Well, it has been busy these past few weeks but fun and challenging at the same time. My good friend Vybhav (tacack.com) is a great study buddy but I haven’t had time to really get on-line with him too much these past few weeks so I apologize to him for that. Hopefully I can get back on-track with him in the coming days (it really has been one heck of a week…).
So I focused largely on the IPS the past few weeks but feel that I still need more time with it. The only hands on I get is when I am going through my lab session which is only 8 hours a week for the next few weeks. I am still reading through the documentation though. I have a bunch of notes that I need to go through and make blog posts out of now. All in due time…
It is definitely a little overwhelming with the study process. I will be posting a new journal section quite soon that will be logging how many hours I am spending for study in the various technologies both labbing and theory. I would also like to Congratulate Paul Stewart, the latest CCIE Security guru, on completing his journey. He has been a great help/mentor and I enjoy his blog posts and work on the Cisco Learning Network. Please find his blog in regards to his recent success here – Paul Stewart, CCIE 26009
Onto troubleshooting RTBH with Vybhav now… still working on that fun and challenging technology…
I have updated the security lab blueprint in the CCIE Security section. This includes the improved topic listing as well as my proficiency and I will be posting study hours shortly. The notes will be a link that will open up web pages with my own notes that I made during the study if that section. The coming weeks will be directed towards acing the IPS device (both theory, implementation, and troubleshooting. I will keep those of you interested with my learning and maybe some small labs that I design on my own. Cheers and I hope you had a great weekend!
Well, I am officially scheduled to take the lab exam on Tuesday, August 31st of this year. I am sure time will fly and I hope I will be ready to take it on that date. If anything, I have until June 2nd to reschedule the exam. Having a deadline now, is what I need to push me that much harder. Cheers to my good friend Vybhav (TacAck) who is sharing this experience with me. I can only wish him, as well as all others undertaking this challenge this year, all the best.
I will be spending my study time for the remainder of this week on device management. There are so many small tweaks in this area that deal with security that I find has to be mastered in order to pass the lab. They should be easy marks but if we don’t implement and learn them, kiss the easy marks goodbye…. The two weeks after this week will be heavily focused on IPS (both and appliance and IOS technologies). This will also stretch to the technologies aound IPS such as ip virtual-reasembly and RSPAN/SPAN. I will also touch on ip audit for the ASA. I will then follow up with blog posts on what I have learned.
Well, after establishing a schedule and pinpointing the lab exam date, I am starting to feel a little less scattered. I am now more focused on the study path that I have layed before myself and will try my hardest to fulfill my goals. So, I plan to take the exam on August 31, 2010. I will be booking that date and will be testing in San Jose (I hope I sit in the same seat as PacketU – aka Paul S. – as I know he is going to pass the exam next month). I will be flying into San Jose two days before the exam to give me a straight day in the hotel room touching up with no interuptions.
I have also figured out holiday dates and am going to take at least 2 Fridays off every month to dedicate to labs. I will also be labbing on Sundays (from 6am to 2pm). This will be roughly 288 hours of rack time between now and then. I will have 184 hours of rack time remaining so I am hoping to fit some of those hours into other days if possible.
I will be putting in at least 2 hours almost every night (except Fridays) for reading and theory studies. I may also include some light configurations at this point. This will be roughly 12 hours/week. I will also be doing light configuration during my lunch break at work so this will be another 4 hours per week roughly.
The last thing to do now is to set the study dates for the topics in the lab blueprint. This will be a very rough draft at first until I get a move on some of the topics and see how things play out. I will adjust the dates accordingly. As well, I will be studying alongside my good friend Vybhav (tacack.com) where he has posted a similiar study schedule.
I will still continue to help out on the Cisco Learning Network as much as I can in the meantime and will hopefully get some youtube videos uploaded to share the technologies that are being studied. Thanks for following the blog, there are definately interesting times ahead…..
Well, I have now switched from Graded Labs to Proctor Labs for rack rental usage. I like the equipment that Proctor Labs have to offer – IPS 4240 running version 6.1 as well as ISR routers. I have been on a pod twice now and am satisfied in my 500 hour purchase. The only issue is that the labs from INE are going to take a little bit to port over to the new topology. I have found this fun and challenging though since I have been configuring all devices from the ground up. You learn a lot this way as compared to going into a fully functional network that needs modifications.
With the help of the rack sessions and the great resources at hand, I am planning a strategy at the moment in hopes to attack the lab with passing results. My good friend Vybhav (aka TacAck) and I are planning to attempt the lab later this summer, somewhere in the range of August to September. So I am currently planning the study holidays now and will post the information on the blog. The closest facility for the exam is San Jose. I will be posting a decent study schedule on the this site as well to help me stay focused and on track to tackle this challenging exam. I will also be booking the lab as I do work better when a deadline is involved.
I will also be completing several Cisco exams up to the date of the lab exam. This will include the ASA advanced exam from Cisco as well as the route and switch exams for the CCNP track. I have learned so much in the routing and switching world when working on the security technologies that I feel confident that I would be able to pass these newest exams.
Stay tuned for more blog entries!