Lab workbooks.

As I get closer to my CCIE RS written exam at the end of December, I decided to hit the layer 2 topics hard with verification of my knowledge. To do this, I am doing some practice labs from my buddies at Ipexpert.com I am using the Volume 1 labs. Some would say I should do the written study guide, but I learn by doing and makes me understand better. For my CCNA and CCNP I took this approach and passed each exam on the 1st try, although I had only a minute to spare on my BCMSN exam, that was a beast! So in staying in line with that format, I decided to try it for the CCIE RS written. I know I have to be heavy on theory and I have been. I have read Doyle Routing TCP volume 1 practically cover to cover, and I am getting around to volume 2. I have read a lot of RFC's, read the CCIE RS 3rd edition cert guide among other resources such as Cisco.com

I want to have some fun now, and for me configuration is where the action is!

I will be doing lab 1 and lab 2. Lab 1 is supposed to be 1 to 2 hours and Lab 2 is supposed to be 3-4 hours. These cover layer 2 topics such as:

• Etherchannel
• Vlan Trunking
• VTP
• 802.1x
• Spanning-tree
• Port-security
• RSPAN
• Private VLAN's
• VLAN Maps

I feel very comfortable with the first 3 topic. 802.1x I am a bit fuzzy on, but I know how to set it up at least on a basic level. Spanning tree, I am good on, not great. Port-security I am pretty good on.

RSPAN - never touched it before.
Private VLAN's - same
VLAN Maps, I have done some of these - it's been a while.

I just got a bunch of sessions from ipexpert.com and so I shall begin at 1pm pacific time to 8:45pm pacific time. I believe I can get through Lab 1 and Lab 2 in that amount of time, but we will see.

I'll post back my results :) For now, I printed out the 2 labs and I will be looking them over tonight analyzing for anything that will give me trouble so that tomorrow when the rack session begins I won't waste any time. I will dump this format for the actual full blown practice labs, as I will not look at them at all until it's time for the lab - just like the real thing.

I also won't be printing those out. I will be using my 22" widescreen monitor to keep everything on screen, lab workbook, telnet session, topologies etc. Just like the v4 blueprint exam. I know it's not the most efficient way to do it, and I hope Cisco fixes that, gives a second monitor at least.

Anyway, it's PIZZA TIME and you can't hold me back from that. Pizza is life!



-Nick