Congratulations on your pass!  Welcome to the CCIE club :)

On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 3:50 AM, Manny Fernandez
<ma...@mannygfernandez.com>wrote:

> Congratulations Kevin,
>
> Thanks for your pointers. I will be hitting up Piotr :-)
>
> Hope you take some well deserved time off to decompress.
>
> Again,
>
> Congrats
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Nov 21, 2013, at 10:09 AM, "Kevin Sheahan" <sheaha...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Gents,
>
>
>
> It is with great pleasure that I can tell you I’ve passed my CCIE Security
> Lab on Tuesday in RTP. It has been a very difficult year both personally
> and professionally to prepare for this exam. This was my third attempt. For
> study, I leaned very heavily on IPExpert’s material/intructors/racks. Piotr
> Kaluzny – I can’t speak highly enough about this guy – suffice it to say
> that if you are feeling lost, get his attention and he will lead you in the
> right direction. His expertise, patience, and all around cool-dudeness are
> sincerely appreciated and valuable when you start to feel like you’re
> drowning in the blueprint. I also used my own personal hardware and read A
> LOT of Cisco configuration guides pertaining to blueprint (There are a lot
> of “Notes” in those config guides that provide great info).
>
>
>
> Lessons learned:
>
>
>
> -        My strategy played a very large role in time management and
> organization during the exam.
>
> o   Build a table to keep track of…. EVERYTHING:
>
> §  Obj | Points |  Desc  | V1 | V2 | Comments
> 1.1         4       ASAMC    F                Unable to ping <subnet>,
> check later
> 1.2         5       IPS-IVP    P                Re-verify @ end, core
> objective.
>
> §  I would create and fill out this table (first 3 columns) as I’m
> reading through the lab at the beginning. The “Comments” section became
> extremely useful for me to shorten the amount of end-lab verification
> because instead of re-reading the objective for verification I would only
> have to see what I wrote down from previous verification failures. Anything
> with a “P” for pass in the V2 column should be money in the bank, ensure
> that you’ve paid attention to the fine details in the objective which can
> cause loss of points.
>
> o   Prep the lab:
>
> §  Pager 20 / Term length 20
>
> ·        This will allow you to execute long-output show commands later
> in the day without the screen scrolling away from you. This should be done
> on ALL devices.
>
> §  Logging
>
> ·        ASA
>
> o   Logging console warnings / Logging on – This will tell you throughout
> your lab when your ASA is denying traffic due to ACL and/or NAT failures.
> Very useful!
>
> ·        IOS
>
> o   Logging console – This will tell you when routing processes drop,
> when ISAKMP is ON/OFF, etc. As well, this will allow for your debug output
> to show up.
>
> §  Suspicion
>
> ·        Switches and Routers
>
> o   Show access-list – Check for ACLs, you may find some that were
> designed to screw with you and you may find some that are legitimately
> necessary. Don’t change/add/remove ACL’s at this point, just make note of
> them at the bottom on the page where you created your tracking table. This
> will make troubleshooting simpler and faster later on.
>
> o   Show run – This is not a fine-tooth-comb type check. Just briefly
> scroll through the running-config for every IOS device. If something looks
> out of place (CoPP, CoPr, STP/Routing manipulation, etc), jot it down below
> your tracking table for reference later.
>
> o   Draw a diagram?
>
> §  I didn’t do this, but it’s up to your personal preference. My feeling
> is that the topology on the monitor is in great detail and only a few
> clicks away. That, and I’ve managed to make a distracting mess everytime in
> my life I’ve tried to draw a quick diagram.
>
> o   Quicksand
>
> §  This may be the same for you, maybe not. But for me,  there is a point
> (or a few) where I feel like the lab is swallowing me. Something is not
> working the way I want it to, logs are scrolling, devices are misbehaving….
> DON’T PANIC. Move away from that objective, mark it down in your table and
> move on. That feeling, like you’re sinking fast in quicksand, is the enemy.
>
> o   Close it out
>
> §  I’m not sure of the rules/points impact of some of the above changes,
> namely changing the term length and enabling console logging. To be safe,
> script changes for the end of the exam to remove this changes quickly if
> time permits. Better safe than sorry I guess.
>
>
>
> I’m very excited to enjoy the holidays and a nice long study break. Good
> luck and work hard at it, absolutely worth the achievement!
>
>
>
> Kevin Sheahan
>
> CCIE # 41349 (Security)
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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>
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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>



-- 
Regards,

Joe Astorino
CCIE #24347
http://astorinonetworks.com

"He not busy being born is busy dying" - Dylan
_______________________________________________
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