Cisco Live 2012

I have chosen to attend Cisco Live again this year. Last year I attended VMworld to get a better understanding of virtualization and the challenges/opportunities it presents to network design. This year I’m going back to my networking roots.

I have two of primary goals for this year’s event:

1) Get a better understanding of how implementing L2 between two data centers will affect my network design and stability. I expect that this will become a requirement at my organization in the next year and I want to get a solid handle on how we can implement it without significant fate-sharing implications.

2) Prepare for the introduction of IPv6 in our environment. While I do not have any specific IPv6 techtorials scheduled, I may end up switching into one or more during the course of the week. I would like to exit Cisco Live 2012 with enough knowledge to answer the following questions:

1. Where should we implement IPv6 first? Test DMZ, Internal network, elsewhere?
2. Which IGP should we use internally?
3. How should we allocate our /48 subnet?
4. Where do we implement NAT66? (just kidding)

My secondary goals are to get a better understanding of the CCIE DC technology stack, figure out what TrustSec is and whether I should fear its introduction into my environment, and continue learning network design technologies.

 

Here’s my tentative schedule… If you see me, say hi.

 

Sunday
Start: 10:30 AM End: 12:45 PM		CCDE Written Exam	CCDE Written Exam
Monday
Start: 8:00 AM End: 12:00 PM		TECCCIE-9544 Meeting Room 8	CCIE Data Center Techtorial
Start: 1:00 PM End: 3:00 PM		BRKRST-2335 Meeting Room 17B	IS-IS Network Design and Deployment
Start: 3:30 PM End: 4:30 PM		GENSK-4356 Ballroom 20D	Solutions Keynote: The Future of the Enterprise Network in the Post-PC Era
Tuesday
Start: 8:00 AM End: 9:30 AM		BRKCOM-2001 Ballroom 20D	UCS Deep Dive
Start: 10:00 AM End: 11:30 AM		GENKEY-4346 Hall G/H	Keynote and Welcome Address
Start: 12:30 PM End: 2:30 PM		BRKRST-2509 Ballroom 20D	Mastering Data Center QoS
Start: 3:00 PM End: 4:00 PM		PSOCCIE-9302 Meeting Room 11B	Cornerstones of CCIE Success
Start: 4:00 PM End: 5:30 PM		PNLRST-4001 Ballroom 20A	Panel: LISP Executive Panel
Start: 7:00 PM End: 10:30 PM		DISC4871 Hard Rock Hotel Woodstock Terrace	Data Center Virtualization and Switching Customer Networking Reception
Wednesday
Start: 8:00 AM End: 9:30 AM		BRKDCT-2131 Ballroom 6D	Mobility and Virtualization in the Data Center with LISP and OTV
Start: 10:00 AM End: 11:30 AM		GENKEY-4347 Hall G/H	Cisco Technology Keynote
Start: 12:30 PM End: 2:30 PM		BRKDCT-2223 Meeting Room 32B	Evolution of the Data Center Edge
Start: 3:00 PM End: 4:00 PM		PSODCT-3863 Meeting Room 11B	Journey to the Cloud: Benefits of a IT-as-a-Service
Start: 4:00 PM End: 6:00 PM		BRKARC-3471 Meeting Room 31AB	Cisco NX-OS Software Architecture
Thursday
Start: 8:00 AM End: 9:30 AM		BRKCRT-8862 Meeting Room 8	Cisco Certified Architect: How to complete the journey from CCIE to CCDE to CCAr
Start: 10:00 AM End: 11:30 AM		BRKSEC-2022 Ballroom 6D	Demystifying TrustSec, Identity, NAC and ISE
Start: 12:00 PM End: 1:30 PM		BRKDCT-2214 Ballroom 6E	Ultra Low Latency Data Center Design - End-to-end design approach
Start: 2:00 PM End: 3:00 PM		GENKEY-4358 Hall G/H	Closing Keynote: An Afternoon with Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman
Start: 3:30 PM End: 5:30 PM		BRKMPL-3101 Ballroom 6AB	Advanced Topics and Future Directions in MPLS

CCIE Data Center Written Exam

I took the CCIE Data Center written exam yesterday. It’s still in the Beta period, so I have no results, but I felt good about the content. The Written Exam Topics on Cisco Learning Network is accurate (Login required).

Speaking of ‘login required’ on Cisco.com… Is anyone else annoyed with the number of times you have to log into the various Cisco websites? It seems like over the last few years I’ve had to log in multiple times per day. Perhaps this is a security ‘improvement’, but I'd rather stay logged in for weeks at a time.

I came at this exam with a fair amount of routing and switching knowledge, and a solid background in Nexus 7k/5k/2k/1kv. Where I occasionally ran into trouble was with the storage and UCS portions of the exam. I have a basic understanding of Fibre Channel and FCoE, but I’ve never been a storage admin. And while I’ve configured the UCS fabric networking portions, I have not been responsible for the activating server blades, nor have I been responsible for the UCS chassis itself. My biggest weakness on the exam was certainly DCNM; I haven’t used it and my organization does not intend to install it.

I was slightly disappointed in the number of ‘trivia’ questions, such as ‘what is the format of the command to see XYZ’, with four different combinations of ‘show [x] [y] [z]’. Another trivia-style question is the ‘What is the default username and password for [hardware_x]?’ (Neither of these is a direct question from the exam… I believe in NDAs!) Knowing the answer to either of these questions doesn’t make me a better network engineer. They only save me a few moments of search engine time during an activation or troubleshooting.

I hope these types of questions get weeded out during the beta process. I have been spoiled by the vendor-agnostic format of the CCDE program... I recall many of these sorts of questions from the now-retired CCIE WAN Switching program.

Next Steps

If I passed the beta, will I take the lab? I don’t yet know. If my current role takes me in a direction where I get more hands-on work with our UCS and MDS gear I may feel comfortable enough in my skillset to attempt the lab. I enjoy the challenge of learning and testing my knowledge, so I’m somewhat inclined to move in that direction. And if I didn’t pass the written, I’ll probably attempt it again, since I hate giving up on something. There is no shame in failing a Cisco exam, but once I pursue something it is tough to quit.

July 2012 CCDE Practice Exams

(The below information is historical... updated information and pricing can be found at http://www.jeremyfilliben.com/2012/06/july-ccde-practice-exam-updated.html)


Registration is now open for the July 2012 CCDE Practice exam offering. I have completed two new scenarios, which brings the total offering to four scenarios. This equates to a full CCDE Practical exam. The scenarios have been written with the CCDE 2.0 technology changes in mind. The review session for the first two scenarios will take place on Saturday, July 14th at 9am EDT. The second review session will take place the following Saturday, July 21st at 9am EDT.

Pricing for the CCDE Practice Exam Offering is:
Two Scenarios (one review session) – $1095
All Four Scenarios (both review sessions) – $1795

As before, all participants are invited to attend the CCDE overview which will take place on Saturday, July 14th at 9am ET. It generally lasts one hour, and is followed by the scenario reviews. And as always, previous students are invited to attend the overview and the review session for any scenarios they have reviewed in the past. Simply send me an email at jeremy@filliben.com and I will provide the Webex login details.
In addition, I am extending a $400 discount to all prior participants for the new scenarios. If you previously participated in the two scenario sessions, I invite you to register for the new scenarios for a total price of $695. If you are interested in this offer, please write me an email at jeremy@filliben.com and I will provide you with a discount code.
Additional details can be found on the registration page at  http://july2012ccde.eventbrite.com.

Thank you for your interest,
Jeremy Filliben
CCDE #20090003

Save the Date! July 2012 CCDE Practice Exams

(removed post as some details have changed)


See http://www.jeremyfilliben.com/2012/05/july-2012-ccde-practice-exams.html for updated information.