Cisco SAFE

Security is my biggest weak point period. I'm currently reading through the CCDA security chapters in the FLG book. I'm also downloading and book marking all of the references and white papers from these chapters I can get my hands on!

I probably have 100 of pages of reading to do on the Cisco SAFE (SCF) security framework a head of me. But I need to have a better holistic view of network security. I get asked network security questions quite often in my job role. Even today my employers CIO had a security question that I foolishly couldn't answer because I'm not well versed with the firewall policies in our environment. I will be changing this,

Enterprise Internet Edge Design

As I finish chapter 5 (Designing Remote Connectivity) in the Cisco CCDA FLG book, it provided a list of great references to gain additional understanding. I read through Cisco's Ethernet MAN and WAN design guide. Now I'm going through Cisco's guide on enterprise internet edge design.

For the most part the guide focuses on securing the edge within the 5 different modules shown above. This may be overkill for the CCDA but my intent is to take in the material slowly and thoroughly.

CCDA Studies

I've been digging into network design specifically for the last two months now. I've started and completed the Top-Down Network Design book which was a a great primer to the certification material.

I'm now working through the CCDA FLG book which is really helping nail down the topics for the DEGN exam. I'm taking my time for this exam since I'm still fresh off of the CCNP R&S certification. Which is a nice change of pace since I wanted to knock out the CCNP cert before the new tracks started this year.

After the FLG book I'll finally hit the OCG book and then maybe finally prep for the exam itself. I'm on the fence on getting the CCDP Arch books and/or CCNA Security books for exam prep but we shall see. Along the way I'm going to constantly be hitting up the Cisco SRND documentations to so that I fully understand the topics I'm learning.

Design is very interesting to me and something I've wanted to do but was always scared of. Hopefully over the next few months I can flesh out my blog more with the topics I've been learning. It's been years since I've really talked about my progress due to the countless other blogs out there.

CCNP Passed!

As of October 28th 2014 I'm officially a CCNP! After my ROUTE exam I jumped right into the SWITCH material. SWITCH was a lot easier for me to digest as I work with Layer 2/3 switches almost on a daily basis. This exam alone helped my day to day tasks tremendously along with giving me the confidence I need to tackle a few data center projects currently going on. The SWITCH exam took me 3-4 months to complete.

Today I finished up my CCNPby taking the TSHOOT exam, which was actually pretty fun. This is basically a lab simulation that tests your troubleshooting skills using CCNP level knowledge. If you aced ROUTE and SWITCH than this exam should be a breeze for you. I studied for about 2 months for this exam. I reviewed ROUTE topics since there was the 4 month gap between diving into the routing material.

With the SDN craziness on the way, I'm going to spend the next 3 months digging into Python. This will also give me a much needed break from certifications. After that I'm going to start hitting the Cisco designs certs for the rest of the year. I acknowledge that my design skillset is my biggest weakness. While I do not expect to walk away being able to take on a Network Architect type position, I do believe this will give me the foundation I need to head in that direction.

CCNP Route Test: Yes it's Hard, and Yes I Passed (Barely)

I've completed the CCNP Route exam yesterday. Yes it's just as difficult as you think, but not impossible. I highly recommend the CCNP Simplified series along with their 101 labs, you truly do have to understand why each routing protocol works the way it does.

After passing this exam, I now understand why there is the CCIE. I simply had more questions rather than answers as I progressed through my study material.

Next up is the SWITCH exam, I previewed the book material I will use which is the Cisco OCG and the CCNP Simplified series. I'm at a lost about what I'm going to do for setting up my switching lab. Setting up a routing lab is simple, just use GNS3 but of course GNS3 doesn't support switching yet in their software.

I have one lonely Cisco 3550 at home from my CCNP: Voice studying. I think I'm going to bring my 3550 to work and borrow whatever layer 3/2 switches I can find to setup a lab. Either that or Ebay but I'm trying to avoid that if possible. I'm still on the fence on rather or not I should sell the 3-4 routers sitting in my rack doing nothing, only time will tell.

I plan to contribute to this blog more which I've abandoned for quite a while due to life in general.

Still Routing Around

I've had a bunch of life changes this year but I'm still here and getting back into the swing of things. I've been primary planning, designing, and implementing LAN technologies the past 18 months. SDN is really starting to take off and I want to ride on the coat tails of it along with data center design.

I'm back to studying CCNP R&S again and it's a lot easier to dig into it with the network experience I've gained compared to my first attempt 4 years ago. I'm only about 1/4th through the FLG Routebook but I plan on keeping a steady past. Network projects and after hours maintenance is a huge killer on persistence along with general life.

My immediate goals have changed a lot but the end goal is to own a business of my own of some sort. I've tried a lot of difference things and experienced a lot of different failures but I plan on pushing on and just work smarter and harder.

Local Route Group is for Winners

There's still a lot for me to learn when it comes to digit manipulation and simplifying dial plans. Last week I read up on local route groups along with practicing it in my lab. It vastly cuts down on the amount of partitions and CSS's needed. As to not copyright this link provides a better explanation:

Local Route Groups

This is something I may keep in my back pocket when we get around to changing the dial-plan configuration on our CUCM.

I have a feeling once I get to CIPT2 and Globalization it may change the way I ever design a dial-plan from scratch.