We’ve been pushing through this rather long series on how to build a CCNP lab, and we’re about half way through. It seemed like a good time for a week off from the lab details for some other topics. Long story short, I came up with a bunch of small things, so hopefully there’s something for everyone. Today, a ramble: from CCIE lab changes, to the broad vs. deep discussion, some cool IOS CLI tips, and other stuff.
First, Cisco announced that the CCIE R/S and Voice labs will no longer include open-ended questions. For those of you unaware of these questions, the labs here of late included 30 minutes to answer 4 open-ended questions to begin the lab. If you flunked this section, you flunked for the day, and it’s my understanding that you were sent home without doing the rest of the lab (although I’ve never talked to anyone that experienced that.) The scary part was that with just 4 questions, maybe you get 2 on topics where you’re weak, but you know the important stuff really well – but you flunk the lab, without even getting to practice by taking the real lab. I know of no one who liked this part of the exam outside of Cisco. Hoorah, Cisco, for losing these questions!
FYI, still on the CCIE labs: mechanics-wise, what was formerly .5/2/5.5 hours for questions/troubleshooting/config are now 2/6 for tshoot/config.
Next: Go broad or go deep in 2010 after getting your CCNA? Last year, we kicked around the idea of whether it made sense to go broad by getting CCNA concentration certs, or to go deep by moving on to CCNP (or CCSP, CCVP, etc). What’s been rattling around my head this spring is whether the new CCNP has any impact on this decision. So, let me expound a bit as to why.
Some articles over these last few years have claimed that broader skills are better than deep but narrower skills, particularly if those skills included more business process and soft skills. So we discussed for instance whether multiple CCxP were better than one CCIE, and whether multiple CCNA were better than one CCxP, in particular as compared to CCNP, which is the CCxP cert most similar to CCNA.
Last year, CCNP was still pretty broad. So, comparing the CCNP to the CCNA concentrations option, CCNP was some deeper and some wider. The CCNA concentrations, unchanged since last year, versus the new CCNP, makes a starker contract: CCNP is deeper, and certainly not as wide. So I’ve been wondering if that has impacted the deep vs. wide choice for those wrapping up CCNA? Those of you who read this blog regularly know what I’m going to do: poll. Let me know what you think!
Next up: Jay (Jerold) Swan’s blog here at Cisco subnet. If you haven’t yet happened upon it, and you are learning hands on skills with Cisco stuff, take a few moments to check it out. He’s got some nice tips, and he knows his Cisco stuff. (He’s also written some for Cisco Press, and he did a great job tech editing the CCNP ROUTE Cert Guide as well – thanks Jay!)
Next up: polls. In the last month or two I’ve listed several polls, but not taken the time to comment on results, instead letting the results stand for themselves. But some of these polls do bring questions to mind:
“For CCNP, how many routers are too many in a lab?” Over 50% answered “no such thing as too many”, a percentage I found surprisingly high. 13 routers was the largest number offered in the poll. I wonder if the “no such thing…” answer was just the fun answer. What could you do with 14+ routers for CCNP prep?
“My #1 reason for using 4+ instead of 3 switches (for CCNP) is…”. A whopping 60% said that the main reason for wanting more than 3 switches in a CCNP lab was for better STP practice. My reaction? Save money on the extra switches. That 4th switch could easily be an older and cheaper model for most STP experiments, particularly if you just want more switches in the topology. Then focus on config and show commands on the newer switches.
“My level of IOS download access at cisco.com is…”. This poll shows 40ish percent of you have no access to IOS downloads, and a similar number do have pervasive access to IOS. What comes to mind is that these percentages are roughly the same ratio of fans of real gear vs. Dynamips. Makes me wonder if there is any correlation. Any of you out there successful using Dynamips while having no ability to download IOS from Cisco?
Earlier posts in this CCNP Lab series:
Layer 3 Topologies for CCNP Prep
