IPExpert SP Volume 3 Lab 2

I hope they made lab 2 a little more challenging.

Frame Relay:
No issues

Switching:
No issues

PPP:
Hey, finally something new. I've never created a ppp mlg using a virtual-template before. Pretty straightforward and the media-independent ppp section of the doccd covers it well. Chap, however, is a bit strange. It has to be configured on the serial interfaces and not the mlg.
-4 points on this task since I did chap wrong.

ISIS:
I chose domain-password instead of area-password. Domain-password uses level-2 lsps, while area-password uses level-1 lsps. The task specified area. -2

BGP:
I was fortunate to get the first task right. "New style bgp configuration" means using address families for configuration. Also, to optimize updates, use a peer group. I actually went with a peer session instead of a peer group, because I haven't seen it before. It seems a little more modular than peer groups and separates bgp session commands from bgp update commands.

I did, however, go with graceful-restart instead of fast-external-fallover. I didn't go with the latter because it seemed to be doing the opposite. Turned out that this is turned on by default and I needed to turn it off to meet the task requirements.
-3

IOS Service:
No issues

Security:
I just applied the access-group to the interfaces, but COPP is an interesting solution as well. A method I'll need to keep in mind.

Logging trap is used to set the syslog logging level.
-2

Multicast:
I finally seem to be catching onto multicast. This called for a pretty straightforward anycast implementation. I did get caught up for a little bit on rpf failures, which ended up being due to an unreachable rp. Once it was added to isis almost everything worked fine. One exception is the host router still got rpf failures when attempting to ping its own igmp address. This appeared to be because its own traffic had to go through the RP instead of staying local, and no interfaces could be made the RP for the routers own traffic.

IPExpert SP Volume 3 Lab 1 Cont

OSPF:
No issues

BGP:
Used peer groups for the fun of it
I made a stupid mistake on a summary address that would have cost me 3 points. If I had reviewed the running config I would have caught it.

Security:
No issues

Multicast:
Had to look up rp filtering syntax, but aside from that, no issues

MPLS:
No issues

MP-BGP:
No issues

VPN:
Took me a minute to remember how as-override works

QoS:
No issues

Ok, this lab was really easy. I suppose it's a good warm-up to get me on the studying horse again.

IPExpert SP Volume 3 Lab 1

Section 1:
sh frame-relay pvc can verify a DE list via "in DE pkts" and "out DE pkts"

Section 2:
Wow, I totally misread the span session requirements. Even if I had read it right, rspan isn't a problem, but remembering to add it to be allowed across the trunk likely would have been.

Section 3:
no issues

Section 4:
More stupid mistakes. MFR isn't a problem as long as the solution's guide is followed. However I duplicated another ip address which caused 50% success. I spent quite a bit of time troubleshooting what I thought was a physical layer issue before a debug ip packet showed half my packets trying to go out another interface.

I'm baaaaaccccckkkkk!

Ok, so that break took a little longer than I expected. I had been pretty busy between work, reading, golf, and enjoying family life. But not that I'm about a month out I need to get back on the horse.

I ended up purchasing the IPExpert SP Lab Mentoring Kit because I wanted to use another vendor but I really didn't feel the need to go through all the basics again. I wasn't too far off on my last attempt. I was mostly just missing a couple of advanced topics which cost me time to complete the other loose ends and verification time. So I'm hopeful these five labs will do the trick. Additionally, they are supposed to include video walkthroughs of each lab, which should be pretty handy for areas I'm stuck on.

2nd Attempt Scheduled

I've scheduled my second attempt at the SP lab in RTP for June 26th. I spent last week on some much needed time off and put very little thought toward the CCIE or any work related matters. I've also decided to take a breather this week and next to re-energize for another full two months of lab prep.

After evaluating my failure, I feel the root cause was due to two factors.

First, toward the end of my studies I reverted to a brute force approach instead of taking my time and ensuring I fully groked the material. In the beginning of my studies I was very diligent in researching new topics, such as soo, down bits, and such subjects. But when I moved on to full scale labs, I stopped doing this. When something didn't work, I kept changing the config manically until I was able to get things to come up.

Second, I think I simply rushed into the lab too fast. I only really spent 2 months on full scale labs. I feel this was too much information too quickly for my brain to absorb. Since the next two months should be review and reinforcement, I'm hopeful the material will be much more natural to me.

I'm going to go back to rejuvination mode and will be back for studying at the end of April.

Next Steps

First off, I wanted to say thanks to everyone's comments over the past couple of days. I'm now trying to figure out what to do next.

I scheduled the lab this week because I have a family wedding to attend at the beach next week, so I'll be taking some time to relax and unwind. The big question is what to do next.

My score on the lab ended up right around 50%. I'm not surprised because not only did I spend all my time troubleshooting and point hunting, but I didn't have any time to verify (since I had no shot at even an 80, what was the point?). Typically I like to spend the last hour just going over the entire lab step by step verifying configs.

I could repeat the IE labs and lab up some of the SP mini scenarios . I really do believe 90% of the lab was covered by the IE labs. I would just rank the real thing as more of a 9 on the difficulty scale. I was studying for it like it'd be a 7, as was the case for the R&S lab. It turned out the actual lab was a little harder than the IE labs.

Another option would be to use IPexpert. I used them as well for R&S. I really found the annoying lack of clarity in the IPexpert tasks to be great practice for the lab.

I've also seen some folks recommend iementor.com's products for SP.

It looks like I'll have to wait until July to retake the lab, unless I want to schedule it for the week of Memorial Day, which I really don't.

I also think I'm going to buy a hard copy of at least one MPLS book. I've done ALL of my studying via Books Online and the DocCd, and I think I'd like to have something physical to thumb through.

No Chance

I'm still waiting for the score report, but I know I don't have a chance to pass. Even if I got everything right that I thought I did, I'd still be left with less than 80.

So what happened? I can blame a little bit on poorly written tasks, but for the most part I simply wasn't ready.

There are still too many topics that I can figure out if I spend 15 or 20 minutes troubleshooting. I need to be automatic with all of these.

I lost an hour troubleshooting a stupid mistake that I would have caught right away if I had verified properly. What's worse is I did I verify it, but I missed something. Not only did I lose valuable time, but I kind of spooked myself when I got stuck on something so vital. By time I found it I was a little burned out as well.

I also didn't stick to my game plan. For some silly reason, I opted to skip the VPN diagram right away. I was having a hard time understanding some of the requirements, so I chose to jump right in instead of doing a diagram. What the heck was I thinking? Regardless, this may have made the VPN portion take longer than normal, but it wasn't a killer.

In a nutshell, there are 4 or 5 topics that I need to be COMPLETELY automatic on. I need to have the ability to look at the topology and already know the issues and how to work around them. This is the level I was at when I passed R&S.

When you can look at the topology and think "I bet they're gonna throw this, that, and this other thing at me, and here's how I'll work around it", then you're ready.

All in all, it was a fair exam. If I was a little more solid in 2 or 3 more areas, and had another hour, I believe I would have passed.

Internetwork Expert did a great job for preparing me for the exam. There material is great, I just plain wasn't ready yet. I need to put more time in.

I'm waiting for the score report now to see how I fared on the tasks I think I completed. If my total score is in the 60% range, then I'm right on track. If it's much lower than that, then I really misunderstood some of the requirements or my attention to detail faltered.

I plan on shooting for it again in May.