Hi Jeremy, These are just my thoughts about not getting to hung up about the topology - there are other vendors which are similar to what you asking about and they have a different approach to the technology transfer but I don't think its relevant nor appropriate to discuss that here; however I found the IPX material top notch and in part due to having a larger network topology to play with as well as good workbook scenarios.
The way that I see it is that one of the outcomes from all your hard work is that you should be able to pass the CCIE lab and get your number and plaque but that piece should be really considered as an acknowledgement of your knowledge of technologies working singularly and in concert with others across a variety of devices. Once you pass the CCIE lab, the customers and companies you work for aren't going to have topologies the same as the CCIE lab, so that concern about focusing only on passing the lab and having a perfect fidelity environment matching the lab isn't probably the right way to think about this. If anything having a dedicated FR Switch is a luxury that enables more detailed technology study for that topic. For Cisco, I think its probably more about their business realities of reducing the lab equipment footprint and who knows if/when they go for virtualisation in config it could be re-introduced. If you are using lab rentals or GNS3/Dynamips it's not such a big deal. If you are building your home lab you can look at something like a 2522 or a 2610 with a NM-4A/S - it probably wont cost you that much on ebay even the cables. The troubleshooting story is a bit different though - the actual lab topology there is quite large (around 30 devices) and trying to find the right balance is difficult but if you consider it from Cisco's view here, I think its more about trying to reduce the cumulative impact of troubletickets on each other (e.g. if you can resolve ticket 3, it generally shouldn't impact any other tickets) and introduce you to a network you probably don't get too super familiar with (if you're stuck with around 6 routers and 4 switches you probably aren't actually troubleshooting because the problem space is somewhat more diminished and are probably re-playing scenarios). It may be different now because I haven't recently looked at IPX's product offerings for troubleshooting but they were more interested in focusing on a technology by technology orderly troubleshooting and resolution approach with the expectation that these skills and tools again will be able to be translated to any environment (i.e. be useful beyond facing the CCIE Lab) Cheers, Adam Booth CCIE #35951 Cheers, Adam On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 6:14 AM, Jeremy Furr <[email protected]> wrote: > With the removal of the FR switch from the lab has IPexpert put out a new > topology to study with update scenarios? > > Thanks > Jeremy > _______________________________________________ > For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please > visit www.ipexpert.com > > Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out > www.PlatinumPlacement.com > > http://onlinestudylist.com/mailman/listinfo/ccie_rs > _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out www.PlatinumPlacement.com http://onlinestudylist.com/mailman/listinfo/ccie_rs
