Better luck next time...

Well, just got my score report for 4.0 and as expected, I did not pass. In checking my score report, I scored about as well as I thought I did. The layer 3 section showed a lower score and I thought I got most of these points. In other sections, I got more points than I thought I got. Well, here is my run down.

Core Knowledge - this was a piece of cake this time. I still think it's a crapshoot. I just happened to get four pretty easy questions this time. The four questions were broke down like they were before - 3 pretty simple questions, and 1 out there question. I was well prepared for this section.

Troubleshooting - this should have been easy. My time management killed me. First task totally threw me for a loop and I spent about 30 minutes troubleshooting to no avail. I tried to stick to the 10 minute limit per task, but I finally decided to move on. Uh-oh. I can't do task two until task one was fixed. This bucks the assumption that each task is independent. They can, and will, produce an IGP issue that will be necessary to fix a later task. I never did fix that first task and spent way too much time on it. The remaining tasks were really easy but I did not have time to complete them all. This tells me that I need to spend more time troubleshooting and really work on my time management in that section. As others have mentioned, you can expect to see 10 - 12 tasks in this section.

Configuration - not totally different than version three, but you need to know the blueprint inside and out. Surprisingly, there is still troubleshooting in the configuration section. My lab covered some interesting topics. My multicasting section was totally based on IPv6. I took a shot and got 50% of the points. Not too bad, but it should have been a pretty easy 100% had I spent any time labbing multicast for IPv6. They also touched on other things that I haven't labbed like EEM, Netflow, and surprisingly, autoqos? If I had more time to prepare, I could have done much better on this section.

Miscellaneous - the format is different. There is no SecureCRT, and no lab book. After the OEQ, you log out and log back in. From here, you log in to a webpage and start your troubleshooting section (which has a countdown timer). Once that completes, you click 'Start Lab' to begin the configuration section. You have one 24" monitor. For the OEQ, and even the troubleshooting this was not a big deal and I did not have any problems. For the configuration portion, you could definitely benefit from a second monitor. When you are trying to flip back and forth between 9 terminal sessions, several diagrams, and lab instructions - things can get lost pretty quick. I doubt they will add a second monitor any time soon, but just be prepared. One cool thing is the ability to click on the devices on the main lab diagram and have that session opened up for you.

Proctor - Howard Pearse was not the proctor this week. There was another gentleman who I don't believe ever announced his name? Howard was generally friendly, and helpful, while still operating within the confines of a CCIE proctor. This gentleman was generally distant and unfriendly. At one point, my lab instructions disappeared. I couldn't bring up the tasks, the diagrams and subsequently any additional console sessions to my devices. This was not an issue with the lab hardware, but an issue with the lab delivery. At first he said "I don't know what to tell you". Excuse me, but what the f*$k do you mean you don't know what to tell me? This is the equivalent of someone stealing my damn lab book in version 3.0. Several people also had this problem. It took three of us to say something before it was fixed. Once he looked into it, it was promptly fixed. I am not blaming my failing in anyway on the proctor but he always seemed bothered. Had this been fixed when the first person said something, things would have been much smoother.

In closing, I did about as well as I thought I would do. Given more time, I feel confident I would have passed. I am still going to guarantee that I get my CCIE in 2010. This damn journey will be the death of me if I don't. I am going to take some time off for the holidays and get back at this in January. I plan to take a few weeks to get my VCP, and then mix-in some June-OS studying with my CCIE. As far as study materials, I need a troubleshooting workbook. I also need a more complete workbook. I love Narbik's materials but he needs to add a lot of topics to his latest workbook. Items such as OER, EEM, and IPv6 multicast are some pretty glaring holes missing for the 2.0 workbook. I also need to spend some time on mock labs before my next attempt. INE's has finally started to update the dynamips workbook so I am covered there.

Well, it's been an exhausting 24 hours. Thanks to everyone for your support.

_matt

The time is near...

Well, here is sit the day before my lab exam. In a little more than 24 hours, I will have completed my second lab attempt, my first crack at the 4.0 blueprint. I certainly hope to be victorious! I took a little different approach this time around. For my last attempt, I got into RTP early, and just kind of vegged out all day watching TV. This time around, I'm spending some time on INE's OEQ engine, as well as reading some DocCD. The old saying is if you are not ready the day before, than you are not ready. Well, I don't think this is really the case. For me, I am finding it beneficial to read up on the items I am weak on, or things I have no experience with. Items such as IPv6 unicast, fallback bridging and SRR queuing.

Now, I am not over studying, just some light reading to make me feel more comfortable. I also feel this is necessary because I didn't quite have as much time as I would have liked to prepare for this attempt. None the less, I still feel prepared and ready. My nerves are still going this time, just like they were last time. I guess the only difference is, I know that if I do not pass, that it is not the end of the world. I will just pick my self back up, dust my self off, and get right back at it.

I spend the better part of the last three days reading and labbing OER/PfR. Now, I am not going to say I am an expert, but like anything, once you understand the concept and familiar yourself with the commands, it all kind of comes together. I feel confident in that if I see OER on my exam, I wont be surprised or scared. I also did some reading on IPv6 multicast today. If you know IPv4 multicast, IPv6 multicast will be cake. There are some differences in the technologies and how they work, but for the most part, it's not all that difficult.

I believe I've done enough studying for the day. I may take a few more OEQ quizzes, but that would be it. I am now going to veg out, watch some TV, get some rest, and then wake up tomorrow and give this exam hell. Wish me luck everyone - I'll post my results regardless tomorrow night.

_matt

Troubleshooting

Well, yesterday I finally finished Narbik's 2.0 workbook. Overall, I give the workbook high marks. What it does cover, it covers inside and out. There are a few items that I wish were covered and I have mentioned those before. I also wish it included the mock lab and the troubleshooting lab. Narbik said these items would be ready, but I have yet to receive them or an announcement about their availability. I completed MPLS yesterday. MPLS was both fun and exciting. I truly do appreciate learning new things, especially when I can lab it up and see how it works step-by-step. I feel fairly confident that I can excel at any MPLS tasks in the lab.

So today I am starting on Narbik's free troubleshooting lab. This will be the one and only troubleshooting lab I get my hands on before my lab on Tuesday. Considering I only have two abbreviated days of study left, I don't see how I would be able to touch much else anyway. I am truly excited about the troubleshooting lab. I work for Alltel in the WAN department for almost two years as a Telecom Network Analyst and my job depended on my troubleshooting skills. I am excited to see what these labs can throw at me.

I am feeling pretty good about Tuesday's lab. In case you had not heard, the very first person passed the CCIE R&S 4.0 lab this week. I knew it would only be a matter of time, but I am glad that someone finally passed. Maybe all these other CCIE candidates will quit bitching about how difficult this is and just hit the ground running. Then again, what do I care if people throw in the towel? It's not happening here. I have already guaranteed that I WILL have my CCIE in the 2010 no matter what.

Well, I guess less blogging more studying. More updates to come later...

MPLS Land

Well, here I sit with 5 days left of study time left, including today. I have made it through Narbik's 2.0 workbooks except for MPLS. I plan to spend the next 2.5 days working through the MPLS labs as well as reading about MPLS in the DocCD. I have no on-hands experience with MPLS. Of course, I know the theory of MPLS and how MPLS works from my CCNP studying several years ago, but I have yet to touch a PE/CE router. Narbik covered this pretty well in the latest bootcamp, but until I do the labs, most of that stuff won't really set it.

I completed multicast yesterday and I would like to say that I finally get it. Not only did I do the multicasting labs, but I also read the entire multicast section on the DocCD. After I complete MPLS (hopefully able to do the labs twice) I need to tackle Narbik's free troubleshooting lab - just to get an idea of what I will see on the exam.

I am worried about a few things that I see on the blueprint and has not been covered by Narbik's labs. These include OER, Performance Routing, advanced 3560 QoS, IPv6 multicast as well as a few other small topics. I know that the new lab focuses on everything on the blueprint and not just the core technologies. Hopefully I still have some time to touch these remaining items in the DocCD.

I can't help but feeling like I have been rushed and if you read my previous blog posts, you know that I am kind of being rushed. Don't get me wrong, I feel much better prepared for this attempt than I did my last, but I can't help but shake the feeling that I need more time. I am still going to walk into RTP on December 22 and give that lab hell. For a little extra luck, hopefully the grading proctor will be in the holiday mood!

If I don't pass on this attempt (and I am still expecting to pass!) I want to hit the ground running again and just got for it. I am going to guarantee that I have my CCIE by the end of 2010. I think I got burned out on my first attempt, and actually spent too much time studying and not really focusing where I needed to. If I could go back, I would have attempted version 3 much sooner, and gotten myself a second attempt in version 3. I am not saying this because I really don't want to do version 4. I think version 4 is great and will make better CCIE's but it is different and requires a different mode of studying.

Time is of the essence..

Well, expected to get several hours of lab time done today. Unfortunately that didn't happen due to a small family emergency. So my wife is out and about, and I am at home watching my two year old son Xander. No big deal. I'm logging some time on the INE OEQ engine as well as reading some DocCD. I can't reasonably lab with a two year old loose but I can sit on the laptop and read to my hearts content - even if I have to take frequent breaks to find out the latest thing my son has gotten into.

I've also decided to spend some time troubleshooting my bandwidth issue. After running some iperf test, I found out the issue is my Linksys DD-WRT router. Furthermore, I discovered the issue is with QoS on the DD-WRT. The thing is, it seemed to work great for prioritizing all of my voice traffic. Unfortunately, all my other traffic suffered - to the rate of T-1 speeds. After some reading, there are some incompatibility issues between QoS and PPTP. Bummer. There is also issues and bug with the code I am running. The QoS was enabled for WAN only, but alas, it was working on all destinations which is why my inter-vlan traffic suffered. Sigh.

When all else fails - go with what you know right? So, I am thinking of getting a cisco 2621xm (unless someone has a better recommendation). Hopefully with that, I won't have any issues. I also want to get a 3550 as my switch. Currently, I am using the DD-WRT router trunked to an old 3500xl. It works, but not the way I want it to. Hopefully I can get these after the new year and put everything in my new server rack that is coming in. Now I am off to do some wiresharking to see if my current voice traffic is marked in any way.

Status Update

Well, since I have some time I figured I would post my current status. I've got some free time because neither my 3640 nor my 3745 images supported EIGRPv6. So now I am downloading the latest 12.4 T train to see if this remedies the situation. I previously tried the 3745, but could not get them to behave properly. I would calculate idlepc values to my hearts content, but no matter what value, the actual console of each machine was TERRIBLY slow. Well, after some research, I've matched an IOS version to a suggested idlepc value on the hacki forum. Let's see how this works. Right now it's taking forever to copy the 95mb image over to my dynamips server. Not sure if this is the fault of my DD-WRT router, or my 3550xl switch. Intra-vlan stuff seems to copy just fine, but when copying from my native vlan (desktops) to my server vlan, things are incredibly slow. I'll have to investigate later, but I don't usually have much inter-vlan traffic.

On to CCIE stuff. I have nine days left of study time left, and unless you have been under a rock, the holidays are here. This has been the most difficult time to study, which is why I didnt even touch my CCIE during the holidays last year. On top of that, I had to take a VMware VCP4 training class this week. The class was online, but was also 9 hours a day which left no time for CCIE studies. I guess the good news is I will soon be VCP4 certified. I will also be obtaining a few Juniper certifications. Juniper is pretty much giving away their certifications. They have a 50% off voucher, they give you the study materials, and I'm told you can load up their OS in a VMware instance - you just have to scour the net for the OS. So after my lab December 22, I will be taking a short break to bang out my VCP4 and Juniper certifications.

I am resuming my CCIE studies today. I am ripping through Narbik's latest workbooks. Some of the topics are a rehash from his previous workbooks, but there is plenty of new material. I am doing almost every lab, except the really trivial ones. I should complete the workbooks this coming week, hopefully leaving me time to do some labs twice, such as multicast and MPLS. I feel the more I go through these labs, the better I become.

I also have a running list of things I need to read this week from the DocCD. These include items such as multicast, ZBF, DHCP Snooping, 3560 QoS and IPv6 tunneling. In addition, I also want to complete Narbik's free troubleshooting lab. Hopefully this gets me a good idea of what the troubleshooting may look like on the exam. I will also have a daily dose of OEQ review, thanks to INE's OEQ testing engine - which has hopefully improved since my last attempt. This may seem like a lot of things to cram in nine days, but I am going to get it done.

On to other topics in CCIE land, there is a lot of talk about the lack of passing students for V4. Does this have me concerned? Only a little. On one hand, I am totally surprised that at least one person hasn't passed since October 21st. On the other hand, I know first person that not many people are attempting the version 4. Why do I know this? Just look at the CCIE scheduler. You can pick a date for a soon as the following week, sometimes even the current week. Now I know version 3 was never like this - even before the announced version 4 change. There is also a lot of talk about the revised digital format. Again, I don't see this as a big deal - we just have to adapt.

So in short, I'm ready to go and conquer this thing. As we all know, this is a journey, and if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. You can bitch and moan all you want about the changes, format, etc. but what are you going to do about? Think Cisco is going to change the CCIE because some possible CCIE candidate doesn't like it? I don't think so. Most prepared candidates as well as current CCIEs and instructors think these change are the best, and will produce the best CCIEs in the world. Don't we all want to be the best?!?!

#####UPDATE#####

Yay! I got IOS 12.4T and 3725 to play nice together! In case anyone is curious, here is my IOS image and idlepc value. YMMV.

IOS 12.4(15)T10 (decompressed)

ram = 256

ghostios = true

mmap = true

sparemem = true

idlepc = 0x60c056e4