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