Showing posts with label resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resources. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
CCDE, be a chameleon
9:33 AM
Disclaimer: This post is intended to be a wrap up of my experience to succeed in lab, this study methodology and all suggested here is based on my background and available times on week for studying, feel free to use it and adjust it to you own pace.
Being said that...
Get yourself use to read and read
Asumming that you have passed written and you feel like all the theory needed is covered I can assure you, that's not true. Even if you have passed the written you still need to read and re read technology and also be able to understand pros and cons of each design. A general rule that I can say is that to any desig you will need to be able to find the pros and the cons, if you can't you're just being shortsigthed and you're missing to cover all points in a given design. For this aspect is also key to get a group study, so let's talk about this one too.
Be in a group and collaborate as much as you can
Some guys claim that studying alone is the way that best suits them, that can be great if you're a giving a IE level exam or any written, but for DE is completely the opposite. I do really like to do this comparison and say that if you study alone you're just a vlan with a polarized HSRP gateway, despite of the nerd comparison what I do really mean is that you can't argue anyone! and that is not good at all, since I don't expect guys that argue for everything but I do expect people that say their point of view and discuss also why they have thought that caveat or pro in a proposed design. And remember discussions are a good thing, just like other good stuff don't abuse to them and use it carefully.
The methodology that we use in our group was to check one scenario every week, we set up call on weekend and on week we study by ourselves. You can use the scenarios in Orhan and Martin Duggan book, but since we run out of scenarios what we made is split ourselves in group of two and make modifications to create a specific scenario that cover some specific design concern, I do recommend you that in this "split" you choose to create scenarios based on your areas of expertise (in my case it was SP and DC :) )
My study methodology prior to lab was aprox 6hs per day (Monday-Friday), and 4hs sessions on Saturday. This by two months... and assuming that you have cleared written (i cleared mine long ago) and you have good design expertise (if not i will recommend you another 2 months of study), in my case I have near 13 years of expertise working on huge companies (like design scenarios hehe) and last 6 years on a Service Provider (who divest itself into two, nice scenario for CsC we made in real life!)
For lab strategy I can summarize my key points, some of them you will find it along a lot of posts, but this was really useful for me:
Color scheme for highlighting
I do really quick reading and that has a caveat, you can omit stuff, so be sure that you read all of the sentences and also take a color scheme to highlight information. I choose a real simple one: Green is good design option taken, Red is bad design or caveat on design, Yellow is constraint or requirement. I want to use pink for IGP info but i realize that info is so mixed that in second scenario I back to the roots and only use those three.
Be a chameleon
This is the mind status that you have to reach in the exam, you will have to be a chameleon to read all requirements and constraints and be ready to transform yourself in the designer of ABC Company to take the best choice, But inmmediately , in next scenario you will transform yourself into a Service provider architect being part of team who is evaluating X or Y technology. All this happens really fast and you have plenty of info around you to support you in this transformation, what you need is the ability to quickly focus in the job role that they have assigned to you, gather the info and take the best shot.
Suboptimal routing still works right?
I do really love to do comparisons of real life and technology and in this case I can think in suboptimal routing as a wrong (or not so good) branch in exam. If you have readed all Cisco Live material of DE you may be aware that in scenarios there is always several branches based on your selections, so even if you're not in the best branch you can get points (STOP! if you're not reading Cisco Live info for DE take a moment to review that, is key to understand exam flow). So in the time frame of an scenario the branch will become your life, so being able to manage bad decissions is important, because you will realize that you don't choose the best path (trust me, it happens) but they will provide you options to understand why you make that choice and you will have to choose the not so good and not so bad option to be able to continue, so don't get worried suboptimal routing still works :) and we know next time you will not face same mistake :)
Hope this help all the next aspirants, those new and those not so new. Also for those which have passed lab, congrats! and inputs are always welcome.
Friday, February 24, 2017
CCDE... happy ending
10:25 AM
Well guys, you may note that I was out of blogging for a while, and there was a reason behind that... CCDE was so time consuming, I spend at least 4 to 6 hours last two months with a my awesome study group debating scenarios, design choices and pros/cons of each of them... it was real hard, it requires ****a lot**** of reading but definitely worth it!! Past Feb 22nd I pass the lab, it was at my first attempt and I feel very lucky about that but it was really about training, reading, understanding and debate with my colleagues what make me succeed, I will write down a post with strategy and training used as well, but at this moment just want to take me some time to write down this line and congratulate all my friends and colleagues who have taken the CCDE lab, passed or not, was a real good experience and an amazing learning!
Keep you updated guys :)
CCDE 2017::27
Keep you updated guys :)
CCDE 2017::27
Friday, January 13, 2017
About Writtens and CCIE DC written prep
10:05 AM
I'm constantly been asked of several things about certs, and particularly about written exams. In this post I will try to summarize two things, one is my personal belief and the second one is the study method / reading list that I followed up.
So, lets start by saying a bad word... dumps. Lot (and i mean a LOT) of people asks me "which dumps have you used to clear XYZ?", "I'm waiting till dumps get more accurate" and so on... My answer is always the same: "you can do whatever you want, but think if time spent by reading questions worth it", how much time do you spend by reading a series of 2^20 Qs? And by memorizing them? And it gets better, do you enjoy that process? If you do, just skip this post since you're not going to need the book list and start thinking if you can memorize cards in a casino, maybe you get a bigger reward ;) if you don't... don't feel silly, we are at least two guys (And believe me I know a lot of people who enjoy the process of reading books instead of memorizing Qs)
Also, another thing that i really want to point out about this is that I know that Cisco is working really hard to overcome dumpers by releasing new Qs everyday (maybe that is too much, but they are working on it, believe me)
Well, after all the introduction setted up (feel free to comment if you agree or not), I will post my study methodology for writtens and my book list for DC (v1, sorry guys.. I will post the books readed for v2 but for written i took v1 in beggining of 2016).
Study methodology
- Read the blueprint at cisco cert page and topics included in written (https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/certifications/ccie_data_center/written_exam/exam-topics)
- Start by identifying the topics that you (think) master and those you definitely don't.
- Mix reading of topics you don't know anything of with those that you do, this is key to avoid being overwhelmed by new stuff (your brain will thank you)
- Always take notes! For CCIE written exams and similar certs you have to note down those concepts and configuration maximums/limits that you will never remember in real life!
- To use as a guide, be sure that you have a section on your notes for each protocol that is in the blueprint, i.e. for FabricPath you should have at least this info:
"Running per Supervisor Engine, on a per-VDC basis:● FabricPath IS-IS - SPF routing protocol process that forms the core of the FabricPath control plane
● DRAP - Dynamic Resource Allocation Protocol, an extension to FabricPath IS-IS that ensures network‑wide unique and consistent Switch IDs and FTAG values
● IGMP - Provides IGMP snooping support on FabricPath edge switches for building multicast forwarding database
● U2RIB - Unicast Layer 2 RIB, containing the “best” unicast Layer 2 routing information
● M2RIB - Multicast Layer 2 RIB, containing the “best” multicast Layer 2 routing information
● L2FM - Layer 2 forwarding manager, managing the MAC address table
● MFDM - Multicast forwarding distribution manager, providing shim between platform-independent control-plane processes and platform-specific processes on I/O modules
Global components that run on each of the I/O modules, processing forwarding information from each VDC and programming it into the I/O module hardware:
● U2FIB - Unicast Layer 2 FIB, managing the hardware version of the unicast Layer 2 RIB
● M2FIB - Multicast Layer 2 FIB, managing the hardware version of the multicast Layer 2 RIB
● MTM - MAC table manager, managing the hardware version of the MAC address table"
Well I think that finally a book list is expected:
- NX-OS and Cisco Nexus Switching: Next-Generation Data Center Architectures, 2nd Edition
- I/O Consolidation in the Data Center
- Storage Networking Fundamentals: An Introduction to Storage Devices, Subsystems, Applications, Management, and File Systems
- Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) (Data Center): A Complete Reference Guide to the Cisco Data Center Virtualization Server Architecture
- Policy Driven Data Center with ACI, The: Architecture, Concepts, and Methodology
- Cisco Live docs, don't you use that? You're missing a GREAT resource
- BRKDCT-2404 VXLAN Deployment Models - A Practical Perspective
- BRKDCT-2370 - Intermediate - End-to-End Application-Centric Infrastructure Automation with UCS Director
- BRKDCT-2049 - Overlay Transport Virtualization
- BRKDCT-3237 - Advanced - Versatile architecture using Nexus 7000 with a mix of F and M modules to deliver FEX, FabricPath, Multihop FCoE, MPLS and LISP all at the same time
- BRKDCT-3145 - Advanced - Troubleshooting Cisco Nexus 5000 / 2000 Series Switches
- BRKDCT-3378 - Advanced - Building simplified, automated and scalable DataCenter network with Overlays (VXLAN/FabricPath)
- Also lot of blogs... I will write down my RSS feeds soon :) there is really smart people near us :)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
