Happy New Year. I aim to write a short blog post each week to review my progress towards the CCIE.

These posts will track my studying time, the different areas covered, the resources used, and a summary of how well I digested the content.

 

TIME

Study Time Hours
Last week n/a
This week 31 hours 40 minutes
2024 total 31 hours 40 minutes

New Year’s Day, a bank holiday here in England, allowed me to overachieve the 25 hours per week target.

 

FOCUS

Below are the core focus areas where I endeavour to hit one of the four sections each day. Other work will have been done if additional time becomes available, for example, while commuting or on lunch break at work. Different tasks include but are not limited to, flashcards, interleaving previous labs, reviewing notes, and researching available study materials for upcoming topics and weak areas.

 

| LABBING 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: VPN (IPsec with Crypto Maps)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: VPN (GRE over IPsec with Crypto Maps and Profiles)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: VPN (IPsec VTIs, DMVPN with & without IPsec)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: VPN (DMVPN Phase 1 with EIGRP and OSPF)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: VPN (DMVPN Phase 2 with EIGRP and OSPF)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: VPN (DMVPN Phase 3 with EIGRP and VRF aware DMVPN)

| ACTIVE RECALL
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
# IGP - Route Map Logic
# IGP - Route Map match commands for Route Redistribution
# IGP - Route Map set commands for Route Redistribution
# IGP - Prefix Lists
# IGP - Administrative Distance
# IGP - Route Redistribution 

| READING 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
# Cisco IP Routing: PF & IDR Protocols (Ch 10. Enhanced EIGRP Description and History)
# Cisco IP Routing: PF & IDR Protocols (Ch 10. Theoretical Basis)
# Cisco IP Routing: PF & IDR Protocols (Ch 10. Subsystems and Data Structures)
# Cisco IP Routing: PF & IDR Protocols (Ch 10. Input & Internal Event Processing)
# Cisco IP Routing: PF & IDR Protocols (Ch 10. Shortest-Path Calculation)
# Cisco IP Routing: PF & IDR Protocols (Ch 10. EIGRP Configuration)

| VIDEOS 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: MPLS (BGP Tunnelling, the MPLS Use Case)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: MPLS (MPLS Overview)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: MPLS (Label Distribution Protocol)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: MPLS (Virtual Routing & Forwarding Instances)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: MPLS (Layer 3 VPN Overview)
# INE CCIE R&S ATC: MPLS (Layer 3 VPN Configuration)

 

SUMMARY

I finished reading Cisco IP Routing: Packet Forwarding and Intra-domain Routing Protocols by Alex Zinin. Some of the content is a little dated, but it is one of the better books I’ve read; the following chapters were the most useful:

  • Ch. 3 - Routing and Forwarding Processes
  • Ch. 4 - Routing Table Maintenance
  • Ch. 5 - Packet Forwarding
  • Ch. 9 - Link-State Routing Protocols

It was interesting to read about the low-level details on the routing table hierarchy, particularly with examples of how certain functions are called to install routes with references to the underlying IOS code syntax. This is more detail than is needed for the CCIE lab but it will help with the bigger picture long term.

The next book I will read is Developing IP Multicast Networks by Beau Williamson. This should be a shorter read as some chapters cover topics that aren’t part of the blueprint or used in the real world. For example, DVMRP, MOSPF, and ATM Networks.

 

CHECKLIST

2023-01-07 book Cisco IP Routing: Packet Forwarding and Intra-domain Routing Protocols