Re: please share your lab strategy

The approach that has been successful for me and some of the other guys is
the following:

1) Read your lab front to back before you do anything.
2) While you are reading, make a checklist of tasks noting the point value
for each task. Write notes in shorthand next to each task that gives you
the basic idea of what you need to configure. Remember, you are only fresh
ONCE in the morning when your mind is clear. By taking simple notes on the
configuration you need to do, you are effectively making your own "cheat
sheet" you can utilize later in the day. You also can quickly come up with
a value of points you think you have at any point during the day.

3) If you run into something during your first read you don't know, simply
mark it with a "?" and move on
4) Draw your diagram -- Everybody has their method and I have mine. I
typically draw a single diagram that has all my interfaces, ip addresses,
subnets, and IGPs all in one place. If I feel I am doing something insane
at L2 like tunneling or Q-Q, I will make a second L2 diagram, otherwise no
L2 diagram. If the BGP diagram I get is crappy or not detailed enough, I
may do another one of those as well but this is not the norm.

5) Do a "sh run" on every device. Scan quickly and look for "suspicious"
things... AKA "troubleshooting." If it doesn't look right, fix it. Some
people do this all at the end of their lab and I don't understand that. Fix
ANYTHING that is broken right at the beginning so you are not dealing with
even more issues well into your lab that are not your own fault. Get
everything running as it should be before you even do anything on your own.
Make sure you can "ping" all locally attached ip addresses. This may save
you from finding some L2 or minor L3 error down the line.

6) You should now be 30-45 minutes into your lab. Bust out notepad, bust
out calc and have them ready. Start at the beginning...of course you have
noted problem areas and other places in your lab where maybe you can kill 2
birds with one stone early, so you can go ahead and take care of those right
off the shot. Take the lab apart one piece at a time building from the
ground up. Go in layers...get L2 going before you tackle L3. Get L3 going
before you go to L4 (BGP).... L4 before security, etc... You can't build a
money house on a crappy foundation. Get the L2/L3 foundations done early
and right.

7) IF you find yourself on a task that you just can't get, you HAVE to learn
to pull away after 15 minutes. 15 minutes is the rule...no longer. If you
are in a situation where a task you can't get is going to totally break
reachability for your lab, configure it enough to get things working so you
can get end to end reachability, and move on. For instance, maybe you have
your PPPoFR working but couldn't figure out the authentication. Or maybe
you couldn't get the PPPoFR at ALL ... well , better to just configure basic
frame-relay and lose the points for PPPoFR then to totally fail the lab
because you didn't have reachability at all over your frame cloud

8) I would suggest writing your config after every task as well...sometimes
I do it more out of nerves/paranoia : )

I HTH!

On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 12:06 PM, Andy Mueller <andymueller713_at_gmail.com>wrote:

> Sorry I hit enter, new laptop!
>
> I am approaching the lab in the same way. Instead of freaking out about the
> test, I am looking at it as a client I need to go service. They have a
> network that need to be up in 8 hours time. I am covering as much material
> as possible and with the help of the doc cd need to satisfy this client.
> This makes me put on my "work" brain to take the test, rather than my oh
> s$%! brain telling me I have a test to take.
>
> On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 11:02 AM, Andy Mueller <andymueller713_at_gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > I am a network engineer for a consulting company. I never know what I
> will
> > run into at a client site. I rely on the cisco doc's a lot on a daily
> basis.
>
>
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-- 
Regards,
Joe Astorino - CCIE #24347 R&S
Technical Instructor - IPexpert, Inc.
Cell: +1.586.212.6107
Fax: +1.810.454.0130
Mailto:  jastorino_at_ipexpert.com
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net