CCIE R&S #46535!

This process started in June 2014.  I had a co-worker at the time who was to me as an astronaut is to a small child; he motivated me to go onto bigger things.  It didn't take long for me to convince work that footing the bill would be a worthwhile investment, as my work ethic has (hopefully) has become evident in my day to day work.  

I convinced work that the INE all access pass would be a great first start.  "It has access to training videos across every track, has rack rentals, workbooks, and has a proven track record," I told them.  While I knew this approval process would take a couple of weeks, I started looking into other materials to use.  I quickly found many positive reviews on the "Your CCIE Lab Success Strategy: The Non-Technical Guidebook."  I felt as this would be what I needed to fully understand what I might be getting myself into.  I found this book to be AMAZING!  It gave an truthful, unfiltered explanation of what mindset one must have to truly be successful.  As many have said, "You don't have to be a genius..or even smart to pass the CCIE.  You MUST be committed."  I found the most helpful insight to be with how to approach the topic with your family.  I wasn't sure how to best express what the next year might hold for us.  Within my study group (I'll get back to this), we consider this book to be our sacred book.  The agreement that my wife and I came to was that she would take over all household duties, allowing me to study uninterrupted for the next year.  

After the INE purchase was successful, my approach for the next year was nothing fancy: Watch the videos, do the related labs, make notes, and repeat.  Now that I had a process...one has multiple questions he or she must answer.  How will I build my CCIE lab?  How will I organize my notes?  Rack rentals were my initial go-to for the labs...but I found them to be frustrating.  It required me to have the foresight to schedule lab access in advance..and wasn't all that easy to load the pre-configurations (in my personal opinion).  After a bit of research, it seemed as if IOU and/or CSRs would be the two best methods.  I LOVE the CSRs and physical switches for doing INEs labs.  IOU has some...quirks when it comes to switching.  After doing all of the INE advanced technology labs, full scale labs, and Tshoot labs, I started to use IOU more so that I could have access to other vendor work books without having to pay for their rack rentals.  At this point....I wasn't in the mood to build out a new topology.  

Now that I had my lab and an approach, time to get cracking!  I pretty much followed the steps of L2, L3, VPN, MPLS, IPv6, Security, and Network services/management.  After watching a video, I started to make notecards.  A couple notecards turned into hundreds of notecards.  I'm not sitting on about 800 notecards, organized in order of Easy (random IGP timers) to Difficult (Scenario questions).  If I didn't have access to be lab..like at work..or...driving lol..I'd flip through a couple note cards just to stay sharp.  After work, a typical night would consist of 3 to 4 hours of study.  With 3-4 hours of study only consisting of 3-4 videos, It definitely isn't a quick process.  After finishing all of the videos from a section, then I would typically move on to the labs.  Should I run into an issue with the labs, i'd re-watch the videos before moving on.

After about...3 months into my studies I found someone on IEOC asking if others wanted to form a study group.  Best decision of the entire process!  I found that while co-workers are willing to help, it doesn't make much sense to bug someone with some random multicast question....if he or she has no incentive to help you.  Having like-minded individuals in the same boat worked perfectly!  "Hey guys....I'm doing this lab and it isn't doing what I think it should..."  Huzzah!  Webex session stood up and we all figure it out together.  Lastly, while my dear wife is more than understanding..she hardly wants to hear about my wonderful day of OSPF training...where as the study group does!  

Rinse and repeat for 6 months...FINALLY DONE WITH THE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY VIDEOS/LABS!!!!  

I once read someone say that they knew that they were nearing the end of their studies when the idea of configuring <random IGP> one more time would make them throw up.  After going through the advanced technology labs for a second time....I was definitely ready to throw myself off a building.  My approach for re-visiting the advanced technology labs was a random one.  I used a spreadsheet that a guy in my study group created: Here you go! This allowed me to do random labs...without subconsciously having a bias.  

Once INE released there full scales and Tshoot labs...I kissed the advanced technology labs goodbye!  After I did each of these labs 3-4 times each...I started to look to INE for when more labs might be released.  Unfortunately (considering how great they'd been so far), INE wasn't quick to announce any new labs.  At the guidance from some other people, I started looking to doing a bootcamp.  One has the option of going through the various big names: INE, IPExpert, Micronics (Narbik), etc.  After reading positive reviews one after another....I decided that Narbik would be the best.  I figured if INE won't give me more labs..I'll find them elsewhere.

The bootcamp was $4500 (Thank you Dish!), 2 weeks long, and in Glendale CA.  The first week consisted of 2 full scale labs, various "hands on" labs (These rock), and a mountain of lecture.  I'm only repeating what many others before me have said: "Narbik is possibly one of the best instructors of ANYTHING, I've ever had."  The second week was where I really feel I got monies worth.  Compared to the limited troubleshooting labs through INE...Narbik fed me TS labs until I was ready to pop.  Being that the training center location was in Narbik's home (Armenia, CA) I ate more Armenian food in those 2 weeks than I had in my entire life!  I left Narbiks bootcamp more confident, more ready, and 15 pounds heavier than when I got there.  Good thing--my first attempt was the day after the bootcamp ended (12/19/2014).  

"I'M A FAILURE!!"  Thats right, I failed my first attempt.  I assumed I did ok..but apparently not:

SHIT.  WHAT?  I got 8/10 of the Tshoot tickets...diag was easy, and I felt as if I at least passed the Configuration section.  NOPE!  I found myself staring at the ceiling in my bed thinking "What could I have done wrong?  What could I have done differently?"  

Luckly, the study group was there to lift me up!  After talking to some of the members of the group, I realized the error in my ways.  I explained to them how paranoid I was in the troubleshooting section of breaking one of the rules (Don't remove any existing configuration).  I found that by forcing myself to not remove any existing configuration, I wasn't solving the fault (WHICH CISCO WANTS), and instead was working AROUND the faults.  Even though the 8/10 tickets had the desired output...I obviously (Heh..33%) approached it incorrectly.  

I settled with the fact that the configuration failure was my own.  I broke one of the CCIE cardinal rules: I obsessed about the grading process.  I found myself completing a configuration section, then thinking "Well..what if they grade it this way.."  As a result, I would pull out my configuration and start over--only to convince myself that I had it right the first time!  It wasn't until after 2/3 of the configuration section that I realized that I'd wasted too much time in the beginning.  Due to my waste of time...the last third of the exam was a typing frenzy.  I found that I had faults from misreading sections, only to go back and to realize that I'd missed entire tasks within the respective sections! 

My take away from my first attempt?  In the troubleshooting section I told myself that I have GOT to have a process for approaching the tickets.  I can't go in with a blaze of show commands expecting to be victorious.  Furthermore, formalize options for approaching a ticket and deploy the BEST option.  From the configuration section, simply taking the time to understand the tasks before trying to shotgun the configuration.  Time spent thinking before doing will ultimately be a time saver.

In that month before my second attempt I knew that I had to work on these take aways.  I also knew that I had to do something to speed up my configuration time.  If I wanted time for verification....simply going in sequential order would not do.  I found that I'd finish a section...and I couldn't even troubleshoot the damn thing until a task further down the list.  Knowing this....why not do them in the order that would allow me to verify sequentially?  I used what I remembered for the test to work on this.  Instead of doing IGP 1, IGP 2, IGP 3, BGP 1, BGP 2, BGP 3...I approached it as: I'm already in this device..why not configure BGP, MPLS, and whatever is required while I'm already here?  The only obstacle is that one must understand ALL of the tasks before doing this...as its easy to go "Shit, where was I?"  

After a night of only 5 hours of sleep (BETTER THAN LAST TIME!) I showed up to RTP.  David Blaire runs through the rules and tries to loosen up the candidates.  MAN this place is better than San Jose (In my opinion).  A couple of laughs and we all start our respective tests.  I annihilated the TS section this go around.  I was done after about 1.5 hours including verification--onto diag!  SWEET the exact same diag questions.  Onto the configuration sectoin---SWEET exact same questions as last time!  With my new found approach I FLEW through the configuration section.  By lunch...I completed most of the core topics (Notepad is your friend!!!).  After lunch, I finished the core topics, network security, and network management.  At this point it was nearly 2 and I finished the configuration section nearly 2 hours early.  After an hour of verification (nearly 2 run throughs) I figured it was time to call it quits.  I verified I had the desired output and that I hadn't broke any of the explicit rules.  Any more verification would require me to go line by line through my configs...which I decided I was not going to do.  I even through in a big TCL script or 2 to verify my reachability in my larger IGP sections.  

Back at the hotel I had a webex with my study group to discuss my feelings.  I told them that I felt fairly confident in my results..but I wasn't going to get my hopes up just quite yet!  I stayed up until 2 Am and with a final refresh I got my results--even before the email :)