New CCIE Service Provider Version 4.0 Blueprint Announced
Cisco has announced their plans to transition the CCIE Service Provider certification blueprint from Version 3.0 to Version 4.0 starting May 22nd, 2015. The official announcement for the Written and Lab Exam Content Updates can be found here.
There are four key points to this announcement, which are:
- Lab Exam format changes
- Hardware & software version changes
- New technical topics added
- Old technical topics removed
CCIE SPv4 Lab Exam Format Changes
The Lab Exam format of SPv4 has been updated to follow the same format as the new CCIE Routing & Switching Version 5.0. This means the exam now consists of three sections: Troubleshooting, Diagnostic, and Configuration.
CCIE SPv4 Hardware & Software Version Changes
Following along with the current CCIE RSv5, CCIE SPv4 now uses all virtual hardware as well. Specifically the new hardware and software variants are as follows:
- ASR 9000 running Cisco IOS XR 5.2
- ASR 1000 running Cisco IOS XE 3.13S.15.4(3)S
- Cisco 7600 running Cisco IOS 15.5(3)S
- Cisco ME 3600 running Cisco IOS 15.5(3)S
Both the IOS XR and IOS XE variants are already available as virtual machines that you can download from cisco.com Continue reading
New CCIE RSv5 Troubleshooting/Full Scale Rack Rentals & Labs
Rack Rentals for INE’s CCIE RSv5 Workbook’s Troubleshooting Labs and Full Scale Labs are now available via the Members Site. To access them login to http://members.ine.com, click “Rack Rentals” on the dashboard on the left, and then click “Schedule” under “CCIE Routing & Switching v5 Full Scale.”
This topology uses 20 routers and 4 switches and is for both Troubleshooting and Full Scale Labs. The topology above it, “CCIE Routing & Switching v5″, uses 10 routers and 4 switches, and supports all the Advanced Technology Labs and Foundation Labs.
The loading and saving of initial configs is supported through the Rack Control Panel, which can greatly save you time in your studies, especially with very large topologies such as those used in the Troubleshooting and Full Scale Labs.
Additionally, Full Scale Lab 2 and Troubleshooting Lab 2 have been posted to the CCIE RSv5 Workbook. More Foundation, Troubleshooting, and Full Scale Labs are currently in development and will be posted soon. For discussion on these new labs please visit the CCIE RSv5 Workbook section of IEOC, our online community.
CCIE RSv5 Workbook Troubleshooting Labs Now Available
Troubleshooting Lab 1 has been added to the CCIE Routing & Switching v5 Workbook. This is in addition to Full Scale Lab 1 which was posted yesterday. More Foundation, Troubleshooting, and Full Scale Labs will be added soon to the workbook. More information about additional content and its release schedule will be available shortly.
This lab uses a 20 router topology which will be available through our rack rental system shortly. In the meantime if you have your own lab built on CSR1000v, IOU/IOL, etc. the initial configs are available to download on the lab 1 tasks page. For technical discussion of this lab, please visit the Troubleshooting Labs section of our Online Community here.
CCIE RSv5 Workbook Full Scale Lab 1 Now Available
Full Scale Lab 1 has been added to the CCIE Routing & Switching v5 Workbook. More Foundation, Troubleshooting, and Full Scale Labs will be coming soon, including additional updates before the end of the weekend. I will post more information about additional content and its release schedule shortly.
This lab uses a 20 router topology which will be available through our rack rental system shortly. In the meantime if you have your own lab built on CSR1000v, IOU/IOL, etc. the initial configs are available to download on the lab 1 tasks page. For technical discussion of this lab, please visit the Full Scale Labs section of our Online Community here.
How I Passed the CCIE Collaboration Lab Exam
Having passed the CCIE Voice 10 years ago, and having taught on the technologies surrounding both Voice and Collaboration ever since, one might think that the exam would be easy to pass. I can assure you that no matter how much you know, no CCIE exam is easy to pass. Cisco doesn’t allow them to be. Every CCIE track requires hard work and preparation, even if it may, at first glance, seem somewhat of a repeat of things you already know. You may ask since I had the CCIE Voice already, why I didn’t simply take the Collaboration Written exam and convert my cert to a CCIE Collaboration? The answer I think is pretty straightforward – it’s the challenge!! Seeing if you still have it 10 years later. Seeing if what you’ve been teaching your students for 10 years is still up to par and still relevant. To take you back to when I passed CCIE Voice ten years ago, the track was literally brand new that year, and Cisco was testing on CallManager version 3.3, SIP wasn’t anywhere to be found, and creating a hunt group meant tweaking Attendant Console to make it do things it shouldn’t ever Continue reading
CCIE Collaboration Update – Racks and Videos
Update 1: CCIE Collaboration Racks are now available for rent. Sign in to your members account and click on Rack Rentals in the left navigation. Please note that these racks are currently in general beta release, meaning they are available to everyone, but if you happen to find a bug or an issue with the scheduler, rack control page, or rack equipment, please start a support case and kindly let us know about it so that we may remediate it quickly. We’ve had a number of closed beta testers and their tests have all gone very well. We should be out of general beta release within a few weeks. Full instructions on how to use our racks can be found in our new Collaboration Rack Rental Guide, and I will be releasing a few follow-up videos later today with links inside the guide, to further demo things and walk you through how to use these racks, including the use our new rack control panel.
Please note that while we do certainly still support L2VPN for connecting your phones directly, as well as SSL VPN for server access, we also provide support now for 100% VPN-less connectivity with only Continue reading
CCIE RSv5 ATC Continues Wednesday, July 23rd
The CCIE Routing & Switching Advanced Technologies Class v5 resumes Wednesday, July 23rd at 8:00 AM PDT (15:00 UTC) at live.ine.com, where we will be discussing MPLS Layer 3 VPN. In the meantime, you will find the streaming and download playlists have been updated and now includes over 63 hours of content.
We have some other great news as well. The CCIE R&S v5 Rack Control panel has been released with the built-in telnet, loading and saving configs and one click device configurations and reset requests. Also, new content will be posted this week to the workbook, including all new troubleshooting labs.
CCIE Bootcamp Price Reduction
INE is reducing the cost of our live, instructor-led bootcamps by $1,000 each. Our new pricing model will still include access to our workbooks and ATC video courses with the purchase , but will separate out the Lab Exam Voucher and access to our All Access Pass as optional add-ons to provide you with a more flexible options for both your learning style and your budget. If you would like the existing complete, bundled solution, you have until Aug 1 to make a bootcamp purchase.
See this advert for more details.
Look forward to seeing you in a bootcamp soon!
CCIE RSv5 ATC & Baby 3.0 Status Update
Tomorrow’s CCIE Routing & Switching Advanced Technologies Class v5 is postponed, as baby 3.0’s shipping date has arrived 
Class will tentatively return the week of July 21st, however I will post more information and updates about workbook changes before that.
In the meantime the current CCIE RSv5 ATC streaming playlist can be found here, and the download playlist can be found here. Some videos are still in post processing and will be posted within the next few days.
Although we’re only in week 47 of the class (or so it seems), we’ve put a huge dent in the overall topic scope so far. You can see our current progress in the overall CCIE RSv5 Expanded Blueprint here. Some of topics that haven’t been covered in the v5 ATC officially yet can be found in the CCIE RSv4 ATC and the RSv4 to RSv5 Transition Technologies addendum at the end of that playlist.
7 CCIE Strategy Mistakes – What I will do differently next time!
Download the PDF here Although at the time of writing I have not yet passed the CCIE Lab Exam in Routing & Switching, but I wanted to write down my 7 CCIE Strategy Mistakes that I made on my journey so far. I have come a long way and have learnt a lot. My journey […]
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