CCIE is devalued? Get real.

My favorite provocateur has dreamed up another sensational story ... and even has numbers to back it up. Reverse engineering the increase in reported number of CCIEs and taking in account the estimated number of seats in Cisco's labs worldwide, he concluded that the pass rate for CCIE R/S is currently at 35% whereas in the past the rumors claimed it was only around 10%. The conclusions in the story should not surprise you ... it must be the braindumps and the devaluing of the CCIE program. Of course it's the braindumps: people like Petr Lapukhov, Jeremy Stretch, Arden Packeer, Joe Harris and tens of others (including yours truly) are dumping the contents of their gray cell matter into blogs and wikis, creating astounding amount of information that we've never got from Cisco in the past.

The CCIE preparation programs also cover an enormous amount of scenarios and variations, giving you lots of material to practice (BTW, when I was teaching CCIE preparation bootcamps 15 years ago, the pass rate of my students was over 90% as I simply forced them to configure all the possible stupidities Cisco IOS could do at that time). The tests don't have to get any easier; the participants (if the calculations are correct) are simply better prepared. Whether the increased number of CCIEs results in the perceived devaluing of the program is another question (remember: the supply/demand rules), but I am absolutely sure that people passing CCIE lab exam these days know approximately as much as those passing it two or three years ago.

Of course you could argue whether someone who did tens (or sometimes hundreds) of scenarios in his lab and then passed the CCIE test is an expert or a braindump cheater (let's wait for the first blog post that claims that), but I doubt anyone is able to remember so many recipes and apply the correct one without a profound understanding of the underlying issues.

NIL has a new home page

In the last few days, our software development team has launched a completely redesigned NIL's home page, which makes it easier to find exactly what you need, be it remote labs, classroom training, product descriptions or information on our consulting and network design services.

Fragments | 2008-06-28

This week in Fragments, NIL's corporate blog:

• Klemen Štular, our CEO, shares his thoughts on Cisco's partner strategy.
• Boštjan Šuštar, one of our MPLS gurus, describes the hidden dangers of VPLS.
• Marjan Bradeško, the e-learning evangelist, found an interesting reason why you might prefer training in SecondLife-like environment: the classroom simulation might focus your mind on the learning experience (something, which is sorely missing in most e-learning offerings).
• Mitja Robas, CCIE focused on storage networks, gives you a few hints on securing SAN networks.
• Jan Bervar, security guru, thinks that Cisco should embrace VMsafe environment.
• And lastly, I had a few things to say about IOS stability.

Use the RSS feed to subscribe to Fragments

NIL Community

We've recently launched NIL community: a set of tools that will allow you to get (or stay) in touch with our experts. If you've attended Cisco training or practiced in our remote labs and would need a few more answers from our instructors, the forums are the perfect place to ask the questions. In the Fragments, our corporate blog, you'll find the news and the product announcements as well as interesting views of our experts and top managers. For example, a few days ago Marjan Bradeško described the “green learning” discussion he had with one of our customers.

Reorganized NIL training catalog

Our software developers have recently restructured our training catalog, resulting in a much cleaner look-and-feel in which (I hope) you'll find it easier to locate what you're looking for. The feature I like most which was sorely missing from the old catalog pages is the right sidebar telling you how to get the product and the Also available section listing related products. I am positive you'll also like the ability to view the descriptions of individual lab exercises (from the product details section of remote lab descriptions), where the right sidebar tells you which products contain this particular exercise. As always, your feedback is most welcome :)

NTP Implementation Quick Learning Module

The NTP Implementation Quick Learning Module we've developed teaches you how to use Network Time Protocol (NTP) on Cisco IOS devices to synchronize with a reliable time source.

The presentation part of this e-lesson describes NTP basics and IOS implementation details. The hands-on remote exercise enables you to configure multi-tier NTP implementation on Cisco routers.

Private domain names

I'm positive the IP prefixes reserved for private use by RFC 1918 are well-known to anyone building private IP networks. Likewise, you should be familiar with reserved AS numbers documented in RFC 1930 if you're building private networks running BGP. But if you know there are reserved DNS domains that can be used to write sample configurations and test code, you're smarter than I was a few weeks ago.

I was writing the June IP Corner article and needed to set up DNS servers within the lab. I used example.com as the domain name and decided to check what would happen if you'd visit the actual www.example.com web site (try it out). It politely referenced me to RFC 2606, which documents the reserved domain names you can use.

As a rule, you should use private IP addresses, AS numbers and domain names in all technical documentation you're producing (unless, of course, you're describing an actual network). If you're forced to use public addresses or AS numbers (for example, to illustrate how the neighbor remote-private-as command works), you should clearly state that the AS numbers are imaginary.

Cisco Advanced Services training offered by NIL

Recently we've started offering advanced courses developed by Cisco Advanced Services (AS) group. These courses cover high-end platforms (7600, CRS, IOS XR) and advanced solutions (Service Control Application). You can view the currently-offered list of courses and enroll into them in our online course schedule.

BGP Convergence Quick Learning Module

If you network has endless BGP convergence problems, our new BGP Quick Learning Module will improve your knowledge on this topic and enhance your hands-on configuration and troubleshooting skills.

This e-lesson describes how you can optimize BGP convergence in your network without overloading the routers running BGP. The hands-on remote exercise will enable you to configure fast BGP convergence under various conditions and test the convergence times in a controlled lab environment instead of trying these techniques in a production network.

OSPF quick learning module

A while ago I've described a scenario where OSPF behaves like a distance-vector protocol, including creating temporary routing black holes. If you think this behavior might affect your network, it's best you test the details in a controlled lab environment. Our OSPF quick learning module will tell you how to tweak the OSPF parameters and how to prevent IP prefix reappearance in the original area. The blended solution also includes a remote lab exercise, where you can test the IOS behavior on actual routers.

E-lessons are subscription-based; you can repeat each module in the lesson (including the lab) as many times as needed.

The “IP fragmentation” quick learning module

In the IP Corner article The Never-Ending Story of IP Fragmentation, I've described the various challenges posed by IP fragmentation in modern IP networks. If you want a more in-depth look at that topic, check the new IP fragmentation e-lesson. It includes a recorded presentation and a remote lab exercise where you can test various fragmentation scenarios, including MPLS VPN backbone, GRE tunnels and GRE+IPSec combination.

E-lessons are subscription-based; you can repeat each module in the lesson (including the lab) as many times as needed.

Technology is supposed to be simple, right?

In his comment to the announcement of my NTP article, Joe said:

This is part of the problem with NTP. It's way more complicated then it needs to be. You shouldn't have to understand so much of it to use it on your routers. Take a look at openntpd. It's free and runs on bsd or linux.

I have to disagree with him on several counts:

• NTP is supposed to solve a pretty hard problem of synchronizing multiple independent time sources over communication paths with unpredictable delay and jitter. Considering the limitations it's faced with, it does an amazingly good job.
• NTP configuration on IOS is no more complex than the openntpd configuration if the only thing you want is to do is to configure an upstream NTP server. The only commands you need are ntp server and ntp master.

However, the most important point, in my opinion, is the difference between "aiming for a short recipe" and "understanding the technology". If the only task you ever need to perform is to configure upstream NTP servers, don't even bother to read the IOS documentation or my article, you don't need more than a single configuration command … but then, when things really break, you'll be in trouble.

Likewise, the only thing some people want to know about OSPF are the following two commands:

router ospf 1
 network 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 area 0

There are others, however, that might need a slightly more in-depth understanding of OSPF design, configuration and troubleshooting (that's why we developed an OSPF course and corresponding set of remote lab exercises and Tom Thomas wrote a whole book about it).

Do bootcamps make sense?

My recent post about a CCNP bootcamp program we've launched generated interesting comments, most of them focusing on the question: “Does it make sense to attend a bootcamp?”

The answer depends on how you got to the stage where you want to (or need to) attain the CCxP certification. Before going into discussions on “experience” versus “knowledge retention” (potentially “aided” by brain dumps), please read The Top 10 Problems with IT Certification in 2008 article published by InformIT. My potential disagreements with this article are so minor that I will not even try to document them.

OK, now that we're on the same page, let's analyze why someone would want to pursue CCxP certification:

• To increase the salary or have better job options (as HR departments ask for people with specific set of certifications). From what I hear, this reason is more viable in US than the rest of the world (in most of Europe we can still test the technical skills of the candidates in any way we want without running the risk of being sued). Bootcamps might not be the best option for these candidates, as they tend to be priced similarly to the regular classes. Reading books or e-learning material (not to mention certain not-so-very-legitimate activities) will get you through the exams as long as they don't have the hands-on part ... and of course you'll end up having certification with zero experience;
• To learn something new and valuable resulting in a formal recognition of the effort. Don't even think about attending the bootcamps. If you're learning completely new concepts, go through the regular courses (or use e-learning combined with hands-on lab exercises). Highly intensive format of the bootcamps (after all, we're trying to squeeze almost two weeks worth of material into a single week) will fly way over your head.
• To formalize your experience ... either because you want to or because your employer needs certified head count (very common with Cisco partners trying to get better discount based on their partner status). In this case, a condensed bootcamp is usually the best option. For example, we had very successful bootcamp program a few years ago running back-to-back with the exams ... and, mind you, we used no cheating or brain dumps, the fact that the students took the exam right after the course obviously helped.

Last but definitely not least, it's worth mentioning that not all five-day courses have five days worth of content. In these cases, condensing them into bootcamps makes even more sense.

CCNP Bootcamp

If you want study for your CCNP certification by attending live instructor-led courses, you'll have to spend four weeks in a classroom. That's "a bit" too much for some of our customers, so we've been asked to create a shorter version of the courses, resulting in a 2-week very intensive bootcamp structure.

The CCNP Bootcamp Part 1 combines the content of the first two prerequisite courses for CCNP: Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI) and Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN). It's an intensive combination of lecture and practice covering routing protocols and LAN switching.

The CCNP Bootcamp Part 2 combines the content of the second two prerequisite courses for CCNP: Implementing Secure Converged Wide Area Networks (ISCW) and Optimizing Converged Cisco Networks (ONT). This one obviously contains lecture and practice covering secure remote access into core networks using VPN technologies (such as MPLS VPN and IPsec VPN), network security, Quality of Service (QoS) for optimized voice transport as well as wireless security.

BGP labs on Partner Education Connection

The BGP remote labs associated with the Configuring BGP on Cisco Routers course are available on Cisco's Partner Education Connection; they are thus available free-of-charge to all Cisco partners. The following exercises are available:

• Configuring Basic BGP
• Using Multihomed BGP Networks
• Employing AS - Path Filters
• Filtering with Prefix-Lists
• Influencing BGP Route Selection with Weights
• Implementing Changes in BGP Policy
• Configuring a Transit AS
• Introducing Route Reflectors
• Configuring and Monitoring Confederations
• Implementing BGP Peer Groups
• Setting BGP Local Preference
• Understanding BGP Multi-Exit Discriminator
• Addressing BGP Communities
• Limiting the Number of Prefixes Received from a BGP Neighbor
• Using BGP Route Dampening

If you're don't have access to Partner Education Connection, you can buy our Configuring BGP on Cisco Routers e-learning solution or the BGP Remote Lab Bundle.

Building Core Networks with BGP, OSPF and MPLS

Do you need advanced knowledge and skills needed in designing and implementing core MPLS networks? We have developed exactly the course you need.

The Building Core Networks with BGP, OSPF and MPLS (NIL_BCMPL) course focuses on MPLS applications such as MPLS VPN (with special attention to Internet access from a VPN), Any Transport over MPLS (AToM), Carrier Supporting Carrier (CsC) and MPLS Traffic Engineering (MPLS TE). As a prerequisite for MPLS deployment the routing protocols are explained as well - the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The scalability issues of the protocols as well as multiprotocol BGP are addressed as well. Several practice labs enable you to gain the necessary experience in deploying the MPLS-based core networks.

IPv6 e-learning solution

Do you want to gain IPv6 configuration skills and test the associated routing protocols at the time that suits you most? The IPv6 e-course allows you to do just that.

The IPv6 Fundamentals, Design and Deployment (IP6FD) e-course is a blended learning solution that consists of the IP6FD web-based training and associated remote lab bundle. The course provides you with knowledge and skills needed for transitioning to IPv6 based networks. The content encompasses design and security considerations, IPv6 configuration principles and IPv6 transition mechanisms. You will learn how to implement IPv6 in a network using numerous routing protocols such as RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS and BGP, as well as hands-on skills in deploying IPv6 transition mechanisms including various types of tunnels.

You can find additional e-courses in our catalog.

Gain HIPS skills with e-learning course

Would you like to use the Cisco Security Agent (CSA) v5.0 product to protect host systems from intrusions and security threats but don't have the time to attend classroom training? Do you want to prepare for the CCSP exam? Why won't you learn and practice configuration skills at your own pace in full control of your time?

The Securing Hosts Using Cisco Security Agent (HIPS) e-course is a blended solution that consists of the HIPS web-based training and associated remote labs bundle. It takes a task-oriented approach to teaching the skills needed to deploy, configure, and administer CSA to protect server and workstation hosts.

You can find additional e-courses in our catalog.

OSPF Remote Lab Exercises

Have you ever wanted to practice with all the aspects of the OSPF technology, from simple single-area scenarios to a complex MPLS environment? The new remote lab product we've just released gives you the opportunity to test a number of OSPF concepts and configuration techniques. The Open Shortest Path First - Complete Technology lab bundle is a collection of exercises taken from standard Cisco courses (BSCI, MPLS and IP6FD) enhanced by specific OSPF scenarios (Non-Broadcast Multi-Access, Sham link support) and complete real-life deployment scenario (OSPF Superlab), enabling you to gain advanced skills in configuring and monitoring OSPF in complex and diverse network environments.

SNRS labs on available on Partner E-learning Connection

If you want to study for your CCSP certification and have partner-level access to Cisco's web, you can schedule Securing Networks with Cisco Routers and Switches remote labs free-of-charge straight from Partner E-learning connection by clicking this link (partner-level CCO username required).

If you're not a Cisco partner, you can buy the same labs from our web site.