Before you take the CCIE lab exam, wouldn’t it be great to have time to practice and increase your chances of passing or increasing your score? This is the purpose of CCIE Practice Labs. You can rent time on a module in a special online environment that mimics the real CCIE environment you will use during your CCIE lab exam.
Tea CCIE Service Provider Practice Labs offer a real exam-like platform that allows you to hone your skills in a controlled environment. You will gain hands-on experience with network devices and protocols. These scenarios will test certain skills and a number of knowledge areas.
When you incorporate CCIE Practice Labs into your CCIE Service Provider study plan, you’ll reap the rewards in more ways than one. Here are a few:
- Practical experience: The labs allow you to interact with networking equipment and software so you can hone the skills you need for the real exam.
- Advanced troubleshooting: You will gain the ability to quickly solve complex network problems.
- Greater retention: When you are involved in lab scenarios, you are more likely to learn complex concepts quickly and retain them better during the exam.
- Improved time management: When you have to complete a task within a certain time frame, you will learn to manage your time and work more efficiently during the exam.
- Immersive Learning: When you are fully immersed in a hands-on experience, you can more easily apply your theoretical knowledge to test lab scenarios.
CCIE Service Provider Practice Lab Scenarios
All CCIE Service Provider Practice Labs share the following topology, which always includes all devices that appear in this diagram:
However, depending on the Practice Lab, the initial configuration of each device may vary. Each scenario targets a subset of devices, but you’ll have access to all devices in any given scenario.
The topology includes two service providers, Emerald and Garnet, connected via an eBGP connection. Emerald is an SDN-based service provider with a converged SDN transport solution. Garnet is a legacy service provider that starts with LDP and RSVP-TE, but will need to migrate to SRv6. Emerald acquired Garnet and operates L3VPN services on both service provider infrastructures.
In all labs, you will primarily focus on IOS-XR devices and some IOS-XE devices. Garnet has a customer edge (CE) and directional reflectors (RR) that serve as IOS-XE devices. You will also work on NSO in the Automation and Verification Lab. The required Network Element Drivers (NED) for NSO are pre-installed and all devices are accessed through the management network. In all laboratories, you will work on the ASR9000 and CSR1000 virtual platforms.
Basic Service Provider Routing Lab
Objective: Build an optimized network architecture with constrained layers, converged networks, and intelligent data-driven optimized routing, peering, and feature placement. Tasks include implementing IS-IS as IGP, Segment Routing, SRv6, BGP-LU, SR-TE using SR-PCE, SR-ODN and Flex-Algorithm in Emerald and Garnet.
Service Provider Service Lab
Objective: Deploy network service capabilities (information and control) to the end-user service layer to enable alignment of the service and/or application with the most appropriate end-to-end operation. Tasks include implementing EVPN-VPWS, L3VPN, QoS and internet services across Emerald and Garnet.
Service Provider Security Lab
Objective: Focus on control plane, control plane and infrastructure security in Emerald and Garnet service provider networks. Tasks include implementing core networking in Emerald and Garnet, as well as implementing IS-IS and BGP authentication, BGP Flowspec, route and prefix filtering, RTBH, and BGP RPKI.
Service provider MVPN Lab
Objective: Focus on Multicast VPN on Emerald and Garnet service provider networks. Tasks include implementing the appropriate MVPN profiles across Emerald and Garnet as well as implementing the following profiles:
- Task 1 – Profile 0 (default GRE MDT with PIM AD and signaling)
- Task 2 – Profile 0 (default GRE MDT with legacy BGP AD and PIM signaling)
- Task 3 – Profile 3 (default GRE MDT with BGP MVPN AD and PIM signaling)
- Task 4 – Profile 11 (default GRE MDT with BGP MVPN AD and signaling)
- Task 5 – Profile 12 (default MDT mLDP P2MP with BGP MVPN AD and signaling)
- Task 6 – Profile 14 (split MDT mLDP P2MP with BGP MVPN AD and signaling)
Service provider automation and security laboratory
Objective: Focus on security and network automation in Emerald and Garnet service provider networks. Tasks include implementing automated provisioning solutions using NSO in Emerald and Garnet, automating L3VPN services, and implementing features such as BFD, IGP convergence, ACLs, and SRv6 policies.
To take full advantage of CCIE Practice Labs, consider these tips:
- Integrate practice labs early in your study plan to improve your skills.
- Exercise on a consistent schedule reinforce your learning and build confidence.
- Build on weak points refine areas of knowledge that need improvement.
- Diversify your practice using a mixture of different laboratory scenarios.
- Collaborate with others in the same boat by joining study groups or online communities.
Preparation tips for best results:
- Get to know schedule of exam topicsand stay informed about changes.
- Get more practical practice; create real laboratory scenarios in your home lab environment.
- Purchase quality study materialsas it is official Cisco Press Books.
- Manage your time wisely during study preparation to simulate the exam environment:
- Familiarize yourself with the format and modules of the exam.
- Review the topics you covered in training and review key concepts.
- Arrange for a peer review with mentors to assess your configurations and solutions.
- Time yourself when practicing the tasks simulate exam day stress. During the exam, don’t spend too much time on one task (you’ll use up your exam time) and prioritize items to fit the time constraints.
- Dive deep into the core technologies of network protocols.
- Be aware of this back navigation is disabled between the DES and DOO modules during the test. This means that you cannot go back after finishing the DES module. You also cannot navigate back in the DES module. But you can within the DOO module.
- You will have three hours to complete the DES modulebut you cannot add time to the DOO module if you finish early. You will have five hours for the DOO module.
- Point values for the DES module are hidden but displayed in the DOO module.
- DES has some complex partial scoring questions, but DOO does not. If you miss any of the question requirements in the DOO module, you will get a zero for that question.
- Get enough sleep the night before and on the day of the exam, arrived in time, stay calm and confidentfollow the morning briefing instructions from the lab proctor, read the questions carefully, eat lunch and stay hydrated!
Remember, CCIE practice labs are here to help you do your best on exam day. Take advantage of them. You won’t regret it and it can greatly increase your chances of getting CCIE SP certification.
Good luck!
CCIE Service Provider Laboratory Resources
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