CCIE R&S Studies Start Now!

I am finally starting the journey that is the CCIE R&S. My study plan is for 20 hours a week of study time. That will be broken down to two hours per weekday and ten hours spread throughout the weekend. I will be keeping a spreadsheet that I have nicknamed my “CCIE Time Card” that will be used for record keeping of start/finish time and what was studied on that date.

My study materials will consist of:
Books
CCIE R&S 4th Edition OCG
Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 2nd Edition
Routing TCP/IP Volume 2
IETF and IEEE Docs
Cisco Docs

Videos & Workbooks
IPX Blended Learning Solution

Practice Exam
Boson Ex-Sim Max

My study method will be to read about a topic from multiple sources, watch a video about the topic, lab up the topic, figure out where I am lacking on the topic, reread sections of the topic I feel I am lacking in. I think this will be good to start off but I do realize there will be some modifications as time goes on.

Three quotes I will be keeping handy as the journey goes on:
“Don’t memorize. Learn it.”
“The CCIE pursuit is a marathon and not a sprint.”
“Be honest to yourself in your assessment of your knowledge about a topic.”

I am hoping to use this blog a lot more in the future for notes, labs, observations from my CCIE studies, so stay tuned!

CCDP Squashed!

Last Friday I pass my CCDP exam on the second take. The first sitting was close to a pass so I knew I just needed to hit the areas I was weak in and come back at it soon after the fail. I used the FLG and most of the RFCs and design guides that are referenced in the FLG. I have to say the design track is definitely not my favorite when it comes to testing but the subject matter is about as interesting as it gets.

I am thinking of taking a month off from studying before picking up on the CCIE Written studies but as it goes for most of us that are addicted to networking, I’ll probably start up my studies in a week or so. 🙂

I made a quick question to one of my bosses today about if they would pay for training materials from INE or IPX and he said that it wouldn’t hurt to fill out a req and he’ll see what he can do. That news might make my bank account not have a heart attack.

I don’t think they are many materials I really want to get for the CCIE Written outside of the most often recommended books. I am thinking about getting the IPX CCIE Written VoD though. I always like to start out slow with the videos before digging in deep with the books.

We’ll see.

CCDA Notes – WAN

Additions/subtractions needed? Let me know.

WAN Categories

1. Circuit Switched – created only when needed. i.e. ISDN and dial-up.
2. Leased Lines – dedicated connection. TDM based.
3. Packet switched – shared bandwidth using virtual circuits. i.e. Frame Relay.
4. Cell Switched – ATM
5. Broadband – xDSL, Cable, Wireless

Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)

1.  Multiple channels such as voice, video, and data can be combined
2. DS1 or T1 provides 24 time slots of 64kbps each and one 8 kbps control time slot

Frame Relay

1. NBMA
2. DLCI = L2 addressing
3. LMI reports VC status.
4. LMI has 3 types. Cisco, ANSI, Q.933A. Auto tries all three.
5. Multipoint interfaces require L2-to-L3 address resolution. Done via inverse-ARP or static “frame-relay map”.
6. Physical interface is multipoint by default. i.e Serial0/1
7. Static L2-to-L3 mappings override dynamic mappings.
8. “frame-relay interface-dlci <dlci #>” on point-to-point subifs. LMI does not communicate DLCI number on subifs.

Inverse-ARP

1.  Enabled automatically when a supported protocol is cfgd. i.e. “ip address 8.8.8.8 255.255.255.0”
2. Requests are sent out all circuits assigned to the interface for all supported protocols.
3. Requests can be disabled via “no frame-relay inverse-arp”. Replies can not be disabled.
4. Automatically supports multicast/broadcast via a replicated unicast.

SONET/SDH

1. Circuit-based ring topology.
2. Optical
3. ATM or Packet Over SONET(POS)
4. Optical carrier rates. i.e. OC-1 =51.85 Mbps  OC-255=13.21 Gbps

CCDA – Enterprise Composite Model

More notes.

Enterprise Composite Model
1) Still leverages the hierarchical model.
2) Modular:
    a) Enterprise Campus
    b) Enterprise Edge
    c) Enterprise WAN
    d) Enterprise Data Center
    e) Enterprise Branch
    f) Enterprise Teleworker
3) Enterprise Campus consists of:
    a) Campus Core
    b) Building Distribution
    c) Building Access
    d) Edge Distribution
    e) Server Farm / Data Center
4) Enterprise Edge consists of:
    a) E-Commerce
    b) Internet / DMZ
    c) VPN / Remote Access
    d) Enterprise WAN
5) Service Prodvider Edge consists of:
    a) Internet
    b) PSTN
    c) WAN Services
6) Remote modules:
    a) Enterprise Branch – site-to-site VPNs
    b) Enterprise Data Center – high speed LAN
    c) Enterprise Teleworker – remote access VPNs

CCDA Notes – Hierarchical Model

Missing anything? Let me know and I’ll update/correct.

Hierarchical Model
1) Easy to understand
2) Cost savings
3) Modular
4) Easily modified
5) Facilitates summarization
6) Fault isolation

Core Layer
1) Move data as quickly as possible
2) Reliability
3) Redundancy
4) Fault tolerance
5) No filters or other overhead
6) Limited, consistent diameter

Distribution Layer
1) Implement policies
2) Security
3) QoS
4) Redundancy and load balancing
5) Summarization
6) Policy routing
7) Routing between VLANs
8) Redistribution
9) Media translations
10) Define multicast and broadcast domains

Access Layer
1) High availability
2) Port security, ARP inspection, VACLs
3) Broadcast control
4) QoS and trust boundary definition
5) PoE
6) STP