Passing the lab is a lot about psychology. You will be put into an environment you have never been in before. You won’t know what the room looks like, what keyboard you will use and there are a lot of unknowns. As one well known CCIE said “We don’t want to do anything for the first time in the lab except pass it.” In my preparations I have taken some measurements to keep these unknowns to a minimum. I am using PuTTY for access since that is used in the R&S lab. I am also using a keyboard with an american layout to be used to finding the keys I will need on the lab. I bought a screen of similar size to the ones used on the lab and I’m not using dual screens even though I prefer that since we only have one screen at the lab. This post at the netcraftsmen talks about the environment of the lab.

CCIE link of the day # 5 – Know your enemy
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7 thoughts on “CCIE link of the day # 5 – Know your enemy

  • June 11, 2011 at 7:54 pm
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    How big is the screen you are using Daniel ?
    Also it would be very useful if Cisco,as they have done for the TSHOOT exam,could allow us to practice with the exam interface .That was essential for the TSHOOT exam to avoid any time waste.

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  • June 11, 2011 at 8:19 pm
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    Hi Gio,

    I have a 22 inch Benq which was cheap but I’m very satisfied with it. The quality is good. It’s a shame we can’t practice with the interface. Maybe Cisco doesn’t want us to get too comfy with the lab exam. That could lead to more people passing but this is just pure speculation from my part. Maybe there is a valid reason for it. The closest thing to practising it we get is https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/static/video-wp/CCIE_RS_v4_Lab_Exam_Demo_640x480-v2.htm which at least shows what the interface looks like.

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  • June 13, 2011 at 7:43 pm
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    Daniel this is out of contest but have you tried to do INE troubleshooting labs with dynamips?

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  • June 13, 2011 at 10:39 pm
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    Sorry,

    I’ve only used Dynamips for vol1 stuff. I’m doing rack rentals for vol2. Most of stuff is doable on Dynamips but just got used to comfort of having everything prepared 🙂

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  • June 14, 2011 at 9:29 am
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    The great advantage of a functioning and full Dynamips lab is the 24 hours availability.
    The cost of graded labs considering all the offer and discounts is very affordable,but you have to stick to a schedule and if you want to save money it is a strict one.
    INE is not, understandably,interested in providing the Dynamips configurations for the troubleshooting labs included in Vol 2,
    but those are available for their normal rack it is a matter of making the necessary changes.This is going to be time consuming and I was wondering if somebody is interested in sharing this task and the configurations.
    I am a regular INE customer and I would expect anybody interested in being the same,they are doing a great job maintaining very affordable prices and they should be supported.

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    • June 16, 2011 at 8:11 pm
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      Yes, I agree that Dynamips is very useful and you can plan your time much easier. Regarding the troubleshooting labs couldn’t you use my script to modify the configs. Is anything else different than the interface names?

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  • June 20, 2011 at 8:19 pm
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    Thanks Daniel.
    This is what I have done but for some reason after configuring all the routers my CPU usage,barely 2 % with the full vol 2 config,goes up to 75% and after finishing the first ticket of lab 1 some of the routers stopped working.I’ll try to change the idlepc values,but if is going to be too time consuming I’ll do the TSHOOT labs on the racks.I wonder if somebody knows why.

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