Hey guys,
yesterday I passed the CCIE SP on my 2nd attempt… 10 months after the R&S. I actually started the SP journey 4-6 weeks after the R&S.
You really need to know all the Technologies in depth and you must understand how the protocols are interacting in very detail. Here some important points for my preparation (already with CCIE R&S):
1. INE ATC SPv3
2. INE SP WBv3
3. Blogs
4. Books on recommended reading list (Cisco XR Fundamentals, MPLS Fundamentals, MPLS-enabled applications, Traffic Engineerung with MPLS, BGP Design and Implementation, Routing infrastructure, etc.)
5. Repeating Core-Topic in R&S (ATCs, WB1)
I really want to encourage everybody who pursues the CCIE R&S to go on with the CCIE SP. As Brian Dennis wrote in the blog.. CCIE SP is the logical step after the R&S. Imagine you did not pass the CCIE R&S (again).. would you stop? Usually not. Many people go for their next lab attempt 3-6 month later. So..imagine you passed the R&S.. THINK (or tell your girlfriend/wife :) ) you didn’t pass and study 6-8 month more..but this time for the CCIE SP.. it is really worth and INE makes it so easy for everyone of us!! Many people who already passed the SP said that INE is the only thing you need for the CCIE SP! I can really confirm this as well (ok..besides this.. of course working with the Cisco Doc).
I really want to thank INE for their great material.. In my opinion..no one beats the Instructors of INE (especially the Brians). Although there are many CCIEx2, CCIEx3, etc. out there now, i think that there are just a very few who really know how to teach this stuff. Being CCIE is one thing..but being able to teach difficult things (CCIE stuff) in such an easy way is just inimitable.
Another thing that I really appreciate is that INE really treats his customer as“family” as they state in the “About us” section. Once I had a problem with Multicast and IOS XR, Brian McGahan helped me out with this (after e-mailing and describing the weird problem)! He booked a free 12h session for me, logged into rack and did live troubleshooting. During that time he took me in private chat, shared his desktop for me and explained everything in detail and how to deal with this problem if I face this problem in the lab (because it was in IOS XR bug in this code version) . How cool is this please?!
@ Brian M. : Thanks very much again!!
Lab experience:
1st attempt: I should have nailed it. I felt very comfortable when reading the exam. But I had a lot of problems with the PC and the IOU routers. I was reseated to another PC (after 1 hour) because mine was not working properly. During configuration all IOU router crashed 2 times ( 20 router?!) when canceling a ping by using ctrl+5 instead of ctrl+6. So be concentrated when canceling the ping! If you press crtl+5 by mistake during a ping, this IOU router will go down .. you will not get it back to run except reloading it via the“Managed Devices”… but when you do it..then ALL IOU router reboot. Additionally there was a fire alarm at Cisco Brussels… which happens maybe 2x in the year. Long story short..i always had to re-concentrate.. at the end I didn’t have enough time to configure everything and I could not verify as well.. Circumstances were really bad and that really annoyed me.
2nd attempt : I didn’t prepare so much more as I felt really comfortable with all the technologies for the SP (like in my 1st attempt). So always repeated the topics ..but I I didn’t stress too much. I used the sheets Brian M. suggested for Time management and Check-Recheck Sheet. This time I didn’t have any problems with the equipment and no fire alarm :) So at the end it worked out and i got my CCIE SP! :)
Thanks again to INE and to IEOC!
Dang Ngo