Bridging the gap between CCIE RS and SP

May 5, 2010

SP Content manager Vincent Zhou introduces himself

Filed under: CCIE SP, Juniper — 21500 @ 7:02 pm

First, have a look at the post, some important leads are given towards future plans for the SP track, although we knew it has been coming for a long time:
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/message/58601

The most important bit, at least for me is:
“CCIE SP will continue to develop in line of SP industry requirement, a new version is on the way to come out. SP exam will NOT disapper in future. In a new version, SP lab will test on both IOS-XR platform and IOS platform, features like IPv6, more TE, more L3VPN, more L2VPN, more Multicast VPN, Carrier Ethernet, etc will test in the exam, please pay attention on official annoucement for detail in later, thanks.”

And interesting recent posts by Vincent:
“Actually CCIE SP has completed new version design.”

“There will have an annoucement about new SP Version 3 soon. For coming version, blueprint, test equipment and operating system will have large update. So in current version there are no plan for 360 program. And in comping new version 3.0. we wish to release 360 learning program, thanks.”

Seems that I am starting to become an advocate of the cisco learning network. I just joined the CCIE SP Study Group. I missed quite a bit of news… Dubai SP seats, SP 360 program.

Update:
“The main change are IPv6 and IOS-XR will start test in lab exam. All test equipment operating software will update to recent version, so recent SP technology will reflect in the exam. In version 3, there is no plan of seperate topology for troubleshooting section.”

Ok, from this it appears that the current hardware will still be there (“All test equipment operating software will update to recent version“). I ‘assume’ the 2600’s will move to pure CE devices where they belong and at least the bug issues (“traceback!”) will be reduced. Then it is not clear whether we will see XR hardware or emulation. Its probably more likely to be an emulator judging on the virtualization of the RS track. XR is lean on features and I dont think there is scope for big surprises :/ . There is also a possibility that XR will only be tested in OEQ, but I doubt this is the case. They want engineers to get accustomed to XR, because if you take the journey from IOS to XR, you might as well that the journey all the way to juniper. Maybe a bit harsh? Damage limitation strategy perhaps.

January 8, 2009

Google to build routers

Filed under: Juniper — Tags: — 21500 @ 9:53 am

This is an interesting rumour which apparently have Juniper stocks sliding due to Google being Junipers number one customer.

Google Router Rumors
Juniper Slides On Report Google May Build Own Router
Is Google Developing a Router?

If true, this could be just the shake up Juniper needs. Juniper would take a huge knock if Google were to be lost. Even better if Google buys Juniper, now that would be a combination to be taken seriously.

Could this mean that the Google 10Gb switch was a success?

October 15, 2008

Juniper – Update

Filed under: Juniper — 21500 @ 8:38 am

So we had this Juniper to test for the last few months. Sadly it never went live as the Juniper guru’s could not get two instances of OSPF to run/work simultaneously. Yup, the most simplest of configurations, two OSPF instances with one or two neighbors each, it could not do. The time has come for the demo equipment to leave the country due to customs regulations on demo equipment which enters tax free if I understand correctly. Up to this point the juniper experience has been quite unimpressive.

At some point I worked through the Juniper as a second language flash presentation/course. This is definitely the place to start for anyone interested in getting some sort of basic understanding of Junos. The presentation is riddled with ‘tongue in cheeck’ statements like ‘What Junos can do what can not be done in IOS’, ‘Junos takes this to a much further extent’, ‘much greater’. After a while this becomes annoying, especially because it cant do the basics. If one looks hard and long enough at what a 13 year old CCNA knows compared to a CCIE, you might find one or two things the CCIE does not know or decided its to insignificant to memorize. This presentation is something similar or maybe I just missed the point. If you can bear the full 90 minutes I think this is definitely the place to start. This sounds very much like Linux is better than Microsoft we saw a few years back. Personally I think the exact same will happen to Junos, it will find its place in the network, while Cisco will continue to dominate the market.

August 7, 2008

Junos basics

Filed under: Juniper — 21500 @ 9:08 pm

Lately I’ve been very curious about Junos. It also just so happened that we got a loan M10 (End-of-life?) from Juniper to ‘test’. Somehow it was decided that the best way to test is to put it in the production network. IMO this was not a bright move as there will be no tinkering with it, but anyhow, a good chance to get some exposure to the OS while it is still new and interesting. I’ve managed to simulate a juniper router with vmware using the files available for download on the torrent sites. Searching for ‘torrent olive vmware’ is a good start. Olive is in a way very similar to dynamips. In the coming weeks I will post some newbie level posts about my findings.

Juniper Certs
Im really keen on getting one Juniper cert, just for fun. Why for fun? JNCIS-ER Juniper cant be serious either right? One good thing about the Juniper certs though is that the Professional level cert is also a practical as like the expert level exam. The written for the Professional level also recertifies the expert level exam. Thats all fun and games, but there is no-way Im getting serious e.g JNCIE-M/T (reminds me of the ugliest car ever) until they make it look professional e.g JCIE looks sweet to me, that I wont mind putting along side CCIE on a business card.

Juniper blogs
While looking for juniper blogs, I found some interesting posts by Jeff Doyle that I thought was worth a mention. The posts cover the basics, suitable for people like me who have absolutely no idea. Jeff’s posts thus far:
Navigating a JUNOS Configuration
The JUNOS Software Architecture
Adding JUNOS to Your Repertoire

Booting Junos
Before continuing I have to mention that I have no idea what Im doing, so take everything juniper related with a pinch of salt.

Strictly speaking the Junos license requires the OS to be run on a juniper device, but I have to believe that for the purpose of learning the OS, Juniper would allow the use of an Olive. The package I downloaded had all the files included as well as the multicast patch already applied. After extracting I had the vwmare files and also the vwmare workstation. Steps taken to boot the olive:
1) Install Vmware Workstation
2) Boot the Olive.vmx in the Vmware Workstation

Thats it, pretty simple compared to dynamips. I had one thing I couldnt resolve by searching on the net. After login in as ‘root’ the Os took me too a ~# prompt, I was expecting > as suggested in Jeff’s posts. With some trial and error I typed the lucky command ‘cli’. This command takes the device from unix mode to router mode or ‘operational mode’:

login: root
[]:~#
[]:~# cli
root>

Once the OS is in this ‘router mode’ or ‘operational mode’ it starts to look, feel and react more like a router and less as a unix box. At first I could not ‘commit’ any new configuration. It is necessary to first set the root password:

root> configure
[edit]
root# set system host-name home
root# commit
[edit] ’system’ Missing mandatory statement:
‘root-authentication’ error: commit failed:
(missing statements)
root# set system root-authentication plain-text-password somepass
root# commit
root@home#

The next objective is to boot a second router and get the two to talk to each other.

July 27, 2008

Where to next? SP? Juniper? Life?

Filed under: CCIE, Juniper — 21500 @ 6:51 pm

Going nowhere slowly
For the last few days I’ve been trying to enjoy the free time. Its been great to get back to my hobbies. However all that I’ve been thinking about is, what next? I think a big part of this is being in the study mode for so long, its almost second nature to be programmed to study. It feels strange, not knowing what the next point towards a destination is. Somehow it has not really sunk in that the journey is over, it is as if it is still on going. So where to next?

Service Provider
SP is a strong contender. Having done RS, it seems 50% down the road to destination SP has already been covered. Perhaps take the same route as Tassos by doing ccip first. The QOS and BGP exams should go relatively quick. The only new subject would be MPLS. I initially thought I might have a chance of sitting this lab in december at the networkers, but more on the mobile lab later. Working in the ISP environment I believe I can gain the most out of the SP track.

Juniper
Im very keen on getting hands-on experience with Junos. It seems its possible to setup something similar to dynamips for Junos with Olive. There is probably also a great deal to be gained from studying towards a juniper qualification or two. What the reasoning behind the long cert names are is a mystery, but it seems pretty pointless to add the ‘Networks’ in it. The equivalent would be for cisco to add ’systems’ to the cert names e.g CCNA – CSCNA, just a thought.

Life
It would be great to get back to life as well. Get married, have children, something like that. Getting back to hobbies has been awesome as well, I have so many unfinished projects that are begging for attention.

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