Status Update: 31 December – 06 January

I managed to get quite a bit of labbing done this week.  The vast majority of it being Volume I RIP, EIGRP, and OSPF labs.  I completed Volume III lab 1 over the weekend. 

Friday was really busy at work as mother nature was trying to blow away large parts of California.  Between rerouting Call Center traffic and shutting down devices, I put in a long day at the office.  On Saturday night, I stopped to get gas and forgot which side of my car my gas cap was on.  I’ve had this car for seven years and if you had put a gun to my head and asked me which side the gas cap was on I would have had to flip a coin.  I only mention this brainfart incident as a harbinger of my Sunday lab session.

On Sunday I spent hours trying to work out why I was having such a problem with handling a relatively simple route redistribution.  I had spotted the issue (actually the lab spells it out for you) but was unable to get the routes to appear the way that they were supposed to.  I drew diagrams.  I removed and added configurations.  I still could not get it to work (even after looking at the solution guide).  I finally figured it out – I had completely screwed up my route-map(s) due to a basic misunderstanding of how route-maps work (I’ll post an LFU with the details later).  I was laid low by a mistake that nobody this far in to studying for the CCIE should have made.  Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you.  😦

Here are my goals from last week: 

Review the IEATC BGP videos.  Volume I BGP labs.  Read 4 random labs from each of Volume I OSPF, EIGRP, RIP (12 total).  Do 4 random labs from each of Volume I OSPF, EIGRP, RIP (12 total).  Redo Volume III lab 1.

I completed all of my goals, except for doing the Volume I BGP labs.  This week, I’m going to be out of town Thursday through Saturday, so I’ll try to get some more Volume I labs done as well as view some IEATC sessions.  I’ll also try to catch up on my Volume II and III lab postings.

Goals for this week:  Review the IEATC BGP videos.  Volume I BGP labs. Review the Advanced OSPF IEATC videos.  Do Volume II lab 4.  Do 4 random labs from each of Volume I OSPF, EIGRP, RIP (12 total).

Days Until Lab:	145
Readiness (1 to 10):	2
Lab Hours This Week	22
Study Hours This Week (estimate):	3