Today I passed the 350-001 v3 exam today, which is one of the hurdles you have to cross before you can really consider taking the lab which is the real test.

My study technique did not focus on the configuration and was mostly theory, I did complete some small labs just to confirm my theory but I wasn’t powering up my entire rack and configuring each tiny detail. I mainly used the CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, my CCNP books and cisco.com, basically I would read, mini lab, read again and quiz myself.

I wont breach the NDA by discussing the contents of the exam except to say there were lots of questions about routing and switching but I will say;

+ The test was possibly one of the toughest exams I have taken, there were a fair few questions which asked really gritty details and you really need to know you stuff inside out.

+ A number of questions looking for what I would call the Cisco way,  when there are a couple of possibilities which could be right but one is more correct than the others. If you have sat a Cisco exam before you will know what I mean by this point.

+ There were some really simple questions which according to other sites were the CCNP level ones and fazed out soon

+ My weakest areas according to the test report were areas which I had not worked on professionally, I was really weak on multicast and QoS (I also didn’t enjoy learning about multicast or Qos)

+ Writing up a few notes on this site when I was struggling with topics really helped keep me motivated and on track

Right im off to start thinking about my schedule for lab preparation, and assessing how I am going to afford training materials and lab fees.

Due to my domain name and site title I get a fair few visitors who get directed to this site looking for information about community strings, so I thought its about time to write some information on the topic SNMP community strings.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a set of standards for managing network devices, network devices are monitored by a SNMP manager which connects to an SNMP agent on network devices. Data which the SNMP agent can access is stored in a database called Management Information Base (MIB), MIBs are sometimes called MIB trees and small pieces of information (variables) are stored on MIB leaves.

A community string is a password for accessing the SNMP agent and separate community strings are usually used for systems which require read only or read/write access.

There are 4 version of SNMP;

SNMPv1 – Basic authentication through the use of community strings using SMIv1, the community string is sent in plain text

SNMPv2 – Does not community strings to authenticate. Mandates the use of SMIv2 and allows the use of a new message GetBulk and Inform

SNMPv2c – Uses SNMP version 1 style community strings sent in plain text but operates more similarly to to SNMPv2

SNMPv3 – Similar to SNMPv2 but improvements made for security and access control.

There aren’t that many SNMP message types and its useful to know them all, the SNMP message types are;

Get - Requests a single single variable from a MIB

GetNext - Requests the next MIB leaf in the MIB tree

GetBulk – Requests a sequential list of MIB leaves in a single request, GetBulk is commonly used to extract complex MIB structures

Set - this message changes the value of a MIB variable

Response - Sent in response to a set, get or inform type messages

Trap - This message is sent in an unsolicited fashion and does not require confirmation

Inform - Sent between SNMP managers to inform each other about MIB data

As it has been well documented Cisco is changing the Routing & Switching exam to version 4.0 on the 18th of October 2009, its 4 months away so I should be able to pass before then as I was almost ready for the written late last year.

There are no materials released for the 4.0 blueprint yet  https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/docs/DOC-4604 but I will be using the 3rd edition of the CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, the InformIT quick reference sheets, DocCD, and blogging just to keep my thoughts together.

I have booked a date for the written in August which is going to be a busy month with a trip to the Netherlands for har2009,  so time will be tight. If I don’t pass first time which is likely I will just retake a couple of weeks later.

Beta tests for the new written exam will be going on July & August, but I am considering giving it a go just to get a feel so I know what to expect if I get delayed and had to take the 4.0 track, at $50 you cant go wrong.

If anybody asks me for advice on how to pass the CCNA or any of the CCNP modules I would always say to book the exam and work towards that date. Otherwise you just end up casually reading the books meandering around the topics and the next thing you know its 6 months later and your playing computer games all the time and have forgotten about it.

So I took a bit of my own advice and booked the exam, I admittedly was also swayed by Brandon posting a coupon (which worked when I used it!) for 20% off all Cisco written exams. I have booked the exam for the 26th of September, as it fits well into my timetable and I should be able to totally finish of the CCIE Routing & Switching Exam Certification Guide 3rd Edition by Cisco Press at least a month before the date, this provides me with enough time for me to look at some secondary material and do lots of those Boson test questions that came with the book to find my weak spots.

Even with 20% off its still blooming expensive!

Total Purchases: GBP 172.00
Discounts: GBP 34.40
Tax: GBP 24.08
Amount Paid: GBP 161.68

I have heard very good reviews about the CCIE routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, Third Edition by Cisco Press. There are 20 chapters & appendices in the book spread across 10 sections. My target starting from next week is to read and blog about, at least 2 chapters a week. From what I have heard from around the office is the CCIE written is a culmination of all the CCNP modules with a little bit of extra detail, but that is just hear say and I don’t have first hand experience of this.

Once the book has been read I will recover any of my weak points and establish my readiness for the exam by using the question database which is included with the book. I am not going to put a definitive time on taking the written yet as I am unsure of how other commitments will affect me or what additional books learning will be required.