Congratulations to Kevin Hatem
Read his story
Friday the 13th was good luck for me.
Initial readings included Doyle's TCP volumes I and II, Ospf Design by Halabi, the OSPF Command and Configuration Handbook, BGP Design by Halabi , and the BGP-4 Command and Configuration Handbook. A few others Cisco Press books along the way (frame-relay, QOS, Internet Routing Architectures, etc.) which I thought relevant or just otherwise useful.
I used a couple of vendor products including IE and CCBOOTCAMP. I utilized rack time from both vendors and also constructed my own mini rack with 3 routers and 2 switches. Although I could not do a full lab on this setup, I did use it constantly to run test configs and experiment with subsets of the practice labs.
I created my own library of notes per technology (CATALYST, OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, IP SERVICES, SECURITY, etc.). I have always found that writing down (in my own words) what I am trying to accomplish helps me to learn quicker and to retain the information longer. Additionally, I reviewed my notes the 2 days prior to taking my test.
There are many forums/blogs which I constantly and consistently read. Among those include Sadikhov, IEOC, CCIEPURSUIT, and CCIECANDIDATE. There are many more and many of them are worth the visit.
Basically, read, read, read...lab, lab, lab....read, lab, read, lab...and lab some more...You get the point.
Before the lab started, the proctor handed out our name tags and rack assignments, and explained the rules…He announced the time and that was the starting gun. We marched to our assigned cubes and the fun began.
The lab itself began with the new open-ended question segment. The questions reminded me of the written exam questions but without the multiple choice options. For me the questions were not overly difficult but did make me sit back and think. After I completed the questions I began the lab configuration segment. The lab booklet contains the lab tasks, the do's and dont's, and diagrams of the logical topology, L3 topology, frame-relay connections, and a chart listing the physical connections of the switches and routers.
I logged into each of the routers and switches and added the one alias I use most, "alias exec sip show ip interface brief | ex unass". Then I did a "sip" on each device to check for any misconfigured IP’s. I also looked for any erroneous configs that shouldn't be there such as kron jobs, EEM, etc.
I drew out the physical topology based on the VLANs and physical connections. This helps me to visualize the relationships of the L2 segments, spanning-tree paths, trunk connections, etc. I started configuring the L2 about 30 minutes into it. I redrew the L3 diagram so that I could make notes for myself, but my redraw was nothing fancy. I also drew out another topo for the BGP and multicast sections. Again, nothing fancy—very quick and simple.
At the lunch break, with the exception of two “off the wall” L2 tasks and one L3 task, I had competed the lab thru BGP and on my way into the non-core sections. Lunch was 20 minutes and we were served fish (it was, of course, Friday). Not bad, but no one was really in the mood to eat--we all just wanted to get back to the lab. Small talk murmured the air, though to me, most of it was incoherent. Most of us were finished eating with minutes to spare of our 20. We all waited impatiently at the front of the room, like horses in the gates at the Kentucky Derby. The proctor announced “Alright guys, you can get back to work”. BOOM — We took off, running into each other like bumper cars at a carnival and nearly tripping over each other heading back to our cubes! A few chuckles here and there eased the post lunch tension.
Back “home”, I then breezed thru most of the non-core sections, including the lonely L3 question I had earlier set aside. I postponed answering a couple of other tasks which I simply did not know, but trusted I would have time leftover to search the documentation for the answers (which indeed I did have plenty of time to search, discover, and implement my solution). I also stumbled on a couple of QoS tasks, but again, after searching the documentation I found what I was looking for and quickly finished those tasks.
I had completed the exam with about an hour and a half to go, of course I still had those two off the wall L2 questions to complete. Well, when I figured out the solution for one of them, I realized that an earlier solution for another task broke (my configs conflicted). WHEW! I quickly fixed the botched config and a peaceful calm settled in my bones. The last stumbler took me a while to figure out, and although I do not know if my solution was correct, I did answer it with what I believe to be the correct solution. As many of you know, a lot of tasks are either dependent on other tasks or they are closely tied with another.
With time remaining, I went thru each task again and reviewed my solutions...I checked L2 and L3 again. Checked BGP again. Went thru the non-core tasks again. Check check check. WOW-am I this good or am I just in a fog and can't see the shoreline? Debug IP Routing – looks clean. Debug spanning-tree – great ! Debug IP-need-to-go-NOW – no output so it must be in check!
Then, with about 20 minutes to go, I just happened to flip back the pages and my eye caught a task (don't know why I reread it, but I'm glad I did). The solution I previously configured was wrong. I knew how to correct it. Then the proctor announces "there's 15 minutes left, so let's start wrapping it up". OH F#$K – is there time? Stay calm…I quickly removed the bad config and applied the correct commands and tested it - all with several minutes to spare!!! Save, save save!!! I don't know if those 2 points bumped me over the passing mark or not, but you need every point you can get and I wasn't about to let it go.
The proctor mentioned that we may not know our results until Sunday or early Monday, but I kept checking all weekend long. About 11PM last night, right before I was to hit the sack, I checked again....
CONGRATULATIONS. PASS !!! CCIE#23838...
I think most successful CCIE’s will agree with me when I say that it is very important to read, understand, implement, and test each and every task/solution during the lab. One may question if there is enough time to be so meticulous – the answer is yes.
For now, I need to realign myself back to the real world. My wife informed me that we do indeed have 3 kids now…I vaguely remember the hospital stay, logging into the internet and finishing up a lab.
I’m sure I’ll go for another title; CCDE will be good---it’s what I do and I can apply the knowledge real time.
Victory to all those who endeavor.
No comments:
Post a Comment