CCIE Candidate

Last post for NMC scenario 18.

There is a “define interface-range” macro function on Cat3550 (and 3560, for that matter) switches, that allows you to create a group of interfaces, then operate on that group by invoking the macro in an interface statement. For example…
CAT1(config)#define interface-range gigports GigabitEthernet0/1 - 2
CAT1(config)#interface range macro gigports
CAT1(config-if-range)

If you want [...]

More notes continued from the previous post.

We’re probably all familiar with the fundamental rule of BGP synchronization. BGP will not advertise a route to a neighbor, unless that route already lives in the RIB via some other IGP. In other words, if you have synchronization enabled, learning a route via BGP isn’t enough [...]

Better late than never, here are my tech notes on NetMasterClass.com DOiT Vol.2 CCIE practice lab scenario 18.

When the OSPF network-type is “point-to-multipoint”, /32 routes of the router interfaces involved in that network are advertised. This is because a full-mesh is NOT assumed by OSPF point-to-multipoint. This can be useful in a number [...]

I’m still not done this lab.  I’ve totalled 9h 20 minutes, and I still have the multicast to go.  I spent time tonight getting caught up on e-mail from this site, and another site that I admin (after working on piano lessons with my 2 darling children).  So, no time for the rack tonight.  I’m [...]

I started NetMasterClass.com DOiT v2 scenario 18 today. I’m not done this beast yet, but I clocked almost 6h 30m on it. I’ve made it all the way through IGP redistribution (mostly) and BGP, with security, QoS, multicast, IPv6 and I’m not sure what else still to go. NMC says that the [...]

My little experiment this week of doing three 8-hour practice scenarios on three consecutive days went really well. I got a lot of rack time in, and felt good about it. I wasn’t rushed. I was able to study out issues I was having a hard time with. It was good.
I’m [...]

I created a new category called “Strategy” to contain all blog posts related to CCIE preparation strategy. In here are my thoughts on the written exam prep and my current lab attack strategy. The relative merit of these posts will ultimately be determined by how many times it takes me to pass the [...]

First off, it’s Thanksgiving today here in the United States. So to all of you here in the States, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you spend it with family and friends, and not with a Cisco book. I’m looking forward to my family being here in a few hours, and to having a [...]

Another successful NetMasterClass.com DOiT completion today, this time scenario 16 in about 7 hours, 20 minutes. And it only took that long because I chose to spend over an hour on the multicast, scrutinizing mroute tables, looking at IGMP snooping output on the 3550s, and so on. If I’d just hammered out the [...]

It snowed here today. That’s saying something. When I started preparing for CCIE back in January 2007, there was snow on the ground. Seeing snow again reminds me that four seasons have come and gone, and I didn’t really notice any of them. I like to be outside, walking, hiking once [...]

“Am I really ready for the lab?” That’s the question we’re all asking ourselves. It’s a lot of money plus travel time to sit the lab. So, we want to know that we’ve got a reasonable shot of passing, right?
There’s a few tools I’m hoping to get some feedback on. Cisco [...]

I mentioned in the last post…
“Read up on the Cisco Embedded Event Manager. It’s one of those things you should have seen at least once before walking into the actual lab. I don’t know that I’m going to spend a lot of time on it, but in short, you can schedule TCL scripts to run [...]

More tech highlights.

I ran into some obscure wording on a BGP task: “provide redundant NLRI exchange”. Hmm. I got what they were looking for after a bit (routes to be provided to the AS via 2 sources), but at first I didn’t really get it. The other criteria was that a full-mesh [...]

This lab (NetMasterClass.com DOiT Vol2 Scenario 15) was a little short, but had that standard number of “odds and ends of IOS that I was not previously acquainted with”. Overall, if this has been the actual lab, I think I would have passed. In that sense, the lab was too easy. Too [...]

Continued from the previous post…

“no service dhcp” will disable the DHCP server and relay functions of an IOS device.
IOS devices do not, by default, track to see whether the other end of a TCP connection still thinks the socket is up. That makes IOS ripe for a DoS attack, where the attacker would try [...]