• Read OSPF (Chapter 8, CCIE exam cert guide, 4th edition)
• Lab OSPF scenarios every OTHER day. Since there’s so much information that goes with OSPF, I want to make the majority of my studying for now reading about it, and by skipping a day of OSPF labbing, it allows me to have plenty to lab after reading about it for 2 days.
• On the “off” days from OSPF labbing (bear in mind, I’ll still be reading about it..), I’ll do light layer 2 labs to stay fresh, maybe even skim through a couple of pages from LAN Switching here and there.
• Once I finish reading OSPF from the exam cert guide, I’ll skim through TCP/IP Vol I’s coverage of it, which is huge! I’ve read through some of the chapter before in that book, but not all. Once I get this covered I’ll probably move on to the next subject.

I’d say right now I’m looking at ‘finishing’ OSPF as far as the written goes in about 7-10 days. Work will play a role too since I’m going to switch shifts soon and have less time at work to study. Either way, that brings us into April, and that means I have about 2 1/2 months of studying left from right now till taking the written. That’s not very long!

We’ll tentatively say June 15th, but I have a feeling it’ll be more like July 15th for the written. Who knows <shrug>

• Finished IP Forwarding..straightforward
• Read Chapter 7 (EIGRP)
• Labbed INE Vol I EIGRP exercises

As for the last bullet, I didn’t really catch anything “new” to be honest with EIGRP, although I did make a mental note to review any of the little tricky parts with using prefix lists. I was able to successfully configure a few for the scenarios, as well as distribute list and various route filtering in EIGRP, but I feel like there’ s a few “gotchas” that I need to review. Not prior to the written, however.

Tomorrow I’ll begin Chapter 8, OSPF. I’ll be on OSPF most likely the next 2 weeks I think. Depends how things go, but maybe longer. Along with being a long chapter on OSPF, I need a lot of practice labbing OSPF. I’d say I’m a proficient CCNP as it goes with OSPF, but not near a CCIE candidate with it. Most likely somewhere inbetween doing the OSPF reading, I will go back and read/lab some layer 2 topics to stay fresh with those, as I have a tendency to forget all the intricacies!

Night night..it’s 4:30am, nobody can say I’m not dedicated.

I’d say I’ll be done with this chapter in the next day or so, then it’s time to move onto EIGRP finally. I’ll probably flip between labbing EIGRP and doing some layer 2 labs I think. I haven’t done any layer 2 labs from the workbooks lately, just because I’ve been focusing a lot on my reading. I’d say so far I’m abiding by my strategy of roughly 80% reading and 20% labbing for the written exam, then going to about 85% labbing and 15% reading when it comes to the lab prep. I intend on reading every blog I can get my hands on once I start the lab prep, so I can stay sharp and play with new ideas.

I will post more once I get some rest and get to lab a little bit.

I like these posts. I like writing up something that I truly believe, thinking that maybe, just maybe, whether it be tomorrow, or next week, or five years from now- that someone will be motivated or inspired by my words. So here goes.

Getting the CCIE for me isn’t an option. I have to. No, I mean, I really have to. It’s a curse sometimes. Why? I’m not the best engineer. I’m not the smartest guy. I wasn’t blessed with a family that was well off. At times, my life has been rough. I’ve worked hard to earn what I have. I make up for my lack of brilliance with cisco equipment by hard work, and perserverence. It can be a pain in the ass, knowing that I have mounds of documentation and various cisco books to read, in addition to videos and labbing..just to get on the same level as some of those Cisco guru’s out there.  I’ve decided to quit before, because of personal reasons. I came back. I will always come back, until I get the CCIE. Why? You’re going to think I’m insane, stupid, or maybe a combination…but it’s almost biological. My brain is wired in such a way that I have tunnel vision in regards to the CCIE. If I quit studying today, I would get the CCIE 10 years from now. Maybe 15. It’s really not a choice. That’s great, but it sucks sometimes too. I literally am unable to sit at home and do nothing most of the time..just ask my wife. If I’m at the doctors office waiting for an appointment, or eating lunch alone, I’m probably looking at cisco blogs on my iphone. I get home and briefly read some cisco docs or lab something real quick before dinner..THEN I study after dinner. Again, I might not be the brightest, but once I get my number, I promise that nobody will doubt whether or not I put in the work.

Where it started

As a child, I used to constantly say “I’m going to be rich”, “I’m going to do this, do that” etc. Everyone laughed..they knew it wouldn’t happen. One of my fondest memories is of my grandmother who passed away years ago- I was probably 14 years old, and said “I’m going to be a millionaire”. The laughing began in the room. My grandmother silenced everyone, looked at me in the eyes, and said “Mikey..you will do whatever you set your mind to. I promise“. That moment feels like it happened yesterday. Infact, that is the last memory I have of my grandmother.

Fast forward, I haven’t been OK with the idea of not attaining goals that I decide on. What are my goals? Well, yeah, the CCIE is a goal. I think a lot of the CCIE for me is not only the certificate, or the status, or the money- it’s kind of the validation that I can always do bigger and better things. And the CCIE is just the beginning. As I started studying the CCIE exam cert guide for the written, I already started telling myself “after I pass, which track is next?”, and by the way, it’s looking like SP. I imagine once I pass the R&S lab whenever that is, I’ll probably have a third in mind. I don’t know.

The thing is, it’s not just a cisco thing. I love what I do, and I love the technology, but I might not always be in this industry. In 10 years, I could be a double or triple CCIE, and decide that I want to get into real estate development (something I’ve thought about for a while), or try to do something even bigger than I can imagine now..I don’t know. 

The whole point I hope to pass on is, regardless of what you do, you absolutely can do it..if you want to. You have to have the passion, and the drive, and the rest will fall in place. It might not happen as soon as you’d like it, but it will happen.

Started the IP Services chapter. It’s disappointing how short the sections are for each technology. I know that the R&S written is known to not be a horrible exam or anything, but it makes me wonder if the test can really go without a word of GLBP (which only made a short paragraph explaining WHAT it is, zero configuration)..we will see.

My strategy up until this point has been following the advice of many CCIE friends:

“Read the books, pass the written, start labbing”

Not one CCIE I know has said “read the books, lab, read more, repeat..take the written, lab”, which has basically been my strategy. I think a more accurate idea of my current strategy would read like this:

“Read the books, lab enough to know how it works- but don’t read too far into it, take the written, lab more..”

We’ll see how it goes. Off to lunch then it’s back to the books, and hopefully some INE labs later.

STP Root port selection (and tiebreaker) process notes:

• There’s 2 ports per segment..a designated port (closest to the root switch), and a root port. The designated port sends out BPDU’s on the segment as it receives them (in 802.1D)..the root port does not send out any BPDU’s with the exception of TCN BPDU’s..another time, another place.

When a switch is trying to decide between two ports in regards to root port selection, it has a few tiebreakers it tries:

• Lowest Root BID (should be the same)
• Lowest Root Path cost (remember, this is root PATH cost..not just the local configured cost)
• Lowest sending BID (BID = Priority + MAC address, so even if the priorities are the default 32,768, the lowest MAC will win)
• Lowest Port ID..NOT just lowest port number. Port ID is a 16 bit field composed of two subfields, Port priority, and Port number. By default, Port ID would be something such as 0×8001 for Port 1/1. 0×80 in hex = 128 (default port priority). 01 equals 1, which is the last section of the interface number. So, by default, with dual links to the same switch, lowest PORT NUMBER wins, but that’s only a part of the Port ID. The other part is priority, which if configured, will cause a sway in the decision process.

So a general rule of thumb could be developed:

-When two separate paths exist to separate bridges, with the same root path cost..the lowest MAC wins by default. Configuring a lower priority on the non-designated switch (the “loser”) would change this, and cause it to become the designated bridge. If multiple redundant links are in place, this will break down further and not only choose a designated SW with the lowest MAC, it will use the interface with the lowest port number.

-When dual links exist to the same bridge, lowest port number wins. Best way to influence this (IMO) is simply adjust STP port cost on a per-interface basis.

Key point to take away: It’s so important to remember that BPDU’s are sent out the designated port as they are received. Knowing this, you know that a downstream (away from the root) switch is making it’s decisions based on RECEIVED information, with some minor exceptions such as cost (assuming that the locally configured cost affects the root path cost enough to make a difference).

I knocked out chapter 6 of LAN Switching, and part of chapter 7. Once I finish Chapter 7, I’m going to read up on a lot of MSTP, and do some STP labs in the next few days. I’d say that I’ll call STP “done” in about 3-5 days, after which it’ll be onto some IP Addressing review, and then EIGRP. If I can maintain this pace, I think I might be able to bump up my written date, which would give me more time to prep for the lab. We’ll see! Stay posted, I may put some STP notes up tomorrow..

In our scenario, we have two switches, SW4, and SW1, which are directly connected with three fast ethernet links. Here’s how STP would select the root port by the book, then we’ll go over what actually happens, and see how we can influence it.

Root port selection (tie breakers)

1. Lowest sending bridge ID
2. Lowest STP port cost
3. Lowest port-priority
4. Lowest interface number

Lowest Sending Bridge ID

Now, in our scenario, the sending bridge is naturally going to have the same BID, because we have 3 links all to the same switch. Remember, the BID is the priority of the bridge (32768 + VLAN ID if system-id extension is enabled), and the MAC address. That being said, regardless, this won’t matter if the links are all to the same switch…

Lowest STP Port cost

This is referring to the outbound port cost. Remember, STP port cost is associated with an interface, NOT the link itself. So, SW4′s interface is 19 by default, which means, all three interfaces tie.

Lowest port-priority

This one confuses people. If we configure a low port priority on SW4..it will NOT influence root port selection. Why? Well, BPDU’s are being sent TO us from SW1, listing the port priorities. You can verify this by debugging and seeing that the port priorities for all three ports are included in incoming BPDU’s.

Lowest interface number

Sad, but true, this is the best we can do! It ends up selecting f0/13, instead of f0/14, or f0/15.

How we can influence root port selection on redundant links

• Adjust the STP port cost (outgoing, remember that) on SW4
• Adjust the port priority on SW1′s links to SW4

At the end of the day, because of the order tiebreakers occur, cost will always override the priority. It makes sense, cost is locally configured, priority is configured on the designated port for that segment. It should be noted, however, that if there is say, a ring topology with 4 switches (such as the INE topology), and you have two links, to two different switches, the process is the same, but root path cost comes into play.

Anyway..off to bed..got some solid labbing done tonight.

-Read up to page 85 on the CCIE Exam Cert Guide (4th edition)

-Read 10-20 pages of the BCMSN book, used it to review on some layer 2 topics that the exam cert guide didn’t go into to much detail with

-Did up to page 40′ish on the INE Volume I labs. I’ve been taking my time to make sure I have the verification commands down, and know that I’m “good” at certain technologies. This is especially important to me, since switching is doubtedly a core topic..everything else would break without it!

ip access-list log-update threshold X

I stumbled onto this command thanks to the INE ATC. By default, when you add the “log” keyword to an access-list entry, it will log the first hit, and subsequent identical hits will be logged at 5 minute intervals. Great for the real world (sometimes), not so great for the lab. I find it helpful to know one-for-one, that I have a packet passing through that meets that particular ACL. By entering this command, and putting a “1″ where the X is, it will log hits 1-for-1. Pretty helpful I think.

Anyway, back to studying. I’m now entering the world of STP, so if you don’t hear from me, send help ASAP I’ll be fine.

1. Pick a technology/area to focus on (ie: Switching)
2. Read the chapter from the CCIE exam cert guide
3. Do corresponding InternetworkExpert Volume I labs
4. Re-read if necessary, read supplemental material (ie: LAN Switching from Cisco Press)
5. Run through INE labs again and play with ‘custom’ scenarios, to make sure I have the configuration side down
6. Skim over the section as needed to stay sharp on certain topics

That’s the general idea, which will repeat for every chapter basically. I’ve read most of TCP/IP Vol I, and will probably go back to it once I get to OSPF, but for now, I want to focus, so since switching is at the beginning nof the CCIE cert guide..and a core area, I will be focusing on that for a while.

Tonight’s progress: I’ve read 40+ pages tonight (still reading) from the CCIE Exam cert guide (4th edition). Nothing really has caught me as being “new”, but I’m moving forward and trying to remember little details that could catch me on the written. In the end, though, I’m just trying hard to keep my momentum. I have a tendency to get hung up on something, or get distracted. I need to make sure I take the written for what it is, a test. I need to pass it, and lab, lab, lab. I want to know these technologies, but I also want to be functional, and I can’t get to a CCIE-level of configuration until I pass this written, which is exactly what I intend on doing. Back to reading..if I get any further I may throw up another post later.