So rumor has it, MPLS and VPN will make it to the RS lab (http://ipexpert.ccieblog.com/2009/04/23/ccie-rumors/). As probably a few other SP candidates, I had a few concerns: What will become of SP and what value will the skill hold? Will the SP track be neglected? Will the SP track be devalued and will it eventually be completely incorporated into RS? Will SP still separate the boys from the men 
I sent a mail and was fortunate enough to receive a response from someone involved in the SP program and it sounds that not all is doom and gloom. From what I can gather only a few MPLS features will be tested on RS. My major concern with MPLS on RS is that a CCIE is supposed to be an expert on the subject tested, but will MPLS be tested thouroghly? I doubt it, but at the same time ’some’ MPLS knowledge for a RS holder is a good thing. I am concerned that the MPLS section will become freebie points. If that is so, RS will be devalued.
Good news is that the SP track is currently in design phase and when the decisions are made, announcements will follow. Some of the topics that is currently considered for SP:
I’d like to give you some hints of next phase SP, will start test IOS-XR, more L2VPN and Carrier Ethernet, IPv6 etc..
Glad to know that they are working on it and that changes are ‘imminent’. Personally I hope to see ATM and frame removed with carrier ethernet thrown into the mix. This would mirror what is happening in the real world, at least in my neck of the woods. I would like to see two ME3750’s added to the rack, which I think could make things interesting. Testing IOS-XR will be difficult and expensive, perhaps adding IOS XE on a ASR1002 is a more viable option.
Ruhann received his digits on the mobile lab on Friday after investing 900+ hours in his studies. A big congratulations to him. He also wrote a review on the mobile lab for those interested:
Cisco Mobile Lab – PASS
Oh my word this application is so frustrating. A week into prep and I am still stuffing around with the emulator, begging it to do what I want it to do. The thought of actually giving up on SP due to the issues have crossed my mind. The gns3 files provided by Ipexpert is just not on par and riddled with mistakes. If you are planning on using dynamips for Ipexpert studies, keep an eye on the blog as I will post my dynagen files when im confident everything works. The more sections I complete the more mistakes are ironed out of the dynagen files, therefore soon I will have a working setup. Still awaiting delivery of more 3550’s switches. I want to try the alternative method of bridging out dynamips to real switches. I will attempt to trunk between dynamips and 2950’s and then patch the access ports from the 2950’s into the 3550’s. The multiple usb ethernet adapters have been a bit of a mess, so lets see where this takes me. Worse case will be q-in-q tunneling will not work, but Im not really concerned about loosing this functionality. At the moment Im more concerned with getting a functional and stable dynamips setup.
Update: A year later… well I got used the beast and we became friends. I rebuilt the configs and posted them on http://21500.net/?p=958 about a year to late.
I just got back from a few more days off before the start of the prep. I am effectively starting lab preparation today. For the remainder of April and May I will prepare 20 hours per week. This gives me roughly 130 hours at the end of May, which I think will give me a solid base for the last 3 months: June,July and August. Im targeting at least 500 hours before the 15th Sep but hope to get as close as possible to 600 quality hours before then.
Before I can start I need to finalise a few points:
1) Complete the dynamips configs, as the dynamips files for SP supplied by Ipexpert are missing at a minimum one switch.
2) Make sure the Amsoares topology is complete.
3) Decide which tech focused labs to start with: Ipexpert and Amsoares mini scenarios.
4) Work on the Lab prep strategy.
I finally unsubscribed from the RS mailing list and subscribed to the SP list. I have been following the RS list for more than a year, but lately delete most of the mail without reading them. My main concern for not unsubscribing to the RS list earlier is the amount of SP related threads on that list. But it is taking to much time filtering and searching for the SP threads so therefore the switch.
To subscribe to the groupstudy SP mailing list send an email to listserver@groupstudy.com with body:
subscribe comserv
Or if you want to subscribe a different address from the one you are sending from:
subscribe comserv me@company.com
This is just a short post since I have not posted anything for a few weeks. I have taken some time out and traveled a bit. This is part of my strategy: Before starting with any prolonged journey, take sufficient rest. My SP lab prep was supposed to start on the 1st of April, but I postponed that to the 15th of April. My dynamips setup is not perfect yet and Im still waiting for some more switches and more usb ethernet adapters. The dynamips to real switches is becoming more of a challenge that what I initially thought it would be. I guess it will all fall in place eventually. I will start planning my sp prep next, probably by starting with mini labs or focus labs before moving onto full labs.
