BGP4FUN

On June 30th, 2011, I sat for the CCIE Routing and Switching exam for the second time. Fortunately, this time I passed both sections and got my long sought-after digits. For the purpose of this article, I’ll point out that I passed troubleshooting on my first attempt as well. It seems to me that there’s a fair amount of stress and concern over the troubleshooting section – so here is my perspective.

Strategy – No, not the test-taking strategy but one that encompasses how you’re going to achieve the over-all goal of passing the CCIE. What training do you require? What vendors? Realistic expectations of your skills and the time you can put into studies. Be honest with yourself about your skill level and strengths/weaknesses and target them. Rack rentals are great, but building your own lab at home means 24/7 access. Before I purchased a single book to start my preparation, I had a strategy. I was never a fan of the “I know everything… I know nothing” concept that goes with studying for the CCIE. I prefer to think of it as strengths and weaknesses (some weaker than we’d like). The only luck you need is getting a test that plays to your strengths instead of your weaknesses.

Preparation – With all the information out there, how could I possibly even bother mentioning this? Making small talk with my fellow candidates just minutes before going in to take the test, I met a candidate that was surprised to hear me mentioned the 30+ routers we were about to face in the troubleshooting portion of our labs. He may have passed – I don’t know, but that’s a lot of take in when you’re expecting something decidedly different. If you’ve settled on one vendor, go find the free resources offered by the other vendors. Even if you don’t contribute, there are many great resources – Group Study, CCIE study blogs, and I’ve had some excellent discussions on Twitter.

Time Management. Everybody talks about it – you must do it! I believe an effective study plan will utilize both labs focused on learning (non-timed, focused on learning the technologies and methodologies) as well a assessments (time and graded). I’ve heard things along the lines of “A well-prepared candidate can complete the troubleshooting within ONE hour”. I didn’t come close to this on my first attempt, but on my second attempt I went in with this goal and met it (although I did spent another 30 minutes checking and re-checking my work). Cisco tells you exactly what to expect, 10 tickets with 11-12 issues and a 120 Minute clock. 10 Minutes per ticket. If you can’t do this on the assessments, you may not be ready.

Experience. It’s hard to beat this, the psychological aspect of the CCIE exam is in full effect in troubleshooting. If you’re used to network down situations with your boss or customer standing over your shoulder and freaking out, then you’re going to be better prepared than those without. If you don’t have this experience, my best advice is to be sure to complete as many timed troubleshooting assessments as you can. Learn to work under the stress, do it until it’s almost a mundane event.

Reading Comprehension and Difficulty. Both still apply, but I felt the test was very clear about the issues and required resolutions. But I’m sure this is one area that allows Cisco to adjust the exam’s difficulty with little effort. I did feel that my assessment exams were frequently more difficult than CCIE in that they had too many tickets and required universal connectivity – which I take as a positive for study but something YOU must plan for when considering your strategy for troubleshooting. The real exam WILL challenge you with some things you’ve not thought about or seen before, so it’s important for the study exams to push you harder. Overall, the “zoomed view” (absent on my first attempt and a welcome addition on my second) helped to identify where in the network the issues where and I felt the clarity of the tickets had been improved.

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“Show run” – Learning to troubleshoot without “show run” is a critical method to teach you how to think about problems in a new light. I HATED this method when I was first working on the study labs, but it is now a technique I leverage frequently. I firmly believe you’ll be a better engineer for this. But if you stick with the materials that teach you to read and use the debugs,your skills as well as insights will improve. BUT, for the real exam, “show run” CAN be the fastest route to a solution. Conversely, it can also be your downfall (i.e., don’t get tunnel vision).

Debug – Honestly, I’ve always felt that if you need this in the troubleshooting section you may be in trouble. I can see scenarios where using this once may be viable, but it just did not fit into my time management methodology. I’m sure there are some who can wield debug faster than my show commands (including a focused show run), but I’ve always felt it was slower. You need to know it, and how to use it quickly and effectively – I used (and needed!) debug in both of my configuration exams.

Spot the issues – This method is used a lot to address complexities in the configuration lab. It still applies to troubleshooting. Yes, we want to work from the ground up and test layer 1, layer 2, etc. But at the same time, there are common issues and the proverbial “low hanging fruit”. Don’t be afraid to go with your instinct for a first or second guess as to what the core issue is. But be quick to abandon that premise and start at Layers 1 and 2 (1 for the real world, 2 for the lab – it is virtual after all).

Points Tally – I did not spend time tracking my points in troubleshooting. Another procedure I viewed as a waste of precious time. Solve them all and who needs to keep track of points? Conversely, I did not tally points in configuration during attempt #1 but added it to my regimen for #2 – which I can say was as a helpful productive step. For troubleshooting, I simply wrote down any ticket numbers I was unsure of or skipped, and came back to those after finishing the “easier” tickets.

Confidence – You’ve got to have it. Clicking that “End Session” button can be difficult when there’s time left on the clock. Even though I didn’t have the performance I would have liked in my troubleshooting assessments, I was always 100% confident about this section. I never once though I wouldn’t pass it. Configuration, for me, was just the opposite (both in assessment scores and my concern over it, I needed those extra 30 minutes). Plan your strategy – if you’re easily bothered by your performance on study or assessment labs, don’t take them or grade them leading up to the exam. I heard lots of stories about cramming multiple lab days or boot camps the week leading into the exam. I took the opposite approach, I didn’t do ANY the days before the exam (only light reading and review) and only some focus labs (ungraded) the weekend before. At that point there shouldn’t be much new material, and you most definitely should not be altering your test-taking strategy.

That’s my advice for you.  I always felt the troubleshooting section was far more approachable than the configuration.I don’t expect my techniques to work for everyone, and I’m sure some of my advice may go against the grain, but hopefully this article has provided some useful insight. Best of luck to you.