After a number of months studying and final 2 weeks full 100% dedicated preparation I passed the CCIE Data Center Lab exam last week on April 25th in Brussels at first attempt!!!
This is my fourth CCIE title and I can honestly say that this is the title means a lot to me! Currently there are so few individuals who passed the CCIE Data Center lab and many have failed it already.
What did I use for preparation?
IPexpert CCIE Data Center Workbook
Of course I used the CCIE Data Center Workbook from IPexpert for my preparation, because I wrote the book. After writing the labs for the past couple months I really had to re-do them all to get a feeling about the entire picture again. This has been an invaluable resource with labs that are a lot harder than the actual lab tasks!
Real life experience
In my work for a Cisco Gold Partner (Telindus) I did a lot of projects with Nexus 7000, Nexus 5000, Nexus 2000, MDS switches and a ton of UCS systems. This is where I found that I learned most of the knowledge that was required for the test.
Focus Focus Focus!
After spending a considerable amount of time on forums like the Cisco Learning Network, it is apparent that there are many challenges for those entering the field of technology. Freshers, as they are known in the industry, have many challenges. Some of these challenges stem from the gap between the education process and the real […]
The post The Important Question for a Technology Fresher appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Paul Stewart.
I contributed 2 pieces to a Network World “digital spotlight” on software defined networking (SDN). SDN’s all the rage with marketing teams & the industry media. I’ve been contracted to write or contribute to a total of 3 large SDN pieces, including this one, over the next few months. And of course at Interop, you couldn’t walk […]
The post Shopping at the SDN App Store: What Enterprises Really Want? appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Ethan Banks.
For the details on what Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV) is and how it works on a high-level, see my previous blog entry about OTV 101. OTV troubleshooting requires a basic understanding of Multicast, as well as ISIS. In-depth troubleshooting on these subjects are not part of the scope of this document. This document will only […]
The post Cisco OTV Implementation & Troubleshooting (Legacy Multicast mode) appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Ken Matlock.
For many network engineers, IP multicast routing is evil. Difficult to design, complicated to implement, painful to troubleshoot and challenging to scale, multicast routing is rarely implemented on a given network unless it’s absolutely required. Most engineers would just rather not bother until the issue is forced upon them. Blame PIM. Blame RPF checks. Blame […]
The post Show 147 – Avaya Fabric Connect Makes Multicast Simple (Really) – Sponsored appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Ethan Banks.
What is OTV? Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV) is a Cisco-proprietary protocol suite that allows us to extend Layer 2 between datacenters with Layer 3 boundaries in between. It works by encapsulating the L2 packets into L3 multicast packets and sending them out to all other OTV AED’s (Authoritative Edge Devices, used for loop prevention). The […]
The post Cisco OTV 101 (Legacy Multicast Mode): MAC Learning Process Walk appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Ken Matlock.
Now that I’ve returned from the whirlwind that was Interop Las Vegas, I thought I’d share some thoughts about my experience as a speaker and attendee. First the good: The UBM staff was awesome and I appreciated the chance to pontificate on one of my favorite subjects, firewalls. Thanks to some quick thinking by the […]
The post Interop: Firewalls, Booth Babes and Unicorn Poop appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Mrs. Y.
This post represents the solution and explanation for quiz-11. A very important topic when configuring Network Address Translation (NAT) is the order of operation. Who is performed first: NAT or Routing ?
It’s no secret that our industry is full of those with interesting eccentricities. These characteristics are found in varying degrees with those we come into contact with daily. The extremes of these often manifest themselves as a general perception of those in technology. This even happens as technical characters are portrayed television. One example of this […]
The post Identifying Introverted Tendencies appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Paul Stewart.