CCIE R&S v4.0 Lab Exam Demo Video

On forums I find a lot of people asking about the interface used for the CCIE R&S Lab exam. Around 6 months ago, Cisco released a video with a tour of the interface, the narrator is not the most exciting in the land but you get the general idea and feel of the lab:

CCIE R&S v4.0 Lab Exam Demo

"This demo will familiarize candidates with the online interface that has replaced paper exams, which presents the virtual topology, test questions, documentation and tools. Strongly recommended for all candidates"

CCIE R&S::Things to remember after 12 days of bootcamp - Part 2

I went to a bootcamp on September and wrote "Things to remember after 12 days of bootcamp", I just got back from another one, so here is Part 2:

• Do the initial verification / diagramming / check for 0.0.0.0 mappings in the first 10 minutes. The idea here is to check that the initial configs on the devices match the diagram and if there are any 0.0.0.0 mappings on Frame-Relay, reloading the routers ASAP. Useful commands sh run | i no, sh ip alias, sh frame-relay map
• Even reading word by word, I was missing critical bits in the questions so I decided to read the questions twice and after I had done the configuration, reading the question again to see If I missed anything. Focus on key words such as "industry-standard" and "proprietary protocol".
• Identify Core vs Non-Core tasks, this is useful when deciding if its really worth it to spend 30 minutes on a 2 points VRF-lite question.
• Debugs are good, I did use them a lot more this time, specially debug ip routing during the mock labs and debug ip icmp.
• Test reachability with tcl, the script I used was basic but to the point:
• foreach ip {
• 10.10.10.1
• 192.168.1.2
• 172.16.1.3} {ping $ip rep 2}
• Tackle troubleshooting in layers, is this adjacency not coming up because an issue with Layer 2 or Layer 3?
• The DocCD is our friend, use it.
• Time management and tracking skipped tasks is critical.
• Verify, verify, verify and after that verify again. This is so important, you might fix an adjacency on a trouble ticket and think thats it, but then it turns out you had distance 255 configured in the routing process, so no routes and no points there.
  

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.
  

Guide to CCIE Lab Locations: Brussels

Great video from IPExpert Short walk around CCIE Lab location in Brussels, Belgium.