Voice Lab Following Suit With OEQ’s!!!

CCIE Voice Lab Exam Adding Short Answer Questions:
Also effective July 16, 2009, the Cisco CCIE Voice Lab Exam will feature a new type of question format in a section called Core Knowledge. In this new section, candidates will be asked a series of four open-ended questions that require a short, typewritten response (typically several words). The questions will be randomly drawn from a pool of questions on topics currently eligible for testing on the CCIE Voice Lab Exam. No new topics are being added. Candidates will have up to 30 minutes to complete the Core Knowledge section of the exam, and may not return to the questions later. First introduced to the CCIE Routing and Switching lab exam in February 2009, Core Knowledge questions will eventually be added to all CCIE tracks. The changes allow Cisco to maintain strong exam security, and they help ensure that only qualified candidates are awarded CCIE certification.

Cisco Voice Lab OEQ Announcement

Let the fun continue!!!

Larry H.
CCIE #12203 (R&S)

IPexpert - New R&S Lab - No Problem!!!

IPexpert R&S Lab Update Announcement

By Jared Scrivener:

Well, after much anticipation Cisco has announced their new blueprint v4.0 for the Routing and Switching lab exam. Wow. This is huge. There’s NEVER been a better time to become a CCIE, because here at IPexpert we’ll take you from zero to three IE’s almost effortlessly (well, actually with a lot of effort and dedication, but our products will make it a breeze). Let me explain how…

Firstly, nothing is removed from the existing V3.0 R&S blueprint from a software standpoint – anything you already have been studying you’ll be tested on plus the additions in IOS 12.4T. From a hardware standpoint, the switches will now all use 3560’s and the routers will be ISRs (1841’s and 3825’s) – it’s 2009 after all. This is great for those of you already using Proctorlabs – we’ve been using 2800 and 3800 series ISR’s in our pods for some time now, in our effort to ensure that new CCIE’s are trained on the latest hardware your lab requires. As such there’ll be no interruption to our rack rental service during upgrades, no cheap 2600 routers (or 2500 routers) and no price increase while we pay for equipment updates during these current economic times. In fact, to thank the CCIE community for its loyalty over the past few years for helping as graduate more CCIE’s than any other company we’re going to drop the cost of rack rental for our hardware and start allowing you to book 4-hour sessions as well as 8-hour sessions so that if you are preparing for the troubleshooting section of the lab (which will be 2 hours long) you can do so and save up the rest of your hours. To help you maximize every minute you can preload configuration for any lab onto your pod and save your working configuration in our database so that when you next need to use it you can continue seamlessly.

Add to that, the fact that it’s now cheaper to purchase 50 rack sessions which is almost 400 hours of rack time (more than I used as a student for any of the three CCIE tracks IPexpert prepared me for) for far less than the cost of one 3825 ISR or 3560 switch (probably 800 sessions if you pay Cisco’s MSRP) using Proctorlabs will become a no brainer. Oh, if the new troubleshooting section requires the knowledge and use of real hardware just like the real world (simulation of real world issues is the impetus for the R&S update), Dynamips cannot support that. If you can’t work out how to afford it, contact us – we’ll find a way, even if it involves payment in installments (we understand credit is tight), so please don’t waste your money and time on buying used equipment from eBay thus breaching Cisco’s terms of use and putting your CCIE in jeopardy.

So what’s new? Well, now the team at IPexpert gets to teach our R&S students about additional technologies from the Service Provider track including MPLS, MPLS Layer 3 VPNs, VRFs, more advanced BGP (including address families and Optimized Edge Routing) as well as topics from the new Security track including zone-based firewalls and router IPS. This will make you the most highly capable cohort of CCIEs yet produced. Yep, when you pass on the new track boast about it – then suggest to any CCIEs that you know that if they want their skills as honed as yours we’ll give them a seat in a boot camp for an exclusively low price as part of our commitment to ensuring that the standard of CCIE’s in the world is kept high both through our exemplary training products and our desire to help all CCIE’s maintain their knowledge.

To this end, we will have technology focused labs covering the new topics added to our R&S product THIS WEEK. Not June, October or 2010. This week. Here at IPexpert we don’t mess around – if you need labs, we’ll give you labs. OK, not give: We’ll sell you labs – at a price that’ll make your jaw drop. In fact, our instructor led training courses are already updated – just let us know when you book which version (v3 or v4) of the course you’d prefer and we’ll put you into that stream and provide you with BOTH manuals (one in soft copy) so that even when you pass on the current blueprint (as our students tend to if they follow our guidance) you’ll have the new information as a resource so that you can troubleshoot MPLS or configure a zone-based firewall if that’s what your job requires.

With respect to the rest of our self study products, our updates will be coming thick and fast. It’s hard for me to explain to you how good our new labs will be – the real lab will have a 2 hour troubleshooting section and a 6 hour configuration section. As always, our philosophy is borrowed from the National Guard (thanks to Larry Hadrava CCIE #12213 for his past service and for providing this quote): Train Like You Fight. To that end, our Volume 2 labs will include 4-8 hour complex troubleshooting labs and a configuration labs of the same caliber IPexpert is famous for: if you can do them in 8 hours you can pass your real lab in 6 (note, that’s not a guarantee – just my own personal experience from having passed every CCIE lab I’ve sat for and that of some of my students), because they are each 8-12 hours worth of TOUGH content – that’s why our Volume One product will also need some additions… Yep, for each Volume One technology focused lab we’ll be providing an accompanying troubleshooting lab, so that you learn each protocol inside and out and are ready to tackle IPexpert’s Mock Labs (which will all have walkthrough videos).

But wait – there’s more. Our Audio on Demand course will be completely reworked to help prepare you for both the written exam (and your CCNP if that’s an interim goal) and I’ll be recording a new Video on Demand course including the new content – I just hope you can put up with my Australian accent! Just in case you aren’t sure how good an opportunity this is, to get you used to the kind of service we provide here’s a bonus: IPexpert’s trademarked “Ask The Expert” sessions will run weekly with one of our instructors (cycling between each track) where an instructor, either myself or my colleagues, will walk you through one of our Technology Focused labs LIVE online (to be announced in our next newsletter). The only requirement to attend is that you own our Volume One labs so that you can follow along in your manual – yep, this is a FREE bonus for all customers. We’ll even do them in alternating time zones so that it doesn’t matter where on Earth you are (heck, if you’re working for NASA as an astronaut provided a CCIE helped setup the network so it stays up, we’ll train you).

Unlike other companies who were caught unaware of this update, our CEO, Wayne Lawson, predicted these changes to the blueprint perfectly April 23rd and hence IPexpert will have our new R&S material to you well before you need it – I’m so sure of that, that on October 18th I’ll be doing an Ask The Expert session to celebrate the new blueprint where I will provide my personal cell phone number to the WORLD to harass me if ANY part of the product is not at your fingertips when you ask for it. Can you name another Triple CCIE instructor whose phone number you know and can dial at any time? That’s how confident I am and if you don’t believe me please post an email to the mailing lists at OnlineStudyList.com and groupstudy.com to see if I give this out and answer my calls – I’m confident you’ll get concurrence from my boot camp students and those who needed it that I give it out only if you REALLY need it, but I do give it out…

I mentioned at the start going from zero to three CCIE’s – start with R&S now and as soon as you pass, one of our CCIE’s will tailor you a study program to move straight into Security (about 20% overlap with R&S) or Service Provider (which is now about 70% overlap with R&S) at a discounted rate (as IPexpert did for me when I came back for my second CCIE) if you want to take a quick route to a second or third CCIE, or if you want to join my study group as I study for my Voice track, our Voice instructors, Mark and Vik who are the best in the world will help get us over that line.

In case between, the labs, the hardware, the videos, the audio, the boot camps, the Ask The Expert sessions and our support list, OnlineStudyList.com which is supported by our instructors and support engineers (all IPexpert students who are now CCIE’s) you still need more incentive to get yourself a CCIE, here’s something to consider:

IPexpert’s v4.0 R&S Blended Learning Solution (Workbooks, Audio and VOD): $1999

Proctorlabs sessions to enable you to do 400 hours of rack time: $1400

IPexpert’s v4.0 R&S Instructor Led Boot Camp: $3000

CCIE Lab Exam: $1400

Average US CCIE Salary: $120,330 (Certification Magazine, salary survey, December 2008)

Knowing that you will be able to stay employed most likely on a six figure salary by having a Routing and Switching CCIE during the toughest economy in a century: Priceless.

Thanks
Larry H.
CCIE #12203 (R&S)

Voice Demo vRack @ Proctor Labs

IPexpert Voice Rack Demo Announcement

By Mark Snow:

Voice Demo vRack @ Proctor Labs
Many folks have requested the ability to be able to log into the Proctorlabs web UI and interact with a “demo” vRack before they purchase a rack session. It would give them the ability to “test-drive” our acclaimed web UI and easy-to-use controls before they purchase. Well in response to many requests, I have setup such a vRack for access.

Starting out with Voice v3 vRacks, we now have a permanent demo vRack that can be logged into at any time using our standard web UI, giving the viewer complete simulated functionality over what would be an otherwise actual Voice vRack. Being that there is actually no hardware hanging behind this demo vRack - there are a few things that will not show up, such as “status” for any device. Of course you also will not be able to telnet to any router, or log into any CUCM Server or otherwise. However you will get a good feeling for what your actual vRack session will be like when you rent from us - and you will be able to see the changes we have made in terms of features such as “Load Lab Configs” and “PSTN MAC Address and Phone Type” configuration.

One other major benefit from this is the fact that, upon clicking on the right nav-bar controls to go to your vRack session, you will be taken through the Software or Hardware EzVPN setup pages, where you can download an working PCF file (Software VPN) or working Hardware VPN configurations depending on what type of router or ASA you are using to connect to us with. These files will allow you to actually connect to our EzVPN Servers, and ping to ensure that you have the proper configuration prior to your paid vRack session.

It should be noted however, that when you connect to the VPN session, since you are not actually connecting to a live vRack, that you will only be able to ping two IP addresses. This still should give you confidence that your configuration is correct, and that only your VPN Group name (last digit actually) will need to be changed before your next paid vRack session.

The username and password to connect to the Web UI as well as the VPN X-Auth (username and password window that pops up) are as follows:

Login to ProctorLabs
username: voicedemo
password: voicedemo

The only two IP addresses that you will be able to ping are Loopbacks on the two EzVPN Servers and are as follows:

10.10.105.117
10.10.105.217

Hope this makes life easier for a number of folks!

Thanks
Larry H.
CCIE #12203 (R&S)

Voice V3 Lab Blueprint

The Cisco Learning Network has the Voice V3 blueprint listed. I see a lot of questions and speculation on the message boards on this subject. So, no speculation, these are the sections / topics as they stand today.

Voice V3 Lab Blueprint

In case the link does not work for you here is the info:

CCIE Voice Lab Exam v3.0 Blueprint
The blueprint is a detailed outline of the topics likely to appear on the lab exam. This blueprint introduces pre-configurations of basic tasks (such as phone registration, basic application integration, basic dial plan, etc.), in order to devote additional focus on expert level skills (advanced configuration and troubleshooting) assessments. As usual, knowledge of troubleshooting is an important skill and candidates are expected to diagnose and solve issues as part of the CCIE lab exam. The topics listed are guidelines and other relevant or related topics may also appear.

1.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Campus Infrastructure and Services

1.01
VLAN

1.02
DHCP

1.03
TFTP

1.04
NTP

2.00
Implement and Troubleshoot CUCM Endpoints

2.01
CUCM SCCP Endpoints

2.02
CUCM SIP Endpoints

3.00
Implement and Troubleshoot CUCME Endpoints

3.01
CUCME SCCP Endpoints

3.02
CUCME SIP Endpoints

4.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Voice Gateways

4.01
T1/E1 PRI

4.02
T1/E1 CAS

4.03
H.323

4.04
MGCP

4.05
SIP

4.06
H.323 RAS

4.07
IP-IP Gateway/CUBE

5.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Call Routing Policies

5.01
Route Patterns and Dial-peers

5.02
Digit Manipulations and Translations

5.03
Class of Services

5.04
Route Selection Preference and Redundancy

5.05
Mobility and Single Number Reach

6.00
Implement and Troubleshoot High Availability Features

6.01
SRST

6.02
AAR

7.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Media Resources

7.01
CODEC Selection and Flexibility

7.02
Conference Bridges

7.03
Transcoder

7.04
Music-on-hold

7.05
Media Resources Preference and Redundancy

7.06
Other CUCM Media Resources

8.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Supplementary Services

8.01
Call Park

8.02
Call Pickup

8.03
Barge

8.04
Callback

8.05
Other Supplementary Services

9.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Other CUCM Voice Applications

9.01
Extension Mobility

9.02
IPMA

9.03
Other CUCM Voice Applications

10.00
Implement and Troubleshoot QoS and CAC

10.01
L2/L3 Traffic Classifications and Policing

10.02
L2/L3 Queuing Mechanisms

10.03
L2 LFI

10.04
RSVP

10.05
Call Admission Control

11.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Messaging

11.01
Cisco Unity Connection

11.02
Cisco Unity Express

11.03
Call Handling and Routing

12.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Cisco Unified Contact Center Express

12.01
Advanced Configuration

12.02
Script Customization

12.03
Redundancy

13.00
Implement and Troubleshoot Cisco Unified Presence

13.01
CUCM Presence

13.02
Cisco Unified Presence Server Integration

Thanks
Larry Hadrava
CCIE #12203 (R&S)

V3 Voice Recommended Book List

You have probably seen this but in case you have not here is a recommended list of books from the Cisco Learning Network web site for the Voice V3 blueprint.

CCIE Voice Lab v3.0 Reading List
The following list is a compilation of recommended reading to assist in the preparation for the Lab exam. It is not required to read all of the books on this list.

Recommended Voice V3 Reading List

Cisco Press Titles
Cisco CallManager Fundamentals, Second Edition (Alexander, Pearce, Smith,

Whetten, ISBN# 1587051923)

Cisco Catalyst QoS: Quality of Service in Campus Networks (Flannagan, Froom,

Turek, ISBN# 1587051206)

Cisco Frame Relay Solutions Guide (Chin, ISBN# 1587051168)

Cisco IP Telephony (Lovell, ISBN# 1587050501)

Cisco IP Telephony: Planning, Design, Implementation, Operation, and Optimization(Asadullah, Kaza, ISBN# 1587051575)

Cisco Voice Gateways and Gatekeepers (Donohue, Mallory, Salhoff, ISBN#

158705258X)

Cisco Voice over Frame Relay, ATM, and IP (McQuerry, Foy, McGrew, ISBN#

1578702275)

Configuring CallManager and Unity: A Step-by-Step Guide (Bateman, ISBN# 1587051966)

Deploying Cisco Voice over IP Solutions (Davidson, ISBN# 1587050307)

Integrating Voice and Data Networks (Keagy, ISBN# 1578701961)

Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony (Giralt, Hallmark, Smith, ISBN# 1587050757)

Voice Over IP Fundamentals (Davidson, Peters, Gracely, ISBN# 1578701686)

Voice-Enabling the Data Network: H.323, MGCP, SIP, QoS, SLAs, and Security (Durkin, ISBN# 1587050145)

Thanks
Larry Hadrava
CCIE #12203 (R&S)