CCIE Routing & Switching practice labs troubleshooting

Certification: Cisco CCIE Routing and Switching - Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Routing and Switching

The CCIE certification is a certification that is offered by the Cisco Systems. The certification certifies the skills of n individual working in the networking department of Cisco equipment. The certification measures the skills of network engineers in the filed of planning, operation, complex troubleshooting, converged network infrastructure of Cisco equipments. The certification provided by the CISCO certifies skills that are specific in the field of networking.

The certification of CCIE is divided into seven areas of expertise, giving options to professionals to choose. The track which the individual choose certifies him/her in that area of networking. The certification assures the individual being him/her expert in that field. One can choose multiple levels of CCIE tracks and get certified in different areas of Cisco equipments. The CCIE tracks in which one can get certified are: Routing and Switching, Security, Service provider, Service Provider Operations, Data Center, Voice/Collaboration, and Wireless.

Routing and Switching

This track of CCIE is the most sought after track and popular among networking professionals. About 85 percent of the total no CCIE certificate holders have the certification of CCIE Routing and Switching certification. This certification certifies that the individual is expert in the networking of LAN and WAN interfaces and diverse range of routers and switches. The certified CCIE professional is capable in variety of LAN/WAN networking, protocols that are globally related network operations like spanning tree, IGPs, IP multicast, BGP, IPv6, QoS, network security, IOS services, MPLS and many more. The Routing and Switching track of CCIE has undergone two updates having two versions of the exams and lab versions:

CCIE Routing and Switching written and lab exams version v3.0 was revised to v4.0 on October 18, 2009
CCIE Routing and Switching written and lab exams version v4.0 was revised to v5.0 on June 04, 2014

The CCIE Routing and Switching version v5.0 is the most updated version of the certification. So the candidates who successfully have the certification shows that the have networking skills of higher level. The candidates should have minimum three to five years of experience in the field and the in depth knowledge of the topics before sitting for the certification.

Written exam

The written exam is of two hours, which a professional can take at CISCO authorized Pearson VUE testing center. The question set of the paper consist of multiple choice questions to measure the concerned skills of the individual.

Lab exam

The CCIE lab test is of eight hours, in which you have to configure complex array of networks and troubleshoot them, according to the specifications you are given. This test will measure your skills of networking, troubleshooting the systems, as its being an important part of the lab test. The students have to look into the problem and diagnose what is the solution and solve the problem. You will be responsible for not only end user computers but are responsible for all the systems in the network or hub. You will be provided with the point values and testing criteria along with the blueprint of Routing and Switching Lab test and list of IOS versions and equipments of lab. The students should have a overview of the Lab Test so that they have the general information about the Lab exam for CCIE Routing and Switching. The topics of the exam are the detailed outline of the topics of the exam. The students should have the knowledge of troubleshooting the network system or the hub. The trouble shooting section is the important section, students should have the knowledge to diagnose the problem and solve it in the exam. The topics that are listed for the exam may consists the topics that are released Six months before i.e. the topics that comes in the knowledge, can be in the Lab Exam after six months of its release.

The documentation is provided by Cisco in the lab room, you are not allowed to take anything in the lab of your own. You can navigate the documentation through the index, if you find anything suspicious inform to the proctor during the exam, after the exam adjustments cannot be made.

The Lab Exam of the CCIE Routing and Switching Exam consist of troubleshooting section of 2 hours, a diagnostic section of 30 minutes, and a configuration section of 5 hours and 30 minutes. A candidate may borrow the configuration section 30 minutes to use in the troubleshooting section.

Troubleshooting Questions

In the lab exam the troubleshooting section of the exam consists of the 30 percent of the questions. The section consists of many parts. You need to handle it one by one:

Troubleshooting the network issues of complex Layer 2
Troubleshooting the network issues of complex Layer 3
Troubleshooting a network issue in question to application problem
Network services troubleshooting
Network security troubleshooting

In the lab a student is provided with one LCD monitor. They have only one diagram on the screen, but for the lab they have physical as well as logical diagram too. You will have a hard copy of the diagram or on the pc it depends. You can have as many paper sheets you want to work out the answer, but you can’t take it out with yourself, you have to give it to the proctor after the exam. In this section of the lab exam, Cisco can ask anything from the blueprint, so the student should study hard to clear the exam. You should keep yourself updated about the advances in the network security, because if its six months old you can see that question in your lab exam PC screen. So you be prepared for any kind of questions, for which you have to study hard and practice as much as you can. The practice tests are available on the official site of Cisco. So prepare well and have your certification.

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