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.