
> > (although it was surprisingly decent) because the adrenalin was
> > pumping so hard I needed no supplementary stimulation. I started
> > working through the material..
> >
> > Cut to just before lunch time, and I had my switching and IGP sections
> > under control. I had full IGP reachability and I remember how I'd read
> > this would be a reassuring feeling -- I guess it was. I'd also read
> > that it was good to be starting on BGP around this time, but
> > everyone's different and take it from me, not every lab has BGP coming
> > straight after IGP anyway. For some reason I'd ordered two sandwiches
> > in the morning because I envisaged those cocktail sandwiches turning
> > up on a catering plate. That's not the case. Somehow the lunch orders
> > turn up and they're full-sized sandwiches. I ate the tuna (brain food)
> > sandwich and left the chicken schnitzel wrap till later. It would be a
> > ~AUD$2,200 wrap devoured later that evening.
> >
> > After lunch, and even before, time was moving fast. I kept glancing up
> > at the clock and I thought I had time under control, but I did kill
> > some time renumbering an OSPF area ID after realising I had transposed
> > two digits in the area ID (!). I literally had to change the config on
> > all affected devices in area ABDC to area ABCD and re-verify
> > adjacencies and reachability. By the time the end of the day rolled
> > around, I thought I had met all requirements other than one IOS/IP
> > Services task that I didn't commit any config for 'cause I couldn't
> > figure it out -- one of those ones you sacrifice because you know
> > getting it wrong could break other things. One problem at this point
> > -- I had _almost_ full reachability to backbone networks, but not
> > quite. There was a subset of the backbone-learned routes that I could
> > not reach. I decided to leave it be, as there was no explicit
> > requirement to be able to ping a host address in each backbone prefix,
> > but this would prove a mistake in strategy/interpretation.
> >
> > I walked out of the building thinking it could go either way. I knew
> > I'd given it a good nudge. I also knew the result would come
> > reasonably quickly, because for R&S at least, the lab is graded by (if
> > I recall correctly) the Belgium/Brussels office. I walked back up the
> > road to the Urban, got changed, checked my e-mail once or twice, then
> > set off to find some beers in Crows Nest (about 2km down the road).
> > I'd pre-configured Gmail to apply a 'star' to anything from
> > "ccie_at_cisco.com" so it would stand out when it arrived. Back to the
> > hotel.. Like a lot of people, when I opened that e-mail (at about
> > 7:40pm, about 2.5 hours after leaving the lab), my eyes were drawn to
> > the "PASS" text in the e-mail itself. Do not make the same mistake --
> > your result is NOT included in the e-mail itself; you must log in to
> > the CCIE site to see the result. Anyway, my heart sank when I saw
> > "FAIL" on the web site, and I reviewed the score report. It had
> > highlighted some areas that I suppose I knew deep down were weaker --
> > multicast, IOS/IP services, and BGP. I knew, with more time, I would
> > have ironed out the kinks in my topology. I guess everyone says that
> > :-) I'd rate the difficult level about 7-8 out of 10, and the biggest
> > surprise (to me) was how heavily configured the lab equipment was at
> > the start of the day. Don't ask me any more about this, just know it
> > was a surprise, and something I'd never read about prior.
> >
> > I was disappointed, sure, but I had low expectations for attempt #1. A
> > day or two later I was back home, and I had booked my 2nd attempt for
> > May 28th. No mucking around. I decided I'd work on my weak areas
> > (noted above) and see what happened. I knew I didn't need to radically
> > change my prep, as I'd come very close to passing 1st attempt. Time
> > management was a bit of a concern, but I thought I was already
> > reasonably snappy, so I didn't focus on this aspect of the failure. I
> > read 'Internet Routing Architectures' for the first time, devoured as
> > much IOS/IP services (mainly NAT) content I could find, and worked on
> > AutoRP and BSR configurations -- my foundation knowledge of multicast
> > was/is sound.
> >
> > The month (or so) between 1st and 2nd attempts was really hard.
> > Despite having the 2nd attempt booked and paid for (and BTW this is
> > all coming out of my own pocket), I was really struggling to get
> > motivated. It didn't help that my day job was generating a significant
> > load for 2 or 3 weeks leading up to the lab date. I probably only
> > managed about 40 hours' study for the whole month. I don't know if
> > this helped clear my mind or what, but obviously the result was better
> > for me this time.
> >
> > Attempt #2 was a completely different day. Again there were three of
> > us -- 1xSP, 1xVoice, 1xR&S (me). I felt that the lab content was
> > slightly easier -- the conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe that
> > Cisco does this on purpose but who knows -- but maybe it seemed that
> > way because I was so much more composed. I didn't have a coffee that
> > morning, but the hands were still cold and the mouth was still dry and
> > the need to take a leak every 30 minutes was still there; just not as
> > strongly. The OEQs, once again, were not particularly challenging. One
> > of the four questions asked what a particular interface command did,
> > and to be honest I'd never used that particular parameter on that
> > command. I made an educated guess and later verified my answer to be
> > technically correct but possibly not precise enough. I'll never know
> > if I got 3/4 or 4/4 correct, but I had no doubt about the other three.
> >
> > I had, I'd say, about 2 to 2.5 hours left over for verification. I
> > didn't _really_ need it, 'cause everything seemed to work well first
> > time. I'd rate the difficulty level about 6 to 7 out of 10. The level
> > of pre-configuration was minimal compared to attempt #1, but I was
> > ready for that anyway. At about 3pm or so I was convinced I had this
> > one in the bag, I even caught myself smiling thinking how good it was
> > going to be to pass this milestone. I re-read through the workbook and
> > feverishly re-executed my TCL scripts. Smooth sailing!
> >
> > BUT -- and I'm not exaggerating -- 10 minutes before time was up, my
> > backbone connectivity disappeared completely. Routing
> > peering/adjacencies and the associated routes disappeared, and I
> > couldn't ping the backbone routers. I had 'incomplete' ARP cache
> > entries. Gone! I panicked, thinking that despite reloading a couple of
> > times throughout the day, I had a L2/bridging time bomb in my config.
> > I could still see the backbone devices as CDP neighbours, but I
> > started to un-do some of the configs most likely to cause the problem.
> > Thankfully I remained composed enough to remember hearing about how
> > other people had made drastic changes towards the end, so I
> > re-committed the 'working' configs. Still, the backbone was gone. The
> > proctor had called "write configs!" a couple of times already, so it
> > was getting pretty obvious that I was doing more than writing configs.
> > Time was up. In a flap, I issued one final reload of all of my
> > devices, in the desperate hope that if it was a time bomb in my
> > config, it'd lay dormant long enough to make it through the grading
> > process -- after all, it had all been working for several hours by
> > now.
> >
> > I mentioned the problem to the proctor and he had a quick look over my
> > shoulder. Once we'd handed back our workbooks and left the lab room, I
> > mentioned again how concerned I was about what I'd seen in the last
> > 10-15 minutes. The proctor casually mentioned how sometimes -- once
> > every 2-3 months or so -- candidates in other locations can screw
> > things up badly that it affects the shared lab infrastructure,
> > including the backbone gear. He mentioned how *he* would've verified
> > it if he were in my shoes, but of course it was too late for that now.
> > He said he would look into it. I asked if it would be possible for him
> > to immediately confirm/deny whether the backbone was affected by
> > another candidate, so I could leave the building having some idea of
> > my chances. He declined. I literally went from ultra-confident to
> > seriously unsure in the space of 15 minutes.
> >
> > I left the building and went in search of amber-coloured solace. The
> > more I thought about what happened, the more I thought it must be as
> > the proctor described -- a meltdown caused by another candidate.
> > Applying logic to the situation and going through my configs in my
> > mind, a time bomb just didn't make sense. Network devices don't behave
> > in unpredictable ways like that, and the only 'fancy' bridging config
> > I had applied was to a completely separate part of my topology. Still,
> > I couldn't hold back the thought of a 3rd attempt from entering my
> > mind.
> >
> > Fast forward a few hours -- a significantly longer wait than attempt
> > #1 -- the 'starred' ccie_at_cisco.com e-mail arrived. By this stage, my
> > girlfriend had arrived at the hotel (she'd driven up to meet me). I
> > said "it's arrived", and anxiously clicked the link to check my
> > result. I logged in and my eyes scanned to the table that had
> > previously contained a blank field. My girlfriend was already
> > screaming "PASS! PASS!" but she was reading the result for the written
> > exam. Once I saw "PASS" in the required location, I stood up, hugged
> > and kissed her, and then jumped around the room like a juvenile
> > delinquent yelling "two four four six four! two four four six four!".
> > Woohoo! It was indeed a pass :-) The overwhelming feeling was not one
> > of accomplishment, but of relief. The prospect of a 3rd attempt was
> > gone. By the way, I did work on a hangover that night, and I did a
> > great job :-)
> >
> > Materials used:
> > - Real life experience in multiple technical disciplines (you can't
> > take a boot camp for this).
> > - Narbik's "Soup To Nuts" workbook
> > - Narbik's "Advanced CCIE" R&S workbooks (from the boot camp)
> > - Cisco ASET labs -- talk to your local SE
> > - Routing TCP/IP volumes 1 and 2 (Doyle) -- multiple times; seriously,
> > there is implementation-specific detail in here you won't find
> > anywhere else
> > - Cisco QOS Exam Certification Guide (Odom) -- the QoS bible
> > - Internet Routing Architectures (Halabi)
> > - CCIE R&S Exam Certification Guide (Odom)
> > - Cisco BCMSN Exam Certification Guide (Hucaby) -- for switching
> > - DocCD / Cisco.com to fill in the gaps/to beef up on certain
> technologies
> > - TCP/IP Illustrated -- dated, but great for conceptual understanding
> > of what's happening at layer 4 and above
> > - Partner E-Learning Connection (PEC) -- this is a gold mine! If you
> > work for a partner, don't overlook this resource
> > - GroupStudy subscription w/Gmail -- the ultimate searchable CCIE R&S
> > lab prep archive!
> > - 1 x freeze-fried beard of Zeus, available in Cisco MarketPlace.
> >
> > My advice:
> > - There are no shortcuts
> > - Don't rush into the lab booking. With the 90 day system now, you can
> > book it when you're ready.
> > - Make use of the partner resources if you're eligible
> > - Don't sweat the OEQs (I know it's hard not to and you won't believe
> > me till you've seen them with your own eyes)
> > - Done properly, pass or fail the CCIE journey will make you a better
> > operator. It will hone your precision and enhance your ability to
> > think clearly under pressure.
> > - Search the GroupStudy archives, trim your replies, avoid
> > top-posting, don't inhale, book a hotel near a pub, don't stay in
> > Sydney any longer than you need to, because it smells funny.
> >
> > Shout-outs:
> > - I'd like to thank my girlfriend, who was amazingly supportive
> > throughout the whole process, and my imaginary friend, Ferdinand. Just
> > kidding, it was mainly Ferdinand. Just kidding.
> > - I'd also like to thank all the regular and transient contributors to
> > GroupStudy, and Charles Darwin.
> >
> > cheers,
> > Dale
> >
> > *click*
> >
> >
> > Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
> >
> > _______________________________________________________________________
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>
>
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>

-- 
Narbik Kocharians
CCSI#30832, CCIE# 12410 (R&S, SP, Security)
www.MicronicsTraining.com
Sr. Technical Instructor
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net