Jason
Being as I am in a similar position to you in that I have completed all of
the exams for CCNP (still awaiting results from support beta exam) I can
tell you what I am have been doing and am planning. I will let you decide
if this is relevent or useful to you.
1) First of all as I have been using VPN concentrator and pix systems for a
while now and using IPSEC for a lot longer (hand crafting and debugging
IPSEC tunnels between OpenBSD systems) I figured that it shouldnt be too
big a step to pass the CSS1 exams and took the four exams last month. The
only difficult bit was trying to learn about the IDS system without access
to any cisco IDS kit (too expensive to buy for home use, and it would be
unprofessional to recommend it for work). So now I am a CSS1 (and it is
only a 1/4 paper cert :-).
2) Figuring that my experience is more appropriate to a Security CCIE
rather than a routing and switching CCIE (in particular as far as the non
ip desktop protocols are concerned) I am going to go for the CCIE Security
written exam next month.
3) Based on the blueprints for the CCIE exams I also figure that there are
certain areas in which my knowledge and experience is weak - particularly
Packet Telephony, IS-IS (and to a lesser extent BGP), QOS, and MPLS I am
planning some extra study in those areas. As these all are components of
the various CCIP exams I have planned on taking the matching CCIP exams to
validate my study at each step in the study plan (PKTEL, MCAST+QOS, BCSI
(includes IS-IS and gives me a chance to revalidate my BGP knowledge), and
MPLS. If I fail any of these exams (or even pass with too low a pass mark)
I will postpone my CCIE written until I can be confident I am close to
having an adequate level of knowledge and skill in the relevant area (and
have validated my knowledge with a corresponding exam).
4) Even after all of the above I am sure I will have some weak areas and
may fail the written exam. In which case I will revisit my weak areas and
spend more time on them.
5) Assuming I get through the the written exam I plan to spend more time on
study and 'practice' with a view to taking the lab exam towards the end of
the year.
As to lab kit
I have worked with cisco kit for about 4 years (2500, 2600, 3600, cat
2900/3500, cat4k, PIX, VPN 3000 series) with about 25% of my
responsibilities involving this network kit.
In addition to this I have two 2500s, a Cat 2820 and a PIX 501 (I love
these things) at home. As part of my cert plans I am adding a few 2500s,
some 4500s a Cat 3900 and an Etherswitch 2200 (runs cat5k OS) with
appropriate interfaces for my lab practice. With these I will be able to
'play' with a number of features that I currently cant. With my budget
there is no real way I can get hold of equipment for some stuff (ATM, MPLS
label switch routers etc), for these I will have to rely on online virtual
labs and when nearer to the practical exam to real hands on lab rental.
I am sure there will be some on this list who may have some comments on
whether I will classify as a lab rat or not, and perhaps on the short time
I am cramming a lot of this into (and I havent even mentioned the CISSP
exam in I am taking two weeks time), but I have a number of time
constraints that are applicable (not least of which is the likely ending of
my current employment on June 28th - sometimes it sucks when your employer
is acquired by a bigger company).
Hope this helps
Peter
--On Friday, May 10, 2002 12:39 PM -0400 "Kleberg, Jason"
wrote:
> this is a 2 part question that I hope to hear everyone's opinion on.
>
> 1. What to do next? Im done with ccnp, is it worth it to move to
> ccda\dp, what about css1, or just shoot for the ccie. i know that ccie
> will cost the most by far, and the others could give me more of a
> foundation to build on for ccie, but is it worth the wait or would you
> reccomend i just start buckleing down for the IE? SO MANY QUESTIONS
>
>
> 2. If I do start to study for CCIE, what kind of a lab should I build????
> I probably wont take the lab for 12-18 months and the equipment list could
> change(token,atm,4500,2500,cat5k) What are the safest bets, or if someone
> could give me a link to a diagram of a very current lab i could plan from
> that. I think 2600,3600 are safe,, what else is a sure bet to be around?
> Is the set based switch going to make it? What is the best or least
> expensive ios based switch that you can train from?(cat x9xx layer 3?) I
> could really use some help here and i look forward to hearing from you
> all.
>
> Thanks
>
> Jason
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