CCNA / CCNP Cisco Certification Exam: Attending A Video Boot Camp

Not every CCNA and CCNP candidate has thousands of dollars to spend on a boot camp.  Learn how to get the same quality training for less money and travel from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

CCNA / CCNP Cisco Certification Exam:  Attending A Video Boot Camp

When you're studying for the CCNA and CCNP exams, you've got a lot of different choices when it comes to training.   One popular choice is choosing one of the many "boot camps" and five-day in-person courses that are out there.  I've taught quite a few of these, and while many of them are good, they do have drawbacks. 

CCNP Certification: How And Why To Build An Etherchannel

Etherchannels are in use all over the world, as well as on your CCNA and CCNP exams.  Learn how to build and support an EC in this tutorial from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

 CCNP Certification: How And Why To Build An Etherchannel

CCNA and CCNP candidates are well-versed in Spanning-Tree Protocol, and one of the great things about STP is that it works well with little or no additional configuration. There is one situation where STP works against us just a bit while it prevents switching loops, and that is the situation where two switches have multiple physical connections.

Introduction To BGP Attributes|Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification

BGP is one of the most complex topics you’ll tackle in your CCNP studies, but if you break it down to the fundamentals, you’ll pick it up quickly.  Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, has written this free BGP tutorial on BGP attributes to help you do master BGP and pass the exams!

 Introduction To BGP Attributes|Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification

 

BGP is one of the most complex topics you'll study when pursuing your CCNP, if not the most complex. I know from personal experience that when I was earning my CCNP, BGP is the topic that gave me the most trouble at first. One thing I keep reminding today's CCNP candidates about, though, is that no Cisco technology is impossible to understand if you just break it down and understand the basics before you start trying to understand the more complex configurations.

Get Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification|OSPF E2 vs. E1 Routes

When preparing for CCNA and CCNP success, you’ve got to know the many details of OSPF.   Learn about these two vital OSPF route types and how they differ from each other in this free tutorial from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

Get Cisco CCNA / CCNP Certification|OSPF E2 vs. E1 Routes

OSPF is a major topic on both the CCNA and CCNP exams, and it's also the topic that requires the most attention to detail.  Where dynamic routing protocols such as RIP and IGRP have only one router type, a look at a Cisco routing table shows several different OSPF route types.
R1#show ip route

CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Route Summarization And The OSPF Null Interface

CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial:  Route Summarization And The OSPF Null Interface

Route summarization requires a knowledge of binary conversion, as well as knowing how each protocol responds to summarization.  Learn how OSPF does so from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

CCNP exam success, particularly on the BSCI exam, demands you understand the details of route summarization.  This skill not only requires that you have a comfort level with binary conversions, but you have to know how and where to apply route summarization with each individual protocol.

You also have to know the "side effects" of route summarization.  With OSPF, there will actually be an extra interface created at the point of summarization, and this catches a lot of CCNP candidates by surprise.  Let's take a look at the null0 interface and how it relates to OSPF summarization.

On R1, the following networks are redistributed into OSPF, and then summarized.

interface Loopback16

 ip address 16.16.16.16 255.0.0.0


interface Loopback17

 ip address 17.17.17.17 255.0.0.0


interface Loopback18

 ip address 18.18.18.18 255.0.0.0

interface Loopback19

 ip address 19.19.19.19 255.0.0.0

R1(config)#router ospf 1

R1(config-router)#redistribute connected subnets

R1(config-router)#summary-address 16.0.0.0 252.0.0.0

The summary address appears on R2, a downstream router.

R2#show ip route ospf


O E2 16.0.0.0/6 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:05, Serial0


Let's go back to R1 and look at its OSPF table.

R1#show ip route ospf


O    16.0.0.0/6 is a summary, 00:01:51, Null0

Where did the null0 interface come from, and why is it there?  Packets sent to the null interface are dropped, and in this case, that's a good thing.

When you configure summary routes in OSPF, a route to null0 will be installed into the OSPF routing table.  This helps to prevent routing loops.  Any packets destined for the routes that have been summarized will have a longer match in the routing table, as shown below...

C    17.0.0.0/8 is directly connected, Loopback17

C    16.0.0.0/8 is directly connected, Loopback16

C    19.0.0.0/8 is directly connected, Loopback19

C    18.0.0.0/8 is directly connected, Loopback18

O  16.0.0.0/6 is a summary, 00:01:51, Null0


.. and packets that do not match one of the summarized routes but do match the summary route will be dropped.

Preventing routing loops when performing route redistribution and summarization is vital.  OSPF gives us a little help in that regard in this situation, and as you study more complex redistribution scenarios on your way to the CCNP and CCIE, you'll realize that we'll take all the help we can get!

CCNA / MCSE / CCNP Certification: Creation Failure Work for You

CCNA / MCSE / CCNP Certification:  creation Failure Work for You

Failing an exam isn't the end of the world. It's happened to all of us, and you can make this failure work for you. Learn how from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

Whether you're on the road to the CCNA, CCNP, MCSE, or you're on any other computer certification track, the odds are that sooner or later, you're going to fail an exam.  It's happened to almost all of us, yours truly included.   What you have to keep in mind in these times is that success is not a straight line.  You've probably seen charts showing the growth of an industry or a business -- you know, the ones that go from left to right, and look kind of jagged.  The line goes up for a while, then down a bit, then up some more, then down a little. 

The key?  While every business has its setbacks, the net result is that the line goes up and progress is made.  That's how you want your certification pursuit and your career to go as well - upward!

I'm not asking you to be happy about failing an exam.  You're allowed to get mad for a few minutes, vow to never take another exam again, and be disappointed.  What you're not allowed to do is stay that way. 

If you put your books away in a fit of anger, get them out.  If you took some time off, it's time to get back to work.  Again, there's nothing wrong with being unhappy about failing an exam.  It's how you handle that failure that counts.  No inventor, executive, or entrepreneur has ever been right 100% of the time.  Learn something from your failure.   Was your study time quality study time?  Did you get some hands-on practice with the technology you're studying?  Asking yourself these questions can be tough, but it can be highly valuable in making sure you don't fail the next time.  And there must be a next time - because the one thing you cannot do is quit.

Besides, take it from someone who's been there - your temporary failure makes your eventual success that much sweeter.


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Free CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: The VLAN.DAT File

Free CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial:  The VLAN.DAT File

CCNA and CCNP candidates are often confused about why VLANs and VTP information is still present on a switch after the configuration is erased.  Learn why this happens and how to really delete VLAN information in this free tutorial from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.

CCNA and CCNP candidates who have their own Cisco home labs often email me about an odd situation that occurs when they erase a switch's configuration.  Their startup configuration is gone, as they expect, but the VLAN and VTP information is still there!

Sounds strange, doesn't it?   Let's look at an example.  On SW1, we run show vlan brief and see in this abbreviated output that there are three additional vlans in use:

SW1#show vlan br


10   VLAN0010                         active

20   VLAN0020                         active

30   VLAN0030                         active

We want to totally erase the router's startup configuration, so we use the write erase command, confirm it, and reload without saving the running config:

SW1#write erase

Erasing the nvram filesystem will remove all configuration files! Continue?

[confirm]

[OK]

Erase of nvram: complete


00:06:00: %SYS-7-NV_BLOCK_INIT: Initalized the geometry of nvram

SW1#reload

System configuration has been modified. Save? [yes/no]: n

Proceed with reload? [confirm]

The router reloads, and after exiting setup mode, we run show vlan brief again.  And even though the startup configuration was erased, the vlans are still there!

Switch#show vlan br


10   VLAN0010                         active

20   VLAN0020                         active

30   VLAN0030                         active

The reason is that this vlan and VTP information is actually kept in the VLAN.DAT file in Flash memory, and the contents of Flash are kept on a reload.  The file has to be deleted manually.

There's a little trick to deleting this file.  The switch will prompt you twice to ask if you really want to get rid of this file. Don't type "y" or "yes"; just accept the defaults by hitting the return key.  If you type "y", the router attempts to delete a file named "y", as shown here:

Switch#delete vlan.dat

Delete filename [vlan.dat]? y

Delete flash:y? [confirm]

%Error deleting flash:y (No such file or directory)



Switch#delete vlan.dat

Delete filename [vlan.dat]?

Delete flash:vlan.dat? [confirm]


Switch#

The best way to prepare for CCNA and CCNP exam success is by working on real Cisco equipment, and by performing lab tasks over and over.  Repetition is the mother of skill, and by truly erasing your VLAN and VTP information by deleting the vlan.dat file from Flash, you'll be building your Cisco skills to the point where your CCNA and CCNP exam success is a certainty.

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