INE Workbook Vol 2 Lab 14 and final notes....

When you configure a neighbor under the EIGRP process, EIGRP will stop processing/sending multicast packets. This is useful if you only need to exchange eigrp with certain neighbors on a shared segment. This differs greatly from RIP. With RIP, a neighbor command will process updates with that neighbor via unicast but will still process multicast packets on the interface. In RIP, you also need to add passive interface.

The 'ip bandwidth-percent eigrp 10 x' command should  be placed on the physical interface, and not on the logic interface. The same goes for the bandwidth command. So far, I can't find the documentation from Cisco on this.

Enable DVMRP on in interface with 'ip dvmrp unicast-routing'. This will ensure the router can use DVMRP derived information for RPF checks.

It may be very important to add 'show run' to a parser view if that configured users should be allowed to see their pertinent configurations. The show run will only show relevant commands trusted to their view.

IP Traffic-export 'bidirectional' must be enabled if you want input/output export. Otherwise you will only get input statistics.

NAT on a stick is something I've seen a few times, and still just don't get. Chances are, you won't see it on the lab, but you could. In short, it is setup like a standard NAT , but uses a loopback interface as the inside interface. Then you need a policy-map on the 'outside' interface to match the translated traffic and 'set' the loopback interface.


interface Loopback0
 ip address 150.1.2.2 255.255.255.0
 ip nat inside
 ip virtual-reassembly
 !
interface FastEthernet0/0
 ip address 172.16.0.2 255.255.255.0 secondary
 ip address 167.1.27.2 255.255.255.0
 ip nat outside
 ip virtual-reassembly
 ip policy route-map Policy
 !
ip nat pool INSIDE 167.1.27.100 167.1.27.199 netmask 255.255.255.0
ip nat inside source list Inside pool Inside
!
ip access-list standard Inside
 permit 172.16.0.0 0.0.0.255
!


route-map Policy permit 10
 match ip address Inside
 set interface Loopback0


Maybe that will help someone out there.


Overall, this lab was not hard. I completed it in about 5.5 hours, with lots of breaks in between, and had time to verify my solutions. This lab was graded a level 9. Again, not difficult, just very in-depth. Many small tasks for 2 - 3 points. The only reason this should be perceived as hard is because it covers a very wide range of topics, and it really get's out there on the outer fringes of the blueprint (dvmrp? NAT on a stick?).


And that is it. This was my last full lab before my exam on Monday. I plan to continue reading Ruhan's short notes through the weekend, and re-visiting some Vol 1 topics that I haven't seen in a while. I also plan to re-read my own blog as I took some pretty nice notes. Other than that, I will take it easy for the weekend. No mad dash, no marathon until the finish. If I don't know it by now, I'm not going to know it much better  by Monday morning. 


With that being said, I am feeling really good. I have learned so much more this time around than my previous attempts. Doing these full labs is very beneficial. They teach you and show you how technologies and protocols inter-operate and they reinforce everything you learned in Volume 1. As much as I like Narbik's workbooks and his teaching style, he still has a huge whole in his materials and that is full scale mock labs. I don't think he believes in them but I disagree. If you are only working on one topic at a time, how will you know how zone based firewall will affect you routing protocols or your multicast 12 steps later in the exam? But I digress...


 I have rough days where I feel like I am not ready, but then I think back to how very close I came my first attempt, and compare that with how much better of an engineer I am now. I totally and 100% believe I am ready. I try not to get too excited at the prospect of finally conquering this thing. I want to stay grounded and humble so that I can attack this with a clear head.


So in short - here is what I have done the last 8 months.

1. INE's entire workbook Volume 1 on Dynamips. I completed the switching and some QoS tasks on 3560 switches located at my company's lab.
2. INE Workbook Volume 2 for Dynamips. I completed labs rated 7 and higher which included labs 1,3,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 and 14 for a total of 10 labs.
3. INE Workbook Volume 4 on INE Rack Rentals. I completed labs 1-7. 
4. Narbik Advanced Technologies Workbook. Specifically - MPLS. I had already been through his stuff twice. Chose INE for a different perspective and fresh material.
5. Re-attended Narbik's bootcamp in November of 2010. I picked up some good bits of information, but really - how many times can you re-attend? That was my 3rd.
6. INE/IPExpert blog posts - always useful and insightful. Even if you know the technology being discussed, it never hurts to reinforce your knowledge.
7. IPExpert vSeminars. Sometimes useful. I hate that they take the time to setup the lab during the live session. If you can't assign IP addresses, setup trunk ports and assign VLANs - you have no business wasting internet bandwidth watching the vSeminar. I recently attended one on multicast and after watching for 1.5 hours, they didn't make it past setting up PIM neighbor relationships. I still appreciate that they offer this for free.
8. Ruhan's CCIE Short Notes. Such a great book and something I will keep with me throughout my professional career. Give him some love - http://blog.ru.co.za/ccie-rs-short-notes-v4/
9. And last but not least - the Cisco DocCD. This should a very important aspect of your studies. Not only have I read the core topics from cover-to-cover, but I still like to bounce around during my labs. This way I can read what it is I am doing, and I can remember where certain items are located in the event I need to reference them in the doc cd. Both the configuration guides and the command reference are your friends.

Wish me luck everyone. I hope to have good news Monday evening.