Cisco Networkers 2009 in Barcelona
Im going to attend the Cisco Networkers for the first time now and I am really looking forward to its start tomorrow. Besides of having (finally!) time to get into learning new things the weather here is just great, compared to home. As I went out of my flat this morning it had about 3-4 Degrees Celsius and here we have more like 15 and blue sky! 
Well and thats my schedule for the coming week:
Monday January 26
09.00 AM – 6.00 PM: IPv6 Technology Update
Tuesday January 27
10.15 AM – 12:15 PM: Multilayer Campus Architectures and Design Principles
01.00 PM – 02.30 PM: Round Table about recertification
04.15 PM – 06.15 PM: Advanced Cisco Catalyst Virtual Switching Systems (VSS)
Wednesday January 28
08.30 AM – 10.30 AM: Deploying Wired 802.1x
01.30 PM – 03.00 PM: Migration Considerations when buying MPLS VPNs from Sevice Providers
03.30 PM – 05.30 PM: Understanding and Preventing Layer 2 Attacks
Thursday January 29
08.30 AM – 12.30 PM: Designing and Implementing Manageability using Cisco IOS Embedded Event Manager (EEM)
01.30 PM – 03.30 PM: QoS Decomposed
Testing Connectivity
Testing the connectivity is something that basically came up for me with the CCIE labs to verify the end-to-end connectivity in the Lab. But the more and the bigger networks I implement the more its a thing I like to do before I really install them (actually I configure them 99% of the time in our lab). In the end it will not verify that everything works correct but it gives me a good level of confidence before installing the devices on site.
Which thing to use to test heavily depends on the platform and the IOS version. There are two options to test I know of:
- TCL Scripts
- Switch Macros
Switch macros are for switches and TCL Scripts should nowadays work on every router with a kinda up to date IOS Image (for more informations on which IOS and feature set to use klick here). I personally prefer the TCL Scripts over the switch macros and am quite happy that the Cat3k switches with an IOS version of 12.2(40)SE and above are now TCL enabled too. But to have the article complete I’ll show on how to do the ping tests with switch macros too.
New Cisco Certification Logos
With the beginning of this week (01.12.2009) Cisco introduced their new certification logos. Before there was only one logo per level, now they have an own logo for every layer and every cert inside that layer. At least their proposal said so, I cant verify that for the CCNP and CCNA since I only have the normal Certs in those layers and Cisco only lets you access the logos you are certified for. CCIE Pursuit blogged about the new logos some time ago and posted both designs Cisco had at that time. There you’ll find the other design which was not used.
Below are the logos I have access to:
I think they are quite nice but that’s just my humble opinion. The CCIE logo somehow looks like a laurel wreath which was used by the old roman emperors
You can get them with your CSCO account through their certification tracking system.
Have fun with it
Changes to the CCIE R&S Lab
Rumors and stories have been going on and off during the last 6 month or so about an additional interview during the CCIE R&S Lab in Bejing. Quite a lot of us thought its only a joke or its only for Bejing but it looks like its not. Two people on the group-study mailinglist got an Update from Cisco stating, that at the beginning of this February every R&S Lab will include such an “interview”:
“Effective February 1, 2009, Cisco will introduce a new type of question
format to CCIE Routing and Switching lab exams. In addition to the live
configuration scenarios, candidates will be asked a series of four or five
open-ended questions, drawn from a pool of questions based on the material
covered on the lab blueprint. No new topics are being added. The exams are
not been increased in difficulty and the well-prepared candidate should have
no trouble answering the questions. The length of the exam will remain eight
hours. Candidates will need to achieve a passing score on both the
open-ended questions and the lab portion in order to pass the lab and become
certified. Other CCIE tracks will change over the next year, with exact
dates announced in advance.”
Update 01.20.2009: Find some more information below, posted by Anthony J. Sequeira.
Update 01.14.2009: I received that information through the official Cisco Learning January News Letter now too
About
Im a network engineer working for an international medical company based in Basel, Switzerland. I began my professional life in 2000 after 4 years of an IT apprenticeship. I started as the Network Management System responsible with quite a lot other of other tasks inside the Cisco networking field. In 2005 I changed to my current employer where I changed my field of knowledge from part NMS part Networking to full time Networking. I also started to educate myself deeper into networking. After passing the CCNA and CCNP exams I wanted to go further with my education and took the CCIE R&S track instead of doing a school with lots of stuff Im not interested in 
I started the CCIE journey in August 2007 with the first of 5 workshops at the Cisco Network Academy in Rapperswil and passed the CCIE in Brussels at 07th of May 2008.
During that time I wrote a lot of documents to keep the stuff I learned and I thought it might be an idea to make it public so it might help other people on their path through the Cisco Certifications. I hope this site gets useful not only for CCIE candidates but also for other networking professionals on their search for knowledge.
If you have any questions or want to contact me, please drop me a line to pashtuk at gmail.com
