UDLD and EtherChannel Configuration
By · CommentsA data centre network for a client I work with had an interesting issue this week. For no apparent reason some users within the data centre environment reported connection issues to hosts in the network. They were able to connect to some hosts but not others. Then all of a sudden connection would be restored but quickly lost again.
One of my colleagues was able to access two of the core data centre switches but I could only get to one. A very quick trip to the data centre floor and a console cable connection into the core data centre switches revealed the issue. Read More→
Popularity: 91% [?]
CCVP Done
By · CommentsI passed the Cisco Troubleshooting Unified Communication (TUC) exam yesterday to complete my CCVP. The exam was quite tough and featured some E Sim questions were I had to search through some debug and CUCM SDI log outputs to solve problems. I’d recommened the Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony book to study for the exam along with other more up to date online resources for CUCM 5 and 6. I see that CBT Nuggets recently released a TUC course and I would have used that if it had been available for me. I’m delighted that is the CCVP over and I can get started on the the CCIE for real now. Oh and maybe I’ll have time to complete those posts I keep promising. 
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Back Up and Running
By · CommentsWell the CCIE UK site was down for around 7 days thanks to some server maintenance by my hosting company. Thanks to the people who emailed me to let me know. The new posts are in the process of being written and should be with you soon.
In the meantime I have my final CCVP exam on Tuesday the 16th of June. It’s the Troubleshooting Unified Communications exam. Fingers crossed. I’m desperate now to get the CCVP out the way so that I can concentrate on the big one (gulp).
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New Posts Coming Soon
By · CommentsOk, so it’s been a couple of weeks since the last post. Mainly because I’ve had my head in the books studying for the CUCM IPT2 exam. I managed to pass the exam second time, after failing by a a few points on the first attempt. Those cheeky Cisco people threw in a few CVoice and IPT1 questions that threw me a little, as it had been a while since I’d looked over that material. A quick revision of the relevant areas cleared things up and I passed with 924 out of 1000 on my next attempt.
I then went on a weeks holiday to Rhodes in Greece to relax for a bit and I highly recommend the place to anyone in Europe looking for a nice break.
There will be a couple of new posts on the way soon. One about an incident I helped out with involving Etherchannels, the other the first instalment of setting up a CCVP Voice lab. In the meantime I’ve started studying for my last CCVP exam which is the Troubleshooting Unified Communcations (TUC) exam.
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Changes to CCIE R&S Track
By · CommentsCisco has announced some major changes to the CCIE Routing and Switching track. You can read the official statement here which contains links to the new written exam and lab exam blueprints.
As well as the introduction of some new topics such as MPLS VPNs, zone based firewalls and new IPv6 topics, the changes also include new lab equipment and a new lab format. The CCIE lab will now feature 1841 and 3825 ISRs running the newer 12.4T IOS and there will only be 3560-E switches in the rack.
The lab exam will still be done over a total of 8 hours. However the lab now has two completely seperate sections. There wil be a two hour troubleshooting section, followed by a six hour configuration lab.
The written exam will also change and it may well contain simulation questions.
The Internetwork Expert blog has a good overview of the changes and also has a breakdown of how their materials will change to match the new exams.
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