King of the Stupid...averted

So, what dummy works his but off for the prized certification of CCIE, and then comes within two weeks of losing it? Well folks that would be me. Thinking that July 16th 2011 would never come, I procrastinated for over a year in re-certifying my CCIE.


For those unaware, Cisco requires all of their CCIEs to re-cert within a 3 year period or become "inactive". Basically, that means you have no standing with Cisco with regards to your CCIE. You maintain your cherished number, but neither your employee nor you get any of the perks that with go along with you being a CCIE. The re-certification is the same written test that potential CCIE's take as a qualification exam. And this qualifies them to take the CCIE lab.

Well, about 2 weeks ago I figured I would finally go about the process of studying. I figured that would give me a chance to take it (heaven forbid) 3x before that fateful day. The stupidity of my actions really took hold over the last two days, when I had vision of getting into a car accident that put me in the hospital for 2 weeks.

The thing is, my current job is highly technical. But who in the world remembers all the BGP Dampening suppress limits, the logical direction of WCCP flows or the default root priority (49162) when enabling Backbone Fast. To prepare I used my Safari Book account and glossed over quite a few things. However, I read CCIE Routing and Switching Certification Guide cover to cover, all 985 pages of it.

Today I went into the testing center confident this would be a failed attempt. But alas, I came out golden. I must say that the test has a real shotgun feel to it. Nothing is really focused on, and it seems to search for generalist knowledge of IP.

I must say that there is absolutely no way a CCIE candidate can judge their preparedness for the CCIE lab based on this test. Not that there is a zero level of difficulty to it, but it’s simply a million miles away from the actual lab. I wonder if any candidates take this test and assume that it's a barometer for the lab? I certainly would hope not.

Security+

Took the Security+ (it's a DOD 8570 thing). The company paid for a 2.5 day bootcamp in preparation. Also, as an added benefit, at the end of the 2.5 days they administered the test right there in the classroom.

The instructor (Ed Varney) did a great job and the course was presented and paced well. He pretty much had his lecture nailed down to the minute, which is great for people like me who have the attention span a sparrow. Too much deviation from the subject at hand and I'm gone. I end up somewhere in the ether with thoughts going between what I’m going to eat for dinner and who the Knicks should pick up in the off-season. But Ed moved along and provided enough enthusiasm in his course to keep me mentally on earth and in the classroom.

I had not taken a CompTia exam since circa 1994 and didn't know what to expect. The course prepared me for the CompTIA way of thinking which was quite valuable. In the end, the test was fair and I would assume 95 percent of the class passed.  Maybe this will kick-start some CISSP studies.

Star Size Comparison HD

Has nothing to do with networking, but a pretty cool video.  Although, it needs a bit of updating, R136A1 is now king!

Storage Area Networking from Dell

So, I'm in a 3 day SAN class hosted by Dell. The focus appears to be focused around their CLARiiON series product. My hope is that this class combined with my previous knowledge of SAN will allow me to achieve some sort of certification. No doubt a vender agnostic one, and more importantly entry level (someone say SNIA??)!  The class has been promoted as combining quite a bit of theory, with the specifics of the product line. We shall see.

UPDATE:

The class was very good. The instructor was on point and a good amount of theory was covered. Pretty much everyone had more SAN experience, so it was interesting to hear their war stories. I also found ways to leverage my existing SAN (a NetApp), in a more efficient manner. Also, for my next SAN purchase, I will really consider the Dell/EMC (CLARiiON) solution. Still by no means a SAN expert, but I really love the underlying technologies like FC, iSCSI, FC/IP, FCoE etc.

ccie@cisco.com: Certifications expiration notice - 60 days

Ok, this is getting serious.  I've got to start studying for this thing.

CCIE: You need to recertify in three months

Got the dreaded email today.   Oh god....

ICSI Netalyzr

Netalyzr is a nice little tool for testing/verifying/reviewing your current network performance and configuration.  Once logging into the site a small java applet is downloaded to your computer, it then goes about doing its business.   Another nice feature is that EICAR is downloaded along with the applet(EICAR .eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm).  EICAR tests anti-virus/anti-malware software.

Per the FAQ:


Netalyzr is developed by the Networking Group at the International Computer Science Institute, an independent non-profit research institute affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, USA.


FYI..After the test has been completed hit the "+" button at the top to view the results more granularly.

RIPv2...The hard way!

Narbik Kocharians CCIE# 12410 (R&S, SP, Security) has created a 7 hour CCIE level lab simply testing RIPv2.  

Now, RIPv2 has a lot more power than its given credit for, and has had various enhancements throughout the years; but a 7 hour lab?  For anyone who wants to try it Narbik has make it freely available.

It can be downloaded here: http://www.systemwise.eu/RIP2.0.rar

Per Nabik's instructions:
You have a topology.doc file, print the file and look at the topology as you configure the lab.


You have a “initial-config” directory, which contains all the initial configuration files, open the ”RIPv2-Init.txt” and copy and paste the configuration onto the routers and begin the lab.


You should use the “Questions.pdf” when you are configuring the lab, and before you move on to another task, read the “Questions-Answers.pdf” and compare the answers.
 
Good luck!

JNCIA-EX completed.

Ok ok, so it's not the most prestigious or coveted cert in the world. However, I really enjoyed learning about Juniper switches. They make an outstanding product and will really push Cisco with these switches.

The features on their 4200s are outrageous, and I'm not sure any Cisco switch is even close to this poweful that has a fixed design. I'm very impressed.

I'm really interested in WAN acceleration/optimization and will now pursue Juniper's WX certification.

Juniper JNCIA

Currently, working on my JNCIA certification which is Junipers version of Cisco's CCNA. I've looked over the JUNOS Cookbook and now reviewing JUNOS for Dummies.

I'm relying on my existing knowledge to carry me through the technical aspects of the certification (maybe a mistake!). I'm looking to these books to help me with JUNOS syntax. I'm very impressed with JUNOS and have found that it compares very well to Cisco IOS.

As for real work exposure, my current position has me deep in Cisco gear. However, I do support a limited amout of Juniper equipment. Enough to be impressed.

Ernest

Welcome to my blog!

This is a technology centric blog. Most of my blog will consist of things networking. However, I'll also try to inject the topic of wine as much as possible.

Professionally I've been doing a lot of product evaluation as of late. Everything from network analysis tools to network based hard-drive encryption.

I'm currently aiming for a some Juniper certifications and preparing for the JNCIA. I'll keep the status of this endeavour updated.

All are welcome!