Archive for the ‘CCIE R&S’ Category

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Congrats to Matthew Smith

July 13, 2010

I have not had much time lately for blogging between a new job, a new baby, an updated version to R&S Short-Notes and the new SP Short-Notes which is coming soon. Besides all that, I have the all important ‘free’ lunch for $1400 which will be served in few weeks time in RTP. So my sincere apologies. But I have noted some very good technical articles that will be posted sooooon…

But in the midst of my current time challenge, I would like to congratulate the newest R&S CCIE on the block.

Matthew Smith, who from now on,  will be known as Matthew Smith CCIE 26439, successfully passed his R&S two days ago. Huge congratulations in conquering the hardest CCIE currently out there !!!! As always it is a great feeling to know I helped a little :)

This was his feedback.

“Hey – just wanted to say thanks for your awesome short notes. They certainly helped to get me over the hump and is perfect material for the day before the exam. This book will remain on my desk for years to come. Best of luck and thanks again!

Matt
CCIE#26439″
Please feel to visit Matt’s blog and congratulate him : http://ccieforme.blogspot.com

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Formula to passing a CCIE is Boxing – Part II

June 8, 2010

Part I…

…So next is to equate the common boxing exercises with the footwork needed to reach the CCIE and beyond.

Different exercises

The Punching Bag
Is the equivalent of studying theory. Yip it is forcing those countless pages of theory to fit in that preciously small head of yours. Studying theory, as boring as it could be, will become the base and foundation of everything else. I know it sucks studying theory, I also know it gets boring, but take short-cuts here and you will fall short later on.

The best motivation for this? Watch the movie The Karate Kid(1984). I am specifically referring to Mr Miyagi’s “wax on”, “wax off” method of teaching mundane techniques.

The time spent on the punching bag will be a lot. After all you cannot expect yourself to successfully deliver a Jab or a Hook if you do not even know what they are?

The Floor to Ceiling Ball
Is the equivalent of Practice/Technology labs. This is where the techniques learned on the punching bag are tried, tested and improved. It is important to ensure a good and solid understanding of the individual topics while they are isolated. Teach yourself what features can be used to accomplish what and be sure you know how to configure every bit.

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Formula to passing a CCIE is Boxing – Part I

June 3, 2010

What is the formula to successfully passing a CCIE lab exam and is there such a thing?

I personally think almost everything, if done meticulously, could be calculated. I would like to illustrate how easy the formula to pass the CCIE could be and at the same time how much work is involved to get there.

Let me explain using a boxing analogy.

Professional boxing is an extremely hard and demanding sport.

Being a working CCIE in the networking world may be viewed in the same light. Strangely there are some remarkable similarities between the road to networking and being a professional boxer.

To become a professional boxer, these are some of the fundamental elements that must be mastered:

  • Technique
  • Fitness
  • Breathing
  • Rhythm
  • Footwork
  • Blocking
  • Punches

Each of these are trained using various exercises. To list a few:

  • Skipping Rope
  • Punching Bag
  • Floor to Ceiling Ball
  • Speedbag
  • Shadow boxing
  • Sparring an Opponent

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Another Beeg Congrats to Jeff Pazahanick

March 13, 2010

It turned out to be a good week afterall.

Jeff passed his CCIE R&S lab on thursday too, earning himself the number # 25966.

This is super as the second pass for the week :)

Here is the feedback I received yesterday afternoon:

“Ruhann,

I passed yesterday!  Your product was a great overall review for me. I read it on the plane ride to San Jose and it helped keep everything fresh.  I can tell you put a great deal of effort into it.  Thanks again,”

It is a great feeling knowing I contributed  a very small portion of Jeff’s success.

Well-done Jeff!!

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Huge congrats to Daniel Loughlin

March 12, 2010

Please extend a big congratulation to Daniel Loughlin who passed the CCIE R&S v4 yesterday in San Jose.

I just received this mail :

“Thanks Ruhann. I passed the v4 test today in San Jose. I’m CCIE#25965
Thanks so much for your wonderful product.”

Daniel was one of the first candidates to buy Short-Notes. Daniel earned his number after months of hard work.

With so few guys that are passing version4, this is a remarkable achievement.

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Short-Notes V4.2 includes troubleshooting

March 11, 2010

R&S Short-Notes v4.2 is complete and is now available.

With the addition of the 2 hour troubleshooting section in the CCIE R&S v4, strangly there is a huge demand for troubleshooting material. There are troubleshooting books out there, and most of them are very good. Sure you can read through them all, but who has the time when preparing for the lab, with already so much work to study and master?

So how can a individual then prepare for the additional troubleshooting section without increasing his study time by an extra 100 hours? As with most thing in this field, understand what the purpose of the troubleshooting addition is all about. Its purpose is to  purely test how well an individual understands a certain technology. This is the part that catches out most guys in the lab. These are typically guys that used the non recommended but shorter study approach: “learn-by-labbing”.

To efficiently troubleshoot any issue, an in-depth understanding of the protocol,  and its operation is required.   But isn’t that what the theory books cover? Ultimately yes, but that depends if you went through them.

That said, why waste time reading more books (provided you read the required theory books), if theory and troubleshooting books cover very similar content.

I have compiled a unique troubleshooting section that is now part of Short-Notes v4.2.  Oppose to re-presenting the boring theory in a different format, I have taken the time to lab up loads of scenarios and tested various common and some uncommon issues. The troubleshooting section takes the format of asking questions to check for certain outputs in various scenarios.  And unlike any other material the exact command to be used is listed.  (see the snipping below)

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For a more in-depth view of Short-Notes v4.2 and the new troubleshooting section, download the free demo that includes three of the fifteen chapters:

Alternatively you can get a full copy of R&S Short-Notes v4.2 HERE.


Posted in CCIE R&S | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

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Troubleshooting BGP

February 25, 2010

The new focus is of the R&S exam is troubleshooting. And for some reason this is seen as a new topic to study and as a result feared. It is vital to understand why troubleshooting was added to the lab, and why it will possibly be added to other tracks.  Anybody can apply vanilla configs, provided it is done without error, in the correct order, and by avoiding the question pitfalls.

Troubleshooting was introduced by Cisco to give the CCIE certification that edge it needs to seperate the guys that really understand the technologies and those that just learned to configure labs. Troubleshooting is thus NOT a new section! If you understand know each technology, understand its it building blocks, processes and states, troubleshooting should be nothing ‘new’.

That said once you understand the work, drafting a troubleshooting methodology per technology should be fairly straight forward. I am busy been drafting up a troubleshooting questionaire for each section that I will include in R&S Short-Notes v4.2. (Note ‘{ }’ curl-brackets indicate replaceble values, the rest is regex)

Troubleshooting BGP session start-up problems

1- Are you seeing the expected neighbors in a NON ‘idle’ or ‘active’ state?
#sh ip bgp summary

2- Is a sourced telnet to the neighbor address working?
#telnet {peer-ip} 179 /source {src-int-ip}

3- Confirm if the configuration is correct and matching to neighbors configuration?
#sh run | b router bgp

4- If eBGP, is the neighbor directly connected? (Should be 1 hop in the trace)
 4.1- If not directly connected is multihop configured?
#trace {peer-ip} source {src-int-ip}
#sh run | i {peer-ip}.*ebgp-multihop

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Posted in BGP, CCIE R&S | Tagged | 3 Comments »

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MPLS Quick Reference guide

February 15, 2010

I have updated the MPLS quick reference guide. Some of the guys enquired how detailed the new version4 topics are covered.

This is a great preview of the full MPLS chapter included in R&S Short-Notes.
This MPLS quick reference guide includes all the show and configuration command with descriptions. I have also included the newly added ‘Config-Sets’ to show how easy MPLS is configured in varies scenarios.  Please note this demo does not include any theory, or pitfalls to watch out for.

Feel free to download it :) But please let me know you views and comments

Download

Click to Download

Posted in CCIE R&S, MPLS | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

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What is Short-Notes all about?

January 31, 2010

CCIE Short-Notes is the result of an unplanned book I wrote during my studies for the CCIE Routing & Switching lab.

It is a good source for theory, and a great reference guide for the practical commands.  It also presents full configuration examples, in a completely new way to easily see how the technologies are implemented. Most topics include the DOC-CD locations, if more info is needed. Ultimately this is the only CCIE study guide, (I found) which can be used to review all the work start to finish the day before the lab.

I have always had a passion for training and development, so this is my first step to entering the training market. After 500+ hours, I have written and developed all my writings into a fully fletched book covering the content comprehensive in a proven study friendly format that still reads like study notes.

A deeper look at the origins…

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Posted in CCIE R&S | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

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PfR Process flow

January 19, 2010

I came across a really good Performance Routing document, and I thought it should assist R&S v4 candidates. It has really great examples of the different scenarios along with implementations.

Here is a depiction of the PfR process flow for OER configuration:

Source: Cisco Design Land

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