Thursday 31 January 2019

Jan 31, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 176 flash card reviews
Added 17 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Reviewed some pieces of NLRI generation that I wasn't getting right

Lab cards completed
BGP Bestpath Selection - Router-IDs
Smartport Macros
BGP Next-Hop Processing - Manual Modification
Layer 2 EtherChannel with PAgP
OSPF Conditional Default Routing
OSPF Stub Areas with Multiple Exit Points
OSPF External Summarization
Layer 2 Dynamic Switchports
BGP Bestpath Selection - Origin Code
OSPF NSSA ABR External Prefix Filtering
Reliable Static Routing with Enhanced Object Tracking
VTP Domain


Labs cards added/Completed
BGP Bestpath Selection - Local Preference
BGP Bestpath Selection - AS-Path Prepending
BGP Bestpath Selection - Always Compare MED
BGP Bestpath Selection - AS-Path Ignore
BGP Bestpath Selection - DMZ Link Bandwidth

Pet Willow 1
Pet Lilly  2 + 2 + 3 + 1

Wednesday 30 January 2019

Jan 30, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 196 flash card reviews
Added 17 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Read the rest of Chapter 4 in Routing TCP/IP Vol II

Lab cards completed
BGP over GRE
BGP Update Source Modification
BGP Auto-Summary
BGP Bestpath Selection - MED
MAC-Address Table Static Entries and Aging
Large-Scale iBGP Route Reflection with Clusters
STP Loop Guard
BGP Redistribute Internal
STP BackboneFast
BGP Next-Hop Processing - Manual Modification

Labs cards added/Completed
none


Pet Willow nothing
Pet Lilly  1 + 2 + 2

Tuesday 29 January 2019

Jan 29, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 168 flash card reviews
Added 15 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Read most of Chapter 4 in Routing TCP/IP Vol II, BGP FAQ on Cisco website,  misc Cisco Docs

Lab cards completed
iBGP Synchronization
BGP Peer Groups
OSPF Network Point-to-Multipoint Non-Broadcast
BGP Bestpath Selection - Weight
BGP over GRE

Labs cards added/Completeted
none

Pet Willow no love
Pet Lilly  double no loved

Monday 28 January 2019

Jan 28, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 210 flash card reviews
Added 21 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Various Articles about PIC and BGP fast peering session deactivation.  Also more about BGP add-paths (gonna need some more of that...)  Read Routing TCP/IP Vol II Chap 3

Lab cards completed
forgot to record.. only a few were due though

Labs cards added/Completed
BGP Network Statement
BGP Bestpath Selection - Weight
BGP Bestpath Selection - Origin Code
BGP Bestpath Selection - MED
BGP Bestpath Selection - Router-IDs
BGP Bestpath Selection - Maximum AS Limit

Pet Willow 2
Pet Lilly  1

Sunday 27 January 2019

Jan 27, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 172 flash card reviews
Added 21 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - INE ATC - BGP "Traffic Engineering with Aggregation", "Communities", "Filtering"

Lab cards completed
OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering
OSPF Stub Router Advertisement
RIPv2 Filtering with Extended Access-Lists
OSPF Stub Areas with Multiple Exit Points
OSPF Null Authentication
OSPF Global Timers

Labs cards added/Completed
BGP Redistribute Internal
BGP Peer Groups
BGP Auto-Summary

Pet Willow I think she doesn't like me anymore
Pet Lilly  2 + 1

Saturday 26 January 2019

Jan 26, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 202 flash card reviews
Added 22 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Every document ever written about BGP Path Selection.  OK, not really but I spent a lot of time today wrapping my head around the finer points of path selection - I think I mostly have it now... so I think.... 

Lab cards completed
BGP over GRE
iBGP Synchronization
Large-Scale iBGP Route Reflection with Clusters
Protected Ports
OSPF Null Authentication
OSPF Network Point-to-Point
Authenticating BGP Peerings
EIGRP Filtering with Standard Access-Lists
OSPF Null Authentication
Establishing iBGP Peerings
OSPF Interface Timers
Establishing eBGP Peerings
OSPF DR/BDR Election Manipulation
OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas
OSPF Filtering with Administrative Distance
MST and Rapid Spanning Tree
OSPF Path Selection Challenge

Labs cards added/Completed
OSPF Network Point-to-Multipoint Non-Broadcast
BGP Next-Hop Processing - Manual Modification
OSPF Stub Areas with Multiple Exit Points

I found that I had missed some OSPF labs when I made that Anki deck for my method post yesterday

Pet Willow ZERO
Pet Lilly  4 + 5 + 2 + 2

Friday 25 January 2019

Jan 24, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 167 flash card reviews
Added 17 new cards about BGP

I was lazy today - only flash cards and the method post.


Pet Willow ZERO
Pet Lilly  2 + 1

Method Post - Using Anki For CCIE Preparation


Here I will cover the basics of how to use Anki for CCIE preparation, and include links to Anki decks to help get you started.

Thursday 24 January 2019

Jan 24, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 174 flash card reviews
Added 17 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study -  INE CCIE RSv5 Written: All aggregation videos.  INE CCIE ATC: BGP Aggregation.

Lab cards completed
OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering
Reliable Policy Routing
OSPF Totally Stubby Areas
EIGRP Auto-Summary
OSPF Reliable Conditional Default Routing
Large-Scale iBGP Route Reflection with Clusters
OSPF over Broadcast Media
EIGRP Unequal Cost Load Balancing
EIGRP Summarization
OSPF LSA Type-3 Filtering
OSPF Path Selection with Non-Backbone Transit Areas
OSPF Path Selection with Bandwidth
Multihop EBGP Peerings
iBGP Synchronization

Labs cards added/Completed
BGP Next-Hop Processing - Manual Modification
iBGP Synchronization
BGP over GRE


Pet Willow 1
Pet Lilly  2 + 3 + 1 +

Wednesday 23 January 2019

Jan 23, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 182 flash card reviews
Added 16 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study -  More CiscoDoc reading mostly.  INE ATC BGP Fast Convergence Part 1

Lab cards completed
Large-Scale iBGP Route Reflection with Clusters
EIGRP Network Statement
EIGRP Summarization with Default Routing
Neighbor Disable-Connected-Check
OSPF NSSA Type-7 to Type-5 Translator Election
Miscellaneous OSPF Features
OSPF over DMVPN
BGP Next-Hop Processing - Next-Hop-Self
OSPF Filtering with Distribute-Lists
VTP Version 3
Discontiguous OSPF Areas with Virtual-Links
iBGP Route Reflection
RIPv2 Filtering with Per-Neighbor AD
OSPF Demand Circuit
OSPF Default Routing
Routing to Multipoint Broadcast Interfaces
OSPF Summarization and Discard Routes
OSPF Filtering with Route-Maps
OSPF Forwarding Address Suppression
OSPF Resource Limiting
OSPF NSSA ABR External Prefix Filtering
OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering

Labs cards added/Completed
none

Pet Willow 1 +
Pet Lilly  2 + 3 + 1

Tuesday 22 January 2019

Jan 22, 2019
Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 174 flash card reviews
Added 17 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study -  Reading misc parts of Routing TCP/IP Vol II and BGP RFCs - did some review on some switching stuff when I couldn't answer a flash card properly :)

Lab cards completed
I started doing the iBGP route-reflection lab and got sucked into a couple different rabbit holes; specifically BGP Route Pinning, BGP Wedgies, and the finer points of BGP path selection.

Labs cards added/Completed
none

Pet Willow 1 + 2
Pet Lilly  3 + 2 + 5 + 2 + 2 (loving me today!)

Monday 21 January 2019

Jan 21, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 172 flash card reviews
Added 18 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study -  Watched/went along with INE ATC Videos for BGP Traffic Engineering (Weight/Local Pref, AS-Path/MED. and Communities)

Lab cards completed
Authenticating BGP Peerings
OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas and Default Routing
VTP Pruning
iBGP Confederation


Labs cards added/Completed
none

Pet Willow 10 seconds :/
Pet Lilly  2 + 2 + 2 + 4

Method Post - Using EVE-NG for INE ATC Labs

** Update April 25, 2019**
As I have been going through these myself, I have found that a bunch of these configs were not working properly (pretty much all the IPv6 labs + switch labs + some misc labs).  I have updated the config file link accordingly.  If you downloaded it before and some of the labs are "invalid" when you try to load them, please try downloading the newest version.  Please let me know if you have any troubles.  I will include a link in the file section to a package of PowerShell scripts that I ended up making while working with all these (2,000+) config files.
*** End Update ***

OK, so this is probably going to be a pretty long post.  After messing around with a bunch of different options, I have found this to be the best setup for using the INE ATC topology for studying for my CCIE.  I used VIRL for the first few months, but it was annoying to have to load the configurations for each of the labs into the routers each time I loaded the topology.  I started out with some SuperPuttY scripts that automatically did it each time, but it was a less-than-perfect solution.

Bottom line:  Properly followed, this guide will allow you to send "config replace flash:config/atc.lab.name.here.cfg force" to all devices, and immediately configure all devices for the appropriate lab.  It should continue to work if you shut the topology down/restart your computer, and then reboot the topology.

NOTE: Feel free to use these configs with your own topology.  This post shows how to build one with EVE-NG but the configs will work with pretty much any setup of the INE topology.  The same can be said about the Secure_CRT-AutoConfig python script - it should work to more easily set up the configurations with pretty much any setup of the INE topology with little or no modification.

On my computer with CSR1000v routers, it takes only a few seconds to switch between initial configurations of any of the ATC labs.  This is extremely useful for using the "lab card" strategy that I will be putting forth in a future post.

If something in this guide is wrong, please let me know in the comments so I can correct it.

Credits

Credit to Calin Chiorean for making the EVE-NG topology that mine is based off of.
Credit to 

Credit to everyone else that I missed - as I have tons of links in here :)


Link: INE-CCIE-RSv5-Topologies.zip
Description: Contains 10-Router + 4-Switch INE ATC topology for IOL, IOSv, and CSR1000v
Update: Also contains 20-Router + 4 Switch INE topology for IOL, IOSv, and CSR1000v

Link: CCIE_RSv5_INE_ATC_CFG.zip
Description: (Updated April 2019Contains INE ATC configs for all three (IOL/IOSv/CSR1000v) image types to go with the above topologies
Note: Only contains configs for ATC labs at the moment - I will update with foundations/mock labs once the time comes for me to do those

Link: eveNG-SecureCRT-AutoConfig.zip
Description: If using SecureCRT, this python script will save you some time

Link: ConfigManipulationScripts.zip
Description: A collection of PowerShell scripts that I ended up making while working with all these (2,000+) config files.  I figured some may find them useful.
prepend_lines_to_targets.ps1 - (add some lines to the front of a list of files)
print_first_lines_of_targets.ps1 - (print the first x lines of a list of files)
recursive_find_replace.ps1 - (very useful bulk/recursive "find and replace")
remove_blank_lines.ps1 - (remove all blank lines from a bunch of files)
targetfiles.txt - (used by some of the above to narrow down actions/results)
tar_subfolders.ps1 - (use to tar everything back up)



Quick note: UKSM (Ultra Kernel Samepage Merging) allows EVE-NG to use the CPU to reduce memory (Google if you want more info).

I have built topologies for three different IOS images:


## IOL (IOS on Linux)
After messing around with these, I can recommend this option as long as you keep in mind that some things aren't going to work properly, or aren't supported at all.  It is very fast, and doesn't require much in the way of resources.  I haven't been using it that long, but I have had a few problems with some of the features working properly, and there are tons of BGP features missing.

How it runs on my system: Hardly anything + fast boot

Recommended System: as long as your computer isn't super-old, most systems should run this


## IOSv
Slower and more resource-hungry than IOL.  This is what I recommend using unless you have a bunch of RAM like I do (in which case, I recommend the CSR1000V).

How it runs on my system (10 IOSv Routers + 4 IOSv switches):
 UKSM Off: 6GB RAM used, All 8 logical processors running about 50%
 UKSM On: 2.5GB RAM used, All 8 logical processors running about 55%

How it runs on my system (20 IOSv Routers + 4 IOSv switches):
 UKSM Off: 9GB RAM used, All 8 logical processors running about 75%

Recommended System: 8GB RAM minimum + processor with 8 logical cores


## CSR1000v (This is what I have been using these days - I like it best)
This is fast (after it finishes booting - it boots slowest of all for me) but requires tons of RAM and slightly more CPU than IOSv.  Supposedly supports more features than any other virtual option, but I haven't had problems with IOSv in the context of my CCIE studies yet.  Each CSR1000v instance uses 3GB of RAM.  With UKSM turned on, you may be able to get along with just 16 GB of RAM, but you better have a decent processor.

How it runs on my system (10 CSR1000v Routers + 4 IOSv switches):
 UKSM Off: 33.5GB RAM used, All 8 logical processors running about 60%
 UKSM On: 10.5GB RAM used, All 8 logical processors running about 75-80%%

How it runs on my system (20 CSR1000v Routers + 4 IOSv switches):
 UKSM Off: Does not run - CPU could not handle it - couldn't tell if RAM would have been enough.  CPU-wise I was close (booted up 15 CSR1000v OK).  I imagine a 6-core equivalent like the i7-8086k (almost same proc as mine, but 6-core) could do the trick, but still unsure about RAM (it will be close and some paging/swapping will probably have to happen if it works).
 UKSM On: Eve-NG's website specifically states not to use this with more than 10 CSR1000vs

Recommended System: 32GB RAM + decently quick processor with 8 logical cores


Obtaining Images
I was able to download the IOSv/CSR1000v image from the Cisco VIRL portal, because I also purchased a VIRL licence ($200).  If you have a VIRL license, go to the download section in the portal and download "vios-adventerprisek9-m.vmdk.SPA.156-1.T" and/or "csr1000v-universalk9.16.6.1.qcow2" and "vios_l2-adventerprisek9-m.03.2017.qcow2".  IOL images are available around the internet.  Bottom line: you have to figure out how to get your own CSR1000v/IOSv/IOL images.
Google Compute

I tested out the IOSv topology with the "n1-highcpu-8" instance type, and it ran OK but changing configs took over 1 minute so  Still, that is your best bet if you want to make the most of your $300 free credits.  If you use more than 8 vCPUs, performance is much better, but I don't think you can use your $300 free credits when using more than 8 vCPUs :/  I tested out the CSR-1000v topology on there with 10 vCPUs and 40GB of RAM (costs about 36 cents/hour) and the performance was pretty good, even though the CPU stayed pegged out at 100%.  I didn't try with only 8 vCPUs...

This guide is mostly focused on doing things with VMWare, so if you are using Google Compute, then read a whole section before taking action because you may have special instructions.  One note that I have about using Google compute is that you want to select a 40GB hard drive or so (more like 400GB if you are using CSR images!).  Even though you don't need this much space, your hard drive throughput is tied to your hard drive size, so the topologies will take a long time to boot up if you only give it 10GB :)

Install VMWare Workstation (I am using VMWare Workstation 12 Pro, but I am pretty sure VMWare Workstation Player will work just fine).  AFAIK, VirtualBox will not work.

Install EVE-NG (free - and amazing!). 

If choosing Google Compute:
This will take a little more tinkering (it did for me anyway), but if I was able to get it to work then you probably can too.

I recommend starting with the video but checking out the blog post at the same time.

Once you have EVE-NG installed:
The following blog shows how to add your VMNet connection into EVE-NG: https://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0001432

Here is what my "/etc/network/interfaces" looks like for eth1:
# Cloud devices
iface eth1 inet manual
auto pnet1
iface pnet1 inet static
    address 172.16.1.132/24
    bridge_ports eth1
    bridge_stp off

Note that I used "172.16.1.132" as my IP.  You may use something different for your VMNet1 address space...  You can check what your VMNet1 IP space is by issuing "ipconfig" at the command prompt, and looking for "Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1", or by going to Edit -> Virtual Network Editor in the VMWare Workstation main window.

Here is what mine looks like:


And the interface that I added in the VM:

Note: You should be able to "ping 172.16.1.132" (or whatever IP you use) if this step was successful.

If you are using Google Compute, then you can set your EVE instance to the IP that your workstation would be in the VMWare setup.  That way my scripts will work for you as well during step 5.  Here is what my Google Compute instance "/etc/network/interfaces" looks like for eth1/pnet1:
# Cloud devices
iface eth1 inet manual
auto pnet1
iface pnet1 inet static
   address 172.16.1.1/24
   bridge-ports eth1
   bridge-stp off


EVE-NG HowTo Add IOL Images

I used WinSCP to transfer the files (SecureFX/FileZilla/Others are fine..)
I use SecureCRT to SSH, but there are many other clients out there

In the upper left, there is a button to "import" - click it and select the "IINE-CCIE-RSv5-Topologies.zip" file (no need to unzip). 

Click "Upload" in the upper right

It should import the .unl topologies and make them available on the left pane.  You can click on the topology for the images that you uploaded and click "Open" to bring up the lab.  You should now be able to boot up the devices.  Depending on your computer, booting them all at once might take much longer than booting them up in a staggered order.

Staggering Boot-Up
I boot up the devices in three "groups".  For example, I select R1-R5 and start them up.  My CPU will spike for a few minutes and then settle down.  Once it does, I select R6-R10 and start those up.  Once those are done, I boot up the switches.  Depending on your config/system, it will take different amounts of time.  Once you figure out how long it takes, you can right click a node and click Edit, and then set a startup delay on that node.  For my CSR1000v lab, I have routers 6-10 with a 160 second delay, and the switches with a 400 second delay.  The whole thing takes around 8-9 minutes to be ready from when I hit "start all nodes".

If your routers don't boot up, right click one of them and click "Edit".  There should be an image listed (mine is "vios-adventerprisek9-m.SPA.156-2.T").  You may have to select the image from the drop-down if it is there.  If it is not, then something went wrong during Step 3.

Note for Google Compute: Sometimes (often) I have to try to start the nodes several times, but they eventually go if I keep trying


As you can see, each of the routers are connected to "VmnetNet1", which should be able to talk to your local VMNet interface.  Mine has an IP of "172.16.1.1" - you can check what yours is by issuing "ipconfig" at the command prompt, and looking for "Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1"

If you don't have one, download a TFTP server.  I used Tftpd32 but there are many out there.

Unzip the "CCIE_RSv5_INE_ATC_CFG.zip" somewhere.  For this example, I chose "C:\TFTP_Server\CCIE_RSv5_INE_ATC_CFG: - where xxx = the image you are using.

Open up your TFTP server, and make sure that it is using that exact folder (with the .tar files in it).  Also, I had to make sure my "Server Interface" was set to VMnet1 (172.16.1.1 in my case):




If you are using SecureCRT: Here is python script to do the steps that follow automatically:
eveNG-SecureCRT-AutoConfig.zip (download/extract - you'll need to browse to the ".py" file with SecureCRT)

You will need to edit the Python script to select the image that you are using, and set up IP information if it is different.  If you right click the .py file and click edit, it should be self-explanatory.

To run them from SecureCRT:
Make sure you have the tab active for the device open and connected.  You can connect to the routers by making SecureCRT your default telnet application, or you can manually create sessions.  To see the IP/port, hover over the router in the EVE-NG Topology Window and look in the lower left.

Once you are connected and the tab is active, make sure you get the device to the user mode "Router>", not the autoconfig dialog.  In SecureCRT go to Script -> Run from the file menu, and then select the script.  Give it a little bit, and it should automatically do the below steps for you.


If not using SecureCRT: Then perform the following steps manually (at least it is only once!)

Notes for anything other than IOSv
If you are using something other than IOSv, replace the interface name with the interface that is connected to "Net1" in the EVE topology, and change IOSv in the archive command to CSRv or IOL as appropriate.

Also, for IOL, use "unix:/config" instead of "flash:config/"

Note: I tried to remember to export the configs for all of the topologies so that the IP addresses were included.  If the router already has a name on initial bootup then it probably already has a "172.16.1.x" ip address

Log into R1 and do this:
Router>enable
Router#delete /f /r flash:config
Router#
Router#conf t
Router(config)#int g0/0
Router(config-if)#ip add 172.16.1.201 255.255.255.0
Router(config-if)#no shut
Router(config-if)#end
Router#archive tar /xtract tftp://172.16.1.1/IOSv/R1.tar flash:config/

You should see the router copy all 65 configurations to the flash.

Note1: "delete /f /r flash:config" is necessary on IOSv (not for CSR1000v or IOL) - I don't know the reason, but if you don't do it then it will not take all of the configs, even though there is plenty of free space in the flash.  This caused me some heartache lol.

Note2: If your VMNet interface had a different IP address, then you need to choose another IP address in the same subnet.  Since this is a CCIE blog I am going to assume you know what I mean.  After you change the IP on the router and "no shut" the interface, you should be able to ping it from your local machine; Ex: "ping 172.16.1.201".  If you can't, then double-check the actions that you took in "Step 2".  The Eve-NG website has some great resources if you get stuck here.

Note3: This should be obvious, but do not continue on to R2 if this does not work, because something is wrong.  It is time to troubleshoot.  Check back through the steps and use Google.

Log into R2 and do this (note the last octet, and R2.tar):
Router>enable
Router#delete /f /r flash:config
Router#
Router#conf t
Router(config)#int g0/0
Router(config-if)#ip add 172.16.1.202 255.255.255.0
Router(config-if)#no shut
Router(config-if)#end
Router#archive tar /xtract tftp://172.16.1.1/IOSv/R2.tar flash:config/

Log into R3 - R10 following the same pattern, making sure you change the last octet for the IP, and the name of the file to "RX.tar", where X = the router number

Log into SW1 and do this:
Switch>enable
Switch#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Switch(config)#int g0/1
Switch(config-if)#no switchport
Switch(config-if)#ip add 172.16.1.111 255.255.255.0
Switch(config-if)#no shut

Switch(config-if)#end
Switch#archive tar /xtract tftp://172.16.1.1/IOSv/SW1.tar flash:config/

Log into SW2 - SW4 following the same pattern, making sure you change the last octet for the IP, and the name of the file to "SWX.tar", where X = the switch number

I also recommend setting the hostnames and saving the configs (copy run start) at this point.  That way when the routers boot up, they will boot directly into IOS instead of the auto-configuration dialog.  They will also be ready for you to TFTP more configs if that is what you want to do.

Step 5 - With Google Compute Instance

To do this, I had to make my Ubuntu instance server the TFTP server.

root@instance-1:/# apt-get install -y tftpd-hpa

After tftpd-hpa has been installed, you need to configure tftpd-hpa (I can't remember if I had to change anything, so here is my config):

root@instance-1:~# more /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
# /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/var/lib/tftpboot"
TFTP_ADDRESS=":69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"
root@instance-1:~# 

If you had to change something, then you need to restart the tftpd-hpa service for it to take effect:

service tftpd-hpa restart

Now you just have to use SCP (or whatever you want) to move all three folders (IOSv, CSRv, IOL) to "/var/lib/tftpboot". This should allow you to continue as above, except you are using your EVE-NG server itself as the TFTP server.  Follow the rest of the steps above to move/extract the configurations to each of the devices.

Step 6 - Get to Labbing!

Now, when I want to switch initial configurations on all of the devices, I simply use config replace and send it to all of the devices in the topology.  For IOL, you would use "config replace unix:config/authenticating.bgp.peerings.cfg force" instead





Note: If you are using this for INE ATC preparation, I highly recommend you check out this post: Using Anki For CCIE Preparation
It includes a link to an Anki deck that can be used to schedule the INE ATC labs, which works perfectly with the above solution.

Sunday 20 January 2019

Jan 20, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 153 flash card reviews
Added 10 new cards about nuthin

Watched/Study -  Spent more time working on that method post - I'll get back to the grind tomorrow :)

Lab cards completed
OSPF Not-So-Totally-Stubby Areas
RIPv2 Filtering with Prefix-Lists
GRE Tunneling and Recursive Routing
OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering
Multihop EBGP Peerings
EIGRP Filtering with Passive Interface

Labs cards added/Completed
none

Pet Willow 1
Pet Lilly 2 + 4 + 4 + 1 + 2

Saturday 19 January 2019

Jan 19, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 180 flash card reviews
Added 0 new cards about nuthin

Watched/Study - INE ATC BGP Bestpath Selection,

Lab cards completed
OSPF Database Filtering
BGP Next-Hop Processing - Next-Hop-Self
OSPF SHA Authentication
OSPF Flooding Reduction

Labs cards added/Completed
none

Pet Willow 2
Pet Lilly 2 + 3 + 2 + 1

Spent a bunch of time on making some blog posts to help other CCIE-hopefuls out there see their dreams come true :)

Method Post - Progress Tracking


I don't know about you, but tracking my progress gives me a more concrete sense of progression.  It also gives me a good idea of how far along in my studies that I am, which is useful when studying something as vast as the CCIE.  I have created a Monthly Knowledge Assessment based on INE's CCIE RSv5 Expanded Blueprint.  I encourage you to use my spreadsheet, or to make something similar-but-better yourself.  Updating this spreadsheet each month should only take 5 or so minutes.  Some people may not find it particularly useful, but it is the best way that I have found so far to track my progress.


Directions for using the spreadsheet

  1. Save a copy of my spreadsheet
  2. Create a new column each month
  3. Update all fields
    1. Fields with black text/borders = DO NOT UPDATE (auto formula updated)
    2. Fields with blue text/no borders = update
    3. I have found that the easiest way to update after first month is to copy the whole column from last month by highlighting it, and then using the little "copy cells" drag marker in the lower right


As you can see if you look at  my example, I rate myself from 1-5 on each of the items in the expanded blueprint.  Here is a general guideline for how to use the numbers:

1 = weak on this topic, don't know it well or at all
2 = familiar with this topic, but not enough
3 = capable with this topic, but may need to use DocCD to perform all tasks
4 = pretty good with the topic, unlikely to need DocCD reference to perform all tasks
5 = I can do this in my sleep

Final Note

There is an obvious flaw in the way that my spreadsheet calculates the "Total Readiness" score.  That is, that it does not take the weighting of the topics into consideration.  I am sure that I could try to remedy this with a better formula using the weightings from the official Cisco blueprint, but I'm not going to bother.  The most important thing (to me) is that it is tracking progress, and lets me easily see what I still need to cover or cover more thoroughly.

Friday 18 January 2019

Jan 18, 2019

## Monthly Update January 18

Completed Monthly Knowledge Assessment - Click to see the spreadsheet
Got a lot of OSPF done and started my BGP adventure :)


Christmas/New Years happened... don't judge me >.<  Getting close to 200 reviews/day average which is a little rough...

## Daily Update January 18

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 211 flash card reviews
Added 20 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - INE ATC Re-watched BGP Next Hop Processing, watched BGP NLRI Origination, Various CiscoDocs (mostly route reflection and confederation)

Lab cards completed
OSPF Forwarding Address Suppression
Establishing iBGP Peerings
BGP Update Source Modification
Neighbor Disable-Connected-Check
Large-Scale iBGP Route Reflection with Clusters
Authenticating BGP Peerings
OSPF Internal Summarization
OSPF Clear Text Authentication
OSPF Stub Router Advertisement
OSPF Global Timers
Multihop EBGP Peerings
Establishing eBGP Peerings
iBGP Confederation * Sooo close to no-typos in notepad before pasting the whole thing!
OSPF Path Selection with Virtual-Links
Layer 2 Access Switchports

Labs cards added/Completed
BGP Next-Hop Processing - Next-Hop-Self

Pet Willow 2 + 4
Pet Lilly 2 + 1 + 3 + 5 (loving me today!)

Note: not sure what happened to my yesterday update... but I definitely did stuff...

Wednesday 16 January 2019

Jan 16, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 243 flash card reviews
Added 30 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Watched INE "iBGP vs eBGP Peering Rules", "iBGP Full Mesh", "iBGP Scaling Techniques", "Configuring BGP Route Reflectors" - Read corresponding sections on Networklessons.com and some pieces of Routing TCP/IP Vol II

Lab cards completed
OSPF Path Selection with Per-Neighbor Cost
OSPF Network Loopback
OSPF Path Selection Challenge
RIPv2 Reliable Conditional Default Routing
OSPF Conditional Default Routing
RIPv2 Split Horizon
EIGRP Filtering with Offset Lists
Layer 2 EtherChannel
RIPv2 Filtering with Standard Access-Lists
OSPF MD5 Authentication
OSPF Stub Areas

Labs cards added/Completed
Multihop EBGP Peerings
Neighbor Disable-Connected-Check
Authenticating BGP Peerings

Pet Willow 15 seconds and I am counting it
Pet Lilly 2 + 2 + 3 = 7 minutes

Tuesday 15 January 2019

Jan 15, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 215 flash card reviews
Added 30 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Again with the flash cards, referencing various materials.  Watched INE "Basic BGP Operations"

Lab cards completed
STP BPDU Guard
OSPF NSSA ABR External Prefix Filtering
GRE Reliable Backup Interface
Miscellaneous OSPF Features
OSPF Resource Limiting
RIPv2 Basic Configuration

Labs cards added/Completed
nope

Pet Willow 0 <-- ZERO
Pet Lilly 0 <-- ZERO

Monday 14 January 2019

Jan 14, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 244 flash card reviews
Added 30 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Took my time going through added BGP flash cards, referencing materials as I went

Lab cards completed
OSPF Stub Router Advertisement
OSPF Interface Timers
RIPv2 Unicast Updates
OSPF Demand Circuit
OSPF Filtering with Administrative Distance
Layer 3 EtherChannel
BGP Update Source Modification
OSPF Summarization and Discard Routes
Establishing eBGP Peerings
OSPF Global Timers
OSPF Filtering with Route-Maps
Establishing iBGP Peerings
OSPF LSA Type-3 Filtering
OSPF Reliable Conditional Default Routing
EIGRP Maximum Hops

Labs cards added/Completed
nope

Pet Willow 0 <-- ZERO
Pet Lilly 3 + 2 + 2

Sunday 13 January 2019

Jan 13, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 203 flash card reviews
Added 30 new cards about BGP

Watched/Study - Watched first half of INE Written BGP videos, started reading on Networklessons.com about BGP

Lab cards completed
OSPF Totally Stubby Areas
Voice VLAN
OSPF Filtering with Distribute-Lists
OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas
OSPF Default Routing
OSPF Database Filtering
OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering
EIGRP Filtering with Administrative Distance

Labs cards added/Completed
Establishing iBGP Peerings
Establishing eBGP Peerings
BGP Update Source Modification

Pet Willow 1 + 1
Pet Lilly 2 + 4

Saturday 12 January 2019

Jan 12, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 122 flash card reviews
Added 0 new cards

Watched/Study - Lazy day, flash card review only

Lab cards completed
nope

Labs cards added/Completed
nope

Friday 11 January 2019

Jan 11, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 206 flash card reviews
Added 26 new cards about Redistribute/Misc/BGP

Watched/Study - All 3 INE Redistribution scenarios, BGP Overview

Lab cards completed
OSPF Path Selection Challenge
OSPF Resource Limiting
OSPF Global Timers
OSPF Path Selection with Auto-Cost
Miscellaneous OSPF Features
OSPF Conditional Default Routing
OSPF Forwarding Address Suppression
OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas and Default Routing
OSPF NSSA Type-7 to Type-5 Translator Election

Labs cards added/Completed
nope

Pet Willow 10 seconds >.<
Pet Lilly 1 + 2 + 3

Thursday 10 January 2019

Jan 10, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 205 flash card reviews
Added 30 new cards about OSPF/Redistribution

Watched/Study - Started to get distracted a bit too much with redistribution before finishing up OSPF...

Lab cards completed
EIGRP Filtering with Per Neighbor AD
OSPF Network Point-to-Multipoint
RIPv2 Offset List
OSPF Stub Areas
OSPF Clear Text Authentication
OSPF Not-So-Totally-Stubby Areas
EIGRP Filtering with Extended Access-Lists
OSPF NSSA ABR External Prefix Filtering
OSPF Filtering with Route-Maps
OSPF Database Filtering

Labs cards added/Completed
OSPF Global Timers
OSPF Resource Limiting
Miscellaneous OSPF Features
OSPF Path Selection Challenge

Pet Willow 1
Pet Lilly 2 + 2 + 5 + 3

Wednesday 9 January 2019

Jan 9, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 199 flash card reviews
Added 30 new cards about OSPF

Watched/Study - Misc OSPF reading in RFC, TCP/IP Routing Vol II, and the RFC

Lab cards completed
OSPF Conditional Default Routing
EIGRP Neighbor Logging
OSPF Reliable Conditional Default Routing
EIGRP Bandwidth Pacing
OSPF External Summarization
OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering
EIGRP Floating Summarization
OSPF Summarization and Discard Routes
OSPF Path Selection with Summarization
OSPF LSA Type-3 Filtering
OSPF Default Routing
OSPF Forwarding Address Suppression

Labs cards added/Completed
OSPF Filtering with Route-Maps
OSPF NSSA ABR External Prefix Filtering
OSPF Database Filtering
OSPF Stub Router Advertisement
OSPF Interface Timers

Pet Willow no love, but she did sit near me and look at me for a while...
Pet Lilly 3

Tuesday 8 January 2019

Jan 8, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 176 flash card reviews
Added 26 new cards about OSPF

Watched/Study - Watch INE Videos "OSPF Summarization Overview", "Configurting OSPF Summarization", and "OSPF Router Filtering", Read networklessons.com material on SPF throttling and LSA throttling, as well as Cisco docs on the same and OSPF packet pacing (LSA flood pacing, retransmission pacing, and group pacing updates).  Also covered some of the finer points of Authentication and TTL-security.

Lab cards completed
OSPF Path Selection with Cost
OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas and Default Routing
OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering
OSPF Demand Circuit
OSPF Forwarding Address Suppression
OSPF Filtering with Distribute-Lists
OSPF Totally Stubby Areas
RIPv2 Broadcast Updates
RIPv2 Convergence Timers
OSPF Path Selection with Non-Backbone Transit Areas

Labs cards added/Completed
OSPF NSSA Type-7 to Type-5 Translator Election
OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering
OSPF LSA Type-3 Filtering
OSPF Forwarding Address Suppression
OSPF Default Routing
OSPF Conditional Default Routing
OSPF Reliable Conditional Default Routing
OSPF Filtering with Distribute-Lists
OSPF Summarization and Discard Routes
OSPF Filtering with Administrative Distance

** Got caught up for like an hour on the Summ/Discard lab, and I felt really confident going into it.  I reloaded the starting config for the CSRs and tried again and it worked fine >.<

Pet Willow 2 + 1
Pet Lilly 3 + 5 + 2

Monday 7 January 2019

Jan 7, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 144 flash card reviews
Added 20 new cards about OSPF

Watched/Study - Watched/followed along with INE Videos "Default Routing with OSPF NSSA", OSPF NSSA Translator Election & Forwarding Address", "OSPF Path Selection", "OSPF Authentication", and "OSPF Authentication Enhancements"

Lab cards completed
EIGRP Filtering with Prefix-Lists

Labs cards added/Completed
OSPF Stub Areas
OSPF Totally Stubby Areas
OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas
OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas and Default Routing
OSPF Not-So-Totally-Stubby Areas

Pet Willow 1 + 2
Pet Lilly :(

Sunday 6 January 2019

Jan 6, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 166 flash card reviews
Added 25 new cards about OSPF

Watched/Study - Watch INE Videos "Configuring OSPF NSSAs", "Controlling NSSA Redistribution", "Default Routing with OSPF NSSA" (wow - rougher day than I thought it would be!!)

Lab cards completed
EIGRP Unequal Cost Load Balancing
OSPF Demand Circuit
OSPF Path Selection with Virtual-Links
EIGRP Unicast Updates
EIGRP Stub Routing
EIGRP Traffic Engineering with Metric
EIGRP Default Metric
EIGRP Default Metric
VTP Prune-Eligible List
EIGRP Convergence Timers
EIGRP Router-ID
OSPF Flooding Reduction
EIGRP Poisoned Floating Summarization

Labs cards added/Completed
none - I am trying to nail down all this NSSA Stub stuff before I move on to the next labs, hopefully tomorrow...

Pet Willow NOTHING!
Pet Lilly 2 + 1 + 2

Saturday 5 January 2019

Jan 5, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 322 flash card reviews
Added 0 new cards

Finally caught up after two days of slacking.  322 flash cards and 16 labs, sheesh!

Watched/Study - INE Videos "Configuring OSPF Stub Areas" and "Traffic Engineering with Stub Areas"

Lab cards completed
Floating Static Routes
EIGRP Key Chain Rotation
OSPF SHA Authentication
OSPF MD5 Authentication
OSPF Demand Circuit
RIPv2 Authentication
OSPF Internal Summarization
OSPF DR/BDR Election Manipulation
EIGRP Stub Routing with Leak Map
OSPF Path Selection with Bandwidth
OSPF over DMVPN
RIPv2 Source Validation
OSPF Clear Text Authentication
Discontiguous OSPF Areas with Virtual-Links
OSPF Network Point-to-Point

Labs cards added/Completed
none

Pet Willow 2 + 4
Pet Lilly 2 + 4 + 5 + 2

Wednesday 2 January 2019

Jan 2, 2019

Flash Card Knowledge Review
Completed 270 flash card reviews
Added 30 new cards about OSPF

Watched/Study - Just some misc topics as I went over flash cards, mostly networklessons.com, and various OSPF RFCs

Lab cards completed
OSPF Path Selection with Non-Backbone Transit Areas
ODR - On-Demand Routing
OSPF Path Selection with Virtual-Links
OSPF Path Selection with Per-Neighbor Cost
EIGRP Filtering with Route Maps
MST Path Selection with Port Priority
OSPF Flooding Reduction
OSPF Clear Text Authentication
Smartport Macros
EIGRP Metric Weights
OSPF Network Loopback
OSPF External Summarization
RIPv2 Filtering with Offset Lists
OSPF Path Selection with Summarization
EIGRP Summarization with Leak Map

Labs cards added/Completed
none

Pet Willow 3 + 3 + 2
Pet Lilly 0 :(

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