IEWB VOL 1 VER 5, Early Impressions
A lot of people work differently, and when it comes to preparing for CCIE lab everyone has a different strategy.
Me, I am more of a reader than a handyman :) that is to say, I spend most of the time reading and far less time labbing. Even in the time I lab, I spend most of time making short labs, testing technologies than doing full scale labs. One reason is that I only have 10 dynamips IEWB full scale labs and I already did them twice anyway.
Recently I requested Brian Mcghann and Petr from InternetworkExpert to allow me access to their Vol 1 Beta labs and very generously they did. I am a customer of IE but due to financial constraints, I bought only first 10 dynamips labs and so the vol 1 beta access wasn’t automatically there for me.
While I am going through the labs, I must say I am impressed and there is also a feeling of déjà vu. My company financed Narbik’ bootcamp and hence I received his advance technologies workbook. I loved that. Basically Narbik took a technology and beat that to death. Quite similar approach of these Beta labs. When it comes to me, I’d prefer such approach above all other that is to learn everything about a technology rather than doing 40 full scale labs. Even before I went to Narbik’s bootcamp, my method of preparation was to read say 15 pages of documentation a day, and lab them up in small labs on dynamips. Narbik’s labs saved time I spent for cooking up a topology to test a feature.
I have not seen existing versions of Vol 1, but from what I heard those were very basic. These beta labs are not.
Though I am waiting for OSPF, security and QOS Vol 1 labs, and only after that I can rate these VOL 1 labs completely, I have to admit, I really liked these labs up till now. I even learned one new feature of EIGRP which is EIGRP stub routing with leak maps. If I were to advise anyone on how to prepare, my advice would be to go through Narbik’s Advance Technologies Workbook or( if by that time these VOL 1 labs are out) these VOL 1 beta labs, very slowly.
Do each technology in a week, and not only do the labs, read documentation about every feature and learn it properly. And at the end, do 10-20 full scale labs.
Anyway here are my initial impressions of the labs.
Bridging and Switching:
As I mentioned, my idea of technology labs is to cover all about a technology.
I feel bridging and switching sections should include small labs on following topics
IRB (Integrated Routing and Bridging). Of course, we’ll use routers for this J but technology wise the feature should be here
DAI (Dynamic Arp Inspection) (Though this topic can be potentially included in security. As I mentioned I need to see the security and QOS, before having a complete idea, as many feature I’d like to see can fall under switching as well as under these two topics. For me, DAI is more of a switching topic.)
MVR (Multicast VLAN Registration) And IGMP snooping, IGMP Profile commands etc. But then again, these features may have been covered in Multicast sections. Also IGMP snooping and DAI are inter-related, so for me these should be a part of switching.
SDM Templates
More explanation in lab 1.18. Trunk ether channel over DOT 1 Q tunnel can cause a lot of problems, if we are not sure of STP and VTP paths throughout our network. Instead of shutting down the links that can cause problems, these problems should be explored.
Port Security. ( Again, can be covered in security beta labs)
Frame Relay:
I again learned a new feature, bridging over frame relay and I thought I knew everything about frame relay.
Excellent
RIP:
Excellent labs,
Covering all the topics I think are necessary to learn RIP.
EIGRP:
I learned a new feature here. I can’t make it work though on dynamics unless I add the match interface option in Eigrp Stub Leak Route map.
This needs more research on my part though.
I’ll lab this up over the weekend, and maybe right a tutorial after understanding the feature completely.
Also, I believe strategy wise, IE is on right track.
I’ve known people going through full scale labs rigorously. This approach of learning everything, before doing full scale labs is what I’d recommend and I’ve followed.
I am really looking forward to QOS section, especially Catalyst QOS.
Let’s see how comprehensive those labs would be.
Me, I am more of a reader than a handyman :) that is to say, I spend most of the time reading and far less time labbing. Even in the time I lab, I spend most of time making short labs, testing technologies than doing full scale labs. One reason is that I only have 10 dynamips IEWB full scale labs and I already did them twice anyway.
Recently I requested Brian Mcghann and Petr from InternetworkExpert to allow me access to their Vol 1 Beta labs and very generously they did. I am a customer of IE but due to financial constraints, I bought only first 10 dynamips labs and so the vol 1 beta access wasn’t automatically there for me.
While I am going through the labs, I must say I am impressed and there is also a feeling of déjà vu. My company financed Narbik’ bootcamp and hence I received his advance technologies workbook. I loved that. Basically Narbik took a technology and beat that to death. Quite similar approach of these Beta labs. When it comes to me, I’d prefer such approach above all other that is to learn everything about a technology rather than doing 40 full scale labs. Even before I went to Narbik’s bootcamp, my method of preparation was to read say 15 pages of documentation a day, and lab them up in small labs on dynamips. Narbik’s labs saved time I spent for cooking up a topology to test a feature.
I have not seen existing versions of Vol 1, but from what I heard those were very basic. These beta labs are not.
Though I am waiting for OSPF, security and QOS Vol 1 labs, and only after that I can rate these VOL 1 labs completely, I have to admit, I really liked these labs up till now. I even learned one new feature of EIGRP which is EIGRP stub routing with leak maps. If I were to advise anyone on how to prepare, my advice would be to go through Narbik’s Advance Technologies Workbook or( if by that time these VOL 1 labs are out) these VOL 1 beta labs, very slowly.
Do each technology in a week, and not only do the labs, read documentation about every feature and learn it properly. And at the end, do 10-20 full scale labs.
Anyway here are my initial impressions of the labs.
Bridging and Switching:
As I mentioned, my idea of technology labs is to cover all about a technology.
I feel bridging and switching sections should include small labs on following topics
IRB (Integrated Routing and Bridging). Of course, we’ll use routers for this J but technology wise the feature should be here
DAI (Dynamic Arp Inspection) (Though this topic can be potentially included in security. As I mentioned I need to see the security and QOS, before having a complete idea, as many feature I’d like to see can fall under switching as well as under these two topics. For me, DAI is more of a switching topic.)
MVR (Multicast VLAN Registration) And IGMP snooping, IGMP Profile commands etc. But then again, these features may have been covered in Multicast sections. Also IGMP snooping and DAI are inter-related, so for me these should be a part of switching.
SDM Templates
More explanation in lab 1.18. Trunk ether channel over DOT 1 Q tunnel can cause a lot of problems, if we are not sure of STP and VTP paths throughout our network. Instead of shutting down the links that can cause problems, these problems should be explored.
Port Security. ( Again, can be covered in security beta labs)
Frame Relay:
I again learned a new feature, bridging over frame relay and I thought I knew everything about frame relay.
Excellent
RIP:
Excellent labs,
Covering all the topics I think are necessary to learn RIP.
EIGRP:
I learned a new feature here. I can’t make it work though on dynamics unless I add the match interface option in Eigrp Stub Leak Route map.
This needs more research on my part though.
I’ll lab this up over the weekend, and maybe right a tutorial after understanding the feature completely.
Also, I believe strategy wise, IE is on right track.
I’ve known people going through full scale labs rigorously. This approach of learning everything, before doing full scale labs is what I’d recommend and I’ve followed.
I am really looking forward to QOS section, especially Catalyst QOS.
Let’s see how comprehensive those labs would be.