Congrats Dan. This was very informational for us who are planning on attempting
the exam this year.
> From: d...@syssec.biz
> Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2014 06:59:36 +0900
> To: ccie_security@onlinestudylist.com
> Subject: [OSL | CCIE_Security] Pass CCIE Security - My Experience
>
> Hey All,
> I finally passed my CCIE Security exam on Dec 13 on my second try. I wanted
> to share some of my experiences and answers to the major questions I had
> about the lab exam.
>
> I passed the written in early July 2013, so it took me about 5 months of
> studying to get ready for the CCIE Security lab exam. I started out using the
> IPExpert workbooks and then moved over to the INE workbooks. More on that
> later, but if you watch both of these companies forums, you might see this
> post twice, since they both contributed to my success.
>
> When I started using the IPExpert workbooks there were some major hardware
> issues with the proctorlabs equipment. On top of that, they didn’t have after
> hours support for a while either, so when I did have issues(which I did), I
> couldn’t get any help. Needless to say, I wasted a ton of time waiting on
> things and having to cancel my lab time due to issues that couldn’t be
> resolved. I had purchased the bundle that included the 2 week online
> bootcamp, workbooks, and videos, so I didn’t want to give up the bootcamp and
> videos due to my issues. I ended up purchasing the INE workbooks so I could
> actually get some studying in and waited for the online bootcamp and
> Proctorlabs to fix the issues.
>
> Here are my thoughts on the workbooks and lab environment between Proctorlabs
> and INE. I used both extensively.
>
> INE’s workbooks weren’t fully developed when I started using them. Actually,
> they barely got them fully updated a couple of weeks ago, the last update
> came a day or two before my second attempt. What I do like about INE’s
> workbooks is that they are online and broken up in a way that makes different
> exercises easy to access. I also like that you can pretty much start anywhere
> in a section, because their workbooks were written in a way to allow that.
> The modularity, however, makes it difficult to build upon earlier exercises
> like IPexpert’s workbooks do. INE also doesn’t have ANY mock labs available
> for the CCIE Security lab yet. Mock labs are where I gained the most
> knowledge. You need to do these to figure out how things interact and how to
> allow different things through the various firewalls. So in the end, INE’s
> workbooks are great for working on one specific piece of technology, but they
> aren’t good for learning how to make them work in more complex topologies.
>
>
> I only used the IPExpert workbooks up to the ISE section, which I think is
> Section 4(out of 10). When I got to the ISE section, I ran into the issues
> with the proctorlabs equipment I mentioned previously. Which is why I had to
> switch to INE. I find that the IPExperts workbooks I did go through were very
> in depth. They definitely taught you everything about each technology, and
> applied them in decently complex topology where you had to configure multiple
> ‘middle’ items to make things work(just like the real exam). What I found
> overwhelming about the workbooks is their length. Some of them would take you
> 10-20hrs to go through the first time, and since there isn’t an easy way to
> restart in the middle, you have to try to commit larger chunks of time. I
> found it difficult to do 4 hours one day, then start back up the next day for
> another 4 hour session. The only way I could figure out to do this was to
> manually save all the configs myself, then re-apply them the next time. This
> is also a bit of a pain since the configs require a bit of massaging(like
> adding no shuts) to get back in properly. Also, if you are doing something
> like ISE, that becomes impossible, and you have to go back in through the GUI
> and redo everything again.
>
> As far as the Rack Rental dashboards and scheduling for INE and Proctorlabs,
> I preferred INE’s set up much more.
> INE now allows you to schedule lab time in pretty much any increment you
> want, at any time. So, I can schedule 1 hour tonight, or 6 hours. Their
> interface also adjusts to my timezone(which is in Asia), which makes
> scheduling easy. Proctorlabs still has 4 hour timeslots, and shows me
> everything in Eastern time, so I have to do all the calculators myself. Once
> Daylight Savings Time his in the states, my study time had to be adjusted by
> an hour, which was frustrating.
>
> Overall, the INE rack dashboard is also much better than proctorlabs’. I
> don’t need to VPN in(like proctorlabs) to access the VMs, as they are
> available through a web plugin version of VNC. Loading configs takes about 12
> minutes, while proctorlabs I have experiences of it taking more then 20.
> Sometimes, on proctorlabs things don’t reload, or get configured, and I
> typically waste 30 mins to an hour making sure a rack on proctorlabs is fully
> set up. I never had that problem on INE racks. The dashboard on INE is just
> way more intuitive.
>
> The most valuable part of my training was the IPExpert online boot camp with
> Piotr Kaluzny. The first week is all theory via powerpoint with explanations
> and demonstrations. The second week, the most valuable week in my opinion, is
> the mock lab week. You literally spend all day working on labs much harder
> than the real one. When you get stuck, Piotr can help you out and
> troubleshoot your issues, which is exactly how you learn. Lab 3 from the
> class, specifically, had pretty much every technology I encountered on the
> real exam, plus many more. After the 2 week boot camp, I used my weekdays to
> study smaller pieces of technologies, and used my weekends to do 1 to 2 mock
> labs(usually Lab 3), until I knew it like the back of my hand. These mock
> labs were hands down the most important part of my training as they teach
> time management, complex topology, and technology interaction.
>
> Now, about the lab exam itself.
> The lab is much less in depth than the mock labs I did, which was definitely
> a relief. On my first try in Hong Kong, I ran into several problems that I
> couldn’t figure out and caused me to waste a lot of time, and inevitably
> fail. My major issue, was actually a lab issue with a windows firewall. When
> I was asking the proctor about my problems, he kept telling me it was a
> switch issue, in the last hour of the exam after coming back to those issues
> I finally discovered the windows firewall was on on the test pc, luckily they
> had wireshark on there or else I would never have noticed I was receiving the
> packets by not replying. The proctor told me the windows firewall was not
> supposed to be on, but mine was, and it caused a bunch of issues. He did give
> me a few extra minutes, but I had wasted too much time by then for that to
> matter. Something for everyone to check before you start I suppose.
>
> When I pictured the lab environment in my head, I was picturing a cold server
> room with some desks where you could actually see the equipment. It turns out
> that in both San Jose and Hong Kong you take the test in a room full of
> cubicles or desks, and all the equipment is somewhere else. That part is
> actually better, since there is less noise, and I didn’t need the sweater
> Cisco told me to bring. It’s good to bring snacks and some water or drink of
> choice though. I found a couple of bananas and a granola bar really helped me
> recharge a bit during small breaks I took. The computer only had
> putty(tab-less), which meant that you had to open 1 window per device, which
> is a serious pain in the butt. You should practice managing putty windows in
> the mock lab, as you need to make sure the firewalls are visible to see any
> blocks. The topology, questions, VM RDP and doc-cd are all on the same
> computer. There is no printed topology, and there aren’t any dual monitors.
> You have you really flip through a lot of windows during the lab, and this
> can become a bit confusing. It’s something to be mentally prepared for. If
> you study with printed materials, then you might want to try your last few
> sessions only using 1 monitor with all the info and questions. I also found
> that the menu environment(where the questions are and access to passwords,
> etc) was different between Hong Kong and San Jose. I couldn’t for the life of
> me find the password for the RDP session in San Jose, the Proctor would not
> help me, and kept telling me to read the lab guidelines, she was kind of
> short with people. Needless to say, the lab guidelines didn’t say anything
> about passwords. I finally found them in one of the submenus, as things are
> broken up in San Jose between menus, and they were all on 1 long page in Hong
> Kong. The Doc-CD was accessible via a link on the desktop. It is fully
> searchable with Ctrl+F, which makes it easier to find key words inside the
> various documents. You can also load the PDFs for each major topic if you
> choose,and search through that way. I had access to all the documents I
> needed, and access was pretty fast. The VMs for the lab were also fast for me
> in both locations, and I had no issues with ISE speed or anything else. I
> found the lab environment to be very stable.
>
> I really struggled in Hong Kong, but I did get the same or very similar lab
> when I tried again in San Jose, which I guess was lucky. During my second
> attempt I felt much more at ease, and found myself going through and masking
> off tasks quickly. I did still use the entire time, but I was on my third
> run-through of the questions when time expired. These extra run throughs are
> important, as I found a few minor, but important, mistakes that probably
> could have cost me points on those run-throughs. Before the test finished I
> ensured that all my logging that I turned on was turned off and that my
> debugs were disabled. In San Jose the day was broken up into 3 hour and 5
> hour pieces, separated by lunch. At first I thought that I wasn’t making good
> time, since I didn’t have that many tasks done by lunch, but then I realized
> I still had 5 hours to go. This is why it’s important to have a snack,
> because you tend to get hungry again later. I rebooted my equipment twice to
> ensure things still worked afterward. They generally give you show command
> outputs to test your solutions against, so it’s important you pay very close
> attention and match those outputs.
>
> To those of you still studying, I wish you good luck. There’s plenty of
> material out there, but I think if you are currently only using INE, you
> might have a hard time on the exam until they come out with a complex mock
> lab. If anyone has any questions, you can send them my way if you’d like.
> Remember, if you fail the first time, use it as an opportunity to regroup,
> drill down a bit more on key technologies, and try again.
>
> Good luck everyone.
> -Dan
> CCIE #41750 - Security
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Free CCIE R&S, Collaboration, Data Center, Wireless & Security Videos ::
>
> iPexpert on YouTube: www.youtube.com/ipexpertinc
_______________________________________________
Free CCIE R&S, Collaboration, Data Center, Wireless & Security Videos ::
iPexpert on YouTube: www.youtube.com/ipexpertinc
