iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 4/17/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Stephan Luscher, CCIE #48074 (Data Center)
• Adrian McCaskill, CCIE #48071 (Wireless)
• James Cusco, CCIE #47758 (Data Center)
• Vishal Arora, CCIE #48027 (Wireless)
• Anton Stepkin, CCIE #48002 (Data Center)
• George Milad Elhamy, CCIE #45875 (Collaboration)
• Philip Pretorius, CCIE #48079 (Data Center)

This Week’s CCIE Testimonials

Vishal Arora, CCIE #48027
“I have passed my CCIE-Wireless track and my CCIE# 48027. I would like to thanks to entire iPexpert family specially Jeff Rensink for their support. I have used expertise study material of iPexpert and that has helped me a lot in passing this prestigious exam.”

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 4/3/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Thomas Loran, CCIE #7113 (Service Provider)
• Karl-Johan Stjernqvist, CCIE #47637 (Wireless)
• Rob Wiggins, CCIE #8375 (Data Center)
• Michael Fowler, CCIE #47172 (Routing and Switching)
• Patrick Perry, CCIE #47548 (Routing and Switching)
• Heino Ala-Honkola, CCIE #47729 (Wireless)

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!

Build Your CCIE Security Knowledge with Cisco Docs!

A good knowledge of Cisco’s Documentation is what could make a difference in passing or failing the exam. Because of that, I would like to show you how to access most useful Doc CD resources on a per blueprint-section basis. In addition, we will also take a look at the location of a particular document, so you know how to access it without using the Search function. Same thing as what you will have to do to access those resources in the lab.

Unless otherwise mentioned, all documents discussed in this blog are part of Configuration Guides.

1.System Hardening and Availability

Probably the most useful doc here will be for Control Plane features. However, I am going to show you more so you at least know how to find them.

Our starting point for this section is IOS Configuration Guides :
IOS and NX-OS Software -> IOS -> IOS Software Release 15M&T -> 15.2M&T

Routing Protocol Authentication :

IP Routing : RIP -> Configuring Routing Information Protocol
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/iproute_rip/configuration/15-mt/irr-15-mt-book/irr-cfg-info-prot.html
IP Routing : EIGRP -> IP EIGRP Route Authentication
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/iproute_eigrp/configuration/15-mt/ire-15-mt-book/ire-rte-auth.html
IP Routing : EIGRP -> IPv6 Routing : EIGRP Support
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/iproute_eigrp/configuration/15-mt/ire-15-mt-book/ip6-route-eigrp.html
Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 3/27/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Thomas Loran, CCIE #7113 (Service Provider)
• Karl-Johan Stjernqvist, CCIE #47637 (Wireless)
• Rob Wiggins, CCIE #8375 (Data Center)
• Michael Fowler, CCIE #47172 (Routing and Switching)
• Patrick Perry, CCIE #47548 (Routing and Switching)
• Heino Ala-Honkola, CCIE #47729 (Wireless)

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!

Routing on the CCIE Data Center Lab – How Deep Do We Need to Go?

Every time I teach NX-OS the same question often arises, “How good do we need to be at routing in order to pass the lab exam?” My first inkling is always to say ‘learn it all,’ but we all know that isn’t always possible. There is a ton of information to learn within the scope of this lab exam, so in order to fully understand this question, we need to look towards Cisco’s almighty guide, the blueprint!

They have gone pretty easy on us in terms of routing, but in their defense, they do have an entire lab dedicated to routing and switching. If we scan down the blueprint to Section 1.2, we see the category we are looking for:

While that comprises that entire section, I would also err on the side of caution and include Section 1.4a grouped within the L3 category, those being first-hop routing protocols such as HSRP, GLBP, and VRRP.

Look at what they ask us for here, and lets analyze it. They ask for BASIC EIGRP and OSPF, Bi-directional forwarding detection, and equal-cost multi-pathing. ECMP isn’t really its own ‘protocol’, rather something that most L3 protocols support. We will see that Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 3/20/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Mario Netuschil, CCIE #47059 (Wireless)
• Morgan Chou, CCIE #46394 (Routing and Switching)
• Russ Bartsch, CCIE #45792 (Collaboration)
• Robert Hakala, CCIE #45981 (Data Center)

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!

Cisco Announces Version 3 of the CCIE Wireless Blueprint

The wait is finally over and version 3 of the wireless CCIE blueprint has finally been announced.  On September 14, the new version of the written and lab exams will go live.  This will bring a very long-in-the-tooth version 2 blueprint to an end after a nearly 4-year run.  While we tearfully say goodbye to WCS, let’s take a look at what version 3 is bringing to the table.

New Lab Exam Format

First off, let’s look at what has changed in the format of the lab itself.  The wireless track is following suit with the R&S and SP tracks and including multiple sections to the lab.  The wireless lab will now begin with a 1 hour Diagnostic section, followed by a 7 hour Configuration section.

The Diagnostic section is similar to what was done in R&S and SP.  This section tests your ability to assess and diagnose issues in a network without any access to the devices themselves.  Basically, you are given access to a number of pieces of information (emails, topology diagrams, logs, etc) that describe an issue and give the needed information to figure out the root cause.  You Continue reading

Why joining APs to a Controller Across a NAT Needs Special Configurations

Many wireless engineers know that having a lightweight AP join up to a controller across a NAT requires some extra configuration. But many don’t understand why it needs the configuration. This article will talk about what the NAT is, why it causes a problem for the normal join process, and what the configuration changes do to make things work.

What is NAT and where do we see it in the wireless world?

NAT stands for Network Address Translation, and it does pretty much what the name implies. It translates addresses from their original values to something new. Let’s take a look at a classic wireless example.

Let’s say I have an office Extend AP (OEAP) in my house, and I want it to join the WLC in my company’s DMZ. But I don’t want to actually configure a public IP on my WLC. This is where the NAT comes into play.

In the image above, the OEAP talks through the firewall in order to talk to the DMZ WLC. In order for the AP to talk to the WLC, it has to target a public IP because it needs to communicate across the Internet. So if the WLC itself doesn’t Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 3/13/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Celso Akira Myasaki, CCIE #47386 (Data Center)
• David Ratcliffe, CCIE #47463 (Wireless)
• Frederik Schon, CCIE #47321 (Wireless)
• JP Cedeno, CCIE #47408 (Routing & Switching)
• Sandeep Choudhary, CCIE #47462 (Wireless)

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 3/6/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Valentin Zamy, CCIE #47202 (Routing & Switching)
• Freddy Morales, CCIE #47273 (Routing & Switching)
• Joel Knight, CCIE #47321 (Routing & Switching)
• Shahid Ansari, CCIE #20017 (Data Center)
• George Milad Elhamy, CCIE #45875 (Collaboration)
• Earl Granger, CCIE #45875 (Routing & Switching)

This Week’s CCIE Testimonials

Freddy Morales, CCIE #47273
“I wanted to share my success in obtaining the CCIE Routing and Switching certification. I took the exam in RTP and at approximately 8 pm I received the good news, I am now CCIE #47273.

I want to thank iPexpert because they’ve been my best friend in the past year; when it comes to my studies with their videos and Proctor Labs. With the ups and downs there may have been along the way, I definitively recommend iPexpert to anyone that is serious about becoming an expert. I know that if I decide to go for a different track, iPexpert will be my main resource.”

Shahid Ansari, CCIE #20017
“I have successfully passed my CCIE (DATA CENTER) exam on 25th FEB by using iPexpert training material. Continue reading

Interactions between QoS and IPSec on IOS and the ASA

Quality of Service configuration for the traffic entering/leaving a VPN tunnel may require some special considerations. In this article, I am going to focus on interactions between QoS and IPSec on IOS and the ASA.

There are two methods of deploying QoS for VPNs – you can match the original (Clear-text/ unencrypted) traffic flows or the actual VPN (Aggregate traffic). This second option can be useful when you want to apply a single QoS policy to all packets leaving a tunnel, no matter what are the original sources and destinations protected by the VPN.

We have got a VPN tunnel built between R1 and ASA. R6 and 10.1.1.0/24 are protected networks

Let’s start on IOS (R1). The VPN tunnel is already up – we will configure a basic QoS Policy to enable LLQ for delay-sensitive traffic, such as Voice (I assume these are all packets with DSCP of EF). Note that this configuration would normally match all EF-colored packets (including non-VPN EF traffic), but since we won’t have any clear-text EF flows in this network we don’t really care:

class-map match-all VOICE
match dscp ef
policy-map QOS
class VOICE
priority

int f0/0
service-policy output QOS

Voice traffic Continue reading

Time To Get More Advanced :: FCIP Pt. 2!

Part 1 of this blog series created a topology, much like you see below, where we configured a single vE (virtual expansion) port from MDS1 to MDS2 across an IP network.  We merged VSAN 10 across this FCIP tunnel and verified it by looking into the FCNS database and ensuring that we saw entries from both sides.  Today we are going to build upon this topology, and get into some more advanced features like changing the default TCP port, setting DSCP values for the two TCP streams, and controlling who initiates the tunnel!

So first things first…the default port for FCIP is TCP port 3225. We will terminate both of our TCP streams on this port (we have 1 stream for control and another for data traffic). Essentially 1 of the MDS’s will initiate the connection to the other, and their destination port will be TCP/3225. Their source port will be some high-number ephemeral port by default (usually over 65000). We can look at the output of a ‘show int fcip #’ to find out who initiated, and on which ports!

MDS1-6(config-if)# show int fcip1
fcip1 is trunking
Hardware is GigabitEthernet
Port WWN is 20:10:00:0d:ec:1f:a4:00
Peer port WWN is Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 2/27/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Haroon Raees, CCIE #46529 (Collaboration)
• Evariste Happi, CCIE #46452 (Collaboration)
• Daniel Flieth, CCIE #46067 (Collaboration)
• Majid, CCIE #45866 (Collaboration)
• Rob Lacrosse, CCIE #45283 (Collaboration)
• Devan Lim, CCIE #45991 (Collaboration)
• Clay Ostlund, CCIE #45770 (Collaboration)

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!

CCNP Voice is Extinct, The CCNP Collaboration is Taking Over!

Just as was recently announced for the CCNA Voice and CCNA Video, the CCNP Voice has now gone the way of the dinosaur. It’s replacement? The highly-anticipated CCNP Collaboration certification, which of course will now be adding video to its laundry list of topics.

To attain the CCNP Collaboration certification, you must now pass four different exams. This is actually a nice bit of news, since we had to pass five separate exams to achieve the CCNP Voice certification. Don’t get too excited though; Cisco is sure to have packed each of these four exams full of enough content to account for the loss! On that note, Cisco has not yet released the exact details regarding the topics for each exam. So we must wait a little while to let the full picture develop.

The first of the four exams is called “Implementing Cisco IP Telephony and Video, Part 1” and corresponds to exam number 300-070 CIPTV1. This exam will mostly likely introduce the majority of the necessary Cisco IPT concepts while laying a solid foundation to build upon. The second is called “Implementing Cisco IP Telephony and Video, Part 2” which corresponds to exam number 300-075 CIPTV2. For this Continue reading

Welcome CCNA Collaboration, Goodbye CCNA Voice & CCNA Video!

Well folks, it has finally been announced! Cisco has retired the CCNA Voice and CCNA Video certifications in favor of a new, all-encompassing CCNA Collaboration certification. It will be comprised of two separate exams—one with a focus on Unified Communications solutions and one emphasizing the implementation and troubleshooting of video infrastructures.

The first exam is called “Implementing Cisco Collaboration Devices” and corresponds to exam number 210-060 CICD. Topics to note within this exam will be call signaling and media flows, VoIP quality implications, user account creation and modification, calling privileges, IM and Presence, RTMT and CDR/CMR-based reporting, and typical end user support scenarios. The focus of this exam is now on becoming a well-rounded engineer, with knowledge in more than just CUCM. For more information, visit this link here.

The second exam is called “Implementing Cisco Video Network Devices” and corresponds to exam number 210-065 CIVND. Topics on this exam that should carry great importance will be streaming video, media convergence, desktop and immersive systems, troubleshooting methodologies, media quality, and multi-point control units. With the focus here being solely on video and its integration with voice networks, candidates for the exam will gain a breadth of knowledge during the studying Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 2/20/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Florian Brenner, CCIE #46529 (Wireless)
• Kanwal Chawla, CCIE #47128 (Collaboration)
• Ankit Bansal, CCIE #47099 (Data Center)
• Curtis Raams, CCIE #46953 (Collaboration)

This Week’s CCIE Testimonials

Esteban Paniagua, CCIE #46910
“I wanted to say thanks to the iPexpert team, since I contacted sales to book my 5 day lab boot camp the service they provided me was truly world-class!! I attended the Collaboration boot camp with Andy; he was really knowledgeable, willing to go over details during his explanations and had great communication skills. I passed my CCIE Collaboration on the first try, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without your materials and boot camp. Thanks again!”

Curtis Raams, CCIE #46953
“I can certainly confirm that your course was very well structured and combined with your virtual lab over VPN I was able to successfully study and pass the CCIE exam. I studied extensively the 900 page DSG and mock labs provided by Andy Vassar which provided sufficient and detailed learning with extensive explanations and use cases.

I would strongly recommend iPExpert to any person Continue reading

From the Desk of Jarrod Mills :: Updated R&S Material is on the Way!

Over the next few months, several enhancements and upgrades to the CCIE Routing and Switch product line will be rolled out. I am currently doing a thorough review of the Volume 1 Workbook to ensure that every topic within the Version 5 Blueprint is thoroughly tested and validated. Shortly thereafter, I will be editing and compiling the complete Volume 2 Mock Lab workbook with 5 full 8-hour labs. These labs will fully prepare students for success on the rigorous Cisco CCIE lab exam.

After listening to the feedback of current and prospective students, I realized that the Troubleshooting and Diagnostic Sections were a stumbling block for many and that these sections were under-represented in the current training program. As a result, new Troubleshooting and Diagnostic workbooks are currently under development with a target completion date within the next 2 months. The Troubleshooting workbook will contain 50 tickets that are similar in difficulty to the tickets the student will experience in the Cisco lab exam. Similarly, the Diagnostic workbook will also contain 50 issues and be designed to allow students to hone their skills, and become confident in their ability to identify and choose the correct solution(s) in this section of Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 2/13/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Steven Allspach, CCIE #46810 (Routing & Switching)
• Ahmed Hussain, CCIE #46833 (Routing & Switching)
• Oluwaseyi Bello, CCIE #46897 (Routing & Switching)
• Michael O’Nan, CCIE #46879 (Collaboration)
• Justin Lenhart, CCIE #46911 (Collaboration)
• Esteban Araya Paniagua, CCIE #46910 (Collaboration)
• Ade Adeoshun, CCIE #46959 (Collaboration)

This Week’s CCIE Testimonials

Steven Allspach, CCIE #46810
“To prepare for my lab, I used all of iPexpert’s videos and workbooks. I also took their 10-day onsite bootcamp (one of week technology focused labbing and the one-week lab experience). The bootcamp was by far the best decision I had made during my studies. The bootcamp allowed me to completely submerge myself in the CCIE technologies uninterrupted for 12 straight days 12-16 hours per day. I feel like I gained over 3-months of preparation in 12-days. I gained so much confidence after the bootcamp in November that I immediately scheduled my exam for February.

The OWLE bootamp prepared me in ways I never imagined. It gave me the practice of doing full 8-hour mock labs (TSHOOT/Diag/Config). Each day we would complete a Continue reading

FCIP – The Beginning

FCIP is notably a part of the CCIE Data Center lab exam blueprint. It is also a sticking point for a lot of candidates who have not done a whole lot on the storage networking side. Luckily FCIP has many correlations to the modern-day Ethernet networking that we all know and love, as it’s really just another tunneling technology! After some thought, I have decided to break this down into 2 blog posts. This one will cover FCIP basics, and another that will cover some more advanced FCIP options that you might have to use during the CCIE lab examination.

FCIP is used for extending a Fibre Channel (FC) network over an IP backbone. It encapsulates FC in IP so that SCSI and non-SCSI FC frames can be sent over an IP network. Normally most organizations are not going to do this simply for the sake of extending their FC network (why extend a lossless network over a lossy medium?), but rather for backup or replication jobs that need to occur between storage systems that are across some geographical distance. A typical deployment scenario is shown below:

Here we have two SANs separated by an IP network. Now, the Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 2/06/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Shawn Wilson, CCIE #46739 (Collaboration)
• Gaurav Sharma, CCIE #44785 (Data Center)
• Theogene Nishimwe, CCIE #44776 (Collaboration)
• Rakesh Jain, CCIE #44775 (Collaboration)

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!