Things to remember after a 12 Day CCIE R&S bootcamp

Things to remember after 12 days of bootcamp:

• Don't assume anything.
• Read exactly what the question asks of you, even if it means doing it word by word.
• Read the entire lab, twice if possible, and try to setup dependencies (eg: trunks->vtp->vlans).
  
• The diagrams are always correct (eg: if it says Vlan20, it means that the IP address should be on a SVI and not the Physical interface)
• Cut & Paste when possible.
• Do wr often.
• Time management is critical, set a time-frame for troubleshooting and enforce it. Getting stuck 20/30 minutes on a single 2 points task is not the way to go.
• Make sure you are doing the configuration on the correct device, no points for applying perfect QoS on the wrong router.
• Interface level dot1x commands don't appear if the interfaces are in dynamic mode.
• If you are told "there is a syslog server at 10.10.10.10", be sure to check you have a route to get to 10.10.10.10
• Clock rate is your friend.
  
• Check for 0.0.0.0 mappings in frame-relay. I lost points on PIM related tasks for leaving them on the router (great explanations here).
• Check default commands disabled such as: no ip classless, no ip subnet-zero, no ip cef, no service prompt config (more). Easy way of checking most of them: sh run | i no
  
• Look out for kron tasks and EEM doing nasty things like changing the enable password or killing a routing process.
• "When doing redistribution from BGP prefixes into OSPF, you should make sure that OSPF ASBR Router-id matches originating BGP router ID."
• Use TCL/Macros on SWs for reachability tests (more info). Example: 
• macro name PING
  do ping 1.1.1.1
  do ping 2.2.2.2
  @
  
  You can then use it on the switch:
  
  Switch(config}#macro global apply PING
• Verify, verify, verify and after that verify again.