A couple of years ago at Networkers, I heard about a proposal to grandfather people who had been long-time CCIEs, so that they didn’t have to take the recertification test any more. My first thought was that it would significantly weaken the program. How would you know whether someone was an active CCIE or grandfathered without taking time to gather the relevant information and spend the time to verify it? I felt so strongly about it that I spoke out against the idea.

Upon further thought, I have a suggestion to resolve the dilemma. When a high ranking military officer retires, he or she gets to retain the title, but with the addition of “Retired” (e.g. General Kilroy, Retired). Why not do the same thing for the CCIE program? It shows that the person can think, work hard, excel, and make a difference in their area of expertise. This is exactly what the military moniker conveys and I see no problem with doing the same for the CCIE program. Someday I’ll retire and wouldn’t mind a business card that says something like:

Terry Slattery, CCIE #1026/Inactive

How does this suggestion help the CCIE program? It would provide an official way for people who achieved the CCIE status to continue to get some benefit as well as let future employers know that the person has useful attributes and experience. It could broaden the program’s reach to people who have moved into the management world from the technical world. Imagine a Cisco account team finding that they are working with a CCIE/Inactive manager and being able to immediately get into a level of technical detail. The existing Cisco CCIE validation tool can tell whether someone is in active or inactive status, allowing employers to easily check someone’s status.

I’ve not considered how far back such a program should reach. Should all former CCIEs be allowed to use an “Inactive” designation (or whatever the designation would be)? Off hand, I can’t think of a reason to limit it and what measure one would use to set such limits. My intuition is that allowing all former CCIEs to use the “Inactive” designation would generate a lot of good will in the networking community.

What do you think?

-Terry

Now, it seems that the forward-thinking and receptive folks at Learning@Cisco have decided to launch a program that is very similar to what Terry described – CCIE Emeritus. I know CCIEs let their numbers expire in many cases when they have climbed the rungs of success to find themselves in management. The need for the cert is then an object of pride and accomplishment and less a necessity. Terry supported the idea of allowing long-time CCIEs to keep a title on their business cards and signatures that said, “Yes I was a CCIE for over ten years and I am proud of it!”

Read the announcement about CCIE Emeritus and get the details for membership in the program. Here’s an excerpt:

Who is Emeritus for?

Long term CCIE’s who have moved out of the “day to day” technical work but would like to stay involved in the program serving as ambassadors to current and future CCIE’s.

Applicants must have a current and active status as CCIE for at least 10 years and can’t be affiliated with a Channel or Cisco partner.

This deserves a round of applause for Leraning@Cisco, and I am a happy supporter of the effort. We need more role models and mentors in the CCIE ranks!

I digress

The point is that I just today received an email from an aspiring dual CCIE from Africa. This engineer had to sell his TV and entertainment systems to pay for a lab. Taking this guy’s money was like stealing candy from a baby. I urge he gets it back but the system works as it does and I have no real influence, but you do. You the CCIEs and Cisco engineers out there in the world can wag the dog. You are a mighty big dog that influences the purchasing decisions of corporations that influence commerce around the world. You the lowly Cisco network engineers. It seems some of you have been heard because I hev heard it through the grapevine that Cisco is lowering the price for the CCIE labs to $1,000. This is a great next step after the Waiver and the Core Knowledge Questions (OEQs) have passed into history.

Kudos, Props and Thanks

Really. I was so excited I had a Margarita with lunch. Kudos Learning at Cisco, Props management teams that took this challenge on and Thanks to the rest of you who made this possible. I have even read that this was going to be announced at Cisco Live in June. Wow, it’s only May and we are talking about it already.

CCIE Population Numbers

At a time when the numbers are on the decline and published and unpublished efforts have been made to keep the certifications pure this is a great move. Hello, I am a recruiter and given bodies to recruit I get all pimply and excited. So getting the numbers up using an equation that includes discounts is a recipe for success.

So let’s all look forward to the announcement in June at Cisco Live – Networkers. See you there!

This interview should be a dose of GREAT NEWS for those working toward the V4 R&S Lab.

On February 4th 2010 Divin John became CCIE #25905 on the FIRST attempt.

Divin, thanks for taking the time th share a bit about your success in the R&S lab.

What made you want to become a CCIE?
I always wanted to know how the internet worked. I always wondered what are the missing blocks to the puzzle. So Hence after my graduation. I took up CCNA and CCNP training. I kind of wrote all 5 papers and got certified as a CCNP. By then the recession had struck and there were no jobs available. So I thought rather than wasting time searching for a job, I would start preparing for the CCIE Routing and Switching Track.

When did you start the journey?
I started preparing for the lab in March 2009. That’s immediately after I got my CCNP certification.

What kind of study routine did you use?
I used to read a lot. Routing protocols always interests me. And I made it a point to read the entire blueprint couple of times. Making sure I got all nitty-gritty details on the technology being read.

Did you take an earlier version of the lab? If so, how would you compare the previous version to the current version?
Nope. This was my first attempt at the CCIE RS Lab. I have heard that the lab is become more real world than the previous version. It involves a decent amount of troubleshooting which requires presence of mind and knowing the technology well. You won’t be able to troubleshoot something, if you aren’t very clear about the protocol specifics and its interaction with other protocols.

What materials did you use? What was your impression of the materials?
-> Cisco Press Books
Routing TCP/IP Volume I [Brilliant]
Routing TCP/IP Volume II [Brilliant]
CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide [Good, Easy to Revise.]
MPLS Fundamentals [Nice Book with all the configuration snippets. But I hear MPLS Configuration on Cisco IOS Software is a better book. Never got the time to read it though.]

Vendor Workbooks
INE Vol 1 (Advanced Technology Labs) – The thing i like about these are. They cover everything needed for the lab. The explanations are nice and to the point. They kind of let the student know WHY? HOW? And WHAT IF? to all the questions. It did answer all the questions which popped in my mind.
INE Vol II (Full Scale Labs – 8hr) – Humongous labs. Full fledged labs. It was scary initially. But after a few labs it kind of became methodical. And there were some questions in there, which sent my confidence to the graves. But all in all… a very good product.
INE Vol IV (Troubleshooting Labs) – What can I say?  Good product but its highly unrealistic. To troubleshoot these you need to know every bit of information that goes into the working of any protocol.
INE Core Knowledge Simulator – Thanks to Anthony Sequeira. I kinda got this added to my INE account. It helped me a great lot in my Core Knowledge section of the CCIE Lab.
How does it feel now that you have passed?
How should it feel? It feels great. Being 1 in 21000 odd people is great. It feels great when the hard work pays off.

Do you have any words of wisdom for those studying for the lab?
Learn the protocols. Tabulate what could go wrong. Steps needed to solve a problem. You should practice NOT to panic in the lab. One panic attack and your 2 hrs will fly by and you would have paid for THE most costly lunch. The lab is doable. So you shouldn’t get deterred by what people say. Have self confidence. In the end of the day, if they are going to screw something in the IGPs, and you have mastered all the IGPs, you should breeze through the TS section.  The same logic applies to all protocols. Give importance to every topic on the blue-print.

Are you going to work toward another track?
Yeah I am. I am planning for either Security or Voice. I haven’t made up my mind. Voice mostly. Let’s see what how everything plays out. J
Best of Luck to everyone preparing for the CCIE Routing and switching (v4). Hope you get all those !!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Divin!!!!!

This lab is part of my new  Boot Camp 2.0  work book, the idea of this work
book is to explore every option within every item in the blueprint, this lab
covers RIPv2 ONLY.

The combination of my  Advanced CCIE Routing and Switching 2.0 ,
Troubleshooting Work Book, which contains 10 six-eight hour Troubleshooting
labs and my new  Boot Camp 2.0  work book will increase your chances of
passing this  ridiculously easy  certification.

How long does it take to complete this lab?

It all depends on how prepared you are, if you NOT prepared and you are at a
CCNP level it can take up to 7 hours to complete, some students don t even
complete the entire lab. But if you are almost ready, it should NOT take you
longer than 4 hours to complete this lab.

How should I do this lab?

My recommendation:

- You have a topology.doc file, print the file and look at the topology
as you configure the lab.
- You have a  initial-config  directory, which contains all the initial
configuration files, open the  RIPv2-Init.txt  and copy and paste the
configuration onto the routers and begin the lab.
- You should use the  Questions.pdf  when you are configuring the lab,
and before you move on to another task, read the  Questions-Answers.pdf
and
compare the answers.

Once you complete this lab, you should have confidence about your knowledge
of this routing protocol.

Please do not hesitate to share this lab with friends or even share it on
your blog (If you have one).

Download it here

R4#sh mpls ldp discovery
Local LDP Identifier:
4.4.4.4:0
Discovery Sources:
Interfaces:
Ethernet0/0 (ldp): xmit/recv
LDP Id: 6.6.6.6:0; no host route

If your action is permit then everything else is going to be denied, if your action is deny then everything elsewould be permitted.

Sw1(config)#ip igmp profile 6

Sw1(config-igmp-profile)#permit

Sw1(config-igmp-profile)#range 224.1.1.1

Sw1(config-igmp-profile)#end

Sw1(config)#do show ip igmp profile 6

IGMP Profile 6

permit

range 224.1.1.1 224.1.1.1

Sw1(config)#int f0/3

Sw1(config-if)#ip igmp filter 6

Objective

• PPPoE connection between R1 and R2.
• CHAP authentication is to be used.
• R2 should provide R1 an address via DHCP.

Configuration

We will start on R1. A dialer interface is needed and the FastEthernet interface needs to be associated with the same dialer pool. Under the dialer we can configure PPP options such as authentication and how the interface will learn its IP address. PPP commands will not be available until you specify the encapsulation as PPP on the dialer interface,

R1(config)#username R2 password pppoe-lab

R1(config)#int f0/0

R1(config-if)#pppoe-client dial-pool-number 1

R1(config)#int dialer 1

R1(config-if)#dialer-group 1

R1(config-if)#dialer pool 1

R1(config-if)#ppp auth?

% Unrecognized command

R1(config-if)#encapsulation ppp

R1(config-if)#ppp authen chap

R1(config-if)#ip address dhcp

R2, the server in this example, will not use a dialer interface. Instead it uses a virtual-template and bb-group configuration. PPP options are configured under the virtual template, the virtual-template is assigned to the bba-group, and the bba-group is attached to the FastEthernet interface. BBA is an abbreviation for Broadband access.

R2(config)#username R1 password pppoe-lab

R2(config)#ip dhcp pool R1

R2(dhcp-config)#network 192.168.1.0 /24

R2(dhcp-config)#exit

R2(config)#interface virtual-template 1

R2(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0

R2(config-if)#encap ppp

R2(config-if)#ppp authentication chap

R2(config-if)#exit

R2(config)#bba-group pppoe global

R2(config-bba-group)#virtual-template 1

R2(config-bba-group)#int f0/0

R2(config-if)#pppoe enable group globa

Debugging on R1 gives the following.

R1#debug pppoe events

PPPoE protocol events debugging is on

Aug  3 14:30:35.551:  Sending PADI: Interface = FastEthernet0/0

Aug  3 14:30:35.567: PPPoE 0: I PADO  R:c201.0bfc.0000 L:c200.0bfc.0000 Fa0/0

Aug  3 14:30:37.599:  PPPOE: we’ve got our pado and the pado timer went off

Aug  3 14:30:37.599: OUT PADR from PPPoE Session

Aug  3 14:30:37.615: PPPoE 3: I PADS  R:c201.0bfc.0000 L:c200.0bfc.0000 Fa0/0

Aug  3 14:30:37.619: IN PADS from PPPoE Session

Aug  3 14:30:37.631: %DIALER-6-BIND: Interface Vi1 bound to profile Di1

Aug  3 14:30:37.635: PPPoE: Virtual Access interface obtained.

Aug  3 14:30:37.635: PPPoE : encap string prepared

Aug  3 14:30:37.639: [0]PPPoE 3: data path set to Virtual Acess

Aug  3 14:30:37.659: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Virtual-Access1, changed state to up

Aug  3 14:30:41.051: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Virtual-Access1, changed state to up

Aug  3 14:30:49.175: %DHCP-6-ADDRESS_ASSIGN: Interface Dialer1 assigned DHCP address 192.168.1.3, mask 255.255.255.0, hostname R1

From the above output we can see the process follows the RFC pretty well. The client broadcasts a PPPoE Active Discovery Initiation (PADI) packet to learn of any servers on the network. R2 responds with a unicast PPPoE Active Discovery Offer (PADO). This packet contains a tag that the client uses to associate with the proper request. After receiving the PADO, the client sends a PPPoE Active Discovery Request (PADR) packet, which is unicast top the server. The server responds with a PPPoE Active Discovery Session-confirmation (PADS) packet and PPP negotiation begins.

Here are some verification commands on each device:

R1#sho pppoe session

1 client session

Uniq ID  PPPoE  RemMAC          Port                    VT  VA         State

SID  LocMAC                                      VA-st

N/A      3  c201.0bfc.0000  Fa0/0                  Di1  Vi1        UP

c200.0bfc.0000                              UP

R2#sho pppoe session

1 session  in LOCALLY_TERMINATED (PTA) State

1 session  total

Uniq ID  PPPoE  RemMAC          Port                    VT  VA         State

SID  LocMAC                                      VA-st

3      3  c200.0bfc.0000  Fa0/0                    1  Vi2.1      PTA

c201.0bfc.0000                              UP

Some final things to remember

• Configure dialer interface in client
• Dialer interface contains ppp and addressing options
• Ethernet interface must belong to same dialer pool
• Configure virtual-template and bba-group on server
• Virtual-template contains ppp options and IP address
• BBA-group is configured under the Ethernet interface

router os 1
distance 171 <ROUTER-ID> <WILDCARD MASK> Accesslist allows you to selectively change the AD for any route in OSPF.!!!