7200emu.hacki.at

[einval]

Hi,

I want to thank Chris, Greg and Alexander for their outstanding work, enabling me to prepare and successfully pass the CCIE security lab yesterday (#19533).

Guys, without dynamips, dynagen and this site I would have missed a lot, not only for the exam, but for my job too. You did an awesome job giving the network community such a great tool.

So, thanks again and all the best!

(As requested, I have added my study story below)

Well, it was kinda long journey for me. I work in the network field since 1999. and I also knew about the CCIE since then. I met several people that have a CCIE and it was a dream for me to become one. Due to my job (and various other excuses), I never started the journey and also didn't jump on the certification train until 2006.

Then I realized that I need a challenge to break out of my daily work scheme. Also, I got tired of doing lots of stuff that I can do good, but without a deep and thorough understanding of technology. There were also other personal reasons, but this were the main drivers.

So in 04/06 I started with the CCNA (man, I was nervous before my first exam ) and studied until my CCSP and the IE written in 11/06. I don't think that having the NA and SP certification itself are really necessary (the content truely is), but for the IE written prep, the content delivered for passing the various SP exams helped a lot.

Due to the blueprint change and also again for work reasons, I started lab preparation in 07/07 by purchasing the two lab workbooks from internetworkexpert.com and their recorded technology class. I also scheduled my lab seat for December, forcing me to stay focused - and yes, I did that for every exam in the past - it really helps to stay on track and not finding excuses over and over again for NOT doing things right now.

The Vol1 (tech labs) were really helpful in closing knowledge gaps and to get familiar with configuration and especially verification steps. There are some topics that are not covered deeply like AAA and IPS, but it was sufficient. It took me 1.5 months to complete it.

Now I started to practice the 10 labs from Vol2. I really changed the way I'm used to work. No more 10-14 hrs of work every day for my clients; I finished straight after 8 hours, went back to the hotel and started labbing for at least 4-5 hours every day. On the weekends, I practiced the whole Saturday. During lab practice over the week, I recognized the areas that need improvement (for example AAA and NAC). On Sundays, I did some homebrew mini scenarios on my weak spots to close the gaps by reading first and then trying to implement again.

During the first round, I generally found myself reading a lot univercd docs and books again to really understand what the questions want from me and what I can do to answer them. Also, the workbook solution have errors in it (at least from my understanding), and you are forced to think over and compare the solution presented in the book and the solution you had done. This isn't a bad thing at all; makes you move your lazy ass and look behind everything

I finished the 10 labs roughly after 1 month (mid of October). Now the second round started. I did 1-2 labs during the week (spread over the evenings) on my home equipment, and I also scheduled rack rentals for every Sunday where I did a full lab simulated in 8 hours.

One week before the lab (Sa-Fr), I did simulated labs every day. You cannot underestimate time management and preparing yourself under the stress the real lab puts you on - this is a key to pass. So I followed the hints from various sources on building a strategy. I found the time/point tables extremely useful to track my progress during the day (http://www.internetworkexpert.com/seminar.htm, Lab strategy).

When I started lab preparation, I never could imagine how the hell I shall achieve about 15 points per hour. Surprisingly, this wasn't that hard after all (thanks to the points/time table again). Also, I learned quickly the 'let go' method - leaving a task you cannot solve right now. Sounds simple, but when I'm in the middle of troubleshooting, I tend to not pay attention to time anymore. And time is one thing that is very limited in the lab. During the real lab, I had one task I couldn't resolve first so I had to leave it, The weekend before the lab I didn't do any practicing anymore. On Sunday, I read through some additional stuff at cco, but nothing more. The rest was relaxing.

I drove to Brussels on Monday and spent the whole Tuesday in the hotel, waking up late, watching some movies etc. - no lab stuff at all. The only thing I did was watching the internetworkexpert lab strategy seminar once again. I didn't slept very well (fall asleep at 2:30 am), but this doesn't matter. All the excitement and the adrenaline I experienced shortly before the lab started eliminated the lack of sleep. I also was concerned about my smoking addiction, but I never had the feeling to need a cigarette during the whole day. Believe me, this is something I would not survive on a normal day

I was quite comfortable with both the lab environment itself and the exam content - the workbook study really paid off here! The proctor did a very good job in the introduction, and I was calm during the whole day (I expected the opposite, to be honest).

After the exam, I drove home. During that drive, lots of thoughts went trough my brain during recap of the exam and more and more doubts were there - this was really bad, since I felt very comfortable with everything I did during the day. I arrived home around midnight, but no email from cisco was there. I got the mail with the score report in the morning. I cannot express how nervous I was logging on to the CCIE webpage to find out whether I passed or not, and it was a great relief to see the good news.

Some hints I can give to candidates for preparation:

The key to my success was good preparation. The workbooks are very good, but they can only guide a candidate. You really need to identify your weak spots and improve there on your own - the workbooks point your nose there, but cannot help you much in closing the gaps. If you have the slightest doubt, start to read on the topic and then do focussed practice.

The configuration examples at CCO and especially some articles in the TAC case collection are really helpful!

Really important: try to find a study buddy. A workbook isn't a thing you can ask questions to if you have doubts and forums/mailing lists sometimes also don't help and can contribute more to overall confusion than to help solving your very special problems. Dont get me wrong, they are great for quick answers, but you really need to figure things out on your own on the console. Its good to have a friend you can discuss problems/findings with very extensively on the phone or via IM, a mailing list/forum is really too slow for this type of conversation.

For documentation: After I started practicing, I tried to use www.cisco.com/univercd for all my daily work. Even I did not needed it a lot on the real exam, being familiar with it is also a key to pass.

The security CCIE is a little bit more demanding on equipment due to the firewalls, the concentrator and the IPS. I build up a home lab:

http://www.internetworkpro.org/wiki/CCIE_Security_Home_Lab_with_dynamips_%26_Co

that I used for the first and second round of practicing as well as for all the 'mini labs'.

One last tip for preparation: if you read a config scenario on the web or in a book and find it interesting, or see people seeking for help (thanks, #cisco ) , try to implement it. There is nothing better than solving real word problems, especially in areas where you are weak at.

My conclusion is that becoming a CCIE is all about dedication and staying focussed. I didn't count the times over the last six month where I was tired about sitting there every day and seeing all the questions over and over again. Did I gave up - NO. The more I progressed, the stronger I got - and to jeopardize the time I already invested by giving up the whole thing become and no-no more and more. Its hard, but its worth it.

There is no better feeling than sitting in front of a box and configuring stuff right out your head that required me extensive documentation research a year ago. Do I really need to be a CCIE for getting this feeling - NO. But I needed the practice and especially the understanding of technology to come to that point. And if you have that, you can add the highlight to it by taking the CCIE lab exam.

[conspathas]

Congrats mate! Well done and welcome to the family!

[Dzordz]

Great going Einval

Always glad to hear someone passed Tha Lab!

[mbensalem]

congrats and well done

[wayn]

Congrats! Well done, einval. And your contribution on the ips on vmware is appreciated.

[denmarcj]

congrats man, nice work

[danshtr]

Congratulation!!!

Please post your study story

[ciscomaniac]

HI Einval,

Congrats! . How were you feeling, while working in lab exam? Can I workout with all the emulators available. I'm worried for 3550 switch as I can not emulate this one. :

[thumpercisco]

Awesome, great job and congratulations

[mbensalem]

Congrats !!!, well done

[hacki]

congratulations.

h.

[knight]

Congratulations man

i want to say that your sucess story will great help others it is awesome and encourging who plan to take ccie exam i realy appriciate your contribution


Thanks