This evening's study time was spent writing a Study Lab exercise. As some of you know, I'm writing a Study Guide for on of those places that sells study materials. Part of the deal is writing a couple of lab exercises so that those who plunk down their hard earned dough walk away with some sense of value received.
It's one thing to write quick and dirty labs for Groupstudy. I've done any number of those over the past couple of years, trying to illustrate a point, or examine a mystery that's come up on this list. It's something else completely to write something that you expect somebody else to pay for. I know how I feel when I pay for something, only to be disappointed at the quality or the content. So I am working hard to produce something of value. And herein lies tonight's lesson. As a result of my work of the past couple of weeks, I believe I'm starting to understand the subtlety of the various study materials, and of the CCIE Lab exam itself. It's not about banging out a few questions. It's even less about banging out some difficult questions. It's about choosing topics wisely. It's about choosing test topics that require a test taker to think, to add two plus two, or more importantly, to see that in adding two plus two one must take into account binary, octal, and hex. The lab exercise in question is a basic Catalyst 3550 orientation lab. Connect a few routers, configure a few vlans. Pretty basic, isn't it? So where is the value, I asked myself? I revisit the set of tasks. Let's change that list a bit. Some ports should be port-based vlan ports. Others should be L3 ports. Let's test L3 by setting up three different routing protocols on the switch, each peering with a different router. Ah, but those particular ports are L2 only, assigned to vlans. Now what? ( The solution doesn't seem to work, until I notice I have mistaken odd numbered ports for even numbered ports. I'm reminded of my last trip through the Lab. "Ms. Proctor, I think the cabling is wrong. I'm seeing things I shouldn't be seeing on the vlans." - "No, Mr. Test Taker, the cabling is not wrong. Perhaps you should look at your configurations again." Ironically, L2 was my best percentage scoring section. ) Then let's add the requirement that one user in each of two different routing domains need communicate via SNA. Now what? So I construct a story for this practice lab. I begin to look at the various components of that story. Does it make sense? More importantly, does it work? If my router is connected to a port that is physically in a vlan, and I configure the switch to talk to that router via OSPF, can I make it work? Will my scenario hold water? Another evening's work, and I believe I should have something decent for my editor. Having been through the CCIE Lab twice, I can say with assurance that one should never bet the house nor anything else one values on whether or not something will be tested. Oh, it's pretty well known what the core topics are. Generations of CCIE Lab candidates have been tripped up by things like redistribution, classful limitations of routing protocols, and a whole bunch of things that depend upon based L3 reachability. It is never the protocols themselves, but some knob, some configuration subtlety, some second or third thing that must be invoked to solve the problem. I'm seeing this from the other side now. How to work a question so that the answer is what I want to test. How to test to prove that what I think should happen really does. For example, will the Mac access-list really do what I think it should? I can't test because I don't have SNA machines to connect. The routing still works over the links where the MAC filter is applied. Is that indication that the L2 filter is not working? And how in tarnation does one change the management vlan on these new switches? The documentation is strangely silent on the matter, and the commands given for the 3500 series switches don't work on the 3550's, as near as I can tell. Sometimes it seems like I'm peeling an onion. The more layers I remove, the more layers appear. But you know, here at the end of this evening, I feel smarter. I feel like some great revelation is about to hit me. So I want to come back for more. Shadows dancing on a wall. Firelight on a cool evening. Stillness. Peace. Goodnight everyone. -- www.chuckslongroad.info still a work in progress, but on line for your enjoyment Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=52116&t=52116 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
