CCIE Training

INE wants to thank IEOC member Ray Aragon (NET_OG) for his awesome contributions to our Cisco forums. Thanks so much Ray and enjoy 100 complimentary GradedLabs Rack Rental Tokens.

Ray's IEOC Avatar!

I am sure many of you would love to know more about Ray – here it is:

Ray Aragon is an SE in the Networking World and after 10 Plus years working with State/Local government and Major Carriers around the world he decided to get his CCIE using INE products as his primary study aide. Here were some facts Ray shared with me:

• I think I try to be helpful to others, and identify “pitfalls” and my “ahhh-haa” moments

• I like it when I run into a stumbling block and there is already a good discussion on IEOC

• Much thanks to Routing and Switching (networking)…

◦ I lived in London for two years

◦ I lived in Stockholm for two years

◦ I met my wife in Chile

◦ I have travelled to over 25 countries from Egypt to Indonesia

◦ I have over 1 Million Airplane miles flown

• I have an immense respect for anyone that has put in the time to become a CCIE in any track; it demonstrates a commitment that only after my pursuit I can appreciate.

• My Top 10 favorite cities: Madrid/Rome/London/Santiago, Chile/Rio de Janeiro/Santa Barbara/Miami/Lima/Cancun/Mexico City D.F

As a CCIE instructor, this type of question is one that I see (in IEOC) or hear (in class) often. To help directly address this question, I have maintained a document I call the Expanded Blueprint for many years now. I was quite flattered to see the CCIE team at Cisco publish their own version and name it the Expansion Blueprint.

I made sure to correlate their’s against my own and ensure that I did not miss anything. In fact, what I learned quickly was the fact that they had some very glaring omissions of topic areas that were on the original Lab Blueprint. I would hope they have since corrected that.

But what I want to discuss in this blog post is the fact that regardless of which blueprint document you are relying upon in your studies, Cisco does make it very clear that it is their Certification-given right to test anything they deem appropriate from the 12.4T IOS code (in the case of the routers in the exam). Hmmmm, wait a minute! So they can test anything that the routers or switches can do!?!?!? This will certainly go a long way in dashing the hopes of many feint of heart candidates.

Before you get excessively upset about this fact, just be sure to use some common sense. My Expanded Blueprint is certainly going to cover the overwhelming majority of exam topics. Moreover, I will go so far as to say, since you do not require to pass this exam (either section) with a perfect score, knowledge of the Expanded Blueprint topics is indeed enough to pass. Whew!

I believe that one of the reasons Cisco likes to make this disclaimer (they can test anything), is the fact that they often like to challenge students on new features of protocols or services. This is one of the reasons that I like students to incorporate the New Features section of the DOC-CD in their studies. For more information on using the DOC-CD, you might want to check out my free vSeminar on the topic.

Another perfectly valid reason for Cisco making this statement is the case where a proctor wants to compose a juicy new task and they simply do not want to have to worry about whether or not it is on the blueprint, their expansion version or otherwise. They believe, correctly, that if the feature is contained within the context sensitive help, and/or the documentation, then it is certainly reasonable that a CCIE-level candidate should be able to achieve the points. Buy again, note we are talking about minor router and switch capabilities here and not a dramatically vast topic area.

I would recommend the use of common sense when contemplating your scope of studies. Sure the official, original, condensed Cisco Lab Blueprint might say “Other Security Features”, but do you really think they are going to test R&S candidates on the GET VPN? No. This is the fun that CCIE Security candidates get to enjoy.

If you ever have questions regarding study scope, be sure to hit our forums, but I am thinking you can answer many of those questions for yourself now as well.

By the way, I would recommend you be very careful about listening to what just anyone has to say on subjects like this. For various reasons, candidates, CCIEs, and even some non-INE instructors I have come across, love to instill fear and doubt in others regarding the CCIE and its pursuit.

Before you start either section of your lab exam (Troubleshooting or Configuration), your proctor is going to remind you to save your configurations often. You might even see this written several times in the lab instructions contained in the new GUI. Why are you being asked to do this?

Well, at the very least, you might have a device that hits a snag and just decides to reboot on you. How rude! It is never fun to lose any amount of configuration when you are pressed for time, as you will be in the certification lab exam. But in the worst case scenario, your entire rack of equipment might power cycle due to a catastrophic failure in the Cisco facility that houses your equipment (real and emulated equipment). This could amount to you failing the exam for sure if you were not consistently saving configurations as you go along.

Here was the habit I developed for saving my configurations as I went along. After making a configuration on a local device and performing whatever necessary verifications, I would then type wr or do wrdepending on the configuration mode. Then, while the device is performing its save, I would leave for my next device in the configuration. Using this method, I was completely confident that everything was always tucked away nicely in the startup configuration and did not fear the unplanned reboot.

Whatever your method of saving configurations will be – be sure you practice, practice, practice it prior to sitting your actual lab.

P.S. The only issue I ever had with my approach was that in production networks, I would often find myself compulsively saving configurations, even when I did not want to.

The following video from Cisco provides us with a tour of the new, “paperless” format of the CCIE R&S Version 4 Lab Exam.

Version 4 Lab Exam Interface

Update: Link corrected, thanks.

• A big shout out to all the wonderful students that we had in the 5 Day QoS Live Online Bootcamp. Thanks for all of the awesome questions, hilarious jokes, and powerful insight you all added to the class. While many of you might not love QoS as much as I do yet…I think everyone shared that they no longer fear this important exam category at all! Bring it on now, right guys? I want to again thank Senior Technical Instructor Marvin Greenlee and Tech Edit Team Lead Terry Vinson for their valuable contributions to the course. Congratulations to Michael Salvo who won the 100 tokens for his attendance and participation in the live event. If you were in the live event and need to access the recorded sessions today they are available if you log directly in to ieclass.internetworkexpert.com. We will arrange them in your members.ine.com accounts on Monday for easier access.
• I did a new vSeminar on study strategy – it is about developing Tier 1 knowledge. I hope no one is considering attempting to shotcut themselves in this area just because the 4 short answer questions are gone!
• So many students are focusing on this type of thought “Why are so few passing the version 4 R&S….” BE CAREFUL. Remember what happens when we dwell on failure…it can then materialize. I know of 8 of our students that attempted the lab in the last two weeks. 2 of them passed! Let’s all focus on that. And by the way, the students that failed are all hungry for their next attempts. This is because they KNOW they will pass.
• Tomorrow – there will be another 10 to 20 practice questions added to my CCIE Written product. Overall the largest bias of questions in the exam surround troubleshooting and optimization.

• The QoS 5-Day Bootcamp is going to be quite a crowd! I look forward to catching up with old friends in that class. REMINDER: The Live Event starts at 11 AM EST each day beginning Monday, June 7th, 2010. Do not stress if you have to miss chunks of the Live Event due to your other life. Remember, you receive the class in recorded, interactive, and audio formats as well. Should you have questions during the recorded content, just email me directly. All versions will be ready for you the week following the Live Event.
• A quick shout out to the crew in the 2010 Summer Chicago 6 Day R&S bootcamp. Nice to see all of the Cisco employees in class, and thanks for not starting a brawl with the HP folks across the hall!
• Keith Barker and I just uploaded a new and important lesson in the Volume 2 Interactive Video Companion product. It is an interactive lesson on Troubleshooting. Troubleshooting what you might ask? Everyone’s favorite topic – Redistribution!!!!! Enjoy.
• More full labs walkthroughs are on the way for the Video Companion…we are waiting for an incredibly exciting re-release of Volume 2 that is happening very soon. Bug fixes, better explanations and verifications, and a full blown 2-hour Troubleshooting section in each lab. Wow!
• I re-sat the CCIE Written exam last week and I am adding practice exam questions still to Practice Exam 2 in the Written bootcamp. Many of the new Cisco questions were really pretty good and most of the good ones involved none other than Troubleshooting. Sure some questions are not so great and test trivia, but they were not of such a volume that they should be failing us, in my humble opinion.
• Thanks for reading my friends, and remember, Tech Knowledge, Strategy, Psychology, and Physical Wellness are your keys to success in these challenging Lab Exams. More and more students are asking me about study strategies and I will be sure to blog more on that soon.

As you know, purchasers of the new INE 5-day QoS bootcamp receive the class in four different modalities. There is the interactive self-paced version, the live class, the recorded live class, and an audio bootcamp.

If you would like to check out a sample lesson of the audio bootcamp, tune into W-INE Internet radio, or visit the course’s Samples page. The lesson is also going to appear on our iTunes podcast channel by Saturday, May 22, 2010. Just search the iTunes store for INE.

Enjoy, and I look forward to “seeing you” in class soon.

If you have spent any time in the R&S forums in the IEOC, you have seen the username ndiayemalick. Malick has achieved Elite status in the forum and is always challenging and helping his peers with his excellent posts.

Thank you so much Malick, and we look forward to celebrating your number soon. We are placing 100 GradedLabs rack rental tokens in your account as a small gesture of our appreciation.

I am sure many are interested in Malick’s story…here it is:

My name is Malick Ndiaye as you already know. I was born in Senegal, West Africa. When I was 15, I moved with my family to the US, precisely Columbus, Ohio. Two and half years later, in 2001, I got my High School Diploma. Since I finished high school early (January 2001 instead of June 2001) and got all the credits I need to graduate, I started preparing my MCSE. At that time, it was a very hot certification to have, but I never finished it.

Soon after high school, I had a choice to make, going to college or going for IT certifications. I always liked networking and fixing computers. Even as a kid, people used to come and get me at home to fix their computers and printers.  At that time, college was a very long road (4 years) for me. With the support of my dad, who also had to approve, I decided to go back home and learn networking. Since Senegal is a French speaking country, it was hard for me to find the right course taught by the right people. Since I left the country 3 years ago, I almost forgot all my French believe it or not because I did not speak it for so long.

In 2002, I was able to find a networking academy in Ghana that was run by one of my dad’s friend .When he offered to take me, I did not even hesitate. I went to Ghana. The CCNA was 8 months long but I did it in 4 months and I got my CCNA. What a great feeling it was. I went back home and decided to go straight for the CCNP. With that in mind, I came back to the US bought me 3 routers and 2 switches and went back home.  I started my CCNP in November 2002 and finished it in July 2003, 8 months to pass the 4 exams.

While I was preparing for my CCNP, I created my company and started for working for myself and I have ever since. I worked with many companies in Africa, accumulated as much experience as I could. My work involved routing, switching, and voice over IP. If there is one thing I have learned during that period it’s that experience and hands-on is very important. I learned a lot about VoIP when I was representing Net2Phone in West Africa. I used to sell their devices and unlimited plans to residential customers and businesses to call to the US and Europe unlimited for $30/month. All you need is a DSL connection and I will set you up the same day.

In 2007, I decided to go back to studying. Why? Because knowledge is never enough. It was very hard for me to restart studying. After being so long in the field I lost track of how to study properly. Since I did a lot of design for companies, I decided to go for the design track this track. I went back and got my CCDA then my CCDP.

I did not want to stop there. Why stop in such a good road? In 2008, I decided to go for the CCIE but I did not where to start. I goggled CCIE training and I had two choices, INE and IPExpert. I emailed both of them and guess who replied to me Brain McGahan himself. He put me in touch with sales, they hooked me up with a good discount and I took off for the CCIE. That’s one of my best journeys so far in my career. I have learned so much it is just priceless. I passed the written in August 2008. I also bought me a rack just like iNE’s. Anyways I do not plan to top after the R&S, haven’t you seen Petr???

I was even lucky enough to win the first INE scholarship. I won the Bootcamp COD, and since I had the CCIE End-to-End package already, the sales team was kind enough to exchange it for $1000 worth of tokens. Man those guys rock!!!!!! I also took the Advanced Foundation Bootcamp in May 2009 with Scott Morris. It was an eye opener and I was able to gauge myself during that time.

In August 2009, I attempted the lab even though I knew that I was not ready but I had an opportunity so why not. Come to find out that I came pretty close to passing because the INE labs are way harder than the real lab. But I was not yet an expert so back to deep digging into protocols and IOS features and I have been doing that ever since.

I am heavily preparing for lab and I will make my next attempt in June. Also I am working with ARTP (our FFC) as a consultant to set an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) for Data and Voice in Senegal. Besides that I enjoy working out at the gym and watching movies.

As a follow up to today’s Cisco announcement, removing the Core Knowledge section from both CCIE Routing & Switching and CCIE Voice exams, INE is offering all our  customers a $99 credit that can be applied to any purchase over $500. Since the Core Knowledge section of the CCIE Exam was announced, we worked hard to deliver you a simulation that would give you the confidence to pass.  We would like to thank all those who used the Core Knowledge Simulator and we were thrilled to hear how it helped you pass.  With the Core Knowledge section being removed from the exam, we would like to use this time to give back to you.  Please, take this $99 credit as our way to say thank-you, and to celebrate this portion of the exam getting removed.  To redeem this credit, simply use promo code INE-OEQ . Remember, INE’s got you covered.  Act now, this offer expires soon.

Browse CCIE Tracks:

• CCIE Routing & Switching Training Solutions
• CCIE Voice Training Solutions
• CCIE Security Training Solutions
• CCIE Service Provider

Let me start by saying hello and  happy studying to our many blog faithful. Each week I find myself having various things I want to mention, but they certainly do not warrant a full blog post. So here is the first in an ongoing series I will do regarding these Random Notes:

• I have an Open Lecture coming up on Monday, May 3 at 12 PM PST. This Open Lecture is one in a series I have been doing on PfR/OER. It is titled PfR/OER – Apply Phase. I hope you will join me in the live classroom for that.
• Keith Barker tackled one of the most important/toughest topics for students this week in the new Advanced Technologies Class on Demand. He did IGP redistribution (Chapter 4). It is now posted for everyone to enjoy.
• Everyone has been emailing me about the new QoS Bootcamp from INE. I am so thrilled that everyone is excited for this new class. Details will be published very, very soon, and this course will be unlike anything ever produced here at INE.
• Check out the free vSeminars page and enjoy free training from INE!
• I want to send a “shout out” to everyone from the April 2010 Tampa 12 Day R&S Bootcamp that is reading this. I miss you guys and be sure to keep posting in our class Google Group so we stay in touch. I also miss our class social events at the Green Iguana!
• Have you noticed more and more attacking INE as “Grey Market” in the CCIE Blogsphere and Forums? I can only assume these attacks are based from jealousy and/or fear. I will also say that if you are considering a live or online CCIE class from ANY vendor, do yourself a huge favor and make sure you can meet and converse with your instructor prior to signing up. What is the truly priceless commodity about the class? YOUR INSTRUCTOR and their skills in educating and inspiring their audience!
• Wisely realizing that I would do nothing other than play Texas Hold Em at the Bellagio during Cisco Networkers, INE is sending me to London for our 6 Day R&S Bootcamp during the week of Networkers Live in Las Vegas. For those of you in that hemisphere, I hope to meet you in the UK. There are two seats left for that event.
• After singing in the last vSeminar, I bet most people interpret my new Random Notes column as a reference to my vocal abilities.
• Petr Lapukhov is helping me with the QoS Bootcamp, he is whicked smart.