Not only are they NetMasterClass students who have recently passed the lab (all in March 2011 in fact), they also share a common and very successful approach to studying for the CCIE certification.
All of our recent CCIE students have done countless hours of hands-on labs practice. Each student was also actively engaged and received intensive guidance from their instructor and mentor Andrew Bruce Caslow CCIE #3139. And last, but not least, each student attended the Cisco 360 Advanced Bootcamp 2!
We put together a special promo called “3 CCIE’s” to help you prepare for your exam. For just $3,495 you will receive classroom training, self-paced materials, and online mentoring (retail value of $6844):
Sign up today by calling 1-703-250-3237 or emailing recently sales@netmasterclass.net.
Already have your CCIE? Help your friend become successful by passing this message along and making $100 if he or she buys this package.
Sincerely,
NetMasterClass team
Offer details
The special price of $3,495 is offered till April 15, 2011 and cannot be combined with other offers. Eligible class dates are March 21-25 (online only), April 18-22, May 23-27. The class will be held in the Reston, Virginia area. Please note that no rescheduling will be permitted – once you select a class date, your seat is reserved and cannot be changed to another date. The offer is non-refundable. Cisco Lab Safe Voucher Program rules apply (must take CCIE lab before December 31, 2011 in order to receive voucher).
For any one considering purchasing CCIE CBT Video Training, please check the full suite of Cisco 360 Video’s. This suite consists of over 47 hours of video content. Topics include:
Link-Layer Technologies (CAT, P2P and Frame-Relay)
IGP’s
BGP
IPv6
MPLS
Advanced Services (Zone Based Firewalls, OER and IPv6 Multicast)
Catalyst QoS
Troubleshooting
Also, it is important to note that most of these VoD’s come bundled with hands-on technology focused labs (only two of them don’t - the CAT QoS and Advanced Services Lesson Modules). All of them come with a set of “Spot the Issues” quizzes.
You can purchase these separately or in bundles. Contact a Cisco 360 Learning Partner. There are several of us:
Global Knowledge
Fast Lane
Skyline
and many more all over the world including my company - NetMasterClass!!
At NetMasterClass, we have made a real committment to supplementing Cisco 360 materials with Mentoring Services. Therefore, you might want to supplement your CBT studies with Mentoring. Many of our customers do this.
With our Mentoring services we cover every topic listed in the CCIE Blueprint. We even take requests for topics to cover! Here are some of our favorite topics to cover during Mentoring:
IP Services - NAT, DCHP, FHRP (HSRP v1/v2, VRRP, GLBP), SNMP, IP SLA, EEM, NTP, OER and much more!
QoS - Both Router and CAT QoS
Multicasting - both IPv4 and IPv6
Redistribution
Please feel free to go to www.netmasterclass.net if you have an interest in Cisco 360 Mentoring services or simply e-mail sales@netmasterclass.net for more information. If you want to purchase purely self-paced CBT products, please contact us at NMC or please contact any other Cisco 360 Learning Partner.
Again, you can purchase the Cisco 360 VoD Lesson Modules a la carte or in bundles.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Thanks.
All the best,
-Bruce Caslow CCIE #3139
Cisco 360 Master Instructor
NetMasterClass, LLC
A Cisco 360 Learning Partner
original discussion: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/message/114254#114254

As the New Year approaches us, we’ve put together a very special New Year’s Resolution Package to help you prepare and obtain the coveted CCIE R&S certification.
With this special deal you will receive classroom training, self-paced materials, and online mentoring:
The special price of $2,495 is offered through December 31, 2010 and cannot be combined with other offers.
Eligible class dates are January 17-21, March 14-18 and April 11-15. Once you select a class date, your seat is reserved and cannot be changed to another date - No rescheduling will be permitted.
The classes will be held in Reston, Virginia.
Live Online Group Mentoring attendance will be activated at the time of purchase and will be closed on February 28, 2011. Cisco Lab Safe Voucher Program rules apply (must take CCIE lab before December 31, 2011 in order to receive voucher)
Take advantage of this great special and call 1-888-677-2669 or email sales@netmasterclass.net if you have any additional questions.
Hope you have a joyful holiday season,
NetMasterClass Team
We had a discussion on OER/PfR today during a free Live On-Line Group Mentoring session that about 45 people attended. This series of blog postings will highlight some of the main topics we covered in today’s Live On-line Group Mentoring session on OER/PfR. This will be the first in a series I will post on the subject of OER/PfR.
For the rest of this post, I will simply refer to OER/PfR by its new name “performance based routing” or “PfR”. The name “performance based routing” accurately describes what PfR does: PfR makes path selection decisions based upon measuring real-time “performance” characteristics of multiple paths to a specific destination address. “Performance characteristics” include “delay” and “throughput”. To get started with PfR, here are three basic configuration steps or “phases” you can perform (NOTE: While the new name of this IOS mechanism is “PfR”, all of the IOS commands associated with PfR are still called “oer”!!! – Very confusing!!):
We divided a basic PfR configuration steps into the following three phases:
***Phase One
1). Establish communications between the PfR Master Controller (MC) and the PfR Border Router(s) (BR). All PfR implementations must have one MC and at least one BR.
1.2) Configure an MD5 key between the MC and BR. THIS IS MANDATORY!!!
1.3). During this first phase, determine what interfaces will be internal interfaces on the Border Router(s) and what interfaces will be external interfaces on the Border Router(s). For any PfR configuration, there must be at least on internal interface and two external interfaces.
1.4). Specify a BR local interface. THIS STEP IS MANDATORY! This step is similar to specifying a BGP update-source on the BR.
Here is a snippet of this part of the PfR configuration:
oer master
!
border 1.1.1.6 key-chain OER
interface FastEthernet0/0 internal
interface Serial0/0/0.62 external
interface FastEthernet0/1 external
!
oer border
local FastEthernet0/0
master 1.1.1.6 key-chain OER
This portion of the configuration can be verified with the following IOS show command:
R6#sh oer master
OER state: ENABLED and ACTIVE ç NOTICE THAT THE MC AND BR relationship is “ENABLED” & “ACTIVE”
Conn Status: SUCCESS, PORT: 3949
Version: 2.2
Number of Border routers: 1
Number of Exits: 2
Number of monitored prefixes: 3 (max 5000)
Max prefixes: total 5000 learn 2500
Prefix count: total 3, learn 0, cfg 3
PBR Requirements met
Nbar Status: Inactive
Border Status UP/DOWN AuthFail Version
1.1.1.6 ACTIVE UP 07:00:43 0 2.2
***Phase Two
Specify the destination prefixes that PfR traffic must match so that it can be “performance routed”. Here are the three basic steps we used:
1). Configure a prefix-list to specify the prefixes to be “performance routed” by PfR.
2). Reference this prefix-list in an “oer-map” configuration. An oer-map has the same general “match” and “set” semantics as a route-map.
3). Reference the oer-map configuration in the “oer master-controller” configuration mode using the “policy-rules” command.
Here is a sample configuration of these “Phase Two” steps:
oer master
policy-rules prfx
…… MORE OER MC commands omitted…..
!
oer-map prfx 10
match traffic-class prefix-list prfx
!
ip prefix-list prfx seq 5 permit 3.3.3.3/32
Once this configuration has been entered, you can verify and check how OER is tracking the prefixes specified (in this case in the prefix-list), with the following very useful and insightful PfR IOS show command:
R6#show oer master prefix
OER Prefix Statistics:
Pas - Passive, Act - Active, S - Short term, L - Long term, Dly - Delay (ms),
P - Percentage below threshold, Jit - Jitter (ms),
MOS - Mean Opinion Score
Los - Packet Loss (packets-per-million), Un - Unreachable (flows-per-million),
E - Egress, I - Ingress, Bw - Bandwidth (kbps), N - Not applicable
U - unknown, * - uncontrolled, + - control more specific, @ - active probe all
# - Prefix monitor mode is Special, & - Blackholed Prefix
% - Force Next-Hop, ^ - Prefix is denied
Prefix State Time Curr BR CurrI/F Protocol
PasSDly PasLDly PasSUn PasLUn PasSLos PasLLos
ActSDly ActLDly ActSUn ActLUn EBw IBw
ActSJit ActPMOS ActSLos ActLLos
——————————————————————————–
3.3.3.3/32 INPOLICY 0 1.1.1.6 Fa0/1 STATIC
N N N N N N
31 31 0 0 N N
N N
***Phase Three
Specify how the “performance routing” characteristics of all possible paths for a specified destination prefix will be learned. Will the “performance routing” characteristics be “actively” learned via an “active-probe” using an embedded IP SLA Monitor mechanism within PfR or will the “performance routing” characteristics be “passively” learned via an embedded NetFlow mechanism within PfR.
Here are some of the IOS configuration commands related to what we are calling “Phase Three” of a basic PfR implementation. NOTE: All of the following commands are found within the “oer master controller” configuration mode. Furthermore, there is one more “sub-configuration mode” within the oer master configuration mode itself. This “sub configuration mode” is called “learn”.
oer master
!
learn
delay
periodic-interval 3
monitor-period 1
mode route control
mode monitor active
!
active-probe echo 3.3.3.3
In this sample, snippet the “mode monitor active” learning and performance measurement mode is being used. This “active” mode will activate an embedded IP SLA MONITOR mechanism within PfR. This “active mode” configuration is using a simple “echo” probe. Other probes include:
R6(config-oer-mc)#active-probe ?
echo Perform ICMP echo probe operations
jitter Perform jitter probe operations (requires a responder)
tcp-conn Perform TCP Connection / Disconnect probe operations
udp-echo Perform UDP Echo probe operations (requires a responder)
As you can see, PfR is a vast and complex subject! I am going to stop here for now and follow up on this discussion with more postings. I hope you found this first post on PfR somewhat useful. We discussed these very subjects for about two hours today during our interactive Live On-line Group Mentoring session.
In follow up postings on this interesting subject of PfR, I will supply configuration snippets and supporting IOS show and debug traces related to the subject of PfR. Remember, in NMC Live On-line Group Mentoring, we live by “Proof by IOS” and Proof by Debug”! : )
HTH,
-Bruce
NMC Live On-Line Group Mentoring Sessions held on Mondays at 12 noon and 7 PM and Fridays 12 noon and 6 PM (GMT -5). All Live On-line Group Mentoring sessions are 90 minutes each. Come join us for more Proof by Debug!
On Sunday I met with each student individually to introduce myself and the course and to make sure they were comfortable with the Cisco WebEx Meeting Center software. Since the students were scattered across Europe, we settled on class times of 8 am to 8 pm UTC. This meant an early morning for me in West Virginia, but I had just returned from teaching in South Africa, so there was really no time zone adjustment for anyone.
Monday morning started with about 1.5 hour’s presentation over WebEx. I shared out my desktop with my Cisco course presentation slides, lab scenario, diagrams and SecureCRT. I used the WebEx VOIP with a good quality headset, and students could see and hear me at least as well as they could in a classroom setting. Students could speak up with questions or comments at any time using a headset or just their PC’s built-in speaker and microphone. I was amazed at the audio quality and how easy it was to converse.
In a live classroom I make it a rule never to actually touch a student’s PC; not only do I not want to risk breaking it, but neither do I want to risk spreading germs. (You laugh! But this is a real issue for instructors!) With WebEx it takes only another few clicks for a student to share control; he could type into the terminal, then I could type, back and forth, from thousands of miles away.
One weakness of WebEx Meeting Center became apparent. Though it does offer private text chat, it does not offer private VOIP. Just as in a real classroom, a discussion with one student can be heard by all. Not only is this distracting for some other students, but it causes some students not to ask a “dumb” question (though of course we know the only dumb question is the one not asked!) Also, while explaining an issue to one student I may inadvertently give away a clue to one of the puzzles to others. Most students enjoy figuring them out themselves.
To the rescue comes Cisco WebEx Training Center! For a “small” additional fee, Training Center allows me to create a private breakout room for each student during lab time. This allows students to converse and share documents individually with me or with small groups of students. So I will be using WebEx Training Center in my next class.
By the end of the allotted time one or two students wanted another hour or so to finish. Since they were working from the comfort of their own homes and had not spent days in travel, they had the energy. And thanks to the wizards at Cisco Lab Support, I am able to adjust lab start and end times on the fly.
And so the week continued. I do not know how effective a “lecture” course would be online, but CIERS2 is 80% lab. The critical success factor was the ability to quickly and easily look together at and converse about the scenario, diagram and terminal. Given the huge advantages in cost and hassle of an online course over in-person courses, I would give CIERS2 Online over Cisco WebEx an A+!

Hi Everyone,< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
An important IP Service to master for the R&S CCIE lab is SNMP. SNMP is very important for providing a scalable solution for monitoring and managing a numnber of network devices.
A conversation we had recently with a number of Cisco 360 students in a NMC Live On-line Group mentoring session is:
How can I prove that my baseline MPLS configuration is operational? Well, here is one interesting way to do this with embedded TCL shell within the IOS: use some of the command-line SNMP commands available in tclsh. Here is an example:
Let’s say we want not enabled the SNMP agent process on a Cisco router:
Let’s apply our “proof by IOS” approach (proof by show command/proof by debug/etc) to prove that SNMP is disabled on a router:
R6#sh snmp
%SNMP agent not enabled
Another command I like to use is:
R6#sh processes | i SNMP
112 Mwe 42152DFC 0 1 0 5744/6000 0 SNMP Timers
198 Mwe 41571AA4 0 2 0 8624/9000 0 EEM ED SNMP
Notice that there are two SMNP related processes running but when SNMP is actually enabled you will see many more SNMP related processes enabled.
Now, let’s enter in our SNMP related tclsh command:
R6(tcl)#snmp_getbulk public 0 10 ifDescr
{<snmp error type=’tcl_snmp_internal_error’ value=’9′ text=’Could not parse message returned from snmp engine.’ />}
Notice it generated a rather cryptic message.
Now, let’s enable the SNMP agent process on our router by entering in only one command:
R6(config)#snmp-server community nmc ro
Once this one command is entered, I now have “read only” access to this router’s SNMP agent.
Now, when I enter in the show snmp command, I no longer receive the message:
%SNMP agent not enabled
I receive the following:
R6#sh snmp
Chassis: FTX1236A2ZD
1 SNMP packets input
0 Bad SNMP version errors
1 Unknown community name
0 Illegal operation for community name supplied
0 Encoding errors
0 Number of requested variables
0 Number of altered variables
0 Get-request PDUs
0 Get-next PDUs
0 Set-request PDUs
0 Input queue packet drops (Maximum queue size 1000)
0 SNMP packets output
0 Too big errors (Maximum packet size 1500)
0 No such name errors
0 Bad values errors
0 General errors
0 Response PDUs
0 Trap PDUs
SNMP logging: disabled
I also have many more processes running that are related to SNMP:
R6#sh processes | i SNMP
84 Mwe 417CC1F0 0 1 011396/12000 0 IP SNMP
112 Mwe 42152DFC 0 2 0 5744/6000 0 SNMP Timers
166 Lwe 421579BC 124 1 12400010152/12000 0 SNMP ENGINE
198 Mwe 41571AA4 0 2 0 8624/9000 0 EEM ED SNMP
205 Mwe 417CE060 0 1 011228/12000 0 IP SNMPV6
216 Lwe 41207550 0 1 011196/12000 0 SNMP ConfCopyPro
217 Mwe 421536EC 0 1 011648/12000 0 SNMP Traps
R6#
Now, when I enter my SNMP command in tclsh I get some output:
urned from snmp engine.’ />}
R6(tcl)#snmp_getbulk nmc 0 10 ifDescr
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.1′ val=’FastEthernet0/0′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.2′ val=’FastEthernet0/1′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.3′ val=’Serial0/0/0′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.4′ val=’Serial0/0/1′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.6′ val=’Null0′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.9′ val=’Loopback106′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.10′ val=’Loopback666′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.11′ val=’FastEthernet0/0.40′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifDescr.12′ val=’FastEthernet0/0.3000′/>}
{<obj oid=’ifType.1′ val=’6′/>}
Feel free to enter SNMP mib queries with this command.
You can also query the router’s MIB with the following IOS show command (shown with an example):
R6(tcl)#sh snmp mib | i ospf
Make note, your search criteria must be case-sensitive!
Once you have found the desired MIB object, you can enter it with the command-line snmp command “snmp_getbulk”:
R6(tcl)#snmp_getbulk nmc 0 5 ospfIfEntry
{<obj oid=’ospfIfEntry.1.172.16.16.6.0′ val=’172.16.16.6′/>}
{<obj oid=’ospfIfEntry.1.172.16.67.6.0′ val=’172.16.67.6′/>}
{<obj oid=’ospfIfEntry.1.172.16.106.1.0′ val=’172.16.106.1′/>}
{<obj oid=’ospfIfEntry.2.172.16.16.6.0′ val=’0′/>}
{<obj oid=’ospfIfEntry.2.172.16.67.6.0′ val=’0′/>}
If you want to learn more about SNMP, place a request with the NeMasterClass Live On-line Group mentoring team.
For more details: http://www.netmasterclass.com/CCIE/Live-Online-Group-Mentoring/ or contact Rauf Rasulov at rauf@netmasterclass.net
Thanks!
Andrew Bruce Caslow, CCIE #3139
Master Cisco 360 Instructor
The following is a recent post that I made on the subject of forming an opening moves strategy for troublehshooting and configuration MPLS Layer 3 VPNs:
Hi Everyone,
I hope those that attended yesterday’s free Live Online Group Mentoring MPLS webinar enjoyed it. I plan to have a follow up MPLS webinar on configuring MPLS sham-links next Tuesday, October 5th at 12 noon GMT-5.
I have also had requests for Webinars for the following topics:
Multicasting – Sparse Mode
Router QoS
Catalyst QoS
PPP Authentication and Encryption
EEM
All of these topics are very interesting topics and lots of fun to learn!!! Especially when we use our “proof by IOS” and “proof by debug” approach.
Please contact the NMC sales person Rauf Rasulov if you want to attend any on-line seminars on these topics. We at NMC are very excited about our Live On-Line Group Mentoring service. Delivering training and mentoring services on-line is so very powerful. We are more than willing to provide lots and lots of free live training samples for the CCIE community.
Yesterday, we discussed implementing a baseline MPLS Layer 3 VPN configuration. We called this formulating a set of “opening moves” for implementing a baseline MPLS Layer 3 VPN configuration. This is a very hot discussion right now among the NMC Live On-line Group Mentoring student community. At the end of this e-mail are some “rough edit” notes from yesterday’s webinar. These notes are also a loose culmination of notes collected from the NMC CCIE Mentoring community.
Please feel free to add to them in any way you’d like. Also, please let comment on whether you think it is useful to have a set of “opening moves” for configuring a specific technology or troubleshooting a specific technology. There is an old quote from the famous ancient Chinese writer Sun Tzu and the his classic “The Art of War” – the general Sun Tzu quote is “Wars are won or lost before they are fought”. Among many other things, Sun Tzu is making a reference to how well prepared a given army is to fight a specific war. We like to extrapolate from this Sun Tzu quote the following CCIE lab preparation principle, “CCIE labs are passed or failed before they are attempted”, or perhaps more specifically, “OSPF points are gained or lost before they are attempted”, or “MPLS points are gained or lost before they are attempted”, etc. The point I am trying to make is: One needs to develop a structure to approach a CCIE level problem; developing a set of “opening moves” can be a useful starting point for formulating such a structure.
Again, here are some notes for forming a set of opening moves for either troubleshooting or configuring a baseline MPLS Layer3 VPN implementation. Actually, the following checklist is more oriented towards troubleshooting a baseline MPLS Layer3 VPN implementation. Please note these notes are “roughly edited”. I hope they can act as a starting point for any of you that are beginning to learn about MPLS.
Once again, please let me know if you want to attend a free Webinar or any of the topics listed above. Or let me know if there are any other topics you’d like to cover in an on-line webinar.
Thanks!
All the best,
-Bruce
Andrew Bruce Caslow, CCIE #3139
+1 703 606 7353
NetMasterClass, LLC
Cisco Learning Partner
Some suggested opening moves for troubleshooting and configuring a baseline MPLS Layer 3 VPN:
Some Suggested Opening Moves for Troubleshooting MPLS
Start at the PE routers:
***Check both ends of a PE connection from a VRF perspective:
1). Check to make sure the associated VRF’s are using the same RD
2). Check to make sure the route-target import and export statements complement each other.
3). Check to make sure vrf forwarding is enabled on the correct interfaces
4). Are all applications of the VRF name applied in a consistent case-sensitive manner.
Verify with:
Show ip vrf
***Check both ends of a PE connection from a m-BGP perspective:
1). Check to make sure the BGP update-source is reachable via the global routing table and is not in a VRF
2). Check the usual BGP issues: the neighbor remote-as statements complement each other.
3). Check to make sure the ipv4 unicast address-family is either activated or deactivated. If it is de-activated and the vpnv4 address-family is activated, it will cause many BGP error messages to be generated until the remote end has the vpnv4 address-family activated.
Verify with:
Sh bgp vpn unicast all summ
***Check the baseline MPLS switching configuration on the edge PE routers as well as on the internal MPLS switching devices
1). Is MPLS activiated on all of the interfaces in the MPLS path
2). Is the LDP router-id pingable?
3). Is the LDP router-id associated with an IP address in a VRF? If it is, select another IP address.
4). Is the next-hop of the vpnv4 path advertised with its original mask If it is being advertised via OSPF and the loopback is generating a host route due to the OSPF loopback network type, change the OSPF network type or change the loopback mask-length to /32.
Verify with:
Sh mpls ldp neigh
Show mpls forwarding
***Now, Check the PE to CE Connections and Configurations
Verify with:
Show ip route vrf XXX on the PE router
Under the most basic configurations, these routes will be listed as BGP routes. They will be redistributed
Into the VRF IGP’s on the PE router. While the routes will reside in the PE router as BGP routes, they
Should also appear in the IGP database and/or topology tables such as “show ip ospf database” or “show ip
Eigrp topology”. See the next step for more details:
**Check the Redistribution Statements between the edge routing protocols and the mp-BGP peer on the PE.
Check to make sure the edge routes are being learned over the mp-BGP connection.
Verify with:
Sh bgp vpn unicast all
Sh bgp vpn unicast all x.x.x.x
**Finally, check the edge CE routers to make sure they have received the routes:
This involves standard non-VRF router show commands such as:
Sh ip ospf neigh
Sh ip ospf database
Sh ip ro
Sh ip eigrp neighbor
Sh ip eigrp topology
Sh ip route
**Some Good Multi-Purpose MPLS Verification and Testing Tools
Clear mpls counters
Debug mpls packet - Look for both packets being transmitted and received on each transit interface.
Debug bgp vpn unicast all updates
Trace vrf
Ping vrf
Sh ip ro vrf
Using Debug IP Packet to troubleshoot MPLS:
When you see the following debug ip packet output:
*Sep 21 17:58:47.883: IP: s=2.2.2.2 (local), d=3.3.3.3 (Serial0/0/0), len 76, sending
*Sep 21 17:58:47.883: IP: s=2.2.2.2 (local), d=3.3.3.3 (Serial0/0/0), len 76, MPLS encapsulation failed
Please, note that this is a “work in progress” by the NMC CCIE mentoring community. We hope you find this useful. Please free to add whatever comments you have. Thanks!
NMC now offers CIERS2 On-line
Now you are able to receive the same excellent CIERS2 training without the time and expense associated with travel and lodging.
You will perform the exact same CIERS2 labs just as you would as if you attended the traditional CIERS2 course. However, you can now attend the class on-line from the convenience of your home or office.
The class schedule is exactly the same as it is for the traditional CIERS2 course taught by NMC in Reston Virginia.
Therefore, plan to schedule the same block of time for class with CIER2 on-line as you would for the traditional CIERS2.
We hope to see you on-line for CIERS2!
You are told to supply a DSCP value of 46 for an IP SLA Monitor stream of traffic. When you access the IP SLA Monitor configuration mode, you encounter only the following command to enter in the DSCP value:
R2(config-sla-monitor-jitter)#tos?
<0-255> Type of Service Value
What is the correct value you need to enter for this IP SLA Monitor stream of traffic to be assigned a DSCP value of 46?
Come back next week to learn the correct answer, or join an NMC Live On-line Group Mentoring session to discuss this topic and many other CCIE related topics.
The VLAN number is “8” because the configurable spanning root bridge priority value on a Cisco Catalyst switch that is closest to 8200 is 8192. When this configurable value of 8192 is subtracted from the supplied value of 8200 in the Question of the Week, the remainder is “8”. This calculation is performed due to the 802.1T structure of the Spanning Tree implementation supported on Cisco Catalyst switches. For more information, see the Cisco 360 Link-Layer Lesson Module or sign up for the NMC Live On-line Group Mentoring sessions that supplement Cisco 360 content.
You are told to assign a group of routers to a common VLAN; and you are not explicitly told what the VLAN number is. However, you are told that the unknown VLAN must possess a root bridge that is assigned bridge priority value of 8200. What is the unknown VLAN number?
Please come back to view the answer on Friday, May 21th.
Effective Monday, May 10th the Core Knowledge Questions section will be removed from the Routing and Switching and Voice CCIE labs. The 30 minutes that was previously allocated to the Core Knowledge Questions will now be allocated to the configuration section.
Consequently, the revised format of the Routing and Switching CCIE Lab will be only two sections
– a two hour long troubleshooting section and a six hour long configuration section.The same lab format is being used in the Assessment Labs and Exercise Workbook practice scenarios of Cisco 360 Learning Program making it easier for students to prepare for the exam under time pressure.
UPDATE
Official Cisco announcement:
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-6484
Question #1: Given the following block of IP prefixes, how many filtering statements (standard access-lists, extended access-lists or prefix-lists)are needed to permit these prefixes and only these prefixes:
Question #2: Given the following block of IP prefixes, how many filtering statements (standard access-lists, extended access-lists or prefix-lists)are needed to permit these prefixes and only these prefixes:
Please note the extreme similarities between the address blocks listed in both Question #1 and Question #2. This similarity generated many surprising results for many of the students in the NetMasterClass Llive On-line Group Mentoring Session. Please come back to view the answer on Friday, May 7th.
What is the recommended DSCP name for the telephony (VoIP) service class according to the appropriate RFCs?
A) EF
B) AF41
C) DF
D) CS4
E) AF31
The Answer is A) EF
Issue
What DSCP name and value are recommended for VoIP traffic?
Solution
RFC 4594 recommends the Telephony service class use DSCP name EF (Expedited Forwarding). This has a DSCP marking of 101110. Devices should be configured to prioritize traffic with this marking in a low latency queue and should never drop this traffic selectively.
More
(A) RFC 4594
(A) Classifying VoIP Signaling and Media with DSCP for QoS
Question
You want EIGRP to consider load in its metric calculation in your Cisco network infrastructure. What K value do you need to set?
A K1
B K2
C K3
D K4
E K5
————————-
QOW 2 Answer
Issue
Which K value results in load being used in the EIGRP metric calculation?
Solution
Study the formula for the EIGRP metric calculation shown in the more information link. Notice that setting K2 to one would allow load to be part of the metric.
More information: click here
This is the first in our question of the week series:
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Check back Friday for the answer!
The answer is B - Type 3.
Issue
What type of route is on R10? Why?
Solution
R10 possesses a single OSPF route in this configuration. Because it is part of a Totally Stubby area, this device will possess a single Type 3 Summary LSA. Specifically, this summary is for the default route 0.0.0.0. This default route is generated by the ABR of the area so this router can reach destinations beyond its stub area.
Check back Monday for the new question.
In order to pass the Routing and Switching CCIE lab, one must pass all three sections. This creates great stress on a CCIE candidate. The Cisco 360 Routing and Switching CCIE Learning Program helps reduce this stress by offering what is called a “Core Knowledge Waiver”. If a student attends either a Cisco 360 Advanced Workshop I course (CIERS1) or an Advanced Workshop II course (CIERS2) and receives a recommendation from a certified Cisco 360 instructor to receive the new Core Knowledge Waiver, the CCIE candidate can then bypass taking this section of the Routing and Switching CCIE exam and begin the lab with the hands-on troubleshooting and configuration sections. This helps reduce the pressure of taking the CCIE Lab.
The Core Knowledge Section is a thirty minute section where you answer the computer based questions to show that you have competency in the core technology area. If you take the a Workshop, complete the work in the class and your show your instructor that you understand the material from which the core knowledge questions are derived, you can ask your instructor to recommend a waiver for you. The waiver is not automatically given because you take a class, but rather is designed to allow the instructor to evaluate your knowledge and recommend you to Cisco as a candidate that you knows this material.
The Core Knowledge waiver program will leverage Cisco 360’s international pool of 40+ certified instructors that are more than capable of determining whether a CCIE candidate is worthy of bypassing this section of the CCIE Lab exam. We are a more than confident that all Cisco 360 instructors throughout the world will use good judgment when administering this program.
Great news for all our students who want to get the Core Knowledge section out of the way before exam day!
Here is the quote from Cisco Learning Network:
Beginning April 1, 2010, Cisco will allow Cisco 360 Learning Program students who attend a Cisco CCIE® Routing and Switching or CCIE Voice workshop to request a waiver and skip the Core Knowledge Section of the CCIE lab exam. All waiver requests must be approved by the workshop instructor. No end date for the Core Knowledge Waiver has been announced, but Cisco will provide at least 60 days’ notice before discontinuing the waiver.
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-6842
More information on Cisco 360 Workshops offered by NetMasterClass:
http://www.netmasterclass.com/CCIE/Training/
With NetMasterClass Webinar series you will receive:
The Group Mentoring series is of fifteen 90-minute sessions that are delivered over a 21 week period. Each week a specific topic is covered. Please note that this Group Mentoring series starts every four weeks. Therefore, if you missed one session on one week you have two options: (1) attend the same session in the next iteration of the NMC Group Mentoring Sessions or (2) listen to a recorded version of the specific session . When you attend the NMC Group Mentoring Sessions , do not except to simply be a passive viewer! Your Mentor will be proactively monitoring who is asking questions during each session and will make adjustments for lesson plans according to the activity of a given student. Also, you will be able to e-mail the mentor questions and suggestion for topics to be covered in each Group Mentoring Session.
Topics of the 15 ninety minute session of the NMC CCIE Group Mentoring Sessions:
NetMasterClass, a Worldwide Leader in CCIE R&S Training, is proud to announce its participation in the new “Cisco Lab Safe Program”! NEW
The CCIE Certification is a very prestigious certification, arguably the most prestigious vendor certification in the computer industry. But its reputation more than matches its difficulty. A student can take anywhere between 6 months to 24 months to fully prepare for his or her CCIE Lab Exam, and even then there are no guarantees.
With the Cisco Lab Safe Program, students who prove themselves to be truly strong CCIE candidates, get a 2nd chance at taking the CCIE Lab at no charge should they not pass on their first attempt!
This is a fantastic “Peace of Mind” for all those students who should have achieved their CCIE in the first try, but fell short due to either poor time management, falling under pressure or simply becoming too nervous during the Lab.
This way, you will not have to spend another $1350 on another attempt when you should have passed in the first place!
In Order to qualify, a student must meet the following requirements:
A Journey of a 1,000 Miles Begins with a Single Step and If It is the Right Step, It is the Last Step
This ancient Chinese expression can be applied to preparing for successfully passing the CCIE lab. At NMC, it is our belief that a successful CCIE candidate must not only learn a specific set of technology thoroughly, a successful candidate must also develop a consistent and intricate problem solving approach.
The problem solving approach recommended in the Cisco 360 program is called “issue spotting and options analysis”. This problem solving approach can be mastered by focusing on a very small subset of R&S CCIE technologies such as link-layer core technologies and IGP’s. In this case, it is not the number of topics that are exposed to the CCIE candidate. It is the method of problem solving that is used by the CCIE candidate. While the topics may expand, the problem solving approach should remain the same throughout the entire CCIE preparation process.
In the Cisco 360 three phase CCIE preparation process, it is strongly recommended to focus having each student master the “issue spotting/options analysis” problem solving approach in Phase One of the process - at the very beginning of the process. If they do not do this, then more than likely, students will approach CCIE level problems with an ad hoc “through a set of configurations” at a problem approach. This type of “hit and miss” approach is not desirable.