|
0:00:14
|
So let's take a look at our final CCIE Voice Advanced
|
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0:00:16
|
Technology class module.
|
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0:00:19
|
Arguable one of the most important.
|
|
0:00:21
|
Obviously knowing and understanding all of the
|
|
0:00:24
|
technology is absolutely critical to having an effective
|
|
0:00:31
|
pass attempt at taking the lab exam.
|
|
0:00:36
|
However, it's almost -- if you think about it in one way
|
|
0:00:40
|
it's almost an assumption that you are really technically an expert
|
|
0:00:44
|
going into the exam or at least that's the idea is that
|
|
0:00:47
|
you are an expert and you prove it to them, however,
|
|
0:00:51
|
just knowing the information, the concepts, the ways
|
|
0:00:56
|
that the technologies work individually as well as
|
|
0:01:00
|
interwork with each other
|
|
0:01:01
|
is not enough. We have to have an overall strategy
|
|
0:01:06
|
in order to hope to have a passing chance at this
|
|
0:01:12
|
lab exam and that strategy we're going to take a look at
|
|
0:01:14
|
comprises many things, many different tactics
|
|
0:01:18
|
including one of the most important being your overall
|
|
0:01:23
|
time management or time budget that you set aside
|
|
0:01:25
|
and we'll take a look at that almost last and then
|
|
0:01:28
|
last we'll take a look at a study plan and take any
|
|
0:01:30
|
questions.
|
|
0:01:33
|
So first of all, CCIE preparation overview
|
|
0:01:37
|
depending on where you're at in your studies how far
|
|
0:01:41
|
along you are, you may have already done some preparation
|
|
0:01:46
|
you may be coming directly out of CCNA/CCNP Voice
|
|
0:01:51
|
what used to be called CCVP. You may have
|
|
0:01:54
|
skipped that altogether.
|
|
0:01:57
|
Everyone watching this may be in a different place
|
|
0:02:01
|
but one of the things that we certainly like to stress is
|
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0:02:04
|
books, books and more books.
|
|
0:02:06
|
So read a lot.
|
|
0:02:08
|
Read Cisco documentation, read the various guides for the servers.
|
|
0:02:13
|
The administration guides, the server guides, features and services
|
|
0:02:18
|
guides, system guide
|
|
0:02:22
|
security, definitely read the SRND
|
|
0:02:27
|
Make sure for instance the CUCM SRND
|
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0:02:30
|
has 1040 pages at this point or actually
|
|
0:02:35
|
I think it's 1024 pages in this current if you're
|
|
0:02:40
|
watching this for the 7.0 version if it's -- you're watching it and we've
|
|
0:02:43
|
updated it. The 8.0 has a little bit more, I think
|
|
0:02:46
|
it's actually got -- the 8.5 has maybe over 1100 pages
|
|
0:02:50
|
but regardless, all 1024 pages in the CUCM SRND are
|
|
0:02:55
|
going to be worthwhile to you. There might be a couple that
|
|
0:02:57
|
are ancillary and probably outside of the realm of the
|
|
0:03:00
|
testable topics such as things dealing with security
|
|
0:03:04
|
and things dealing with the overall design consideration
|
|
0:03:08
|
some of the AAR and PSTN dialing as a centralized
|
|
0:03:15
|
variant for instance, that's probably in no way really
|
|
0:03:19
|
applicable to the lab, but outside of a few, a handful of
|
|
0:03:23
|
pages, maybe a 100 tops, every other page in that
|
|
0:03:27
|
CUCM SRND is gold and while you may or may not recall
|
|
0:03:32
|
everything at a 100 percent retention rate, if you read it
|
|
0:03:37
|
and I would even argue or try to make the case to read it
|
|
0:03:40
|
twice if I were you, but if you read it all, you will at least
|
|
0:03:44
|
have mental place holders, mental queues or markers
|
|
0:03:49
|
so if you are in the lab exam and the CUCM SRND is on your
|
|
0:03:54
|
desktop and you happen to know or remember some
|
|
0:04:00
|
buzzwords, some keyword regarding a requirement
|
|
0:04:04
|
or task that's being asked of you, you can at the very least
|
|
0:04:08
|
open up that CUCM SRND in Adobe Reader which you will
|
|
0:04:13
|
have on your desktop, your candidate desktop and do a
|
|
0:04:17
|
control F and either manually go through the table of contents
|
|
0:04:21
|
or do a control F, a find, and effectively search
|
|
0:04:24
|
within that document for the place, the buzzwords,
|
|
0:04:28
|
the keywords, the stuff that you know is in there.
|
|
0:04:30
|
So I highly encourage you to read the CUCM SRND.
|
|
0:04:35
|
There's a QoS SRND and these can be gone to and
|
|
0:04:40
|
we'll actually take a look at them together
|
|
0:04:44
|
by going to cisco.com's /go/srnd
|
|
0:04:48
|
which takes you to the design zone guides that's kind of a
|
|
0:04:51
|
shortcut redirect URL and if you click on view all design
|
|
0:04:56
|
guides, you will see the enterprise QoS SRND
|
|
0:04:59
|
it's version 3.3 from November of 2005, it is older, but it is
|
|
0:05:04
|
the one that is still on your candidate desktop.
|
|
0:05:08
|
So there are certain portions of that, not the whole thing
|
|
0:05:10
|
that I would certainly recommend reading not only all of the LAN
|
|
0:05:14
|
and WAN QoS concepts, but also the specific LAN QoS
|
|
0:05:23
|
as it pertains to the 3550 -- I'm sorry, not the 3550
|
|
0:05:28
|
as it pertains to the 3560/3750/ I think it's 2970 is the other one
|
|
0:05:34
|
that shares the same QoS architecture, but none of the other LAN switches
|
|
0:05:38
|
unless you're just interested, but that one LAN section
|
|
0:05:42
|
of course will help you with the exam since the 3750 is
|
|
0:05:45
|
what's on there and then also the link specific WAN link specific
|
|
0:05:53
|
access section and specifically where it talks about frame relay
|
|
0:05:58
|
and then also frame relay to ATM internetworking
|
|
0:06:02
|
because that can deal with multilink PPP which you could
|
|
0:06:05
|
be tested on even though you don't have of course ATM in the exam.
|
|
0:06:10
|
Read through the technology tips, the tech notes as they were
|
|
0:06:14
|
on CCO or on the documentation website
|
|
0:06:20
|
and then don't forget, don't minimize help for this page.
|
|
0:06:24
|
You don't need to necessarily look to that in your self-study time
|
|
0:06:27
|
or I should say you don't necessarily need to read from
|
|
0:06:30
|
that page. I would practice while you're going to search
|
|
0:06:34
|
for something maybe a URL or anything else
|
|
0:06:38
|
for an IP phone service which typically are in features and
|
|
0:06:42
|
services guide, things of that nature. I would maybe practice
|
|
0:06:46
|
going to help for this page. The website, the Cisco documentation
|
|
0:06:50
|
website it will probably be a little bit of a faster
|
|
0:06:55
|
webpage refresh, the server that's serving it is going to be
|
|
0:06:58
|
faster although of course it will be across the WAN
|
|
0:06:59
|
you're working on or browsing the live, real Cisco documentation
|
|
0:07:04
|
website, it's not a offline or cached version
|
|
0:07:08
|
however, what if the content series switch that effectively
|
|
0:07:12
|
allows you to get to that documentation website
|
|
0:07:14
|
and blocks everything else therefore blocking the
|
|
0:07:18
|
search functionality in the Cisco documentation website
|
|
0:07:21
|
to be noted as well as blocks anything else outside of that
|
|
0:07:25
|
base URI of -- I think it's effectively cisco.com/en/us/products
|
|
0:07:34
|
is the base URI and if everything else falls underneath that, you
|
|
0:07:36
|
can gain access to it in the lab exam, but what if that
|
|
0:07:40
|
content series switch is down?
|
|
0:07:42
|
And rarely happens, but I've heard of it happening.
|
|
0:07:47
|
You have access to all of these guides, the administration
|
|
0:07:50
|
guide, the system guide, the security guide, the features and
|
|
0:07:54
|
services guide, even the security guides for all of the servers
|
|
0:07:57
|
and what's nicer is that as you click on help for this page in
|
|
0:08:02
|
either CUCM or even CUE, but certainly Unity Connection
|
|
0:08:08
|
CUPS and even the UCCX not only can you open up and find
|
|
0:08:17
|
information directly context related or context sensitive
|
|
0:08:21
|
to the page that you happen to be on if that's what you're
|
|
0:08:23
|
looking for, but if you just open it up in order to be able to
|
|
0:08:26
|
click over on the right -- and we'll take a look at this in just
|
|
0:08:29
|
a moment -- the right button that says search and then change
|
|
0:08:33
|
the option from search this book like the administration
|
|
0:08:36
|
guide or the system guide to change it to search all books
|
|
0:08:41
|
then you can literally search for whatever it is you need
|
|
0:08:44
|
throughout all of the particular books.
|
|
0:08:46
|
Now that might be a little bit too much in terms of the
|
|
0:08:49
|
number of results that it's going to return, you certainly
|
|
0:08:52
|
don't want to return so many results that it ends up confusing
|
|
0:08:56
|
you a little bit more, causing you to take a little bit more time
|
|
0:08:59
|
to parse, but it can be very powerful and so don't minimize
|
|
0:09:04
|
help for this page and use it in your self-study time because
|
|
0:09:07
|
any habits that you end up making or utilizing in your
|
|
0:09:11
|
self-study time, those are the things that will carry over
|
|
0:09:14
|
into -- carry over with you into the lab and your actual test
|
|
0:09:18
|
taking experience. Don't kid yourself and say, 'Oh, well I will
|
|
0:09:23
|
use this particular tip or this particular way of doing something
|
|
0:09:28
|
in the lab exam when I take it, however, in my self-study
|
|
0:09:32
|
time, I don't really want to practice with it. It might slow me down
|
|
0:09:34
|
but I'll use it when I get to the lab.' Don't kid yourself
|
|
0:09:37
|
or don't fool yourself, you won't do that.
|
|
0:09:39
|
Maybe there's a few of us that can follow through with that
|
|
0:09:42
|
discipline, but it's not even so much necessarily a discipline
|
|
0:09:47
|
as it is just something that is, is a default go to as I call it.
|
|
0:09:52
|
So I mean it's just something that you will by default
|
|
0:09:54
|
go to in your mind or automatically begin doing
|
|
0:09:58
|
and if you practice with using things such as
|
|
0:10:02
|
the CUCM SRND, reading it, knowing where to go
|
|
0:10:05
|
or help for this page, those will -- and the
|
|
0:10:08
|
more that you use that in your self-study time, those
|
|
0:10:10
|
will be the habits that you'll develop that will carry over
|
|
0:10:13
|
with you into the actual test taking exam.
|
|
0:10:17
|
Now using CCO and when we say CCO, this is probably a
|
|
0:10:22
|
much older term, it's probably not even used anymore I don't think
|
|
0:10:25
|
it refers to Cisco Connection Online. This used to be called
|
|
0:10:29
|
the Universe CD, 100 percent of the information there
|
|
0:10:33
|
was migrated over quite some years ago into what's
|
|
0:10:35
|
now called the Cisco documentation website, so this is going to cisco.com
|
|
0:10:40
|
clicking on support and then clicking on one of the other
|
|
0:10:43
|
options such as either maintain and operate or
|
|
0:10:46
|
configure and then the link that you get to there that
|
|
0:10:50
|
is the default shortcut that will be on your CCIE candidate
|
|
0:10:55
|
desktop in the actual lab exam and that's the only
|
|
0:10:58
|
section and therein subsections of configuration, documentation
|
|
0:11:04
|
product documentation that you'll have access to in the lab
|
|
0:11:08
|
but one of the things that you can do before you get to
|
|
0:11:11
|
the lab in terms of your self-study time
|
|
0:11:17
|
is to
|
|
0:11:20
|
whoops, sorry about that
|
|
0:11:25
|
is to -- ok, I think we're done.
|
|
0:11:27
|
Sorry about that.
|
|
0:11:29
|
....is to use either Bing or Google to search within the documentation
|
|
0:11:35
|
website and this is really for those of you who
|
|
0:11:40
|
or for times, probably at sometimes all of us will
|
|
0:11:44
|
find ourselves in the situation where we don't know what
|
|
0:11:47
|
to click on from that documentation website
|
|
0:11:51
|
directly, so in fact, let's just go ahead and
|
|
0:11:57
|
look over at that.
|
|
0:11:59
|
Let me just pull up web browser here real briefly.
|
|
0:12:05
|
In fact, I'll just go to cisco.com and I'll show you. We'll click on support
|
|
0:12:16
|
and from here we will go ahead and...
|
|
0:12:23
|
from here we'll go ahead and we'll click on either configure or
|
|
0:12:27
|
troubleshoot or install or whatever.
|
|
0:12:30
|
And then we'll actually, once we're here, we notice that we're
|
|
0:12:33
|
at the product technology support
|
|
0:12:36
|
but we're at the subsection of configure for whatever products
|
|
0:12:39
|
or technology we go ahead and choose. I'm just going to go
|
|
0:12:43
|
ahead and click backup here because we this URL up here
|
|
0:12:45
|
cisco.com/cisco/web /psa/configure.html
|
|
0:12:50
|
and if I click on product technology
|
|
0:12:53
|
we see it actually goes to default.html, this is the
|
|
0:12:56
|
link that you will have a direct shortcut already on your desktop
|
|
0:13:02
|
in the actual lab exam, so this is where you should begin from.
|
|
0:13:06
|
And so if you know where to navigate, maybe we're going
|
|
0:13:08
|
to switch it, so we go to LAN switches, we want
|
|
0:13:13
|
Quality of Service, so we're on products
|
|
0:13:15
|
switches
|
|
0:13:17
|
LAN switches access
|
|
0:13:19
|
and 3750
|
|
0:13:21
|
and then we know to go to configuration guides
|
|
0:13:25
|
and to search on one of the various releases.
|
|
0:13:28
|
Either the latest release is probably fine
|
|
0:13:33
|
or else maybe 12.2(46) if that's what's exactly in the lab
|
|
0:13:36
|
and then maybe we know to go to configuring QoS
|
|
0:13:40
|
for instance
|
|
0:13:43
|
over here on the left and we can do a control F
|
|
0:13:46
|
find within this page or if it's something else
|
|
0:13:49
|
and we're not sure on the left what to go to
|
|
0:13:52
|
we can go to the main page, download the entire book
|
|
0:13:55
|
even in the lab in Adobe PDF format and then open it up
|
|
0:14:00
|
in Reader which it will probably automatically do by default
|
|
0:14:03
|
upon completion of download and then do a control F and
|
|
0:14:07
|
find within there or search within there.
|
|
0:14:11
|
But let's say for instance that we didn't know in this particular
|
|
0:14:14
|
page where to go. We can grab -- and actually I'm going to
|
|
0:14:18
|
go back to where I was.
|
|
0:14:20
|
Notice that the new URL
|
|
0:14:23
|
or the new base URL for all products is assuming the
|
|
0:14:28
|
English US language
|
|
0:14:30
|
which the lab is given I think everywhere except in probably
|
|
0:14:34
|
China and Japan I actually heard recently from someone that took
|
|
0:14:37
|
it there I can't really confirm this that the language is actually
|
|
0:14:40
|
given in native Chinese Mandarin and then Japanese if you're taking it in
|
|
0:14:48
|
in Japan, but I can't confirm that, but everywhere else
|
|
0:14:51
|
it's given in US English, so this is the base URI
|
|
0:14:55
|
so we can always open up let's say Google
|
|
0:14:59
|
and say site: and say http www.cisco.com/en/us/products
|
|
0:15:10
|
space and then our search criteria and from there
|
|
0:15:16
|
we end up putting whatever search criteria we want, so
|
|
0:15:21
|
maybe 3750 QoS
|
|
0:15:25
|
and what we find is only search results that are
|
|
0:15:29
|
relative to this not only cisco.com but the entire -- they contain the
|
|
0:15:34
|
EN US products URI in their base URL.
|
|
0:15:41
|
And so for instance configuration examples. Now of course this is not
|
|
0:15:45
|
available to you in the actual lab exam. I'm not suggesting that
|
|
0:15:48
|
it is. What I'm suggesting is that if you practice with
|
|
0:15:51
|
this in your self-study time and you didn't know where to
|
|
0:15:54
|
navigate to originally from this root directory or
|
|
0:15:59
|
root link, you can use this other method to find what you
|
|
0:16:05
|
need, so let's go to configuration examples
|
|
0:16:10
|
and what we can note is the left hand hierarchy
|
|
0:16:15
|
so we have Cisco Catalyst 3750 QoS configuration examples
|
|
0:16:19
|
troubleshooting tech notes, troubleshooting and alerts
|
|
0:16:22
|
Cisco Catalyst 3750 switches
|
|
0:16:25
|
switches and then the top not home and support
|
|
0:16:28
|
because those two aren't accessible in the lab, but the
|
|
0:16:30
|
top as far as or the root or base directory
|
|
0:16:34
|
as far as what is relative to the lab exam which is product
|
|
0:16:37
|
support, so if we're back here in product support
|
|
0:16:40
|
we can say -- what was the next one? Switches.
|
|
0:16:44
|
Ok, let's go to switches.
|
|
0:16:48
|
Then what was the next one? Catalyst 3750 series switches.
|
|
0:16:52
|
Ok, so let's go to that and I don't see that, so I would
|
|
0:16:54
|
have to try to intelligently pick one which it's going to
|
|
0:16:58
|
be LAN switches.
|
|
0:17:00
|
And then it's Catalyst 3750 series, ok.
|
|
0:17:04
|
And then where was it? Troubleshoot and alerts.
|
|
0:17:08
|
So here we have troubleshoot tech notes
|
|
0:17:13
|
troubleshooting guides
|
|
0:17:17
|
this is a troubleshooting tech note we see.
|
|
0:17:19
|
So probably troubleshooting tech note.
|
|
0:17:23
|
And then from there configuring or Cisco Catalyst 3750 QoS configuration
|
|
0:17:28
|
examples.
|
|
0:17:32
|
And here it is. Cisco Catalyst 3750 QoS
|
|
0:17:35
|
configuration examples.
|
|
0:17:37
|
Now, maybe that didn't have exactly what we were looking for.
|
|
0:17:40
|
Ok, notice these are the same page.
|
|
0:17:44
|
But maybe it got us at least to the close part and we
|
|
0:17:48
|
said if it's in troubleshooting tech notes and then QoS
|
|
0:17:51
|
maybe it's in install guides and then QoS or maintain and operate
|
|
0:17:56
|
or configuration guides and we'll look in one of those.
|
|
0:17:59
|
Choose our IOS release and find QoS.
|
|
0:18:02
|
And that's just one example, but the specific or main point
|
|
0:18:07
|
of what I was trying to get to is using Google to be able to
|
|
0:18:11
|
search between these and then using the left
|
|
0:18:15
|
hand hierarchy to navigate your way back and then
|
|
0:18:20
|
use that -- back here again
|
|
0:18:24
|
....use that main page to try to navigate your way
|
|
0:18:27
|
back down and then back up and then back down couple
|
|
0:18:31
|
times and it will be locked in your memory and you won't
|
|
0:18:34
|
have to worry about how to navigate the documentation
|
|
0:18:39
|
website when it comes to that particular
|
|
0:18:43
|
technology or product or issue when you get to the lab.
|
|
0:18:47
|
You'll have done it enough times.
|
|
0:18:49
|
Ok, so again, how to navigate CCO. If it's something that
|
|
0:18:54
|
you -- first of all, you're probably not going to be dealing with
|
|
0:18:57
|
the technology support
|
|
0:18:59
|
subsection too much hopefully not in the lab
|
|
0:19:01
|
exam. If you don't know that standards or you don't know
|
|
0:19:03
|
how, I mean I suppose if you need some access to an RFC
|
|
0:19:07
|
standard and you're not really sure what is
|
|
0:19:09
|
RFC 2833, you forget that for some reason and you might
|
|
0:19:13
|
want to look it up and remember that it's RTP NTE
|
|
0:19:16
|
for instance, that might be one example, but
|
|
0:19:19
|
I don't think there's much of a case for saying
|
|
0:19:24
|
or reasoning that you'll be using technology support
|
|
0:19:28
|
in the actual lab exam and just to reiterate what that
|
|
0:19:32
|
is if I come over here, this is the technology
|
|
0:19:35
|
subsection where you're really looking at the base
|
|
0:19:38
|
root technology or fundamental understanding. Hopefully you're
|
|
0:19:42
|
well beyond that by the time you get to the lab exam.
|
|
0:19:44
|
But the products are probably where you'll spend most of your
|
|
0:19:47
|
time and within those products
|
|
0:19:51
|
you will probably spend most of your time if it's IOS either
|
|
0:19:55
|
Catalyst IOS which is under LAN access switches or
|
|
0:19:58
|
router IOS which is actually under the IOS section
|
|
0:20:01
|
you'll probably spend most of your time in the configuration
|
|
0:20:04
|
subsection of those. If it's related to one of the
|
|
0:20:07
|
servers, you'll most likely spend your time in the maintain and
|
|
0:20:10
|
operate guides
|
|
0:20:13
|
or possibly configuration guides.
|
|
0:20:15
|
CME it would be configuration guides, CUCM and Unity Connection
|
|
0:20:20
|
and CUPS it would be more likely the maintain and operate
|
|
0:20:24
|
or even sometimes the installation guide for things like UCCX
|
|
0:20:29
|
where you're dealing with trying to find the IP phone
|
|
0:20:32
|
agent, that's in the CAD installation guide we showed.
|
|
0:20:36
|
And whether you'll have access to tech notes or not in the lab
|
|
0:20:39
|
has always been a debated topic. You should have
|
|
0:20:42
|
access to tech notes
|
|
0:20:43
|
in terms of being able to look at them from the Cisco
|
|
0:20:47
|
documentation website at your candidate desk.
|
|
0:20:50
|
There have been reports time and again although very sparse
|
|
0:20:55
|
where someone didn't have access and that's probably
|
|
0:20:58
|
just a bit of an over restrictive content series switch at the
|
|
0:21:02
|
particular facility. I haven't heard of any facilities in at least a year
|
|
0:21:06
|
that have had any issues get into tech notes, but then again
|
|
0:21:09
|
I also haven't had too many students become CCIE candidates
|
|
0:21:13
|
that have gone and needed to look at the tech notes
|
|
0:21:15
|
because more often than not, they're just needing to
|
|
0:21:18
|
grab a few bits of information like a URL or something like that for
|
|
0:21:22
|
an IP phone service out of the configuration or maintain and
|
|
0:21:25
|
operate guides.
|
|
0:21:27
|
Taking a look at what to expect the day of your lab.
|
|
0:21:31
|
Taking a look at maybe what to bring, what not to bring.
|
|
0:21:36
|
This actually varies from facility to facility.
|
|
0:21:40
|
So it's not a bad idea if you have planned to bring something
|
|
0:21:43
|
in to maybe -- and this is actually a good idea
|
|
0:21:47
|
anyhow is -- especially if it's either your first CCIE exam
|
|
0:21:51
|
or your first exam in a long time, maybe you haven't been
|
|
0:21:55
|
to the lab in a year, maybe you took route switch, but you haven't been
|
|
0:21:58
|
back in a couple years or maybe you took the voice exam
|
|
0:22:03
|
over a year ago and you're just not sure what to
|
|
0:22:07
|
really expect for this current blueprint version or something
|
|
0:22:10
|
like that, but it might be a really good idea
|
|
0:22:16
|
especially if it's your first exam ever to go and
|
|
0:22:19
|
visit the facility the night before.
|
|
0:22:22
|
And so what do I mean by that?
|
|
0:22:24
|
Well, let's say that you get to whatever city unless it
|
|
0:22:28
|
happens to be your home city where the lab exam will be
|
|
0:22:32
|
proctored or administered
|
|
0:22:35
|
and if you're renting a car it's a good idea to drive
|
|
0:22:39
|
that route, make sure there's no unexpected construction.
|
|
0:22:45
|
If you're going to take a taxi or cab the next day
|
|
0:22:48
|
it might be a good idea to do the same thing that night
|
|
0:22:51
|
in fact, it's I think that's probably one of the best
|
|
0:22:53
|
ideas is to take a taxi, they probably know the fastest
|
|
0:22:57
|
ways to get there, they know their way around any
|
|
0:22:59
|
local construction and as well, when you take it the next
|
|
0:23:03
|
or sorry that night before your actual lab exam, you can
|
|
0:23:07
|
ask the cab driver if there's any high volume of rush hour
|
|
0:23:11
|
traffic that you might not be expecting or factoring in
|
|
0:23:15
|
to your time the next day.
|
|
0:23:19
|
Is there typically a lot of rush hour traffic in the morning
|
|
0:23:22
|
at what times is that? How much extra time would you recommend
|
|
0:23:28
|
that I leave in order to get there on time?
|
|
0:23:30
|
Taxi drivers tend to have a really good feel for that
|
|
0:23:33
|
kind of information and be able to give you good information.
|
|
0:23:35
|
So not only can they provide you with a little bit of good
|
|
0:23:37
|
information like that the night before, they can
|
|
0:23:40
|
drive you the route to the facility, you can get there.
|
|
0:23:43
|
Sometimes numbering, address numbering or even building
|
|
0:23:47
|
lettering if it's building A, B, C, D, E, F such as it is in
|
|
0:23:52
|
San Jose for instance, sometimes that can be confusing and so
|
|
0:23:56
|
that's another good reason to go there the night before
|
|
0:23:58
|
find the exact entrance
|
|
0:24:01
|
door, building, everything that you need to know
|
|
0:24:07
|
so that you're not surprised or in any way running late the
|
|
0:24:11
|
next day and then go in and talk to the lobby ambassador or
|
|
0:24:16
|
receptionist and find out if they're willing to -- and depending on the
|
|
0:24:20
|
time you go, you may yield better results than others, but ask them
|
|
0:24:25
|
if you can speak with the proctor and typically if you go about a
|
|
0:24:28
|
half hour to maybe at the most an hour before that
|
|
0:24:32
|
particular facility or that particular site's CCIE candidates
|
|
0:24:38
|
are done for the day and just look at the start time to have
|
|
0:24:41
|
a good estimate on the finish time, then typically the proctors
|
|
0:24:45
|
have -- and again, this is just typical, this is just
|
|
0:24:50
|
generally speaking -- have finished answering most of
|
|
0:24:52
|
the questions for the day because the CCIE candidates
|
|
0:24:56
|
in the last hour to half hour of their
|
|
0:24:59
|
possible configuration time are -- they've asked their
|
|
0:25:03
|
questions, their heads are down, they're buried and they're trying to
|
|
0:25:05
|
make everything work and there's a few people
|
|
0:25:08
|
that have probably sailed through and really met their
|
|
0:25:15
|
time budgets real well and might be asking a few questions, but
|
|
0:25:18
|
the proctors tend not to be too busy. They're towards the end of their day
|
|
0:25:22
|
they're getting ready to go home as well or maybe stay
|
|
0:25:24
|
and grade, but they're usually more so open to outside people
|
|
0:25:30
|
coming in and asking questions at that time and so you might
|
|
0:25:34
|
just want to go in and kind of just a great idea to
|
|
0:25:38
|
kind of brush off the nervous jitter by stepping foot in the
|
|
0:25:41
|
lab exam room itself and typically the proctors will be
|
|
0:25:45
|
more than happy to take you back and just show you what's
|
|
0:25:48
|
going on, you just have to be quiet and don't say
|
|
0:25:50
|
anything real loud to disturb the other candidates
|
|
0:25:56
|
but then you can also find out what to expect in terms of
|
|
0:25:59
|
what you can bring, so for instance in RTP
|
|
0:26:03
|
in Raleigh, North Caroline in the US
|
|
0:26:05
|
you can't bring colored pencils. They provide those for you
|
|
0:26:09
|
as well as regular pencils or pens; however, in San Jose
|
|
0:26:13
|
it's always been my experience that you can bring colored pencils
|
|
0:26:16
|
and they don't provide them for you. They'll provide a regular
|
|
0:26:18
|
pencil for taking notes, but not colored pencils.
|
|
0:26:24
|
Drinks and snacks like protein bars or especially if you have
|
|
0:26:28
|
some sort of restrictive or special diet typically not a big
|
|
0:26:33
|
problem if you want to bring a coffee in or some sort of
|
|
0:26:38
|
energy drink or whatever, I don't recommend too many
|
|
0:26:41
|
of those, I took four red bulls in one day
|
|
0:26:45
|
and drank all four of them during one of my security
|
|
0:26:48
|
exam and was sort of shaking with so much energy that I
|
|
0:26:53
|
could barely type, so I don't necessarily recommend too much
|
|
0:26:56
|
but you know what works for your body the best
|
|
0:26:58
|
and typically that's not a problem as long as it's sort of a covered
|
|
0:27:02
|
or canned type drink. It's definitely a good idea
|
|
0:27:07
|
the day of your exam to show up at least 15 minutes early
|
|
0:27:10
|
I wouldn't show up too terribly early, you don't want to be there
|
|
0:27:13
|
an hour before, but you also don't want to show up
|
|
0:27:18
|
like on time or god forbid late, so you can show up
|
|
0:27:27
|
and I say this very cautiously, you can show up, up to I believe
|
|
0:27:32
|
it's two hours late at this point, it used to be one hour late
|
|
0:27:35
|
and not be turned away from your examination, so
|
|
0:27:39
|
still be allowed to take the test. If you show up more than
|
|
0:27:42
|
two hours late, they don't let you take the exam at all.
|
|
0:27:44
|
You forfeit your money, you forfeit your attempt, it's marked
|
|
0:27:48
|
as a fail, that's just the way it is.
|
|
0:27:50
|
If there's some mitigating circumstance maybe a
|
|
0:27:53
|
snow storm or some sort of inclement weather
|
|
0:27:56
|
locked you out, I have heard of proctors taking
|
|
0:27:58
|
one-off cases and maybe giving you a pass or a welter for a
|
|
0:28:01
|
retry, but that's not too often. You'd have to have a pretty good
|
|
0:28:06
|
convincing story and the weather would have to
|
|
0:28:07
|
probably back you up or something like that
|
|
0:28:09
|
just if you miss your plane or something like that
|
|
0:28:12
|
you overslept, that's not going to be good enough.
|
|
0:28:15
|
But you can show up, up to two hours late, you will not be
|
|
0:28:18
|
given the time that you show up late back,
|
|
0:28:21
|
so in other words, if you show up an hour late, you will not be
|
|
0:28:23
|
given eight hours, you'll be given seven hours.
|
|
0:28:25
|
You'll have the same start time as everyone else.
|
|
0:28:29
|
But I would recommend showing up 15 minutes early.
|
|
0:28:32
|
The lab times are different per facility just like
|
|
0:28:36
|
the restrictions of what you can bring and not bring
|
|
0:28:40
|
and those are all very clearly spelled out in the
|
|
0:28:44
|
e-mail that you received when you scheduled your exam.
|
|
0:28:47
|
So if you don't remember that or if you haven't scheduled it
|
|
0:28:50
|
yet, once you schedule it, you'll get an e-mail pretty
|
|
0:28:53
|
much same day probably within ten minutes
|
|
0:28:55
|
if not less and that will specify exactly
|
|
0:29:00
|
where to come, address, building number,
|
|
0:29:03
|
building letter etc.
|
|
0:29:05
|
and the start time. You want to be there 15 minutes early.
|
|
0:29:08
|
Now one of the bad ideas is personally speaking
|
|
0:29:11
|
I believe is to go to the exam 15 minutes early and to sit
|
|
0:29:16
|
in the lobby and listen or maybe even talk interact
|
|
0:29:21
|
with all the other candidates there and here's why I think
|
|
0:29:24
|
that and you might disagree and you might be a different type of
|
|
0:29:28
|
personality or test taker and that's fine, but here's my
|
|
0:29:31
|
personal take on that. I certainly remember
|
|
0:29:34
|
going and sitting for my first attempt at CCIE ever
|
|
0:29:38
|
which I actually took route switch back in 2002
|
|
0:29:42
|
with good old token ring and IPX and what was the other one?
|
|
0:29:48
|
Apple Talk and DLSW plus fun times.
|
|
0:29:52
|
But anyhow,
|
|
0:29:54
|
and I remember sitting out there in the waiting area
|
|
0:29:56
|
in San Jose and listening to the other candidates talk and
|
|
0:29:59
|
one person's talking about how impossible the lab is to pass
|
|
0:30:03
|
how it's his ninth attempt
|
|
0:30:05
|
and I'll never forget that and I sat there and I had never
|
|
0:30:08
|
been to a CCIE lab before and I thought, 'Are you kidding
|
|
0:30:11
|
nine attempts?
|
|
0:30:12
|
'Are you telling me that it's possible or maybe even
|
|
0:30:16
|
likely that I have to come back here six or seven or eight
|
|
0:30:19
|
more times? Come on.'
|
|
0:30:22
|
So it just put fear in me, fud, fear and certainty in doubt
|
|
0:30:25
|
that didn't need to be there and had no place and I wasn't
|
|
0:30:29
|
anywhere as underprepared as he was. I didn't pass
|
|
0:30:34
|
that time, but I wasn't nearly as underprepared as he was.
|
|
0:30:38
|
So I was in a different place and that's just
|
|
0:30:40
|
the thing you don't know where other candidates
|
|
0:30:42
|
are. I also remember a different CCIE attempt
|
|
0:30:46
|
and this was for Voice where I was sitting out in the lobby
|
|
0:30:48
|
in San Jose and listening to someone make a mention
|
|
0:30:53
|
about this being their fourth CCIE, all three of the others
|
|
0:30:57
|
of which they had passed on their first attempt
|
|
0:30:59
|
and so now I'm thinking, 'Oh, I suck. I'm terrible
|
|
0:31:02
|
I'm way behind the times, way behind the game
|
|
0:31:04
|
I have to step up my game mark.'
|
|
0:31:07
|
So there's just all sorts of chatter that doesn't really help
|
|
0:31:10
|
you mentally prepare for that day's tasks which is
|
|
0:31:14
|
getting in, reading your exam and executing it well.
|
|
0:31:17
|
And you already know what to do.
|
|
0:31:19
|
You already have your strategy, you're not going to
|
|
0:31:21
|
gain anything by talking to anyone, but you have a lot
|
|
0:31:23
|
to lose in terms of your mental preparation.
|
|
0:31:25
|
So go in either take some music or something that you'll
|
|
0:31:30
|
undoubtedly any electronic devices have to give to the proctor
|
|
0:31:34
|
typically even watches give to the proctor just to hold while you
|
|
0:31:38
|
take your exam or kind of pace back and forth outside the
|
|
0:31:41
|
building or do something else, but try not to just sit there and
|
|
0:31:44
|
listen to other people. Once you get in the exam
|
|
0:31:47
|
the proctor will come out and ask all the candidates to
|
|
0:31:50
|
join him or her in going back to the exam and they will
|
|
0:31:55
|
go over some basics that affect all candidates and they
|
|
0:32:00
|
may even go over some specifics to individual exams
|
|
0:32:03
|
such they'll go over basics for all the CCIE candidates and
|
|
0:32:07
|
then maybe they'll release the route switch and security folks
|
|
0:32:10
|
and maybe they'll talk to the Voice folks just a little bit more
|
|
0:32:14
|
and give them a couple other specifics that are --
|
|
0:32:17
|
or items of detail that are specific to
|
|
0:32:20
|
the Voice lab, but are general enough to be for all candidates
|
|
0:32:24
|
all voice candidates, then they'll release you
|
|
0:32:27
|
after they've assigned you your rack or your pod number
|
|
0:32:30
|
and you'll go sit at that seat and you will then begin to
|
|
0:32:34
|
open your entire book and we'll talk about this actually
|
|
0:32:36
|
a little more as we go on and read the entire exam
|
|
0:32:39
|
so we'll talk about his as we go on, but that will be the general format.
|
|
0:32:44
|
Ok, so there will be actually a time after the proctor has
|
|
0:32:47
|
given all the candidates some general information about the
|
|
0:32:51
|
exam that's common to everyone there will be some time for you to ask
|
|
0:32:55
|
and typically they'll even ask you or prompt you are there any
|
|
0:32:59
|
questions, so there will be a time to ask some general
|
|
0:33:01
|
questions of the proctor as it pertains to the lab
|
|
0:33:06
|
or CCIE lab in general.
|
|
0:33:10
|
What to expect as far as lab applications.
|
|
0:33:14
|
So you will be given a Windows XP or possibly
|
|
0:33:18
|
Windows 7 CCIE candidate desktop commonly with a 19 inch
|
|
0:33:23
|
flat-screen monitor and standard keyboard
|
|
0:33:27
|
so that actually plays a little bit into it in terms of the repetity
|
|
0:33:31
|
with which you type, how fast you type, how fluently
|
|
0:33:34
|
you type, if you're used to working on a laptop
|
|
0:33:36
|
depending on the size of the laptop and they're all
|
|
0:33:39
|
slightly different I know because as I help candidates
|
|
0:33:43
|
out throughout the live classes that I've held over the past six years
|
|
0:33:46
|
I'll come around and a candidate will ask me to assist him or her
|
|
0:33:50
|
at his or her workstation to troubleshoot a problem
|
|
0:33:53
|
and I'll politely ask if I can -- if they'll come up and join me
|
|
0:33:57
|
where I can use -- if they actually want me to sit down at the
|
|
0:34:01
|
driver's seat and do some configuration where I can use
|
|
0:34:04
|
my own laptop and mouse because every keyboard is
|
|
0:34:08
|
slightly different and I end up fat fingering, so hitting
|
|
0:34:11
|
keys and making syntax errors that I didn't intend on doing
|
|
0:34:14
|
and it's because of that that every laptop every keyboard's
|
|
0:34:17
|
a little different that I would plan on at some point at least
|
|
0:34:24
|
two weeks before your exam as you're doing back to back
|
|
0:34:26
|
to back mock labs, I would plan on getting a standard
|
|
0:34:30
|
sized, but I think maybe even earlier in your preparation
|
|
0:34:33
|
can help all that much more a standard size, regular
|
|
0:34:38
|
maybe USB keyboard or something like that
|
|
0:34:41
|
not ergonomic or anything out of the ordinary like that
|
|
0:34:46
|
and just using a standard US keyboard to try all of
|
|
0:34:49
|
your typing. Another thing is a number of keyboard outside the
|
|
0:34:54
|
US and it might be different depending on where you take it.
|
|
0:34:57
|
The lab will be administered in English, but the keyboard might be
|
|
0:34:59
|
local to that area, so for instance, if you take it at
|
|
0:35:03
|
Brussels, it might be a European style keyboard, but certain
|
|
0:35:08
|
things like for instance the pipe I always find or sometimes
|
|
0:35:11
|
the period, the dot sometimes those are mapped to different
|
|
0:35:15
|
keys on different localization keyboards, so it's a good idea to
|
|
0:35:19
|
practice with a keyboard as it will be when you actually
|
|
0:35:23
|
get to that lab exam to that facility and as well
|
|
0:35:28
|
so that you're practicing building up your speed
|
|
0:35:31
|
in typing by your repetitive tasks
|
|
0:35:35
|
on a full-size keyboard versus a laptop keyboard.
|
|
0:35:39
|
So you will have Microsoft Internet Explorer
|
|
0:35:42
|
on your desktop, you'll have Adobe PDF
|
|
0:35:44
|
Reader on your desktop, you will have Windows
|
|
0:35:48
|
Calculator and Notepad on your desktop.
|
|
0:35:51
|
And you'll have an icon for a terminal emulation
|
|
0:35:54
|
program one icon per device
|
|
0:36:00
|
and these will typically go to a reverse telnet through a
|
|
0:36:03
|
what's either called a terminal server or an access server
|
|
0:36:06
|
to the console port of your individual routers and switches.
|
|
0:36:11
|
And it might not be the best idea to troubleshoot
|
|
0:36:13
|
or do debugs and traces through 9600 baud
|
|
0:36:17
|
so you may want to establish and verify all your Layer 3
|
|
0:36:21
|
connectivity and then telnet to each of these devices.
|
|
0:36:25
|
You may be able to open up -- and I should go back and
|
|
0:36:28
|
say the terminal emulation software it depends on your
|
|
0:36:32
|
lab, all the route switch and security labs have already
|
|
0:36:35
|
moved to PuTTY, the Voice lab I'm not really sure whether
|
|
0:36:39
|
it's Secure CRT version 3 if it is Secure CRT by VAN DYKE software
|
|
0:36:43
|
v, a, n, d, y, k, a
|
|
0:36:45
|
sorry vandyke.com
|
|
0:36:50
|
but whether it's Secure CRT if it is, it'll be version 3
|
|
0:36:53
|
or whether it's PuTTY it shouldn't really make
|
|
0:36:55
|
much of a difference. The only difference really would be
|
|
0:36:58
|
maybe the look of the terminal emulator
|
|
0:37:02
|
the width of the font the color and very possibly
|
|
0:37:05
|
the control and paste -- sorry, copy and paste functions
|
|
0:37:09
|
so for instance, in Secure CRT it is control insert to copy and
|
|
0:37:14
|
shift insert to paste and in PuTTY it might still be
|
|
0:37:18
|
control C control V
|
|
0:37:20
|
you probably will always have the ability to right click and do
|
|
0:37:23
|
copy, right click and do paste.
|
|
0:37:27
|
But other than that, from the actual CCIE candidate
|
|
0:37:30
|
desktop, you may or may not have access to telnet
|
|
0:37:33
|
directly to the routers.
|
|
0:37:36
|
You will not have access to SSH directly to the routers
|
|
0:37:39
|
or sorry, to the CUCM and Unity Connection and CUPS
|
|
0:37:44
|
servers. What you will be able to do for both is
|
|
0:37:48
|
go to the XP not candidate desktop, but the utility
|
|
0:37:54
|
machine that's one of the virtual machines just like
|
|
0:37:57
|
all of your other CUCM servers and CUC connection, UCCX
|
|
0:38:04
|
all of these servers are VMware servers running in
|
|
0:38:07
|
ESX or ESXI
|
|
0:38:09
|
You'll also have an XP utility based VMware machine
|
|
0:38:13
|
that you can remote desktop protocol over to.
|
|
0:38:16
|
And from there, you will have PuTTY specifically
|
|
0:38:20
|
and you'll be able to SSH to your Pub and your Sub
|
|
0:38:22
|
and your UCCX and CUC and various servers
|
|
0:38:27
|
I guess not UCCX sorry, that's still a Windows machine
|
|
0:38:30
|
in the current version.
|
|
0:38:33
|
And you'll be able to open up a new PuTTY connection
|
|
0:38:35
|
and telnet directly to each of your routers for a lot
|
|
0:38:39
|
faster sys log to terminal screen paints and all of your
|
|
0:38:49
|
sys logging for your traces and debugs.
|
|
0:38:53
|
From the Microsoft Internet Explorer icon shortcut on your
|
|
0:38:56
|
desktop we mentioned it'll take you to a specific site
|
|
0:38:59
|
the Cisco documentation website you won't have access outside of
|
|
0:39:02
|
that, you can't search, but you can as we mentioned
|
|
0:39:06
|
find or control F within a page or within Adobe PDF
|
|
0:39:13
|
and you can have multiple windows, but you won't have any
|
|
0:39:15
|
tabbed browsing or tabbed terminal emulation.
|
|
0:39:23
|
You do have Windows Calculator and Notepad.
|
|
0:39:26
|
You can use Calculator to do things like verify QoS
|
|
0:39:28
|
calculations or whatever you need it for.
|
|
0:39:32
|
Ok, we already mentioned PDF reader for SRNDs
|
|
0:39:34
|
Windows Notepad
|
|
0:39:36
|
I can't stress what a useful tool this is in the lab exam.
|
|
0:39:41
|
First of all, you can back up all your configurations.
|
|
0:39:44
|
So when you get to the lab, you might just want to quickly
|
|
0:39:48
|
do a show run on all of your routers and switches
|
|
0:39:51
|
maybe even your CUE module and copy everything
|
|
0:39:56
|
one Notepad file per device and paste it over to Notepad
|
|
0:40:01
|
and save it to the desktop as something named intuitively
|
|
0:40:06
|
like START UP in all caps -R1 or -HEADQUARTER or MAIN SITE or
|
|
0:40:13
|
whatever it is and the reason for this is that there might be
|
|
0:40:17
|
some trouble -- well, effectively that's what I'm getting to, but there might be
|
|
0:40:22
|
some configuration already in there specifically for the
|
|
0:40:26
|
purpose of inherent troubleshooting. I wouldn't just to a sh run and see
|
|
0:40:30
|
anything that looks out of the norm and delete it
|
|
0:40:33
|
right away. I've done that I did that for a security
|
|
0:40:37
|
exam where I followed my own rules and did a show run on
|
|
0:40:42
|
all my devices and copied the output of each to
|
|
0:40:46
|
a PDF or sorry to a Notepad file and I actually copied
|
|
0:40:51
|
all devices to a single Notepad file I just had maybe the equal
|
|
0:40:55
|
sign or some sort of ASCII art to delineate between the
|
|
0:40:58
|
different devices and then I would
|
|
0:41:01
|
take a look at see what was out of the ordinary and
|
|
0:41:04
|
I went ahead and deleted or did a no or clear
|
|
0:41:08
|
to a few lines of configuration in a few devices that later
|
|
0:41:12
|
I realized they ended up -- they had put in there to help
|
|
0:41:15
|
me, not really to hurt me and I thought they were there to
|
|
0:41:18
|
sort of trip me up as inherent troubleshooting
|
|
0:41:21
|
since inherent troubleshooting is very much a part of all the
|
|
0:41:26
|
lab exams except for maybe the route switch lab exam which has
|
|
0:41:29
|
a completely separate dedicated section to troubleshooting.
|
|
0:41:32
|
Voice does not, the others do not and so therefore they
|
|
0:41:36
|
have inherent troubleshooting so that is initial configuration
|
|
0:41:40
|
loaded into the routers and/or switches and/or servers, CUCM
|
|
0:41:47
|
servers, whether it's service parameters or an example and
|
|
0:41:52
|
I tried to end up coming up with new and unique ideas
|
|
0:41:56
|
all the time. One of my labs that you may have seen
|
|
0:42:00
|
has a -- the SIP standard security trunk profile isn't so standard
|
|
0:42:07
|
it's actually set to encrypted, however, when you log on the
|
|
0:42:11
|
name seems to imply that it's everything's standard, everything's default.
|
|
0:42:15
|
So anything they could have changed ahead of time.
|
|
0:42:18
|
So don't just assume that anything is there to trip you up
|
|
0:42:22
|
it might be there to help you and that's why you just want to
|
|
0:42:25
|
copy the configurations from these devices over to Notepad
|
|
0:42:28
|
and the reason is, is that as you get on in your day
|
|
0:42:31
|
maybe you come to hour six out of the eight hours that you
|
|
0:42:35
|
have, lunch is not included for that time, so you do have a
|
|
0:42:39
|
full eight hours and you're working on something and all the
|
|
0:42:42
|
sudden whatever it is you're working on something doesn't
|
|
0:42:44
|
work and you suspect there's some inherent troubleshooting
|
|
0:42:48
|
some preconfiguration in one of your router devices
|
|
0:42:51
|
so you do something that I recommend you never do in
|
|
0:42:54
|
the lab which is show run enter
|
|
0:42:56
|
never do a show run enter
|
|
0:42:58
|
Why? Because it's going to return so much information
|
|
0:43:02
|
on your screen that a lot of it is completely it's miscellaneous
|
|
0:43:08
|
it's periphery information, it has nothing to do with what you're looking for.
|
|
0:43:12
|
Whenever you're doing a show run in the lab, you should -- I would
|
|
0:43:16
|
highly encourage you to become very familiar with all of the
|
|
0:43:18
|
output modifiers. You should always do a show run space
|
|
0:43:22
|
pipe space -- and the pipe if it's called something different
|
|
0:43:27
|
in other locales or cultures or languages, it's the two vertical
|
|
0:43:35
|
little lines stacked on top of each other, so pipe
|
|
0:43:38
|
to and then 's' for section which is one of my favorites
|
|
0:43:43
|
in a router, doesn't work in a switch, the others do
|
|
0:43:46
|
which is 'b' or 'i' or 'e' 'b' for begin at
|
|
0:43:50
|
'i' for include which will only include that one particular
|
|
0:43:52
|
line or any line with the search criteria or 'e' for
|
|
0:43:56
|
exclude, so an example sh ip int br | e the word unassigned
|
|
0:44:04
|
or unass is enough.
|
|
0:44:08
|
And that will show you any interfaces that have IP addresses
|
|
0:44:11
|
not any interfaces that do not have an IP address
|
|
0:44:14
|
and therefore are unassigned, so we're excluding that information.
|
|
0:44:17
|
But sh run | s voice and then the number of your dial peer
|
|
0:44:25
|
since the command is dial-peer voice number
|
|
0:44:29
|
so if you just do voice and then the number, it will show you
|
|
0:44:31
|
that one dial peer.
|
|
0:44:35
|
So things like that will return only the subset of
|
|
0:44:38
|
information that you need to look at on any given
|
|
0:44:40
|
time. Well if you're troubleshooting in hour six, you don't know what
|
|
0:44:43
|
you're looking for maybe because you're thinking well there was some
|
|
0:44:47
|
preconfiguration in there and so you end up doing a
|
|
0:44:50
|
show run enter and you get gobs of information
|
|
0:44:52
|
back, you've already got hours, literally six hours
|
|
0:44:56
|
of configuration input into the router and you -- it's like looking for a
|
|
0:45:00
|
needle in a hay stack, it's nearly impossible to find, but if you
|
|
0:45:04
|
go back to your original configuration and I mean keep in mind
|
|
0:45:07
|
when you get into the lab and you do a show run on let's see we
|
|
0:45:11
|
have three routers, we don't have access to the PSTN
|
|
0:45:13
|
one other switch, the other two switches at the sites
|
|
0:45:16
|
are Ethernet switch modules so that's four devices
|
|
0:45:19
|
and maybe a queue module. We're talking four or five
|
|
0:45:22
|
show runs with enter and probably not even
|
|
0:45:25
|
CUE because we'll probably do a factory default anyway
|
|
0:45:28
|
but maybe we'll go ahead and grab that configuration
|
|
0:45:30
|
if we can and paste them into a maybe a single Notepad
|
|
0:45:35
|
file with a bunch of dashes or equals or something
|
|
0:45:37
|
as ASCII art dividing or delineating the devices
|
|
0:45:42
|
this should take you two minutes literally.
|
|
0:45:44
|
It's not a long time, but then in hour six you can
|
|
0:45:47
|
go back to that file and scroll through and look at
|
|
0:45:50
|
just the very minimal configuration that was in there and find something
|
|
0:45:54
|
that might be sticking out.
|
|
0:45:55
|
And you'll have a lot better idea at that point of what it is
|
|
0:45:58
|
that should and should not be there.
|
|
0:46:01
|
So not only backing up your configurations, but dealing with
|
|
0:46:05
|
copy and paste. This is where Notepad is going to become
|
|
0:46:08
|
absolutely invaluable. Much of your IOS configuration
|
|
0:46:12
|
can and therefore probably should at least arguably so
|
|
0:46:15
|
be done in Notepad. Quality of Service for instance
|
|
0:46:19
|
and I'm actually going to talk about two things
|
|
0:46:21
|
regarding IOS configuration in Notepad, so the first thing
|
|
0:46:24
|
is copy and paste. If you input whatever it is that you
|
|
0:46:28
|
need for QoS on one device typically for QoS we want it
|
|
0:46:32
|
end to end and even if they don't have you configure
|
|
0:46:35
|
it on all devices because that's repetitive and
|
|
0:46:37
|
you've already proved your expertise in the task they
|
|
0:46:40
|
asked you for maybe say between corporate headquarters
|
|
0:46:42
|
and Branch 2, they might not have you do it between Branch 1
|
|
0:46:45
|
as well something like that.
|
|
0:46:48
|
You still need to do it on the corporate headquarter and
|
|
0:46:50
|
the Branch 2 router in that example.
|
|
0:46:53
|
And so go ahead and key it in, in the corporate headquarter
|
|
0:46:56
|
router because that will help to verify and make sure
|
|
0:46:59
|
your syntax is all accurate, but then copy -- do a sh run
|
|
0:47:03
|
| s just grab the sections you need and by the way,
|
|
0:47:06
|
you can grab multiple sections at a time with output modifiers
|
|
0:47:09
|
so you can do a sh run | s for section
|
|
0:47:15
|
space and you could say class- or even class-map
|
|
0:47:20
|
and then you can use the pipe again, don't put a space in between
|
|
0:47:24
|
it and the other unless you want that to be translated as
|
|
0:47:26
|
a literal space in your search criteria, but
|
|
0:47:30
|
say class-map|policy-|map-class| and you can add what those are
|
|
0:47:42
|
are logical ORs or Boolean ORs so it's looking for sections
|
|
0:47:46
|
that have either class-map or policy- or map-class or frame relay
|
|
0:47:54
|
interface dlci or even just -dlci or fill in the blank.
|
|
0:48:00
|
Ok, and you can return all that information very quickly
|
|
0:48:03
|
just the subset that you need versus having to hunt
|
|
0:48:05
|
and peck around in your configuration and copy and paste
|
|
0:48:07
|
different sections, copy the whole thing out of the router
|
|
0:48:10
|
paste it into Notepad, modify the variables
|
|
0:48:13
|
make sure that you don't paste things like IP addresses
|
|
0:48:17
|
from one router, copy them onto another
|
|
0:48:19
|
you won't have basic Layer 3 connectivity, but paste all that
|
|
0:48:25
|
into the Notepad, modify all the variables that you need
|
|
0:48:28
|
and then copy it out of Notepad and paste it into the next router.
|
|
0:48:31
|
QoS dial peers even, even if it's between countries
|
|
0:48:35
|
where you just have to modify the port, the :15 to :23 or
|
|
0:48:41
|
vice versa, modify the destination pattern. A lot of the other specifics
|
|
0:48:45
|
in there will stay the same such as DTMF relay or
|
|
0:48:49
|
prefix, prefix for international whether it's from the US Canada
|
|
0:48:55
|
or whether it's from the EU or whether it's from Japan
|
|
0:48:59
|
or whatever they give you as a dial plan, the prefix
|
|
0:49:02
|
is probably still going to be a necessary command.
|
|
0:49:04
|
What's prefixed, specifically what is prefixed that will be
|
|
0:49:08
|
the variable you'll change as you will change the destination pattern
|
|
0:49:11
|
and the port, but you won't change the word port
|
|
0:49:15
|
and you probably won't even change the 000 or 0/0/1:
|
|
0:49:20
|
that will all stay the same. The word destination-pattern
|
|
0:49:23
|
that will stay there, prefix that will most likely stay there
|
|
0:49:26
|
on an international dial peer
|
|
0:49:28
|
and so you'll save yourself a lot of time.
|
|
0:49:31
|
Ok, so let's look at before you begin your exam.
|
|
0:49:34
|
After the proctor has given you the specifics or really
|
|
0:49:39
|
generalities for concerning all CCIE candidates or maybe
|
|
0:49:43
|
even just concerning Voice candidates as a few more
|
|
0:49:47
|
he'll release you or she will release you to your seat
|
|
0:49:50
|
there are women proctors by the way in fact, RTP
|
|
0:49:53
|
Raleigh, North Carolina there's a proctor named Kelly
|
|
0:49:56
|
and she actually is a CCIE Voice and not too far off from
|
|
0:50:01
|
recent passer -- last year or by the time you listen to this
|
|
0:50:04
|
maybe two or three years but very nice and very helpful
|
|
0:50:08
|
in clarification of any wording, but once they take you back and
|
|
0:50:14
|
answer any questions and sit you at your seats, make sure you
|
|
0:50:18
|
verify your initial configs and verify those IP addresses
|
|
0:50:23
|
against the lab diagram, so you'll be provided
|
|
0:50:25
|
some sort of lab diagram
|
|
0:50:28
|
just make sure that everything lines up.
|
|
0:50:30
|
It's not to say that there might not be something that's wrong
|
|
0:50:33
|
as inherent troubleshooting, but it's a good idea just
|
|
0:50:36
|
to make sure that everything isn't wrong like for instance
|
|
0:50:39
|
that they didn't give you the lab exam book for
|
|
0:50:43
|
IP addressing 183.64.21.7
|
|
0:50:50
|
whatever and the actual all the router configuration is
|
|
0:50:54
|
something like 64.23.1.0
|
|
0:50:59
|
something way off like that.
|
|
0:51:03
|
You will be given a three-ring binder. You are typically
|
|
0:51:08
|
allowed to open up those three-ring binders and you
|
|
0:51:11
|
can verify with the proctor if you're unsure and remove
|
|
0:51:14
|
what's inside and I'll quantify or actually unpack
|
|
0:51:17
|
that a little further, so typically there are
|
|
0:51:20
|
plastic sort of sleeves or vellum inserts
|
|
0:51:25
|
into the three-ring binder. You're allowed to remove
|
|
0:51:28
|
those from the three-ring binder; however, inside
|
|
0:51:31
|
those plastic sheets of vellum, there are brightly colored pieces of
|
|
0:51:35
|
paper, brightly colored so they don't accidentally gain legs and walk out
|
|
0:51:39
|
of the exam or another way to put that is people don't
|
|
0:51:42
|
try to steal them and walk away with them to cheat
|
|
0:51:44
|
but they're typically yellow or red or -- maybe not red, but
|
|
0:51:48
|
something fairly brightly colored blue or something
|
|
0:51:51
|
and those are inside the plastic sheets. You can
|
|
0:51:55
|
remove generally speaking the plastic sheets from the
|
|
0:51:58
|
three-ring binder, you may not remove the paper from the
|
|
0:52:02
|
plastic sheets, but you can do that so that you could take
|
|
0:52:05
|
let's say any diagrams or tables and set those up
|
|
0:52:09
|
maybe sort of not line your walls, but prop those up
|
|
0:52:13
|
in somewhere that's easy to access them
|
|
0:52:14
|
without having to constantly flip back and forth to look at
|
|
0:52:17
|
a diagram or a table.
|
|
0:52:19
|
The rest of the pages I personally would recommend you leave
|
|
0:52:23
|
in the three-ring binder with the binder closed, that way
|
|
0:52:28
|
when you do need to flip back and forth one: you don't accidentally
|
|
0:52:33
|
mess up the order of those pages therefore and thereby
|
|
0:52:38
|
confusing yourself a lot more now or later on
|
|
0:52:41
|
and two: second reason being so that you don't
|
|
0:52:45
|
mess up the order later when you finish your lab and
|
|
0:52:48
|
you reinsert the topology diagram or tables back into
|
|
0:52:53
|
the three-ring binder if you put them in, in the wrong order
|
|
0:52:57
|
and the proctor ends up having to reorder or rearrange them
|
|
0:53:00
|
later, they might not take too kindly to your grading.
|
|
0:53:04
|
I'm not saying they're going to fail you for that, I've said that
|
|
0:53:07
|
before in classes jokingly and some people have gotten pale
|
|
0:53:10
|
faces and so I was only joking when I said that, but
|
|
0:53:13
|
you never know. I've heard a proctor tell you that, that if you
|
|
0:53:17
|
rearrange them in the wrong order, they would fail you
|
|
0:53:19
|
and whether they were joking or not I can't be sure
|
|
0:53:22
|
but the point is, is that don't make more administrative work
|
|
0:53:25
|
for them, it's never a good idea to upset in any way
|
|
0:53:28
|
a proctor, but anyhow
|
|
0:53:33
|
even just to keep yourself straight.
|
|
0:53:36
|
You certainly can create your own diagram
|
|
0:53:38
|
while reading over the entire lab if you'd like to
|
|
0:53:41
|
take short hand sort of notes about individual
|
|
0:53:45
|
dial plans or site numbering or IP addressing or things
|
|
0:53:49
|
like that, you may not draw or write on any of the
|
|
0:53:52
|
materials they provide in terms of the -- you can't take
|
|
0:53:56
|
we already mentioned the actual plastic -- sorry the paper
|
|
0:54:00
|
out of the plastic sleeves and you can't write on the plastic
|
|
0:54:03
|
sleeves. They do give you a scratch sheet of paper
|
|
0:54:06
|
some facilities I've seen give like the dry erase boards
|
|
0:54:12
|
and a little dry erase marker like a whiteboard marker
|
|
0:54:15
|
I would -- if I personally got that, I can't typically
|
|
0:54:18
|
draw very fine, write very finely with those or sometimes
|
|
0:54:23
|
the marker tips have been sort of degraded and
|
|
0:54:26
|
end up being kind of a wider tip and so I personally
|
|
0:54:30
|
would ask if I could still have a sheet of paper and a
|
|
0:54:33
|
pencil and again, typically they will oblige and when I say
|
|
0:54:37
|
typically or generally, I might even say that too much
|
|
0:54:41
|
throughout this lecture, but I'm just saying this is throughout
|
|
0:54:44
|
my experience and throughout all of the candidates that I have
|
|
0:54:47
|
talked to over the six seven years that I've been doing this
|
|
0:54:51
|
teaching these exams what's been the overall general experience.
|
|
0:54:56
|
Obviously there's going to be one day where one proctor
|
|
0:55:00
|
is in a bad mood and or maybe one particular
|
|
0:55:03
|
facility that has a bit of a different policy that I haven't
|
|
0:55:06
|
been to or haven't had a student go to
|
|
0:55:09
|
so take with a grain of salt, take it with a general speaking
|
|
0:55:14
|
and again, a good reason to go to the lab the night
|
|
0:55:17
|
before and ask some specific questions.
|
|
0:55:20
|
But you should be ready to begin working on the lab
|
|
0:55:23
|
within the first 30 minutes and when I say that
|
|
0:55:26
|
this takes us to the next slide where we talk about
|
|
0:55:29
|
reading most of the tasks to begin with, so you want to
|
|
0:55:34
|
read most if not maybe the whole and at least begin to
|
|
0:55:38
|
sort skim over the lab at the very least or
|
|
0:55:41
|
to whatever degree you can and I realize some people are
|
|
0:55:45
|
faster readers than others, but to whatever degree
|
|
0:55:48
|
you can within about 20 minutes plus some additional
|
|
0:55:55
|
time to deal with some of the other specifics, some of
|
|
0:55:59
|
the things that we'll talk about defaults of what you might want to do
|
|
0:56:01
|
as soon as you get into the lab, some of we've already talked about
|
|
0:56:05
|
like grabbing all the router configs, so within about
|
|
0:56:08
|
20 to 30 minutes overall
|
|
0:56:10
|
reading over as much as you can of the lab, gaining
|
|
0:56:14
|
a general look and feel
|
|
0:56:16
|
of the particular exam that you're going to sit that day.
|
|
0:56:20
|
Gaining a general understanding of what are the core tasks
|
|
0:56:23
|
needed to pass and with a Voice lab, dial plan
|
|
0:56:27
|
is always core and central to the exam, so maybe even
|
|
0:56:33
|
asking or finding out information like well does my dial plan for
|
|
0:56:36
|
today, does it contain gatekeeper or does it not?
|
|
0:56:41
|
Do I have all three sites -- the phones are they all
|
|
0:56:44
|
registered to a single cluster or are they registered to two
|
|
0:56:47
|
clusters? Maybe one CUCM, maybe one CME.
|
|
0:56:52
|
Do I have a particular technology or a particular server or a particular
|
|
0:56:59
|
native application on this lab exam?
|
|
0:57:02
|
Do I have let's say CUBE on the exam? Or do I have
|
|
0:57:08
|
CME? Do I have Unity Connection? Or do I have gatekeeper?
|
|
0:57:12
|
As we've mentioned throughout the rest of this course, you're not
|
|
0:57:15
|
going to have every single thing, you're not going to have gatekeeper
|
|
0:57:19
|
and CUBE and Unity Connection and UCCX and presence
|
|
0:57:24
|
and CME and SIP trunks or -- I mean you'll have
|
|
0:57:31
|
probably 90 percent of those and there might even
|
|
0:57:34
|
be a lab that has all of those that I just mentioned just
|
|
0:57:37
|
in case anyone happens to get a lab like that and comes
|
|
0:57:40
|
back and says you wouldn't have all of those, but
|
|
0:57:42
|
lacks something else like doesn't have anything else
|
|
0:57:45
|
like IPMA or IPMA and attendant console and
|
|
0:57:50
|
extension mobility and unified mobile connect
|
|
0:57:52
|
and device mobility, so I hope you get the general
|
|
0:57:56
|
gist of what I'm trying to say which is that there are
|
|
0:57:58
|
so much types of whether native applications or servers
|
|
0:58:03
|
or technology in general that you could be tasked
|
|
0:58:07
|
with and quizzed and questioned, examined on
|
|
0:58:12
|
or examined on that they can't give you everything in a single
|
|
0:58:15
|
lab exam, there's just too much for eight hours.
|
|
0:58:18
|
So they're going to have to pick and choose or if they do happen to
|
|
0:58:21
|
give you all of those different servers
|
|
0:58:24
|
they're going to have to be very minimal on each server's task
|
|
0:58:28
|
like maybe getting integration to work and that's about it
|
|
0:58:32
|
or integration is fully done, no troubleshooting is needed
|
|
0:58:35
|
it actually works and you have a very minimal
|
|
0:58:37
|
mailbox to create and something unique and specific
|
|
0:58:42
|
about the mailbox to flag or turn on or a script to
|
|
0:58:45
|
debug, but everything else is done, provision, triggers
|
|
0:58:48
|
all that stuff.
|
|
0:58:49
|
So it's going to be balanced out and it's going to be
|
|
0:58:54
|
fair in terms of the time that it takes to take care of it, but
|
|
0:58:58
|
when we're talking about reading the whole lab and
|
|
0:59:00
|
getting a general look and feel, what you're trying to do
|
|
0:59:02
|
is really sort of create a bit of a mini strategy or
|
|
0:59:07
|
mini tactic -- I would even say mini strategy for the day
|
|
0:59:12
|
you've already got your overall general strategy and time budget
|
|
0:59:15
|
that we'll talk about in a minute that you've set up and practiced throughout
|
|
0:59:18
|
the rest of your self-study time
|
|
0:59:22
|
but now it's time to figure out exactly what's going to be
|
|
0:59:25
|
asked of you in this particular lab and then go ahead and sort
|
|
0:59:29
|
of reprioritize what it is you're going to end up working on
|
|
0:59:33
|
and what you're going to work on first, second etc.
|
|
0:59:36
|
It's very important to determine what dependencies different tasks
|
|
0:59:40
|
create for each other, so this is the 'I' in CCIE.
|
|
0:59:44
|
And this is where the CCIE exam is a lot more difficult
|
|
0:59:48
|
than even a CCNP exam.
|
|
0:59:51
|
All be it CCNP exams are computer based multiple
|
|
0:59:56
|
questions and even simulation
|
|
0:59:59
|
whatever, but they tend to be technology focused
|
|
1:00:02
|
more or less they tend to be individual technology
|
|
1:00:05
|
or maybe one or two technologies together focused
|
|
1:00:09
|
whereas the CCIE is the Cisco certified internetworking
|
|
1:00:14
|
or even interworking exam.
|
|
1:00:16
|
And so it's absolutely going to be the case that certain
|
|
1:00:23
|
tasks will be hierarchical foundational. Dial plan for
|
|
1:00:28
|
instance and even maybe more fundamental than that
|
|
1:00:31
|
gateways, if you don't have your PRIs up at each
|
|
1:00:34
|
site, if you don't have them up at any one site, it's
|
|
1:00:40
|
I want to say this cautiously, but unlikely that you will have
|
|
1:00:43
|
enough points in other sections because so much
|
|
1:00:47
|
else will be dependent on calls going out that one particular
|
|
1:00:50
|
site where you may not be able to get a PRI up
|
|
1:00:53
|
it will be unlikely that you have enough points to pass
|
|
1:00:55
|
the exam, so there are some tasks that are very
|
|
1:00:59
|
core and fundamental like getting a PRI on a gateway up
|
|
1:01:02
|
and if you can't get maybe the PRI up and then you also can't get
|
|
1:01:05
|
the proper VOIP signaling be it MGCP, H.323 or SIP
|
|
1:01:10
|
back and forth both bidirectional calls to and from the CUCM
|
|
1:01:16
|
well, that particular site will probably end up costing
|
|
1:01:19
|
you enough other points in other tasks in other sections
|
|
1:01:23
|
that you won't be able to pass the exam.
|
|
1:01:26
|
So there are certainly tasks that are very core
|
|
1:01:28
|
and -- crucial and fundamental
|
|
1:01:30
|
then there are other tasks like getting a Voice mailbox set up
|
|
1:01:34
|
well, if you don't get that set up
|
|
1:01:37
|
you might -- you obviously would lose the points for
|
|
1:01:40
|
whatever task required you to do that, but you're not
|
|
1:01:43
|
going to lose points for dial plan and it probably
|
|
1:01:46
|
won't affect mobile connect
|
|
1:01:49
|
I suppose it could affect mobile connect if the
|
|
1:01:51
|
mobile connect user was the particular mailbox you couldn't get
|
|
1:01:54
|
set up and it had to ring to the enterprise Voice mailbox
|
|
1:01:59
|
but if it was a different user than your mobile connect
|
|
1:02:02
|
or remote
|
|
1:02:06
|
sorry, remote destination that is mobile connect
|
|
1:02:08
|
or if it were -- I was trying to think of another example
|
|
1:02:11
|
right off the cuff
|
|
1:02:14
|
let's say CUBE calls working or calls over to CME
|
|
1:02:19
|
or CME as SRST or a myriad of other things
|
|
1:02:23
|
it's probably not going to be that core of a problem
|
|
1:02:25
|
or for instance a UCCX script. You will lose points
|
|
1:02:29
|
-- it's not going to have rippling effects with a lot of
|
|
1:02:32
|
dependencies, so you really want to prioritize these
|
|
1:02:36
|
core tasks that have a lot of dependencies and therefore
|
|
1:02:40
|
the possibility for a rippling effect of lossage of points.
|
|
1:02:46
|
Also determine your areas of weakness and decide how you're going to
|
|
1:02:49
|
handle those, so for instance, if you see something like
|
|
1:02:52
|
IPMA in the exam and you didn't study that.
|
|
1:02:56
|
Don't do it.
|
|
1:02:58
|
If you haven't done it before
|
|
1:03:00
|
you chose not to study it, you were certain that you weren't going to see it
|
|
1:03:03
|
and then for whatever reason
|
|
1:03:05
|
Cisco put it in the exam that you happen to sit down at
|
|
1:03:09
|
well, then I don't know that the time to learn that is
|
|
1:03:12
|
while you're there in the lab when you're really
|
|
1:03:16
|
geared up and ready to take and pass everything
|
|
1:03:19
|
else, do everything else.
|
|
1:03:21
|
And it's probably not the time to even wait until the end of the exam and
|
|
1:03:24
|
do it because it could very much so affect
|
|
1:03:27
|
the rest of your dialing and the rest of your network.
|
|
1:03:29
|
So take the hit on the four or five points
|
|
1:03:33
|
or three points or whatever.
|
|
1:03:36
|
Make sure that you prioritize or deal with areas of weakness
|
|
1:03:39
|
or even just a troubleshooting task something that either you
|
|
1:03:42
|
created troubleshooting for yourself, you were
|
|
1:03:45
|
configuring something it didn't work. It either
|
|
1:03:48
|
doesn't work it's broken or it broke something else
|
|
1:03:53
|
or it's something that was inherent troubleshooting or like
|
|
1:03:56
|
we already said something you didn't know and
|
|
1:04:00
|
it's best not to spend in fact, it's maybe a
|
|
1:04:03
|
golden rule of CCIE not to spend any more than
|
|
1:04:05
|
ten minutes on any one problem
|
|
1:04:07
|
likely when you realized that you've already hit a
|
|
1:04:10
|
problem, you've probably already spent five minutes
|
|
1:04:13
|
already on that problem and then all the sudden you sort of
|
|
1:04:16
|
kind of come to and wake up and realize oh I've been working
|
|
1:04:19
|
on this for a little while. Take a look at the clock
|
|
1:04:21
|
give yourself ten minutes, don't go beyond that.
|
|
1:04:23
|
It's one of the hardest things for an engineering type mind set to do
|
|
1:04:27
|
leave a problem on the table unsolved, but at the end of the day
|
|
1:04:30
|
this exam is about points and if you end up spending
|
|
1:04:34
|
all of your time trying to deal with problems
|
|
1:04:37
|
maybe you spend 45 minutes on a problem and you fix it
|
|
1:04:40
|
that's great. Congratulations
|
|
1:04:43
|
you fixed the problem, you should feel good about yourself
|
|
1:04:46
|
however, you don't have enough time to finish the rest of the exam
|
|
1:04:48
|
so enjoy your 1400 dollar or 1400 Euro lunch.
|
|
1:04:53
|
It better have been a good one.
|
|
1:04:55
|
Ok, or worse actually I don't know if that's worse at all
|
|
1:05:00
|
I was going to say worse you spent 45 minutes
|
|
1:05:02
|
and don't figure it out, then you don't have enough time
|
|
1:05:04
|
and you don't even feel good about yourself because you
|
|
1:05:07
|
couldn't even fix that one problem, but again
|
|
1:05:10
|
I think I took that back and said I don't know that it's
|
|
1:05:13
|
any worse because even if you did fix the problem
|
|
1:05:15
|
you might have a little sense of accomplishment
|
|
1:05:18
|
or satisfaction, but you didn't have enough time to pass the rest of the tasks
|
|
1:05:22
|
table any problems that you have, make a note
|
|
1:05:26
|
-- on your scratch sheet of paper, write it down
|
|
1:05:29
|
just a little task number, point value and brief
|
|
1:05:34
|
three, four word six word sentence
|
|
1:05:36
|
and move on to something else and if you have enough time
|
|
1:05:39
|
after you have done your entire lab and verified
|
|
1:05:43
|
spent more time verifying all your other tasks which we'll talk a little bit
|
|
1:05:47
|
more about in a few slides
|
|
1:05:50
|
actually next slide
|
|
1:05:52
|
after you've spent more time verifying all your other
|
|
1:05:56
|
tasks and being sure of the tasks that you know
|
|
1:05:59
|
how to do, being sure that you actually attained to the points
|
|
1:06:02
|
for those, then go back and deal with the problem tasks.
|
|
1:06:06
|
Ok,
|
|
1:06:08
|
it's also not a bad idea as you're reading
|
|
1:06:10
|
and I guess we were talking about reading your whole
|
|
1:06:13
|
lab before you begin, but it's not a bad idea to
|
|
1:06:15
|
skim over your lab exam again right before lunch.
|
|
1:06:18
|
And now, again different people are different
|
|
1:06:21
|
and I've certainly had students in both camps of what I'm going to say
|
|
1:06:24
|
so I completely -- if you're the type candidate that
|
|
1:06:28
|
needs to have a mental break and so you go to lunch
|
|
1:06:30
|
and you don't think about anything related to the exam
|
|
1:06:34
|
maybe talk to other candidates or peers about the weather
|
|
1:06:38
|
or your sports team or whatever, but just try
|
|
1:06:41
|
to decompress over lunch.
|
|
1:06:43
|
There's also candidates that are in a really good
|
|
1:06:45
|
mind set as of the date of their test taking
|
|
1:06:49
|
and they can -- they're not stressed at all about the
|
|
1:06:52
|
day when they go to lunch and they can
|
|
1:06:56
|
be in a good state both mentally and in terms of their
|
|
1:06:59
|
time budget how much they've gotten done by the time
|
|
1:07:02
|
lunch comes around that they can maybe have
|
|
1:07:07
|
saved so done WR write, written all the router configs
|
|
1:07:11
|
rebooted all the routers and servers just to make sure
|
|
1:07:13
|
everything comes back up the way they expected
|
|
1:07:15
|
and then skimmed over the lab exam again in the five minutes
|
|
1:07:19
|
right before lunch obviously not reading the whole thing, but just
|
|
1:07:22
|
reading a few brief areas, areas that you've done
|
|
1:07:26
|
but were unsure if they were working properly or we're unsure
|
|
1:07:29
|
if you read the task properly or completely
|
|
1:07:33
|
or if you were pretty sure or fairly sure about all of
|
|
1:07:37
|
the rest of your configuration so far just skimming over that
|
|
1:07:41
|
which you still have to accomplish after lunch
|
|
1:07:43
|
and then going to lunch and not talking with anyone
|
|
1:07:46
|
and instead just sitting there and thinking about your lab
|
|
1:07:48
|
kind of pouring over it in your mind, thinking about what you
|
|
1:07:51
|
still have to do after lunch or possibly thinking about a
|
|
1:07:54
|
problem, so again, I realize that there are different people and
|
|
1:07:59
|
and there are different test taking methods and really
|
|
1:08:02
|
there are different types of people in terms of your mental
|
|
1:08:06
|
focus or capacity or even just need to decompress
|
|
1:08:09
|
but then there's also the fact that you're going to
|
|
1:08:13
|
or different candidates might be at different
|
|
1:08:15
|
stages in their lab, this might be your first exam
|
|
1:08:19
|
and you're absolutely amazing with exams and no problem
|
|
1:08:22
|
at lunch you're feeling confident you might also -- isn't that great with
|
|
1:08:25
|
exams, I was someone that was great with exams until the CCIE
|
|
1:08:29
|
I never failed an exam until the CCIE exam and then
|
|
1:08:32
|
all the sudden I got a bit of a humbling
|
|
1:08:36
|
and knocked my pride and ego down a few levels
|
|
1:08:39
|
quite a many levels actually and so my first attempt I
|
|
1:08:44
|
was nowhere in the mental capacity to do anything but
|
|
1:08:46
|
sort of wedge out and just kind of try to relax at lunch
|
|
1:08:50
|
and think about anything else to put myself back in a peaceful state
|
|
1:08:53
|
to go back and take the lab after lunch.
|
|
1:08:57
|
But then again, by the time I had taken the lab maybe
|
|
1:09:02
|
twice, maybe my second time or on Voice I actually took it
|
|
1:09:06
|
three times, on my second time I pretty much was
|
|
1:09:10
|
and by my third time I definitely was just complete -- I finished my
|
|
1:09:15
|
second attempt in six hours and had two hours to test and troubleshoot
|
|
1:09:18
|
which is a really good target or goal to shoot
|
|
1:09:23
|
for, but -- or not really but, but so by the time I was in my lunch
|
|
1:09:29
|
time of my second exam, I was way ahead of schedule
|
|
1:09:32
|
and I sat there and just thought about what I still had to do
|
|
1:09:35
|
and I didn't really have any problems so far on my exam
|
|
1:09:39
|
or at least I didn't think I did, obviously I did because I visited
|
|
1:09:42
|
the lab a third time
|
|
1:09:43
|
but I was in a good mental state to think about what
|
|
1:09:46
|
I had to do after lunch, so
|
|
1:09:49
|
take that into account because here's the thing, whether it's a
|
|
1:09:52
|
20-minute lunch as is typically the case in RTP or whether it's
|
|
1:09:56
|
a 40-minute lunch as is typically the case in San Jose
|
|
1:09:59
|
or whatever your testing facility might have somewhere between
|
|
1:10:03
|
20 and 40 minutes, some might even have as high as an hour
|
|
1:10:06
|
but on average about 30 minutes
|
|
1:10:07
|
that's an extra 20 or 30 or 40 minutes that you
|
|
1:10:10
|
have already seen the exam and you can be thinking about
|
|
1:10:14
|
it and you can still affect the outcome of the exam
|
|
1:10:17
|
and that time is not counted against you
|
|
1:10:20
|
as far as your configuration time -- configuration, but
|
|
1:10:24
|
you can be thinking about the exam.
|
|
1:10:26
|
Likewise, after the exam is over, you can be thinking about
|
|
1:10:30
|
it all you want and you've already seen the exam
|
|
1:10:33
|
but you obviously can't do anything about it
|
|
1:10:35
|
anymore, so lunch is kind of that unique time that
|
|
1:10:38
|
you can try to use to give yourself a bit of an edge.
|
|
1:10:44
|
So tracking your work towards the end of your exam.
|
|
1:10:47
|
I recommend that you make a very brief and quick table
|
|
1:10:51
|
that points out things like task numbers, point values
|
|
1:10:56
|
and any notes about a task and maybe some people
|
|
1:11:00
|
opt to put in a completion time per task depending on
|
|
1:11:03
|
where you're at in your studies, that might seem way over
|
|
1:11:06
|
kill or way too much to even consider, but here's the thing
|
|
1:11:10
|
at the end of your exam as you are going back to
|
|
1:11:13
|
verify, what you want to do is just briefly skim over read over
|
|
1:11:17
|
task 1.1
|
|
1:11:19
|
write 1.1 write and personally what I do -- in fact, actually
|
|
1:11:23
|
I'll just show you an example here
|
|
1:11:28
|
is I like to say 1.1 how many points
|
|
1:11:37
|
and then I want to put a -- and this is kind of my
|
|
1:11:41
|
system, I either put a check
|
|
1:11:44
|
an O
|
|
1:11:46
|
or an X
|
|
1:11:47
|
and the check equals done.
|
|
1:11:53
|
And this really means configured
|
|
1:11:58
|
properly.
|
|
1:12:03
|
The O is sort of open.
|
|
1:12:05
|
It's an open issue.
|
|
1:12:07
|
It's not working, but I have a fairly good idea
|
|
1:12:11
|
of what needs done with it.
|
|
1:12:13
|
An X is not only not working
|
|
1:12:21
|
but also no idea.
|
|
1:12:30
|
I have no idea how to do that one.
|
|
1:12:31
|
Open is sort of not working, but I have a general idea.
|
|
1:12:36
|
Ok, so I'll sit here and I'll write 1.1 two points
|
|
1:12:39
|
check
|
|
1:12:41
|
1.2 three points
|
|
1:12:45
|
whatever
|
|
1:12:46
|
check
|
|
1:12:47
|
and I might not even write PTS just to make it very quick
|
|
1:12:51
|
I'm going through, I don't want to spend a bunch of time writing
|
|
1:12:53
|
I might just write 1.3-2 for points -O
|
|
1:13:01
|
maybe I'd do O or open whatever.
|
|
1:13:04
|
1.4
|
|
1:13:07
|
four points
|
|
1:13:08
|
check
|
|
1:13:09
|
or even just spaces, whatever you want
|
|
1:13:11
|
as separators.
|
|
1:13:13
|
Task 2.1 or however they label the tasks at that time.
|
|
1:13:18
|
Four points.
|
|
1:13:20
|
-- And I'm going to go through and as I've
|
|
1:13:22
|
continued to fill down all of my tasks
|
|
1:13:25
|
as I'm going down and verifying them
|
|
1:13:28
|
and some people opt to do this throughout the
|
|
1:13:30
|
exam, so as they do task 1.1, they go ahead and
|
|
1:13:34
|
write 1.1 two points check. Now the problem is
|
|
1:13:38
|
I really don't recommend, in fact, I think it's almost
|
|
1:13:42
|
impossible to go through your lab linearly.
|
|
1:13:45
|
Task 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 etc.
|
|
1:13:49
|
and accomplish it that way. You're going to
|
|
1:13:51
|
need to and we'll talk about grouping tasks together
|
|
1:13:54
|
on a logical basis here in a little bit.
|
|
1:13:57
|
So I don't necessarily find that it's as practical
|
|
1:14:01
|
to go ahead and write down all your tasks and your point
|
|
1:14:04
|
numbers and whether you accomplished them right away
|
|
1:14:07
|
or not to begin with I think it's personally a little bit better
|
|
1:14:11
|
to do them as you're verifying them because as I said, if you're
|
|
1:14:14
|
grouping four or five tasks together, it might be harder to
|
|
1:14:19
|
come back and write down -- and write down those four
|
|
1:14:20
|
or five tasks, harder to do that than it would be to just
|
|
1:14:24
|
continue on with the rest of what you're doing
|
|
1:14:26
|
you're already in sort of a flow.
|
|
1:14:28
|
Ok, but as you're verifying, you're going back, you're writing
|
|
1:14:32
|
all this down 2.2
|
|
1:14:34
|
2.3, 2.4
|
|
1:14:38
|
section 3.1 etc.
|
|
1:14:43
|
and then as you're doing this 2, 3, 6 probably nothing
|
|
1:14:47
|
is as high as six points, but whatever
|
|
1:14:49
|
3, 5 points
|
|
1:14:51
|
and I'm getting sloppy with my writing
|
|
1:14:53
|
but you just want to be fairly fast, still able to read
|
|
1:14:57
|
your work check, check, open
|
|
1:15:00
|
open, X, whatever.
|
|
1:15:03
|
And then after you're done with that, then you want to
|
|
1:15:05
|
come back and don't check off a task until you're really 100 percent
|
|
1:15:08
|
sure that it works and if you've tested stuff
|
|
1:15:12
|
and I don't necessarily only recommend that you
|
|
1:15:15
|
verify at the very end, I also recommend that you
|
|
1:15:18
|
verify as you go, but don't do one task and then
|
|
1:15:21
|
verify it. Do a grouping of tasks as we'll talk about logically
|
|
1:15:25
|
grouping them together, maybe do your dial plan section
|
|
1:15:28
|
and then test your dial plan section.
|
|
1:15:30
|
But then again, you might want to in your mind
|
|
1:15:34
|
and you might, you might not you might want to logically
|
|
1:15:37
|
separate mobile connect from the rest of your
|
|
1:15:40
|
core dial plan and so you go ahead and execute
|
|
1:15:43
|
your core dial plan, you test it and it's working and then you
|
|
1:15:46
|
go back and you execute mobile connect and it's working
|
|
1:15:49
|
and that's great, you might still want to go back and
|
|
1:15:51
|
retest your dial plan. Now testing your dial plan can
|
|
1:15:55
|
it's not only going to be easily the most intensive
|
|
1:15:58
|
task to configure not only dial plan, but mainly dealing
|
|
1:16:02
|
around digit manipulation and calling and called number
|
|
1:16:05
|
presentation whether to the PSTN or internal
|
|
1:16:08
|
but also going to arguably be one of the longest sections
|
|
1:16:11
|
of verification because you don't just make a call
|
|
1:16:14
|
out your primary gateway and call it good, you have to
|
|
1:16:16
|
shut that gateway down and test your -- and possibly, but unlikely
|
|
1:16:20
|
a tertiary gateway and when you test your backup gateways
|
|
1:16:24
|
you need to test or tail end hop off gateways or what have you
|
|
1:16:27
|
you need to test to make sure calling and called number
|
|
1:16:29
|
presentation is done however they had asked you to do those.
|
|
1:16:33
|
So you can begin to see where that's going to take some
|
|
1:16:35
|
time, so as I'm saying go back and retest dial plan after mobile
|
|
1:16:39
|
connect, it might not be that I test the whole dial plan again,
|
|
1:16:42
|
but maybe just a couple calls that I think my configuration
|
|
1:16:46
|
for mobile connect might have affected possibly
|
|
1:16:49
|
or maybe I'll just wait until the end when I'm doing verification of the
|
|
1:16:54
|
whole lab again and I'll test my dial plan again then
|
|
1:16:57
|
but I would test my dial plan as I go along and then
|
|
1:17:01
|
I would also test it if I have time and hopefully you will
|
|
1:17:05
|
test it at the very end
|
|
1:17:08
|
all over again.
|
|
1:17:10
|
Ok, so don't just trust something you've tested
|
|
1:17:13
|
earlier -- briefly test it again unless it's something super simple
|
|
1:17:17
|
like DHCP and you know that you've already handed out the IP
|
|
1:17:19
|
address in the range without the exclusion range etc.
|
|
1:17:23
|
Ok, so then as you're getting -- this is kind of separate
|
|
1:17:28
|
as you're getting to the end of your lab and after you've gone
|
|
1:17:30
|
back and verified and written down notes for every single
|
|
1:17:33
|
task, then what you do is you come here and you sit
|
|
1:17:35
|
here and you add up all the checks, so you say check
|
|
1:17:37
|
equals 2+3+4+2+3 etc.
|
|
1:17:43
|
and you've got 2, 3, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14
|
|
1:17:49
|
obviously you're going to have more points than that at least we hope, but
|
|
1:17:53
|
the checks equal 14 points.
|
|
1:17:56
|
The Os equal let's see 2, 6, that's 9, 11
|
|
1:18:01
|
in this page they equal 11 points and the Xs equal well
|
|
1:18:07
|
probably too many 4 and 5: 9
|
|
1:18:11
|
Ok, so I know I've already got 14 points and -- a small subset
|
|
1:18:14
|
of the actual task you'll be given, so hopefully maybe your tasks say
|
|
1:18:18
|
like 74 points for your checks and 11 points which takes you up to
|
|
1:18:23
|
85 for your Os and that would leave 15 points for your Xs
|
|
1:18:29
|
alright, I think that math is right 74, 75, 85
|
|
1:18:33
|
yeah that's a 100
|
|
1:18:36
|
The exam is a 100-point exam
|
|
1:18:39
|
you need 80 points to pass. 80 is the goal.
|
|
1:18:42
|
whoops
|
|
1:18:44
|
80 out of a 100 I shouldn't say 80 is the goal, that's not
|
|
1:18:47
|
true, a 100 points is actually the goal.
|
|
1:18:50
|
But a minimum of 80 is necessary, so
|
|
1:18:54
|
a minimum of 80 is the goal, but really you want to continue
|
|
1:18:57
|
shooting and pressing on to get a 100 points.
|
|
1:19:01
|
And one of the other things to consider is that
|
|
1:19:02
|
you might mark something off as check, the proctor might come
|
|
1:19:06
|
back and say nope and maybe it was just because
|
|
1:19:09
|
you missed something very small, a requirement that you
|
|
1:19:11
|
barely see, didn't notice.
|
|
1:19:15
|
Ok, so the proctor's view of your score might be different than your
|
|
1:19:19
|
view, but that's the reason so let's say we have we've
|
|
1:19:24
|
currently gone through and we've got 74 points of our checks
|
|
1:19:27
|
those tasks which we're sure are done and configured properly.
|
|
1:19:33
|
And then we go to the O, the open ended issues
|
|
1:19:36
|
the Xs are the ones we have no idea about, hopefully you don’t have 15 points of no idea.
|
|
1:19:40
|
But we go through the Os and we grab the highest point
|
|
1:19:44
|
values first, so we've got a three, we've got a six and we've
|
|
1:19:47
|
got a two. I'm going to go grab this six task and I'm going to
|
|
1:19:50
|
do it and I'm going to add six points because that
|
|
1:19:53
|
just took me from 74 up to 80 points.
|
|
1:19:58
|
And now I'm in a passing. This is now down at five.
|
|
1:20:03
|
So all the sudden I'm at if I graded myself or verified
|
|
1:20:10
|
myself what the proctor is going to agree with, then I
|
|
1:20:13
|
just got a pass by doing one additional task.
|
|
1:20:16
|
And then I'm going to go on and I'm going to grab my
|
|
1:20:18
|
other three point or next and I'm going to nail that
|
|
1:20:21
|
and take this down to two points and have 82
|
|
1:20:26
|
then I'm going to grab this task and hopefully nail it
|
|
1:20:28
|
be able to check these off as I'm going.
|
|
1:20:31
|
And take this up to 84
|
|
1:20:35
|
and this down to zero left.
|
|
1:20:38
|
And then I'm going to go nail my X, the ones that I have
|
|
1:20:43
|
no idea about, the ones that are the highest points, so
|
|
1:20:45
|
here I've got a four and a five, so I'm going to grab
|
|
1:20:48
|
this five and I'm going to try to get it out of the way
|
|
1:20:50
|
take this 15 down to 10 take this 84 up to 89
|
|
1:20:56
|
Ok, and you're going to keep going and keep going until
|
|
1:20:58
|
you get as many points as you can get because, again, you
|
|
1:21:01
|
thought you got an 89, the proctor says nope
|
|
1:21:04
|
you actually missed these two tasks, so you only got an 84
|
|
1:21:09
|
but you know what graduates last -- absolute I don't want to say
|
|
1:21:15
|
worst because that's really not a good adjective to describe, but
|
|
1:21:21
|
but absolute last in terms of scoring in their class of
|
|
1:21:26
|
doctors. They call them doctor, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day
|
|
1:21:29
|
whether you got an 84, an 82, an 80 or a 99 or a 100
|
|
1:21:34
|
it really doesn't matter and you won't know and no one else will know
|
|
1:21:38
|
ever how many times you took the exam, what your score
|
|
1:21:42
|
was, you get a lab score report, but it should be taken
|
|
1:21:45
|
with a very loose grain of salt it's not -- it should be taken very
|
|
1:21:50
|
loosely, it is not an accurate representation of your actual score.
|
|
1:21:53
|
I could go into a myriad of reasons why, I won't bore you
|
|
1:21:56
|
with it, but just know that it's not an accurate representation.
|
|
1:22:00
|
And you only get a score report if you fail. If you pass, you don't get
|
|
1:22:04
|
a score report.
|
|
1:22:07
|
Ok, so let's just look at an idea -- you do happen to
|
|
1:22:10
|
go to a lab and don't happen to pass that you have a good idea of
|
|
1:22:17
|
well, I shouldn't really say have a good idea of, but
|
|
1:22:22
|
but don't get too discouraged by your score report. Your
|
|
1:22:25
|
score report will be broken down into multiple sections
|
|
1:22:27
|
so if let's say the lab had 13 sections as the blueprint
|
|
1:22:32
|
does, then you might have section 1, section 2, section 3 etc.
|
|
1:22:40
|
and on down the line and this might be something like
|
|
1:22:44
|
network infrastructure.
|
|
1:22:48
|
Ok, and it might show you 33 percent.
|
|
1:22:52
|
And you might say, '33 percent? That's not possible.'
|
|
1:22:55
|
'I definitely got more than 33 percent.'
|
|
1:22:58
|
Well a couple things one: -- and this is probably
|
|
1:23:01
|
a little bit easier to figure out, but some of the others
|
|
1:23:03
|
might not be, they might not group tasks same
|
|
1:23:07
|
sections as you believe they should be in. Now, they should be
|
|
1:23:11
|
grouped in the same tasks or sorry, in the same sections
|
|
1:23:15
|
as they were in the exam and so if you were clever and
|
|
1:23:18
|
and had the time and and weren't too distracted
|
|
1:23:21
|
by your actual configuration or stressed out, you might have
|
|
1:23:26
|
very clearly noticed and recalled that they had
|
|
1:23:29
|
let's say 8 sections or 15, whatever the case may be.
|
|
1:23:32
|
And you get back and you see your score report
|
|
1:23:36
|
a day later or if you take it on Friday maybe two or three days later
|
|
1:23:40
|
and you take a look at those 8 or 15 whatever the case may be
|
|
1:23:46
|
sections and you say, 'Well I know these three tasks were
|
|
1:23:51
|
in network infrastructure, so a 33 percent point passing might mean
|
|
1:23:56
|
that I got one of the three tasks right.'
|
|
1:24:01
|
And it's probably not so much in the early sections, network
|
|
1:24:04
|
infrastructure -- or not makes no difference, I'm just going to the
|
|
1:24:07
|
overall point of what I'm trying to make or overall principle
|
|
1:24:12
|
of the point I'm trying to make, but towards the end, you might
|
|
1:24:16
|
not be a 100 percent certain on how they group the tasks
|
|
1:24:18
|
together, but just because you didn't necessarily get
|
|
1:24:23
|
the points that you thought. It's really not indicative
|
|
1:24:26
|
of the actual points scored, so for instance, if a proctor
|
|
1:24:32
|
or a script even which I wouldn't be in any way worried about that
|
|
1:24:37
|
term script as I have certainly heard some students or candidates
|
|
1:24:41
|
are, in fact I would be encouraged because it's been probably not only
|
|
1:24:47
|
created, but also tested and verified a number of times
|
|
1:24:50
|
and probably a lot more accurate than a human, obviously humans
|
|
1:24:55
|
program the scripts, but they go over them many, many, many
|
|
1:24:57
|
times in verification, but it's going to be a lot more accurate
|
|
1:25:01
|
than a human grading the exam because it's been gone over
|
|
1:25:05
|
in quality assurance and so for instance maybe a script is dialing
|
|
1:25:09
|
a particular number and by the way, all lab exams are
|
|
1:25:13
|
results based, they are not configuration based, so if you
|
|
1:25:17
|
name something different than you think a proctor might
|
|
1:25:19
|
want you to name it, it really doesn't matter
|
|
1:25:22
|
as long as it works and this is the key bit here not only meets the
|
|
1:25:26
|
requirements, but it also doesn't violate any restrictions
|
|
1:25:30
|
so it can't violate any restriction in that task or in any other in the
|
|
1:25:34
|
lab that might have some sort of internetworking
|
|
1:25:38
|
with this task that you're thinking about.
|
|
1:25:40
|
Ok, so meets the requirements of the given task and any other
|
|
1:25:45
|
tasks that have relationships or dependencies and doesn't
|
|
1:25:51
|
doesn't violate any other restrictions of any of the other
|
|
1:25:54
|
tasks or dependencies.
|
|
1:25:59
|
But it is results based, so let's say they're dialing the number
|
|
1:26:02
|
-- our partition naming it matters is the partition necessary
|
|
1:26:07
|
continued within the calling search space necessary, so does the
|
|
1:26:10
|
results work, so they dial, they check the calling and called
|
|
1:26:14
|
number, type and plan, number display etc. whatever
|
|
1:26:17
|
they test the backup and let's say as the human proctor
|
|
1:26:23
|
or script is going through whichever and let's say they
|
|
1:26:25
|
get to a score of 45 points.
|
|
1:26:30
|
Ok, they're not done, they being the proctor or the script
|
|
1:26:34
|
they're not done grading, but you have a score of about 45
|
|
1:26:36
|
points. There are 20 points left in the exam that could be
|
|
1:26:43
|
allocated and this would probably even be more
|
|
1:26:47
|
so with a human. I'm not in any way saying this is right
|
|
1:26:53
|
I'm not advocating it and I'm not even saying this is
|
|
1:26:56
|
necessarily the way it is.
|
|
1:26:58
|
But it is one explanation -- results and grades
|
|
1:27:03
|
that we see on lab score reports are -- even my just thinking
|
|
1:27:09
|
of my own really are so off from what we expect or believe
|
|
1:27:16
|
they should be, but here's one possibility of what I think
|
|
1:27:22
|
might very well be the case.
|
|
1:27:26
|
The human or script has allocated 45 points of pass
|
|
1:27:29
|
or allocated 45 points of -- has awarded those points
|
|
1:27:34
|
to the candidate. There are only 20 points left in
|
|
1:27:38
|
scoring. If I add those together, I have a 65, it doesn't even come
|
|
1:27:42
|
close, it's 15 points below the necessary 80
|
|
1:27:47
|
the proctor might not even grade those other 20 points.
|
|
1:27:50
|
And so it might show as I'm getting down in sections
|
|
1:27:54
|
you know 7, zero percent
|
|
1:27:55
|
for let's say CUCCX
|
|
1:27:59
|
Unified Contact Center Express zero percent.
|
|
1:28:02
|
And I might say to myself, 'Wait a minute, that is not even possible.'
|
|
1:28:06
|
'I'm a scripting genius.' Now I'm not claiming I'm
|
|
1:28:08
|
a scripting genius, but maybe I'm just thinking that in my head.
|
|
1:28:11
|
I've had candidates, I've had students before that have come
|
|
1:28:14
|
back to me and said, 'Mark, literally all I do all day long
|
|
1:28:18
|
is UCCX and mainly UCE.'
|
|
1:28:23
|
'Enterprise and Express scripting. That's all I do is I'm a scripting writer.'
|
|
1:28:27
|
'In fact, what I had to study more than anything was all the rest of the
|
|
1:28:30
|
stuff that I don't work with that often and I didn't score that
|
|
1:28:33
|
badly, a few of the sections I scored badly, but most of them
|
|
1:28:36
|
I didn't even score that badly, when I got to the end, UCCX
|
|
1:28:40
|
Unity Connection, CUPS, for presence, for messaging
|
|
1:28:49
|
and presence and contact center, I got zero percent in all three.'
|
|
1:28:52
|
'And that's doesn't make any sense because I'm actually
|
|
1:28:56
|
one scripting -- Unity Connection and CUPS was super simple.'
|
|
1:29:00
|
'It didn't take any thought at all.'
|
|
1:29:02
|
'So I know I didn't get zero percent in each of those.'
|
|
1:29:05
|
And the only explanation I can give is that maybe this sort of
|
|
1:29:09
|
situation occurred where the proctor or the script got
|
|
1:29:12
|
grading or got to a point in the grading where it was
|
|
1:29:16
|
literally not possible unless they went back and regraded
|
|
1:29:20
|
everything a second time and they had already been
|
|
1:29:23
|
careful to grade it results based properly the first time
|
|
1:29:26
|
we have to believe, but they got to a point where there was
|
|
1:29:29
|
not enough to pass even if they awarded a 100 percent
|
|
1:29:32
|
on the rest of the tasks and therefore they stopped grading.
|
|
1:29:35
|
So I'm not -- again, I know that that would upset and
|
|
1:29:40
|
even anger a number of people, many of you may be
|
|
1:29:43
|
listening, one: I'm not claiming that that's what Cisco necessarily
|
|
1:29:46
|
does, I'm simply offering it as a possible explanation
|
|
1:29:49
|
of why some of the score reports look so heinously wrong
|
|
1:29:55
|
-- it's right, I'm simply the messenger saying you're score report if you have
|
|
1:30:01
|
a failing attempt, may not look like what you expect and the reason
|
|
1:30:05
|
I'm taking the time to point that out
|
|
1:30:07
|
obviously you're sitting you're saying move on with the strategy
|
|
1:30:10
|
we don't even want to consider that, we're not going to fail
|
|
1:30:12
|
but the reason I'm pointing that out is that if you do meet with
|
|
1:30:17
|
a failure attempt, I don't want your score report to become
|
|
1:30:21
|
a sense of self-worth
|
|
1:30:23
|
or a lack of sense of self-worth actually
|
|
1:30:26
|
for that matter. I don't want it to degrade your feelings and
|
|
1:30:30
|
thoughts about how good you did in the lab. You may have gotten
|
|
1:30:34
|
those other 20 points and been at a 65, you may have
|
|
1:30:37
|
gotten a 77
|
|
1:30:40
|
You cannot take the total number of points or sorry
|
|
1:30:47
|
if you're given a score report, each section will have a percentage
|
|
1:30:50
|
so let's say you have 13 sections, you cannot take the -- put them together
|
|
1:30:54
|
and divide by the number of sections for the average. That
|
|
1:30:56
|
is not an accurate reflection and all you will do is bring
|
|
1:31:00
|
yourself down and feel worse about yourself than you actually
|
|
1:31:03
|
did, so believe that you did better if you should meet with a failure.
|
|
1:31:07
|
Ok, that's the only reason I wanted to take that small tangent.
|
|
1:31:13
|
Ok, so taking a look at task strategy.
|
|
1:31:16
|
Build the network in a structured fashion
|
|
1:31:18
|
build and verify, build and verify, build and verify,
|
|
1:31:21
|
so group tasks together, prioritize core tasks over
|
|
1:31:26
|
non-core tasks, execute the configuration of
|
|
1:31:32
|
a set or group of tasks and then verify those and then
|
|
1:31:35
|
move on to the next group.
|
|
1:31:39
|
So as we've mentioned about time management, you do have
|
|
1:31:41
|
eight hours of total configuration plus lunch, so plus 20 or plus 40
|
|
1:31:46
|
minutes depending on where you go.
|
|
1:31:48
|
Of course it takes 80 points to pass as we've said.
|
|
1:31:50
|
A 100 and target rate should be 15 points per hour completion.
|
|
1:31:55
|
So you're actually not just configuring 15 points worth, but
|
|
1:31:59
|
actually attaining or chalking up to your past section
|
|
1:32:03
|
your check mark section 15 points per hour.
|
|
1:32:06
|
This will put you at a 6.5 hour completion
|
|
1:32:10
|
time for your configuration and that includes the
|
|
1:32:14
|
any troubleshooting that they might explicitly give you
|
|
1:32:17
|
or inherently give you
|
|
1:32:20
|
so when I say explicitly give you, they might have a task
|
|
1:32:24
|
that says here is a problem and normally if they're actually
|
|
1:32:27
|
giving you a task that's a problem, it is probably not
|
|
1:32:30
|
something that you'll be able to fix, now maybe it is.
|
|
1:32:33
|
Maybe they want you to go and fix it, something
|
|
1:32:35
|
they introduced and they were explicitly telling you.
|
|
1:32:38
|
Maybe they want you to simply document how you
|
|
1:32:41
|
troubleshot the problem and document that in Notepad
|
|
1:32:44
|
and save it to the desktop what debugs, what traces
|
|
1:32:49
|
what -- performance monitor in RTMT or what counters
|
|
1:32:53
|
and document that and put it down and if you're
|
|
1:32:57
|
documenting something that's a problem and they're wanting you
|
|
1:33:00
|
if they're asking you to document something that's a problem
|
|
1:33:02
|
it's likely something that they don't expect you to be
|
|
1:33:04
|
able to fix otherwise, and I know because I've written
|
|
1:33:08
|
labs like this for mock lab workshop boot camps
|
|
1:33:11
|
where I wrote a task that should be a problem, I wanted the
|
|
1:33:15
|
person to document how they fixed it and then also
|
|
1:33:18
|
fix it. Well the problem is two of my students fixed it without even
|
|
1:33:21
|
knowing it and so therefore they couldn't document any
|
|
1:33:24
|
troubleshooting bypassing the whole idea of my task, so
|
|
1:33:28
|
if they want you to document it, it probably is unfixable and they
|
|
1:33:31
|
expect that, they just expect you to document what the problem
|
|
1:33:34
|
is and how you achieved at that, achieved that
|
|
1:33:37
|
result or understanding or maybe it's something they don't
|
|
1:33:42
|
expect you to document, but they just want you to fix in general.
|
|
1:33:44
|
Those would be examples of explicit troubleshooting.
|
|
1:33:47
|
Inherent that might have thrown in or also things that you
|
|
1:33:51
|
sort of accidentally throw in for yourself
|
|
1:33:53
|
one task causes another to break.
|
|
1:33:56
|
But the end is that you should have about
|
|
1:33:59
|
1.5 hours left over for final verification.
|
|
1:34:02
|
And we can't say it enough task prioritization is key for this.
|
|
1:34:06
|
Now, one other thing however long it takes you
|
|
1:34:12
|
in your self-study time to do an average mock lab
|
|
1:34:16
|
so a multiprotocol lab a volume 2 lab
|
|
1:34:19
|
and I say the average one because you might let's say
|
|
1:34:24
|
do mock lab 2 on one day and it takes you
|
|
1:34:28
|
six hours and then you do mock lab 3 on the next day
|
|
1:34:31
|
and it takes you five and a half hours and then you do
|
|
1:34:34
|
mock lab 7 or 5 or something on the next day
|
|
1:34:38
|
and it takes you 7.5 hours
|
|
1:34:42
|
over what you expected, so I'm saying on average
|
|
1:34:45
|
-- self-study time I would add at least a half hour to that
|
|
1:34:50
|
time for real lab time. One: you haven't seen the
|
|
1:34:55
|
particular lab and tasks before, there will be something
|
|
1:34:59
|
new, something that you haven't seen and
|
|
1:35:02
|
two: you have in the real actual lab exam you've got the
|
|
1:35:07
|
added stress of the fact that you've been studying for six months
|
|
1:35:11
|
or maybe three months since your last attempt or maybe
|
|
1:35:15
|
just this is your first attempt and you have studied for 12 months
|
|
1:35:18
|
solid and you're just really hoping and expecting to pass the
|
|
1:35:21
|
first time, whatever it is, everything's boiled down
|
|
1:35:24
|
and has the pressure on today.
|
|
1:35:27
|
Today, the day of your exam
|
|
1:35:29
|
and so you have to leave yourself some room for that added time
|
|
1:35:32
|
pressure and stress and so that's where I say at least
|
|
1:35:35
|
a half hour to maybe sometimes an hour of sort of fudge or wiggle
|
|
1:35:39
|
room from what it takes you to do a normal mock lab time
|
|
1:35:44
|
versus what it takes you to do it in the actual lab.
|
|
1:35:47
|
Ok, so if you can in your self-study time get any
|
|
1:35:52
|
what we would call an eight-hour mock lab accomplished or configured
|
|
1:35:57
|
in six hours and have two hours to test and troubleshoot
|
|
1:36:01
|
then what I would equate that to carrying over to the lab is
|
|
1:36:04
|
is that you should be able to take and do the lab
|
|
1:36:07
|
the actual real lab which you haven't seen the task before
|
|
1:36:09
|
instead of in six hours, do the configuration portion
|
|
1:36:12
|
in six and a half hours and only have an hour and a half
|
|
1:36:16
|
which is still a great amount of time left to test and troubleshoot.
|
|
1:36:20
|
Now even if you get to the end of your exam and you
|
|
1:36:22
|
don't -- you don't have any time to test and troubleshoot
|
|
1:36:28
|
don't let that stop you from doing your lab exam. Now
|
|
1:36:34
|
again, you're going to build and verify, build and verify, so
|
|
1:36:36
|
you're going to be verifying a number of things especially
|
|
1:36:40
|
the core dial -- but just as a bit of encouragement
|
|
1:36:43
|
I had one particular friend who passed three of his CCIEs
|
|
1:36:47
|
all on the first attempt and all -- every single one of them
|
|
1:36:51
|
he literally didn't have a moment to test anything and he expected
|
|
1:36:55
|
that he would probably be going back a second time
|
|
1:36:58
|
because he didn't have time to verify and he also
|
|
1:37:01
|
concedes that if he had gone back a second time
|
|
1:37:05
|
he would have been a little bit faster and -- or probably
|
|
1:37:10
|
if he had it to over again, he would have given himself
|
|
1:37:12
|
another month or two of just speed preparation
|
|
1:37:15
|
to build up and accomplish the configuration in a faster
|
|
1:37:20
|
time, so that he did have time to verify, but the point was
|
|
1:37:23
|
that he didn't have time to verify, he just kept configuring
|
|
1:37:27
|
until the end, he trusted his self-study preparation time
|
|
1:37:30
|
to really come through for him in the lab and he ended up
|
|
1:37:33
|
passing all three CCIEs on his first attempt, but he didn't have
|
|
1:37:37
|
time to test or troubleshoot. I'm -- and smart with yourself
|
|
1:37:41
|
and give yourself the necessary repetitions doing these mock labs
|
|
1:37:50
|
and whatever in your self-study time over and over again
|
|
1:37:53
|
so that you will have time left over to test and troubleshoot
|
|
1:37:56
|
verify at the end, but I am at the same time
|
|
1:38:00
|
saying even if you get there and you don't, don't give up.
|
|
1:38:05
|
Also when it comes to practicing or the topic of
|
|
1:38:08
|
practicing for speed
|
|
1:38:11
|
I typically don't recommend that candidates or students
|
|
1:38:14
|
start out practicing with speed in mind. You will need
|
|
1:38:18
|
speed, but you'll also need accuracy and so what I recommend
|
|
1:38:22
|
is practicing repetitiously so doing the same thing
|
|
1:38:27
|
over and over and over
|
|
1:38:29
|
and we'll go over that as we come to the end of these
|
|
1:38:32
|
slides and look at a general study schedule
|
|
1:38:38
|
doing things over and over repetitiously which will inherently
|
|
1:38:41
|
build accuracy and most of the time for most people
|
|
1:38:46
|
build speed as well. It'll build that accuracy and it will
|
|
1:38:49
|
build that speed and I started to say something earlier that I think
|
|
1:38:52
|
I forgot, I said two things about Notepad. One was that it was going to be
|
|
1:38:55
|
really useful for copying and pasting and here's the second thing.
|
|
1:39:03
|
To know that you are at the place that you need to
|
|
1:39:06
|
be in terms of speed and accuracy to go to and take
|
|
1:39:10
|
the actual lab exam.
|
|
1:39:13
|
Here's where you really need to be and most instructors actually
|
|
1:39:15
|
all the instructors at INE agree with this
|
|
1:39:19
|
is that you really need to be at the place where you can do
|
|
1:39:22
|
all of your router configurations and the switch configuration
|
|
1:39:26
|
obviously you can't do CUCM
|
|
1:39:30
|
but CME and everything else in IOS Cat or router
|
|
1:39:35
|
queue -- Cisco Unity Express as well since that's command line
|
|
1:39:38
|
based, but do all of those when you're not connected to the internet
|
|
1:39:41
|
not connected to any of your router consoles or telnet or
|
|
1:39:44
|
anything and do them all in Notepad
|
|
1:39:47
|
and this is obviously not in the lab exam, you're not going to
|
|
1:39:50
|
execute it in this way, but in your week or two weeks
|
|
1:39:55
|
leading up probably the week before your exam, you will have
|
|
1:39:59
|
repeated the lab so many times that repetition will build the
|
|
1:40:03
|
accuracy and speed that you could input everything into Notepad.
|
|
1:40:07
|
And then take and copy out of Notepad into the routers
|
|
1:40:10
|
with minimal configuration errors, with minimal syntax
|
|
1:40:14
|
errors, well syntax errors as well as actual configuration
|
|
1:40:19
|
or interworking errors.
|
|
1:40:21
|
Ok, that's -- when you can do that, that's when you really
|
|
1:40:24
|
know you're ready to take and pass the lab in terms of
|
|
1:40:27
|
speed and accuracy.
|
|
1:40:29
|
But again, don't practice for speed primarily. Practice for
|
|
1:40:33
|
-- that accuracy and speed and then if you get to the end, then
|
|
1:40:35
|
you realize I know all of the technologies input and output
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1:40:39
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I could literally do everything in Notepad no problems at all
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1:40:43
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the problem is, I'm not a very fast typer, then you might want to
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1:40:46
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think about taking like an online typing course or something to speed
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1:40:49
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up your typing because you will need speed as well.
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1:40:54
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So finally before we look at a study plan, let's look at the
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1:40:57
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time budget to have in your lab and there's a
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1:41:00
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couple different fields of thought on this.
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1:41:03
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So one is the like device approach, another is grouping tasks together
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1:41:09
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on a logic basis with a like technology approach.
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1:41:13
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A like technology approach would be something like
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1:41:15
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if I'm doing dial plan for instance, I'm going to
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1:41:19
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do everything in CUCM related to partitions, CSSs
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1:41:24
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translation patterns, route patterns
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1:41:27
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route lists, route groups
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1:41:29
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probably already have the gateways -- calling party transformation
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1:41:32
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called party transformation everything in IOS in terms of
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1:41:36
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dial peers, digit manipulation, voice translation rules
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1:41:40
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gatekeeper if I have it, all of that I'm going to group it
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1:41:42
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all together and I'm going to do it all at once
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1:41:45
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as a like technology based grouping of tasks.
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1:41:50
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But then there's another way which is like device approach
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1:41:54
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and whichever way you choose this is just an example of like device
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1:41:57
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and a time budget that we'll go over, but whichever you choose
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1:42:00
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or you have something that works for you a hybrid or something
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1:42:04
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completely different, whatever it happens to be, just make sure that
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1:42:08
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you have as one of the tactics in your overall strategy
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1:42:12
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a time budget
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1:42:13
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and a way that you are going to group tasks together.
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1:42:16
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So a like device approach dealing with that same
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1:42:19
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example of dial plan here I note that I have about
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1:42:24
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20 minutes to read and read the whole exam and
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1:42:27
|
redraw the topology with shorthand notes infrastructure and QoS
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1:42:30
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then I do and this gets to the part of the dial plan
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1:42:33
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I do everything necessary in my routers, so whether
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1:42:37
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that's H.323 or SIP dial peers, Voice service VoIP
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1:42:41
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CUBE, gatekeeper whatever
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1:42:44
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I'm doing everything in my routers, but I'm not
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1:42:47
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grouping technology together, I'm not doing dial plan
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1:42:50
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in my routers and in my CUCM. If you actually take a look
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1:42:55
|
after lunch, that's where my CUCM portion comes in. I've got
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1:42:58
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about two hours, two and a half hours,
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1:43:01
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two hours for CUCM and about a half hour for presence
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1:43:04
|
maybe, maybe only 20 minutes
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1:43:07
|
and so that's where the other half or other portion of my
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|
1:43:11
|
dial plan comes in is after lunch at the CUCM
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1:43:14
|
section, so -- and it depends on your particular, the way
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|
1:43:20
|
that you want to take tests, the way that your mind thinks
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1:43:23
|
the way you want to group tasks together. I've done
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1:43:25
|
one -- and it's obviously a passing one when I took my
|
|
1:43:28
|
security exam, I did sort of a like technology approach.
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|
1:43:31
|
So in other words, if I was dealing with IPSec tunnels, I was
|
|
1:43:34
|
back and forth between two or three routers dealing
|
|
1:43:36
|
with those tunnels
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|
1:43:38
|
but I wasn't just doing one router everything I needed to do
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|
1:43:41
|
and then going to another router and doing everything
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|
1:43:43
|
I needed to do whereas Voice I was, so again,
|
|
1:43:48
|
the idea isn't so much to push one methodology on
|
|
1:43:51
|
you as it is to encourage you to either adopt this
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|
1:43:54
|
or come up with something of your own that allows you
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|
1:43:59
|
to group tasks together on a logical basis and whatever that
|
|
1:44:04
|
logical basis may be and then accomplish them as a
|
|
1:44:07
|
group and then verify that group of tasks, so
|
|
1:44:11
|
again, build a section, build a core section and then verify
|
|
1:44:14
|
build and then verify. Obviously with a Voice exam
|
|
1:44:17
|
there are certain things that have to be done
|
|
1:44:19
|
first, well I don't want to say have to --
|
|
1:44:23
|
ready and phones registered before I can do my dial plan
|
|
1:44:27
|
I certainly could configure my entire dial plan
|
|
1:44:31
|
and then get my phones registered. That's typically not what anyone
|
|
1:44:36
|
advocates or is seen doing but you could do that.
|
|
1:44:40
|
But generally speaking, there are certain prerequisites like
|
|
1:44:45
|
like putting together my network infrastructure
|
|
1:44:46
|
and making sure Layer 3 connectivity works and
|
|
1:44:48
|
then working -- getting the http IP addresses allocated
|
|
1:44:52
|
VLANs, Quality of Service doesn't have to be done
|
|
1:44:56
|
upfront, I do recommend it because it could affect your
|
|
1:45:00
|
Layer 3 IP connectivity and if it affects that in a negative way
|
|
1:45:03
|
well, obviously that's not a good thing, so in other words
|
|
1:45:06
|
if you do that in the last half hour or hour of your exam
|
|
1:45:10
|
or even last two hours and it breaks some sort of
|
|
1:45:13
|
fundamental Layer 3 IP connectivity or Layer 2
|
|
1:45:19
|
switch connectivity whatever you forget to do a question mark
|
|
1:45:21
|
and see that they're actually bits per second versus
|
|
1:45:24
|
kilobits per second, so you police something to
|
|
1:45:29
|
I don't know
|
|
1:45:31
|
8 bits per -- no
|
|
1:45:34
|
let's say you police something to 128 bits per second as opposed
|
|
1:45:37
|
to a 128000 kilobits per second.
|
|
1:45:41
|
But you do something that breaks IP connectivity.
|
|
1:45:45
|
If you were to accidentally break something, it would be
|
|
1:45:49
|
advantageous to break something early on versus later on when you
|
|
1:45:54
|
already have all the rest of your points and everything else is
|
|
1:45:56
|
working, so that's one of the reasons I advocate
|
|
1:45:58
|
QoS in the beginning.
|
|
1:46:00
|
Ok, but this is just one idea of a time budget.
|
|
1:46:03
|
Ok, so let's take a look
|
|
1:46:06
|
or actually let's stop and say does anyone have any questions
|
|
1:46:10
|
at this point before we move on and look at a general study
|
|
1:46:13
|
schedule and then after the general study schedule
|
|
1:46:16
|
that will all that we have, so I know this has been a particularly
|
|
1:46:18
|
long module without a break, but if you'll
|
|
1:46:21
|
bear it with me, if we'll deal with any questions
|
|
1:46:24
|
and then look at a study schedule, we will wrap up shortly.
|
