On to Lab 2

I started on Lab 2 today. Overall most of the topics were the same with obvious variations. They did throw a few things at me, like creating a backup interface. Again, I don't remember this from my CCIE/CCNP studies. In any event, it was pretty easy to configure. Under the main interface just issue the following:

backup 60 300 (where 60 is the timeout value and 300 is the stable value)
backup interface Serialx/x (this is the interface that will come up/up when primary fails).

Not sure if this is still present on the CCIE track, but it's useful information.

Lab 2 also covered Etherchannels, which I've configured before. An important rule of thumb is that the NM-16 Ethernet Module in the 3600 series only supports etherchannel (channel-group 1 mode on). So, be familiar with how to configure Lacp and Pagp. I was again frustrated by the order of the tasks. Lab 2 again present you with VLAN assignments using VTP, before the trunks were established. I suppose this may be how the actual lab is presented.

Lab 2 also added dot1x authentication, which is something I had no trouble with on the written exam, but presented a problem in a lab scenario. You must remember that once you enable dot1x, it is enabled across the board, so you must keep yourself from being locked-out. 'aaa authentication login default none' solves this issue. Remeber to enable dot1x before assigning any ports, ie; dot1x system-auth-control.

I again had issues with the frame relay traffic shaping. QoS in a whole is a weak area to me. I've learned that if you know the formula, this can be achieved pretty easy. BC = CIR * TC. Using this, you can pretty much figure out what to set bc and tc to. Still trying to figure out BE, so I'll be sure to post that later.

In the IGP section, I encountered RIP using an offset list. This was totally foreign to me. The lab requested that the RIP process not access routes with an even second octet. Figuring this out using an access-list was easy. 255.254.255.255 0.0.0.0 will give you all routes with an even second octet. After this you set the hop count to 16 which poisons the route.

I'm still really weak when it comes to IGP redistribution. Especially when it comes to metrics and distance. After going through the labs, I intend to re-read the IGP redistribution chapter from the CCIE Exam Cert guide, in addition to other chapters such as BGP.

I feel more confident about my time management. I'm now on track to complete one lab in two days time. Now I realize the actual lab is only 8 hours, but I'm reviewing my solutions after each task, so this is essentially doubling my time. The only question I have now is - when to schedule the lab? I know there is a waiting list, so I went online and checked. Looks like there are dates available in July, which would be the absolute earliest I would even think about taking the lab. I held off on scheduling the lab. I want to complete all 20 practice labs to gain some confidence, and then schedule the lab. That should give me 3-6 months to complete my studying, take some mock exams, etc.

I'm taking a break. Hoping to tackle BGP later for lab2.