Core Knowledge waiver seen as an unfair advantage and as such will be eliminated on May the 10th, the extra 30 mins will be allocated to the configuration section. They also mentioned that the skills they were looking for in the core knowledge section are covered in the troubleshooting section. Additionally many candidates need the extra time, particularly the non english speaking ones.

They were also plugging the 360 program and showed a couple of stats, if you get rid of the rubbish its interesting to see the average attempts between the 360 program and outside of that.

The mobile testing centers are working out ways to move forward this and the mobile testing locations will expand, and this will be in a similar way to how the CCDE is deployed.

There was an interesting comment from Fred Weiller – “Dynamips is neither recommended to support and it enables infringement on the IOS licence”, but they are going to be using some virtualistion technologies to make studying more cost effective & accessible.

That’s about it, off topic I am scheduling in for just over 3 months so am quite glad they didn’t announce any big changes like IOS 15.0 Also any rumours about version 5.0 are false, but there is nothing on the development plan for that.

I took the CCIE R&S lab yesterday in Brussels and had a couple of comments that you might find interesting, now some of this came from the proctor over lunch and I may have misheard him, got confused so please don’t take it as gospel;
- All the CCIE labs are graded remotely at other CCIE lab locations with the exception of Voice which requires the person who marks it to be physically there. This is how they can mark the exam out of hours.
- I asked the proctor about the exams at the Person professional testing centers and he said that the idea would be that they are not mobile labs and you will connect to equipment remotely and they are intended to eventually run proctorless, although he mentioned that a proctor would be available in the early stages while they test the exam in these locations if needed, I asked if this would be via telepresence and it was a no.

Comments on the lab;
- The proctor was brilliant, I asked quite a few questions and at one point thought I had a bug and he said “I think this is something you need to fix yourself” which was when I realised they were trying to play mind tricks on me.
- There was 8 candidates taking a variety of tracks
- For both the troubleshooting and configuration you are presented with a topology diagram which when you click on the device icon opens up a Putty window to the device
- I had enough space, the big monitors were just enough for me organise and I could easily view 3-4 putty windows and the relevant items of the topology. Although 2 smaller monitors may have suited me better if I could snap the topology diagram and questions on one side
- I read about candidates taking ear plugs in the past so I took some but they weren’t needed it was a quiet environment as the equipment was in another room.

Other comments;
- The food at Cisco is amazing, I had a steak with chips and veg, cooked how I liked it while I waited, although continental Europeans looked at me strangely when I mentioned I was looking for vinegar to put on my chips.
- Not really associated but when a continental European hotel says they do a cooked breakfast, its nothing like an Englishman’s idea of a cooked breakfast. Bacon should not be cut up into 1inch squares..
- I stayed at the NH Brussels Airport hotel, its directly outside the Diegem train station and just the behind Cisco. Expensive at 155 Euros advance rate for B&B but worth every penny as its so close.
- Brussels has a great train network if your in Europe on a Eurostar line I highly recommend travelling with them, as a single change at Brussels Midi takes you directly to the hotel/testing center, so no worrying about Shuttles/Taxis/Buses/Trams.

Personal note;
I havn’t got the marks back yet but I think I just missed out on the Configuration section, will definitely nail it next time its just a mind game.

Hope this helps, and please don’t bother unicasting me asking for the material on the lab.

Cheers

Bradley

The official CCIE Book List by Cisco is mental, I don’t think its really practical to read through the entire list in any reasonable amount of time. Below is some of the books I have read in my preparations, although I am not suggesting that what was right for me will be right for you, I am also only going to mention hard copy books stuff like the DocCd and RFCs are invaluable aswell.

I started this with a decent enough CCNA/CCNP level of knowledge, from the CCNP track I would recommend
the books from the BSCI and BCMSN as a casual warm up. The smaller portable command guides for BSCI and BCMSN are also quite handy for a quick reference on how to set stuff up, but they are not at CCIE level so don’t plan on using them for long unless you have a temporary brain malfunction.

I also read through a generic non vendor orientated book on networking and would highly recommend it, reading though a non Cisco book really clarified alot of things for me. This is as the book focuses entirely on the technology and protocols and less about a vendors implementation or view of protocols.

Routing TCP/IP, Volume 1 (2nd Edition) – People sometimes refer to this book as the bible of networking, its deep thorough and enjoyable. Doyle and Carroll have done an amazing job on this and its definitely a must read for the core technologies, I personally consider this the best book to read for IGPs.

Routing TCP/IP, Volume II (CCIE Professional Development) – the second volume of Routing TCP/IP focuses on technologies not covered in the original mainly BGP, Multicast, IPv6 and IP Services. I don’t believe its the best book for BGP but it does have alot of detail and is written well although it could do with an update notably in the IPv6 section.

Troubleshooting IP Routing Protocols (CCIE Professional Development Series) – This book is incredible, I don’t know why this wasn’t in my life sooner. When the troubleshooting section came out, I was quite concerned about my methodology. This book as shown me that any routing protocol problem can be solved with the right approach. It has a nice and reasonably brief overview of each routing protocol and then provides systematic processes to solves problems with them, it has flow charts, example problems, show command outputs with the problems, its freaking awesome!

MPLS Fundamentals – although the title has “fundamentals” in it, don’t be tricked into thinking this is a basic level book. It goes from basic knowledge to SP level CCIE stuff in a reasonable short amount of time. Its all good stuff and I particularly enjoyed the section on the background and the false truths about MPLS. I read through chapters 1 to 7 and the chapter on MPLS L3 VPNs, its very well written and I am sure I will be referring to it many times in the future past my CCIE.

Cisco QOS Exam Certification Guide (IP Telephony Self-Study) (2nd Edition)Now this is a good book and it goes into detail in all the right and interesting places, for instance a random fact I found in this book was, the speed of light in a vacuum in 3.0 x 10⁸ m/s, we have all probably come across at some point but the speed of transmission over copper and optical media is generally measured not at the speed of light but 2.1 x10⁸m/s. But please dont get me wrong I had real difficulty reading this as my own personal tastes just find QoS boring, I genuinely couldn’t read more than 20 to 50 pages (if that) while staying awake. The book is well written and a great reference guide I just couldn’t personally read it cover to cover as I don’t enjoy QoS.

CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide (4th Edition) – This is the official guide for the written, its designed for the 350-001 written and not so much for lab but it does have most of the topics in a single book. I haven’t read the latest version 4 as of yet.

Books which I am yet to read, but planning to

Developing IP Multicast Networks, Volume I by Beau Williamson – this has been recommended in some other places in regards to multicast, I have heard it could do with a bit of an update but is still very vaulable. I am planning on getting it soon.

Internet Routing Architectures (2nd Edition)
by Wendell Odom, Michael J. Cavanaugh – Another one on my to read list, I have heard this is THE book for BGP, will defiantly be getting this next.

The official CCIE Book List by Cisco is mental, I don’t think its really practical to read through the entire list in any reasonable amount of time. Below is some of the books I have read in my preparations, although I am not suggesting that what was right for me will be right for you, I am also only going to mention hard copy books stuff like the DocCd and RFCs are invaluable aswell.

I started this with a decent enough CCNA/CCNP level of knowledge, from the CCNP track I would recommend
the books from the BSCI and BCMSN as a casual warm up. The smaller portable command guides for BSCI and BCMSN are also quite handy for a quick reference on how to set stuff up, but they are not at CCIE level so don’t plan on using them for long unless you have a temporary brain malfunction.

I also read through a generic non vendor orientated book on networking and would highly recommend it, reading though a non Cisco book really clarified alot of things for me. This is as the book focuses entirely on the technology and protocols and less about a vendors implementation or view of protocols.

Routing TCP/IP, Volume 1 (2nd Edition) – People sometimes refer to this book as the bible of networking, its deep thorough and enjoyable. Doyle and Carroll have done an amazing job on this and its definitely a must read for the core technologies, I personally consider this the best book to read for IGPs.

Routing TCP/IP, Volume II (CCIE Professional Development) – the second volume of Routing TCP/IP focuses on technologies not covered in the original mainly BGP, Multicast, IPv6 and IP Services. I don’t believe its the best book for BGP but it does have alot of detail and is written well although it could do with an update notably in the IPv6 section.

Troubleshooting IP Routing Protocols (CCIE Professional Development Series) – This book is incredible, I don’t know why this wasn’t in my life sooner. When the troubleshooting section came out, I was quite concerned about my methodology. This book as shown me that any routing protocol problem can be solved with the right approach. It has a nice and reasonably brief overview of each routing protocol and then provides systematic processes to solves problems with them, it has flow charts, example problems, show command outputs with the problems, its freaking awesome!

MPLS Fundamentals – although the title has “fundamentals” in it, don’t be tricked into thinking this is a basic level book. It goes from basic knowledge to SP level CCIE stuff in a reasonable short amount of time. Its all good stuff and I particularly enjoyed the section on the background and the false truths about MPLS. I read through chapters 1 to 7 and the chapter on MPLS L3 VPNs, its very well written and I am sure I will be referring to it many times in the future past my CCIE.

Cisco QOS Exam Certification Guide (IP Telephony Self-Study) (2nd Edition)Now this is a good book and it goes into detail in all the right and interesting places, for instance a random fact I found in this book was, the speed of light in a vacuum in 3.0 x 10⁸ m/s, we have all probably come across at some point but the speed of transmission over copper and optical media is generally measured not at the speed of light but 2.1 x10⁸m/s. But please dont get me wrong I had real difficulty reading this as my own personal tastes just find QoS boring, I genuinely couldn’t read more than 20 to 50 pages (if that) while staying awake. The book is well written and a great reference guide I just couldn’t personally read it cover to cover as I don’t enjoy QoS.

CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide (4th Edition) – This is the official guide for the written, its designed for the 350-001 written and not so much for lab but it does have most of the topics in a single book. I haven’t read the latest version 4 as of yet.

Books which I am yet to read, but planning to

Developing IP Multicast Networks, Volume I by Beau Williamson – this has been recommended in some other places in regards to multicast, I have heard it could do with a bit of an update but is still very vaulable. I am planning on getting it soon.

Internet Routing Architectures (2nd Edition)
by Wendell Odom, Michael J. Cavanaugh – Another one on my to read list, I have heard this is THE book for BGP, will defiantly be getting this next.

The middle bit in the 3 bit fragmentation flags field in the IP header is the Don’t Fragment (DF) flag, if it set to 1 the packet will not be fragmented, therefore if the packet exceeds the MTU of a link it will generate a ICMP type 3 code 4 error message and be dropped.

Using the extended commands in the ping we can manually determine the specific MTU across a path, there are a couple of pointers on doing this;

1. Change the repeat count to 1 or it will sweep the entire range a default of 5 times which is usually unnecessary
2. Don’t sweep the default range, it defaults to an MTU of between 36 to 18024 bytes, considering it sends 1 packer per byte of the MTU that’s 17,988 packets. That a hell of a lot of default 2 second time outs to wait for… so try a smaller range like 10 or so bytes
3. Remember to set the DF bit in the IP header or the ICMP packets will fragment and you actually be testing the MTU
4. Use the verbose option to see the results of each packet
5. Change the sweep interval to 1, again there is little point in sweeping the range multiple times

Router#ping
Protocol [ip]:
Target IP address: 201.14.1.1
Repeat count [5]: 1
Datagram size [100]:
Timeout in seconds [2]:
Extended commands [n]: y
Source address or interface:
Type of service [0]:
Set DF bit in IP header? [no]: yes
Validate reply data? [no]:
Data pattern [0xABCD]:
Loose, Strict, Record, Timestamp, Verbose[none]: Verbose
Loose, Strict, Record, Timestamp, Verbose[V]:
Sweep range of sizes [n]: y
Sweep min size [36]: 1495
Sweep max size [18024]: 1505
Sweep interval [1]:
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 11, [1495..1505]-byte ICMP Echos to 201.14.1.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
Packet sent with the DF bit set
Reply to request 0 (4 ms) (size 1495)
Reply to request 1 (4 ms) (size 1496)
Reply to request 2 (4 ms) (size 1497)
Reply to request 3 (4 ms) (size 1498)
Reply to request 4 (4 ms) (size 1499)
Reply to request 5 (8 ms) (size 1500)
Request 6 timed out (size 1501)
Request 7 timed out (size 1502)
Request 8 timed out (size 1503)
Request 9 timed out (size 1504)
Request 10 timed out (size 1505)
Success rate is 54 percent (6/11), round-trip min/avg/max = 4/4/8 ms
Router#

As shown in the example above it indicates that the maximum MTU along the path is 1500 bytes.

• - Creating an ACL for 10.10.10.1

• Router#Access-list 101 permit ip any host 10.10.10.1

• - Applying that ACL to the debug command

• Router#Debug ip packet detail 101

• - Bob’s your uncle

Because the #debug ip packet detail takes an ACL you can change the ACL to whatever you like, so if you just wanted to see ICMP its simple just change it to the following and reapply your Debug ip packet detail 101.

Router#Access-list 101 permit ip any any icmp

Another handy way is that if you accidently perform a debug command which causes a backlog on your console connection that you could not perform an un all due to so much output on the console, you should be able to telnet into the router and issue the usual undebug all immediately

The debugging will instantly disappear from the Console session as well, this is as debugging wont be sent to vty lines without the following command issuing the command terminal monitor, so you can stop debugging without having to wait to get your command across the Console if you have filled it up with debugging.

This can save valuable minutes or even a reload just remember to setup remote access before getting into a pickle

There are very few differences between them, mainly Cisco LMI type use the DLCI of 1023 and also DLCI number between 16 and 1007 for usable DLCI number and the ANSI & ITU(q933a) standard use a DLCI of 0 and usable DLCI numbers between 16 and 976. The LMI type can be changed on the frame relay enabled interface with the command;

Router(config-if)#frame-relay lmi-type ?
  cisco
  ansi
  q933a

The LMI messages messages sent between Routers and Frame Relay switches provide the the following additional features;
- Inverse ARP – to find out the layer 3 address of device on the other end of the DLCI so you dont need to static map it or similar
- Signalling of Virtual Circuit status messages, therefore if a PVC becomes unreachable all nodes along its path can be aware of this failure so data can be prevented from being sent to indirect failures.
- Multicasting – This extension allows multicast groups to be used over frame relay networks, the higher DLCI numbers reserved by the LMI type are used for this
- Globally signficiant DLCIs – Brilliant!
- Retro flow control with XON/XOFF if the applications using the Frame Relay network know understand FECNs and BECNs

By default LMI messages are sent every 10 seconds, and every sixth message a full status message will be sent which contains more detailed information about each VC, the interface will fail if the interfaces does not receive an LMI message 3 times the hello time, so 30 seconds. You cant actually turn off LMI but you can disable the keepalives with the highly ambiguous command;

Router(config-if)#frame-relay lmi-n391dte ?
  <1-255>  event

Finally you can check the status of LMI with the command;

Router#sh frame lmi

LMI Statistics for interface Serial1/0 (Frame Relay DTE) LMI TYPE = CISCO
  Invalid Unnumbered info 0             Invalid Prot Disc 0
  Invalid dummy Call Ref 0              Invalid Msg Type 0
  Invalid Status Message 0              Invalid Lock Shift 0
  Invalid Information ID 0              Invalid Report IE Len 0
  Invalid Report Request 0              Invalid Keep IE Len 0
  Num Status Enq. Sent 18               Num Status msgs Rcvd 0
  Num Update Status Rcvd 0              Num Status Timeouts 18
  Last Full Status Req 00:00:03         Last Full Status Rcvd never

Finally pretty much every command on the interface beings with frame-relay;

Router(config-if)#frame-relay ?
  accounting             Special accounting instruction
  address-reg            ELMI address registration
  broadcast-queue        Define a broadcast queue and transmit rate
  class                  Define a map class on the interface
  congestion-management  Enable Frame Relay congestion management
  de-group               Associate a DE group with a DLCI
  fragment               Enable end-to-end fragmentation for all PVCs
  fragmentation          Adaptive fragmentation

UPDATE: On some versions of IOS it forces you to set set a LMI hello of between 1 and 255 thereby the above method of using frame relay encapsulation on a P2P link by turning off LMI does not work, in these cases your going to have to use a different encapsulation type or a frame relay switch.

R5(config-if)#frame-relay lmi-n391dte
% Incomplete command.

Register for the CCNP TV: Implement Multicast Forwarding, July 24, 2008

Note: Please remember to use your Cisco.com/CCO username and password to register for this event.

Watch a live presentation done by Abhi Singh. Abhi holds various certifications including a CCNA, CCNP and a CCIE. Abhi is a Network Consulting Engineer for Cisco and works closely with customers in the Service Provider segment.

Agenda:
The program will focus on the following objectives and is designed to provide information that will assist you in passing your CCNP exam. After Abhi Singh’s presentation, we’ll be taking live calls from YOU – the viewer— during our Q&A session. You may also submit questions electronically.

Objectives:
During the show, Cisco Experts will discuss:

• Why do we need Multicast?
• Multicast at Layer 2 (IGMPv2/3)
• Multicast at Layer 3 (PIM)

To register for the event visit https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/docs/DOC-2442 you will need to create an account/login to the free Cisco Learning Network for this.