Loading ...February 26, 2009
February 24, 2009
Latest Worldwide CCIE stats
New figures released: http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/ccie/certified_ccies/worldwide.html
Thanks for Antonio Soares for keeping his list updated: http://pwp.netcabo.pt/amsoares/wwccies/wwccies.htm
Stats since 6 Jan 09 to 23 Feb 09:
SP: 62
SP+RS: 24
More than a third and less than half of new SP ccies also hold RS (39%) although it can also be argued that RS was the second IE. It is actually remarkable how many candidates in the service provider field still choose to do RS, me included.
February 23, 2009
CCIE SP written (350-029) review – part 1
As the topic subject suggests, this is review one of hopefully a two part series. This morning I went to take the written exam. No cigar this time round, but I am quite chuffed that I came close. The hardest of the questions were the areas that I have not covered yet, understandably I scored a 0% in High End products. I think that I could pass next monday by continuing to expand the SP written checklist. I also now know that I will have to change one or two links on the list, as what I read and what they ask on the exam are not related. Some of the links are spot on. This exam tests pure theory, point and shoot questions. It is very different from the RS written that is scenario/practical based. I guesstimate about 12 to 15 of the 100 questions were header field, TLV and Bit x related. It is quite ridiculous that they make it to the exam as 80% are irrelevant to a network engineer. I will pack these into short term memory for next monday. There are only a few questions with a diagram or exhibit, one of these questions had the complete wrong diagram, which makes it impossible to answer, except by guessing. BGP, QOS and Routing hardly features on the exam which makes me wonder why so much emphasis is placed on them in the CCIP track.
It appears that the new testing format is now also applicable to the SP written. The score is based out of 1000 and the option to return to previous questions are also no more. This is a minor as I did not have time left to go back to questions and only one “oh wait, too late” moment.
Last thought: Considering the amount of hours spent on topics that dont overlap with RS or CCIP, I would be concerned if I did manage to pass this exam.
February 19, 2009
Graph IP SLA RTT via SNMP with MRTG
I made a post before about monitoring the state of a link via IP SLA and SNMP due to the limited resources on the net. Here is another way to graph the latency or round trip time via mrtg.
1. Create the ip sla monitor and verify that it is working before moving on.
rtr 3
type echo protocol ipIcmpEcho 123.123.23.3 source-ipaddr 45.45.45.45
rtr schedule 3 life forever start-time now
2. Assuming that you already have snmp communities setup and your nms can poll the router, set up the poll to retrieve the last rtt. This line also creates the file mrtg will use to graph the rtt with the rttMonLatestRttOperCompletionTime oid. The value 3 at the end must match the rtr or ip sla monitor number.
snmpget -v2c -c community some-router.domain.com 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.42.1.2.10.1.1.3 | awk ‘{print $4}’ > hongkong.out && echo “0″ >> hongkong.out && date >> hongkong.out && echo “Latency to Hongkong” >> hongkong.out
3. Create the MRTG config file: /usr/local/mrtg-2/custom/hongkong.cfg
Target[hongkong]: `cat /home/nms/hongkong.out`
YLegend[hongkong]: Latency
ShortLegend[hongkong]: ms
MaxBytes[hongkong]: 5000
AbsMax[hongkong]: 5000
Title[hongkong]: Latency to hongkong
PageTop[hongkong]:<h1>Latency to hongkong</h1>
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>System:</TD> <TD> </TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Maintainer:</TD> <TD> </TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Description:</TD><TD>Latency</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Ip:</TD> <TD> </TD></TR>
</TABLE>
4. Create a file that that will poll the router every 5 minutes and update the graphs: /home/nms/hongkong.sh
#!/bin/bash
cd /home/nms/
snmpget -v2c -c community some-router.domain.com 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.42.1.2.10.1.1.3 | awk ‘{print $4}’ > hongkong.out && echo “0″ >> hongkong.out && date >> hongkong.out && echo “Latency to Hongkong” >> hongkong.out/usr/local/mrtg-2/bin/mrtg /usr/local/mrtg-2/custom/hongkong.cfg
5. Create a cronjob to run the commands every n amount of minutes:
*/5 * * * * /home/nms/hongkong.sh 2>/dev/null
February 18, 2009
Shocking discovery – SP strategy flaw
The recent SP written checklist I made brought me to the realization that I have a major flaw in my strategy. According to my initial research, after completing the CCIP exams, BGP, QOS and MPLS I would have covered 70 to 80 percent of the material. Of the 56 topics on the blueprint I feel confident in 32 topics. Roughly 57%, although some of the topics are variable e.g. CSC (1 Page) vs MPLS TE (100 pages) and I dont know how many questions will come from each topic. Therefore the chances for monday look bleak. Nevertheless, come monday I would have crawled another few millimeters up the mountain.
SP success story
Someone else might have posted this link, but in case you missed it:
Success story of Amit Kalgutkar CCIE 13100, now a double in RS and SP
http://amitkalgutkar.blogspot.com/2009/01/ccie-experience.html
February 16, 2009
Recap/update
It has been almost four months since I picked up the books to prepare for SP Written. I made a SP Written checklist to help keep track of what has been covered and which areas I still want to touch on. As each topic is covered, it is ticked off the “to read” list.
Recap:
July-08 CCIE RS Lab
Aug-Oct Three month break
Nov-08 SP theory starts
Dec-08 MPLS
Jan-09 BGP
Feb-09 QOS
My first attempt at SP written will be on the 23rd Feb, I dont expect to pass but it will be a bonus. This first attempt will tell me where my weaknesses are. I have used this strategy for MPLS, BGP and QOS and it works well for me. I have written off the fear of failing in order to fasttrack my progress. Since passing Qos I read chapter 1 to 7 from MPLS fundamentals again. I still want to read a few more chapters then start covering the red areas on the checklist. E.g security and high availability. Hopefully all this before monday.
I have no idea how soon I will be able to find a lab seat after the written is cleared, but hoping SP can be done and dusted in 2009.
February 11, 2009
Comeback2009 promotion = SP bruteforce
I read about the Cisco/Vue comeback promotion on some of the blogs and it seems to be only for recertification. Since SP written can be seen as recertifying the CCIE RS, Im going to give it a try. SP written booked for the 23rd Feb. It is less than two weeks away but I dont think I will postpone it, I will rather take the risk. If it happens to be a fail I would still gain valuable insight into the exam. If required, I will write again on the 2nd March. How many times can the promotion code be used? Not sure so hopefully attempts to pass the written <= the number of times the promotion can be used. Then if I read some blogs posts correct my CCIE will be recertified untill 2012. As soon as the SP written pass is reflected on the cisco site I will book a lab seat.
QOS pass, SP Next
Ok, so its over, on to SP. Preparing for the qos exam was really torture as I my interest level dropped close to 0%. Fortunately I dealt with some qos solutions at work the last couple of days which kind of helped to focus. Very boring exam to prepare for, heavily voice focussed. Got a good number of questions that was just insane: binary of X to Y bit in the Z byte.
February 1, 2009
Slacking
Been taking it easy the last two weeks without any major studying done (And blog posts). Qos was initially scheduled for tomorrow, but I moved it out. Up to this point I managed to cover (read: scan) chapter 2 and 3 of the Cisco QOS Exam Certification Guide (IP Telephony) 2nd edition. This two weeks have been a bit of a breather and I will now for the next month put a great deal of time and effort into clearing SP written. Yes, qos still needs to be cleared along the way and now that it has been postponed will give me less time for SP written. Fortunately the next month or so I will be able to dedicate all free time to studying as my better half will be visiting family. This is a major sacrifice from her and it is really a blessing having someone just as commited to my goals as I am. Hope this does not backfire on me as I will be burning more time doing all the chores. I have a deep dislike for chores, almost as much as my extreme dislike for the voice sections of the Qos exam guide.
