Starting on MPLS

I decided to cut the cord on the Juniper study. It isn't really relevant to my new job, and I really wanted to get onto my CCIP study (so that I can get it over and done with before I get back to CCIE study). I finished writing my notes and did the exam on Tuesday without much real revision. I missed out on passing by 4 points. I would have preferred to fail by a heap (at least then I wouldn't regret taking the exam so quickly).

I've started my study for the CCIP MPLS exam. There's a lot of conflicting reports on which books to use if you are self studying. I've read a few that say to avoid the Sybex MPLS book. It's a bit disappointing - I've found them to be good in the past. Instead I have decided to go through the Cisco Press MPLS Fundamentals. After that I'll take a look through the MPLS and VPN Architectures books to clear up anything that the Fundamentals book misses. If there's still some holes I guess it is off to the documentation CD. I guess I will probably skim through some MPLS sections on the DocCD - I got caught last time I did my CCIE Written and now I'm a little gun shy on doing an exam based on just one or two books.

So far I'm about 10% of the way through noting the Fundamentals book.

Still sidetracked

OK - I've noted 75% of the pdf for the jncia-ex. I'm a bit torn about whether I should book the exam for Monday (there is a spot open), or study a bit longer and take the risk of having to do the exam some time next month. I really want to get it out of the way but I'm tired and unmotivated (too many hours of work this week). I think I'll see how the weekend pans out and book at the last possible minute.

I'm a little surprised at the content of the jncia-ex study guide. I would have thought there would be a whole lot on VLANs and other layer 2. Instead it seems to do broad brushstrokes over everything (switching, routing and firewalling). My 2 cents says that Juniper will launch a certification similar to the Cisco CCNP. It just makes sense that Juniper should have certifications that directly compete with Cisco's.

Distractions

At the moment I am sufferig from a few distractions - the Juniper switching exam (from Juniper's fast track) and a change of job happening in early July.

I'm hoping to polish off the Juniper exam very soon (I've half finished noting the study materials and I'm waiting on the Exam Voucher), but can't find a testing spot until early July. Once that's sorted I am planning on studying hard and fast for the MPLS exam from the CCIP. I may follow that up with the BGP exam from the CCIP. Both are going to be very important in my new job.

Unfortunately both will set my study for the CCIE written back some way - at least the MPLS is partially relevant to the written.