CCIE Progress

I’m about 75% complete with the IPExpert workbook for R&S and I figured I would post my impressions thus far. Keep in mind, I have little to compare to, and these are purely based on my own personal experience.

To start out, I do not have access to equipment with the static configuration necessary to complete all the labs in this book. For this reason, I have gone with Proctor Labs. If you buy the IPExpert workbook and you’re looking to rent rack space, Proctor labs is the logical solution. To do the labs you need to make sure your physical topology matches the workbook. See this link for the topology I’m talking about:: Topology

You can certainly buy your own equipment, but I don’t have that luxury. I wasn’t interested in Dynamips either because I didn’t feel like improvising diagrams based on interface number differences (not to mention the lack of switching features).

Proctor Labs actually works pretty well and has always been stable when I used it. I like that it lets you use your own terminal client software like Secure CRT (which is what the lab uses I think). Once I start, it usually takes me about 5-10 minutes to get all my connections up and named the way I like them. I open a new Secure CRT session for every router/switch. I also name the title bar so I can easily switch back and forth between windows. There is the occasional hung terminal line which is easily fixed using the website controls.

I was surprised to find that I don’t have to fight to schedule rack time either. I have actually scheduled for my 8 hour slot just hours before it started which is nice if your daily schedule is as random as mine. One thing to point out is that you buy 8-hour slots at a time, so make sure you can devote your time accordingly to get the most ROI. At first, I didn’t like the 8 hour slots, but you get used to it pretty quick, which is good since the real thing is 8 hours.

If you didn’t know already, the first half of the workbook is technology focused labs (i.e. RIP, OSPF, etc..). These labs vary in length and most shouldn’t take any longer than 4 hours to finish. Keep this in mind when you start because you will find yourself doing 2 or 3 labs sometimes in one 8-hour chunk. I will say for the first half of the book, it would be nice to have the option to buy 4-hour time slots vs. 8. If you buy the Proctor guide, it will provide you with a walk through of the final configurations for the first 20 labs in the book. The explanations are very much needed. Honestly, if you buy the workbook, just buy the Proctor guide too. I don’t see any reason not to (unless you’re intimidated by large books

The second half is what I couldn’t wait for myself. The last 20 labs are all 8 hour multi-protocol labs with no hand holding. Prepare to get owned on the first few (I know I did). Don’t expect as much out of the Proctor guide on these, as the answers are really in the “final” configs.

Impressions::
I really like the workbook so far, and have high hopes it will get me set in the right direction to pass the CCIE exam. There are some things that I think everyone needs to keep in mind. For one, there is no actual proctor to go to when you have questions (obviously). Don’t expect to read the requirements and know exactly what they’re asking for every time. It’s times like this where I wish I could ask the proctor, but I can’t. Is this a bad thing though? Maybe at first, but I’ve come to realize that it’s in my best interests from a preparation perspective. Expect to find a lot of vague requirements and open ended possible solutions. Most of the time, you will have an idea what they’re looking for but not sure which solution is considered “correct”.

I think that thought process is good because it really helps you experience what it’s like to not have a proctor and still be able to come up with some possible answers (even if there are several). This helps you better formulate questions in your mind that you could ask the real proctor. The idea is that it forces you to think of 20 different ways to do one requirement, which leads me to my next point. Do not, I repeat, do not expect to have your final configs match up exactly with what the final configs provided show. I was very frustrated at first because my configs hardly ever matched up. I soon realized my answers were not wrong either. It just becomes a matter of which is ok with the proctor (which is why I expect to be asking for clarification a lot). I heard Proctor Labs is coming out with an automated grading system which amazes me considering all the possibilities in answers.

This is probably why you don’t really get a walk-through on the last 20 labs. If you get stuck, I think it’s ok to get a hint of the answer, but make sure you research the DOC CD so you understand why it was used… I make a log of the areas that keep owning me so I know to go back and study them later.

The Workbook has been a pretty good wakeup call for me. If the real lab is anywhere as hard as what I’ve seen so far, I can see why so many people fail the test. Bottom line, the workbook has slapped me in the face on more than one occasion. I’ve learned a lot more than I thought I would so far, so I know it’s helping, although the true test is yet to come. My only gripes with it are minor ones. One being there are some obvious mistakes in some of the labs (mostly wording issues). The other is the vagueness I talked about but most of it is probably good for the soul. I will admit in some cases I had no freaking clue what was being asked of me and a proctor visit was definitely required. Again, this is ok because I don’t want to get used to living on easy street. This stuff is definitely for the serious person with time to devote. I’ve been putting around 3 days a week in for lab studies. On days I don’t do labs, I will catch up on some Cisco Press reading (or some BF2 action!). It’s important to keep it up every week so you stay in tune. I don’t see a need to work 5 + days a week on it until you get within 2 weeks of your lab date.

Work now… Play later.

Ted

**UPDATE**
I did want to point out one thing that’s probably really important. IPExpert does have a mailer you can subscribe to (and a forum) where you can communicate things regarding the workbook labs. I say this because I don’t want to come across like there isn’t any outside help since there isn’t a real proctor (think of it as a virtual proctor). Communication is actually pretty active, so you may find yourself setting up a rule for those emails. While I haven’t used it very much, I have noticed the instructors are very good about getting back to everyone regarding lab questions.

There are definitely a lot of questions that come up regarding the requirements listed in the scenarios. I personally prefer the open ended solutions because it forces you to know multiple ways to do certain things (and I think it’s done on purpose). For example, you may see an area that isn’t connected to the backbone in OSPF, so you know you either have to use a tunnel or virtual link. If the question didn’t specify, you may find yourself confused as to what is the correct answer. Now it could say, “no virtual links can be used”, but I would rather know there are two ways to do it. So keep that in mind when comparing final configs because they don’t always match. The idea is to meet the requirements!

Last night I was working on a requirement to secure DHCP against false advertisements from hackers. I actually went with the approach of configuring DHCP snooping on the switch attached to the router (DHCP server) and configuring IP source guard too. Did this match the final config? Well the final config listed something much more simple like “update arp” in the DHCP pool. For something like this, you would want to ask the proctor before configuring so you’re clear with what they are looking for. It’s good because I learned about that other command too, which I wasn’t that familiar with while getting some practice with DHCP snooping (even if I may have wasted 15 minutes, not to mention Source Guard breaking other things that I had to fix…). So in this case, you could shoot out an email to the group for some feedback regarding other ways to accomplish the task.

I wanted to add this because I know having support for such an investment is important.

This entry was posted on May 1, 2008 at 12:57 am and is filed under Certification, Cisco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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