I’m finally back from RTP and have a stable enough Internet connection to finally write a post.  After my SP lab last week, I decided to visit some relatives in Charleston, SC to relax over the weekend before coming home.  I tried to post something on Friday, but my hotel wireless connection was terrible.  Anyways, read on for a recap.

Since the Thanksgiving weekend, I’ve been scrambling to get enough practice time in for the configuration portion of the lab.  Shortly a few days after committing payment to Cisco for the lab, the announcement for the OEQ or Core Knowledge came out which changed my studying strategy quite a bit.  At the time, I had just begun going through INE VOL2 labs before the Christmas holidays and so now I needed to come up with another game plan.  I gave myself a deadline to finish up the VOL2 labs 1 through 5 by New Years.  For the remaining 5 VOL2 labs, I was just going to read the solutions.  Once the new year began, I only labbed up mini scenarios and didn’t bother doing any full scale labs.  All I ended up doing was reading anything I could get my hands on regarding the SP lab blueprint (i.e. books, FAQs, blogs, Cisco white papers, articles, etc.).

Did all the reading help?  Yes, it did.  The set of OEQs that I received were pretty straightforward.  If you have some clue as to what you are doing in general with topics covered in the blueprint, you should be prepared.  Now I know that statement is vague and probably doesn’t really help you much, but the OEQs are really nothing to be concerned with at all.  I can’t speak for individuals who took the lab in the first 2 months, but I think the Cisco folks have finally figured it out where the OEQs are really ‘Core Knowledge’ type questions.  If I could make one suggestion to the Cisco developers, you should have the OEQs at the end of the lab.  The biggest complaint for many individuals that get a set of off-the-wall questions is they feel gypped having just forked over $1400 for only 30 minutes of completing the test.  What’s the point in continuing onward if you already knew you blew your chance at the start of your day?  Nothing you do in the configuration portion matters if you can’t get by 3 out of 4 questions.  IMHO, I think if the questions were at the end of the lab then test takers couldn’t complain since they would actually have to work through the entire day.

Unfortunately, because I spent so much time on reading, my speed was off with the configurations.  There was a lot of typing involved with my version of the lab. On top of that, I wasn’t fully rested going into the test as I would’ve liked.  I was a bit foggy having been up all night due to nerves.  Believe me, I exhausted myself before my flight out to Raleigh so I could just sleep when I arrived, but I was pretty wired and couldn’t stop thinking about 4 questions.  In the end, I fell short on the configuration end of the spectrum.

Here’s an outline on what I did for this attempt:

1) Read: Just try to understand the material you are reading.  I don’t think you need to memorize every little detail, but know the important subject matter.  Here’s a list of everything I read:
MPLS Fundamentals
MPLS VPN Architectures
MPLS VPN Architectures Volume II
Routing TCP/IP Volume I
Routing TCP/IP Volume II
Cisco FAQs
Cisco White Papers
RFCs

2) Choose a vendor workbook:  For my attempt, I used INE’s VOL1 and VOL2.  Keep in mind the material is very outdated but still relevant for this lab.  Everything you need to know is in VOL2, you just need to reference the Cisco documentation yourself to get a thorough understanding of the technology.  If I could make a suggestion to the INE folks, I think the only updates you should make for your products are:

-VOL1: Create some IS-IS labs with explanations.  I ended having to use my R&S OSPF, EIGRP, and RIP VOL1 lab scenarios to test out IS-IS.  IS-IS is extensive enough on the exam that it should be covered in your product.

-VOL2: I really liked what INE has done with the R&S and Security workbooks; they give you a brief explanation alongside the expected output.  We could really use the additional information to help reference materials for the OEQ.

3) Core Knowledge Simulator:  I ended up purchasing this product 1.5 weeks before the lab and only looked at it 2-3 days beforehand.  IMHO, the product just destroys your confidence all together because you feel like you’ve forgotten your CCNP studies.  You also get a false sense that you are required to know the granular details of the technologies.  Based on the OEQs I received, your questions are really off the mark and probably need to be scaled down just a bit.

4) Practice: I didn’t utilize the rack rentals as I had anticipated.  I ended up just using dynamips when I was labbing, which should be enough.  If you have the money to spend, go ahead and rent or buy equipment.  If you are on a shoe string budget and have a powerful enough workstation, then invest some time in dynamips or GNS3; the IOS code you should be running is 12.2S.  There’s definitely a difference in the feature sets when you are running 12.3T and 12.2S so you should be familiar with both versions.

Am I going to take a 2nd attempt?  That depends, having just checked the availability the next possible opening at San Jose is in September.  I don’t think I’ll be flying out to other locations anymore to test.  In fact, most of the tests will be running of SJ anyways (similar to the R&S format) and conducted at nearby Pearson Vue locations in the future so it doesn’t make sense to fly out (unless of course work pays for it and everything isn’t out of my own pocket).  There are other rumors that this lab will be retired and replaced by SP Operations.  I was told that for the month of July all lab testing sites will be blocked off completely to allow major changes to the lab testing facilities as well as when the announcements will be revealed.  If I can get another test in before June, I think I’ll donate more money to Cisco.  Until I can get a close enough date, I’ll just be enjoying my time away from all the stress:

-Catching up on all my shows on the DVR

-Toying around with JNCIE-ER or JNCIE-M/T

-Creating some mini-scenarios to help cover the lacking areas of technologies

-Playing basketball on the weekends again

-Networking at Interop, CiscoLive, etc.

If you are planning on taking the lab any time soon, you’ve most likely come across many opinions surrounding the OEQ section of the lab during your research efforts.  The Open-Ended Questions were designed to test your knowledge further of the subject matter during your lab attempt.  While the questions have already done a good job with filtering out the lab cheaters, I believe they are also discouraging test takers, like myself, with pursuing the certification altogether.  Could you imagine forking over $1,400 + traveling/studying expenses only to find out you failed the exam within the first hour?  What if you’re a 1st time lab taker and you let your nerves get the best of you?  Or what if you struggled with your traveling arrangements all night and made your way to the testing site without any sleep only to blank out?  A lot of us had already done these things prior to the OEQs, but now it’s just another thing to worry about which doesn’t seem entirely fair.

Yeah, yeah…study more and just be prepared.  IMHO, that’s difficult to do when:

-Your financially burdened since the expenses are out-of-pocket
-You have a family and can only spare a few hours each day to study
-You work 2+ jobs because you really have no choice

I hear it’s much easier to stay on top of your studies if you happen to be one of the following:

-A Cisco employee who has ample amounts of resources at your disposal
-A trainer who can pretty much recite the technologies forward and backward
-An unemployed engineer who has the time to memorize all the Cisco press books

What if you just can’t retain explicit details for very long (i.e. like short term memory)?  Does it mean you don’t know what the heck you are doing?  I myself have difficulty remembering every bit of detail and tend to mix them up from time-to-time.  There’s just too much going on in my life already where I’d rather focus my time elsewhere.

If Cisco lab developers happen to read this, they should consider adopting the old 2-day format to wheen out the scammers.  I love the idea of the upcoming Troubleshooting section because it allows us non-Cisco folks to get a grasp of potential real world TAC cases.  Who knows, maybe they will remove the questions once the Troubleshooting section goes live.  At this point, I’m just going to take a wait-and-see approach to see how all of this pans out.

As you can already tell I’m discouraged from pursuing the Security track due to the OEQs, so I’ve decided to attempt the Service Provider track.  In my previous posting I said that I’m more motivated to learn the technology if I can obtain some hands-on experiences in the process.  I have a potential weekend contract coming up where I’ll get to work at the ISP level, which is helping drive my decision.  My biggest challenge at this point is booking a lab date before the end of the year.  I’d prefer to take the lab by January because I suspect that if Cisco is going to make an announcement to add the OEQs to the SP lab by then, the lab seats will fill up even faster.

So many things have changed and so much time has passed since my last SP declaration back on 02/14/2008.  Let’s see if I can stick with this track to the very end this time around.

With each passing day, I get further and further from where I need/want to be with my security studies. There was a point in April when I managed to get some practice lab time in my schedule. I can only blame myself for the lack of focus. For here I am at another point in my life and I’m conflicted with continuing my pursuit of the security lab. The reason for this misdirection is quite simple – work has taken over my life. While it may sound harsh, the reality of becoming an IE has drastically changed my life for the better.

During these harsh economic times, I still find companies are looking to contract or employ an IE. Contract work is usually long and tedious for most consultants. For me, I’ve had to adjust and reorganize my daily priorities to accommodate the contract work hours in the evenings and on the weekends. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything, so I basically had to sacrifice my security studies in order to keep up with the chaos. I’m not giving up on the track but merely postponing lab studies until October or November. From the time when you pass your written exam, you have 18 months until your passing result has expired. Basically I have until February 2010 to complete or make an attempt at the lab. This year doesn’t have to be a complete wash. I am, however, going to continue to read all the Cisco Press security books to prep for the OEQ since it takes me awhile to absorb some of the material.

The 2 main drawbacks about my contract is the distance from my house and the current security products that they have in-house. Firstly, I can no longer take the train since the contract is located in another area of SoCal. This just means that I lose the ability to read an hour in the mornings and need to find some time in the evening – for most of you who attempt to read at night now you already know how difficult that task may be with family and other activities (i.e. social life, sports, fitness, etc.). Secondly, my new has no use for any of the Cisco security products. The company uses CheckPoint firewall and McAfee’s Intrusion Prevention products. Cisco isn’t the right solution all the time, but I have stated my case with the current products to senior management, so let’s leave it at that.

There is a plus to all of this in that my contract relies heavily on MPLS. Prior to announcing a few months ago that I was going to focus my time on the security track, I had just walked away from my Service Provider studies. In order to properly support my new environment, I’ve had to read and familiarize myself with ATM, MPLS, L2/L3 VPN, SP QoS, BGP, IS-IS, and Management. Guess what, that’s more than half of the topics on the SP lab. At the moment, I’m far from committing to the track at all, but I have been keeping track of my progress and found that I’m not too far off either. I know for a fact that the amount of work is steady enough where I’ll be busy until the end of the year.

We’ll just have to wait and see.