Still chugging away. Finding time to lab is growing increasingly hard with a lot of things going on (building a new home, purchasing a new vehicle, repairing current other vehicles, new job), but I’m doing it. I’ve come to the agreement with myself that even if I can’t get in my goal of 3 hours per night, I should at least get in 1. If I get in 1 I still consider it a “failed” evening, but it’s better than zero. So, I’m still chugging away on RIP. It has taken me a while because of interruptions, but I’m thinking I should be done with RIP this week sometime, then I’ll move forward from there. More to follow, as always! Glad people are enjoying the blog, had a record amount of hits this month!

I’ve finished INE Vol I switching labs, and am about halfway through with INE’s Vol I RIP labs. For the first time since ever, I feel like the CCIE is not only attainable, but imminent if I maintain my current study schedule. I’ve learned a lot already, and it’s just the beginning.

The next 30 days are going to be very busy, between settling in at my new job (which is going awesome) and closing on my new home, it’s going to be hectic. The good news, is once everything settles, my lab will be racked up and I can add the missing pieces (2511, and a couple of WIC-1T’s), then get to labbing hardcore.

The name of the game is “move forward.” So far I have not skipped a day of labbing (been doing 6-7 days a week of 2-3 hours per day, usually more on the weekends), although there have been some real long days where I only labbed 1.5 hrs instead of 2 or 3. But, at least I’m labbing. And I’m still on track to take the lab in about 9 to 10 months. Anyways…lots of labbing to do.

Kudo’s to INE for this lab. It’s the first (and consequentially the last) lab in the Vol I switching portion of their workbook that really made me feel like I was preparing for the CCIE, and not just doing repetition of labs (even though I understand the importance of that). Here’s what the lab required:

• 3 routers, on a shared medium (connected to the same switch)
• HSRP enabled on two of them
• Port security enabled on the switch, but the switch should only learn one MAC address per port

Call it a small victory I guess, and if you already knew this..congrats. The solution to not sending the switch an interface mac AND HSRP Mac?

R6(config-if)#standby use-bia
R6#sh standby
FastEthernet0/0 - Group 1
  State is Active
    2 state changes, last state change 00:03:44
  Virtual IP address is 155.1.146.254
  Active virtual MAC address is 001b.0cd0.3b68
    Local virtual MAC address is 001b.0cd0.3b68 (bia)

Of course, the original HSRP MAC was 0000.0c07.ac01, so this verifies our MAC is now using the BIA of the interface. Pretty slick..I think I will use this down the road!

So far I’ve labbed 16 hours in the past 6 days. Next week it should be a little higher. I am shooting for 20-25 hours/week until we move into the new house, then I’m shooting for an average of 25hrs/week. I’m almost done with INE’s Vol I (switching) labs. I should be done with those this week, then I’ll move onto Frame Relay. I’ll be able to post more soon. I’m trying to make posts from now on generally technical in nature, and as of right now, I don’t have that much “new” stuff to post. I will soon, though. CCIE here I come!

On page 96/156 of INE Vol I labs. Flying through them so far. I am moving through them fast because I’ve worked hands on with a lot of the topics so far. If I don’t understand something, though- I take the time to stop and understand it before moving on. Here’s an interesting tidbit on VTP I learned.

-If you have a network (for simplicity, we’ll say two switches, directly connected by one link) running VTP, with a client-server model (versus transparent mode), the mode of the server will be sent in VTP messages, and the receiving client will change their respective mode (IF the version is 1 OR 2; 3 does not do this)

Of course, I have to prove this:

Here’s our root SW, standard config pretty much.

SW1#show vtp status
VTP Version capable                 : 1 to 3
VTP version running                 : 1
VTP Domain Name                     : CISCO
VTP Operating Mode                  : Server
Maximum VLANs supported locally     : 1005
Number of existing VLANs            : 13
Configuration Revision              : 26

Then we have our SW2 (Transparent mode). This is just to show the current version:

SW2#sh vtp status
VTP Version capable               : 1 to 3
VTP version running               : 2
VTP Domain Name                   : CISCO
VTP Operating Mode                : Transparent
Maximum VLANs supported locally   : 1005
Number of existing VLANs          : 13
Configuration Revision            : 0

Now, I’ll change SW2 to a client with a “vtp mode client” – and here is the output from SW2 proving that it is now following suit with the VTP server, and using the version it is using (VTP ver 1 now):

SW2#sh vtp status
VTP Version capable               : 1 to 3
VTP version running               : 1
VTP Domain Name                   : CISCO
VTP Operating Mode                : Client
Maximum VLANs supported locally   : 1005
Number of existing VLANs          : 13
Configuration Revision            : 26

There we go! Pretty nifty.

Well, this is what it’s about. Long hours. Studying when you don’t feel like it. Well, LABBING when you don’t feel like it. I spent ALL DAY today working on a migration at work. I was troubleshooting fiber issues, QoS configuration issues..the works. All day. I get home, 20 minutes to spend with the fam, then I’m labbing. Not preferable, but the family is totally supportive (and actually encouraged me to do it). I didn’t want to, but the bottom line is, THIS is where CCIE’s are made. Long hours, giving their personal time to achieve something great.

So, onto something great. Switching labs for the next couple of weeks! Possibly one of the most important sections on the IE lab..after all, without Layer 2, what do you have?

Slayed the written. First night of lab prep is tonight. Taking it slow, starting on INE switching labs (Vol I)…more to follow.

Well, tomorrow’s the day. In 11 minutes it’ll be midnight, so really test day is almost here. I just spent the last 3 hours studying. Nothing I can do from here, but do my best. I need this pass. I know people say the CCIE written is no big deal, etc etc…well..it is for me. It’s another step in the right direction. I need to verify I’m going in the right direction- a pass would do that for me. Well, I’ll see ya’ll on the other side. Pass or fail, I’m not quitting.

So, call me stupid, but I always thought HSRP version 2 was the default. Apparently, according to Cisco- Version 1 is the default. What’s the difference? According to Cisco:

• Version 1 multicasts hello’s to 224.0.0.2, Version 2 multicasts hello’s to 224.0.0.102 to allow CGMP to function properly- the new addresses allows CGMP leave processing to function without interference. 

Additionally Version 2 addresses the shortfalls of Version 1, such as:

-HSRP version 2 advertises and learns millisecond timer values (version 1 does not)

-Group numbers are restricted to the range from 0 to 255. HSRP version 2 expands the group number range from 0 to 4095.

-With HSRP version 1, there is no method to identify from HSRP active hello messages which physical router sent the message because the source MAC address is the HSRP virtual MAC address. The HSRP version 2 packet format includes a 6-byte identifier field that is used to uniquely identify the sender of the message. Typically, this field is populated with the interface MAC address.

If you want to change to HSRP version 2, it’s cake:

RouterA(config-if)#standby version 2

That’s it!

Well, change of plans. My new job requires a couple of certs (security+ and ITILv3 foundation), so I’ve got to get those this month. The good news is, I can pass both with only a week or two of studying.

The bad news is, I was going to reschedule my CCIE written for next month.

Well, I left my previous job early (a week early), and decided I’ll dedicate 4 hours a day to studying (3hrs to CCIE, 1hrs to the employer-mandated certs). I’m pretty much done with the CCIE exam cert guide, so it’s going to be mostly review. I plan on going through the INE Written bootcamp videos for the next week, then do some last minute review before I sit the exam.

OH, by the way the exam is Sept 13th. I’ve got 11 days!