What day is it ?

I’m back from San Jose now after my IPExpert boot camp. I woke at 3 this morning (after going to bed at 8pm), it is of course the first day back (I think it’s Monday!) It took my until Tuesday evening last week to work out what day it was (Tuesday was a good day – everything I did that day worked) after arriving in San Jose on Saturday. So I should be back to normal by Wednesday I think!

So how was it ? Well, in a nutshell, it was the most enjoyable, most intense, most eye-opening training course of any type I have been on, and now I feel much more comfortable about what I need to achieve in the next 6 weeks before my exam. So let’s break down what was so good about it.

First, the class – my fellow CCIE wanabees (including some CCIE alreadys) – the stamina, enthusiasm, knowledge and experience in that room would have made quite an exceptional Cisco-partner organisation! Normally in a class you expect people to be quite 9-5 about it. Not here! Everyone was in (except Monday) around 8am and didn't leave (except Friday due to flights etc.) until at least 7:30pm if not later – and this was every day!  This didn't just apply to those who’d funded the trip themselves. This was one committed (or is that committable) bunch, and a great bunch too.

The content – well the website states that there are 4 days of lecture/lab and one day of full lab. Forget that! Vik stated up front that most of us would not get to go through that one day lab at the end, as there was just so much content to cover, that it was a better use of time to do this than the 1 day lab (we received the lab and solution guide so no great loss). The real world – forget that too. This course is about passing the CCIE lab, and that is not the real world. Many times throughout the week you would think – I’d never do this in the real world – and then you remembered where you were. Partition <None> anyone ? Would I recommend this course to someone not attempting the lab ? No! It is too detailed, and otherworldly. The number of gotchas that came up throughout the week, I lost count (but made copious notes!). “What protocol provides the voice vlan to a phone ?” – think about that carefully before you answer – and be pedantic!

The man – Vik is a Liverpool Fan – that’s the last bad thing I’ll say about him (I’m an Everton Fan!). His ability to engage a class is as good as I’ve seen. He explains topics in such detail and with such authority that it is easy to digest and learn from him. We were quite a clever bunch, but we struggled to find anything that could knock him out of his stride – if we had a question he had the answer. He had a knack of knowing when we were all starting to flag and had hit our knowledge absorption limit – at which point we take a “5” minute break (I think he needs a new watch!)  His explanation of 3750 QoS breaks it down in such a way as you go – ahhh!

So was it worth it (it being the not inconsiderable monetary sum I shelled out for flights/accommodation/food/unpaid work time!) ? Well, as I sit here on the train into the office I feel it was. I’m definitely better prepared now – in that I know where I am at, and where I need to get, but also how to go about getting there. The proof will be in the final result in April – although passing first time is not the be-all, it would be nice! As I’ve said before, I don’t want to go to Brussels!

Yes I knew the way!

My trip to San Jose for the IPExpert boot camp last week gave me my first taste of California. So on the two down days I had (Sunday and Saturday at either end of the trip), I had a look around San Francisco.

First however – how do you get to San Jose from SFO – easy, just jump into a shared van at the airport and then go on a geeky magical mystery tour until you get to your hotel. Travelling down the highway into Silicon Valley you see all the names of the places where those big companies you know the names of, and some other places that you go “oooh, I didn't know that was there!” (at least as a geeky Brit on their first trip anyway!) Mountain View, Cupertino, Moffett Field, Palo Alto. Hmmm!

If you are ever in San Jose, check out Gordon Birsch for a beer and a meal , a fine pint (or 3) of the seasonal bock, and a good feed – and thus ended my travelling day 26 hours after I woke up.

Awake at 4:30 hmm isn't US TV poor at this time of the morning – breakfast – UK football streamed over the internet, then time to catch the train to San Francisco. Firstly the San Jose VTA light rail to San Jose Diridon for the CalTrain to San Francisco – on time – nice! (Although given how short the change time was should have gone the opposite direction from Metro to Mountain View which is what I did on the way back) The fast train (baby bullet!) gets from San Jose to San Francisco in just about an hour (the stopper takes 1 and 1/2 hours!) and I managed to make it. Just! I’d decided to take an open-topped bus tour, but I had forgotten my coat, and it was colder than anticipated. I can however recommend it as the best way to see everything if you are very time limited (just don’t get off the bus unless there is really something you want to do!)  I had been looking forward to seeing the Golden Gate Bridge since I booked the trip – here it is!

That’s right – cloud arrived just before I did! So rather than get off I stayed on the bus and went over the bridge. It was much clearer on the northern side – but no photo of the whole bridge without any cloud. This is the best!

Down to Fisherman’s Wharf – fresh crab for lunch/dinner and then back to San Jose (CalTrain, VTA etc.). Back to the hotel in time to get a good night’s sleep before the course started.

San Jose Here I Come!

This weekend I’m off to San Jose (not for a holiday!) for the IPExpert 5 Day Lab Preparation Instructor Led Boot Camp with Vik Malhi. I thought I’d note what I’m looking to get out of the course, and then I can check back afterwards with what I thought (and whether it was worth it!).

I get a lot of comments when I say I’m off to San Jose (the obvious one + others) for a training course – “That sounds like fun!”, “Couldn’t you go any further for the course ?”, "”Don’t they do that course in the UK ?” etc. Mostly when people think of IT-related courses they think of the 5-day low impact CCNx or Microsoft courses, so when I suggest that most of my time will not be spent in the pub, but in a classroom for 10-14 hours a day people are shocked and ask more about this mythical CCIE certification. They are then shocked again when I tell them how much the exam costs, what’s involved and that I’m doing mine in Sydney in April (“Can’t you do that in the UK ?” ) Come on Cisco, if I have to do a re-take, Brussels in not my first choice for a destination, and one of the reasons it’s taken me so long to get motivated since passing the written (in Barcelona – why do exams in dour places!) They also think that I should pass it “easy”, at which I nod politely and say “hopefully!”. If only they truly understood!

So what am I expecting ? Well – having done most of the volume 1 labs, I’m looking for filling in the gaps. There are many times, especially in the call routing sections where I’ll do it one way and the proctor guide describes another way – both get the same end result (as far as I can tell), so if Cisco awards points in a results oriented fashion, I’ll be fine! It is always advantageous to know multiple ways to do things however, in case Cisco says you can’t do it the way you know.

I hope to get some good tips on strategy, as I need to work on mine and refine it until it is second nature. I’m spending too much time thinking, and not enough time doing at the moment. It needs to flow better.
It will also be good to surround myself with a group of like-minded individuals who are all pulling in the same direction to achieve the same goal. Hopefully I’ll meet some new people I’ll come to call friends and we can go for a beer when we have our numbers (personally I quite fancy CCIE#30000 – which, looking at the latest digits being handed out, could be right about when I take my exam – any number will be fine by me though!)

It is also helping me to focus. Doing this with a 9-5 job (more like 6:30-7:30 if you include commute), it is hard to make the time to have long focused time – i.e. just the weekends – you wouldn’t run a marathon if you could only practice at a quarter to one-third distance! This is the point where the hard push towards the finishing line begins. My study program has another big push just before I fly out to Australia (where I’ll have no access to lab gear for the final 7 days leading into the lab), where I hope to get myself peaking at just the right time. We’ll see!

Right time to pack my bags!

Weekend wake-up call

This weekend I attempted my first lab double-header, two sessions on the proctorlabs.com racks in two days. My aim – to finish off the IPExpert volume 1 workbook, and to attempt a full length lab. Well, let’s say if I had any doubts as to how much work is still be done to get myself up to the required standard to pass the lab, I don’t now!

My Saturday labbing was to fill in the gaps where my previous lab sessions had left. This meant starting with lab 6 and working through to lab 13, skipping those I had already done and picking off other bits where time allowed. This is to be the last day I study with other things going on in the background – you know the usual slight distractions, music or amazing premiership football games with up to 8 goals! It’s very hard to get the nuances of IPMA  as yet another goal goes in (anybody who listened or watched Soccer Saturday this weekend will attest to that!)

The various application sections opened my eyes to functionality that is bound to be on the final lab, as it is the stuff that I don’t touch every day (or even any day) – IPMA – I’m looking at you here. I guess someone must use it! It was interesting to see and is now on my read more about list, e.g. how to tell if the question wants shared-line mode vs proxy mode. At least with the application sections there seems to be less variation in how to configure the final solution (or do I need to learn more about them so I can see more alternatives – I’m not sure yet).

Sunday, how am I going to go with a full lab – volume 2 lab 1 – I guess this must be a nice easy starter lab (and in fairness I’m probably right here!). I do wish there was a difficulty level attached to each of the volume 2 labs, as it would help gauge where I’m at (I’m sure if I google it, someone has stated the difficulty level compared to the actual lab!) As I’ve stated before, the time zone issue means that my labbing is 1pm to 8:45pm – which coincides with two major meal times – and Sunday lunch is the most important meal of the week! So I knew from the start that I was not going to go straight through and would probably not have enough time to finish everything.

For anyone attempting the full labs in one session, I have a suggestion (which I thought of beforehand, but didn’t do this time), read the lab in the hour before the rack time starts and make any notes, set up any points tracking, and any test plans you feel you will need (and you will need all of that) . That way you won’t waste any of the rack time (I will take my own advice next time).

I actually have many suggestions and things I’ll do differently next time, here’s a few.

• Don’t get stuck!
  If something is causing problems, move on and come back, especially if it is not core to getting the basics working (which may have already been done in the real lab). It is really easy to burn time, and a fresh look will often find the problem (this happened to me twice!)
• Save your configurations regularly
  It’s easy to forget this one, given that a lot of work is in the CUCM GUI, but those gateways don’t auto-save their configuration and when you enter that one configuration command which causes your 2811 to reload (not done that to an IOS device in years) – it was something to do with DSPs in telephony-service if my memory holds – then that’s the last hour or so that needs to be re-done (not such an issue when you have the proctor guide, but come lab-day!)
• Details, Details, Details
  Just because it looks like a T1 configuration doesn’t mean its a working t1 configuration. There will be tiny details – often taken for granted – that will trip you up and burn time, watch for them, be aware of them and don’t let them get you! Oh yes and if you don’t see significant digits on the mgcp endpoint screen – it’s because you didn’t select Digital T1 PRI !

So how did I go – hmm lets just say it needs more work. That’s my speed needs more work (too many typos), my time-management needs more work (spending too long on a problem – I now understand why you use VIA zones, although I still not sure I can see much of a use for them in the real world), my overall knowledge needs more work (see VIA zones comment). It’s an over-used cliché, but it is a journey of discovery and I’ve discovered a lot over that one weekend. 2 months (should I be counting in days yet?) to lab day, too late to cancel. Off to San Jose for some IPExpert  boot camp magic, lets see what I think after that.