The economy might still be limping along, but the
IT industry remains as healthy as ever. IT outsourcing companies have
become popular in recent years, but larger companies from hospitals to
manufacturers are also hiring for a continually growing workforce of
in-house IT professionals. If anything, the high job demand present in
the early ’00s has increased since the 2008 recession. Networking, a
distinct career path in IT, remains one of the main stays.
Cisco Certified Network Professional
CCNP certification requires IT employees to pass three exams: ROUTE,
SWITCH, and TSHOOT. The CCNP certification asserts that the professional
knows how to install, repair, and maintain Cisco networking equipment.
They can design local and wide area networks, create virtual networks,
and can integrate voice and video services. Although there are dozens of networking certifications, CCNP
certification remains in demand due to the prevalence of Cisco
networking equipment, the difficulty of the exam and the fact that
people who can work on Cisco routers, can pretty much work on the
majority of the competition’s routers. CCNP certification holders often
pursue other Cisco certifications including CCDP, which focuses on
designing networking, and CCNP variants like CCNP Security and CCNP
Wireless. These additional certifications provide CCNP certified
professionals with clear specialization and advancement opportunities.
Network Engineer
Network engineers ensure that their networks always run smoothly.
They must understand the ins and outs of networking from infrastructure
to security, and they help organize the company’s various networking
teams. A network engineer does a little bit of everything from helping
to design the network to making sure that end-users can connect and
aren’t running into significant congestion.
Systems Engineers
Systems engineers are similar to network engineers, but they
typically focus more on designing and installing networks rather than
monitoring them. Both systems and network engineers lead networking
teams. They organize projects and help out where needed, and they keep
track of a company’s networking infrastructure. Because systems and
network engineers have very similar jobs, the two titles are often used
interchangeably.
Network Technician
Technicians handle the day-to-day tasks of running a network. There
will often be some overlap between an engineer’s duties and those of a
technician, but for the most part, technicians are responsible for
repairing equipment like routers, installing new cables, and
troubleshooting problems on the spot. Technicians can configure routers
at the end-user’s location and install software, and they can also
assist network and systems engineers in installing new infrastructure. For complex and difficult problems, technicians can escalate the
issue to network engineers or administrators, who are typically more
experienced and are better equipped to handle such problems. Technicians
should have a firm understanding of networking protocols and equipment
standards, and they need to have the patience and expertise required to
diagnose and solve common networking issues. Network administrators are similar to both network engineers and
network technicians. They work directly with the end-user to solve local
issues, but they also monitor the entire network. Administrators tend
to have greater access within a network to diagnose issues and solve
them, so technicians will often turn to network administrators for
problems they cannot solve themselves.
Support Engineer
Support engineers fulfill a very different role. Instead of visiting
job sites directly, they offer phone, live chat, or e-mail support for
clients. They still need to understand networking protocols and
equipment, but they won’t repair faulty equipment themselves. They should have strong communications skills to communicate clearly
with end-users of varying technical backgrounds including clients who
may know little or nothing about the products or services they are
using. Some support engineers will also use remote access services to
view client computer and router information and troubleshoot software
and hardware issues. Like network technicians, support engineers will occasionally
escalate difficult issues to network engineers and administrators, but
they can resolve most support tickets on their own. They will also need
to instruct clients on how to operate their equipment and perform
updates.
Cisco’s CCNP R&S track currently has 3 exams,
ROUTE, SWITCH and TSHOOT. Pass all 3 exams and you will be CCNP R&S
certified. I receive many questions from students asking what the best
method is to study these exams and how to prepare themselves. In this
article I’ll explain what you will encounter on the exams and the best
way to pass the exams.
Knowledge Foundation
Before
I dive into CCNP R&S, let’s talk a little bit about CCNA
R&S first. I am going to assume that you passed the CCNA exam and
now you are looking to become CCNP R&S certified. Before you start
with the CCNP material, you should consider if your “knowledge
foundation” is strong enough. Most of the topics in CCNP are not new but
will be more in-depth than what you learned from CCNA. To illustrate
this, take a good look at the Cisco certification pyramid: Most students don’t pay a lot of attention to this picture but if you
take a good look, you’ll see that CCNA is the largest part of the
pyramid. If you want to pass the CCNP exams you will have to be
absolutely 100% comfortable with the things you learned in CCNA R&S.
If it’s been awhile since you became CCNA certified, please do yourself
a favor and re-read your CCNA material or do some more CCNA level labs.
If you have difficulty doing subnetting questions without a calculator
or have no idea anymore how spanning-tree, frame-relay, OSPF and EIGRP
work…then CCNP will be a very bumpy ride. If you are familiar with everything from CCNA then CCNP will be a very enjoyable ride!
Be honest with yourself, even if you passed the CCNA exam…if you had
some difficulties with certain topics, visit those again and make sure
you have no knowledge gaps. If you want to learn how to
ride a motorcycle, you should start learning how to ride a bike…having
said that, let’s look at the CCNP R&S exams!
ROUTE
Let’s start with an overview of all the major ROUTE topics:
EIGRP Packets and Metrics
EIGRP Summarization
EIGRP over Frame-Relay
EIGRP Authentication
EIGRP Advanced Features
OSPF LSA Types
OSPF Summarization
OSPF Special Area Types
OSPF Authentication
OSPF Virtual Links
Routing Manipulation
Redistribution
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)
IPv6 Routing Protocols
IPv6 Tunneling
In short the ROUTE exam is about EIGRP, OSPF, some routing
“manipulation”, BGP and IPv6. You already learned about EIGRP and OSPF
and a little bit of IPv6 in CCNA so these should be familiar topics, you
will learn (a lot) more about them however. For example, in CCNA you
learned about OSPF and its LSDB (Link State Database) but in CCNP you
will take a close look at all the LSA types that fill the LSDB. You
learned about IPv6 in CCNA but now you will also learn some migration
and tunneling techniques so you can connect IPv6 networks over existing
IPv4 networks. If you forgot about the difference between EIGRP/OSPF and
things like “link state” vs “distance vector” then please re-visit the
CCNA material before you dive into ROUTE. My
recommendation is to start with the ROUTE exam first, since you will
find some routing-related topics in the SWITCH exam while there are no
“switch” topics in the ROUTE exam. Also, you won’t need any hardware to
study for this exam since you can do everything with the GNS3 router
emulator!
SWITCH
Let me show you the major topics of the SWITCH exam:
VLANs and Trunking
Private VLANs
Spanning-Tree Basics
Rapid Spanning-Tree
MST (Multiple Spanning-Tree)
Spanning Tree Toolkit
Etherchannel (Link Aggregation)
InterVLAN Routing
Gateway Redundancy (VRRP, GLBP, HSRP)
Switch Security
VoIP / Video on Switched Networks (Quality of Service)
Wireless
Some of these topics should ring a bell, you learned about VLANs and
Trunks from CCNA but you’ll learn some more about them. Spanning-tree
should be familiar but you will learn about the different flavors like
“rapid” spanning-tree and Multiple spanning-tree in-depth. Etherchannels
were mentioned in CCNA but now you’ll learn about the different types
and how to configure them. There are also some “multilayer” switch
topics like routing between VLANs and creating virtual gateways for
clients using VRRP, GLBP and HSRP. In CCNA you learned about
port-security which is also in the SWITCH exam but you’ll also learn
about DHCP and ARP snooping. Last but not least you will learn how to
prepare your switched network for Voice over IP, Video and/or wireless
networking. If you are fuzzy about spanning-tree and its port states like the
designated, non-designated, root port, port priority and such…please
take a look at the CCNA material again before you start with SWITCH! To study SWITCH at home you will need some real hardware switches. GNS3 can only emulate routers and the NM-16ESW switch module which doesn’t support
rapid spanning tree, multiple spanning-tree or the different
etherchannel protocols. You don’t need expensive hardware, my
recommendation is to buy 2x Cisco Catalyst 2950 switches and 1x Cisco
Catalyst 3550 switch. Most of it also applies for the CCNP SWITCH exam.
TSHOOT
The TSHOOT exam is different compared to what you
have seen so far. The ROUTE and SWITCH exams are similar to CCNA, you
will get some multiple choice questions, labs, click-all-that-apply
questions, etc. TSHOOT is different as the exam will present you with a (large)
network topology that has a number of issues. You don’t have to fix
these issues but you have to be able to look at the configurations of
the devices and answer what the problem is. If you want to pass this
exam there are two things you will have to do:
Truly understand all the topics that you learned in CCNA, ROUTE and SWITCH.
Become familiar with the topology that Cisco uses in the TSHOOT exam.
There
is no “magic” troubleshooting technique that will help you solve any
problem. The only way to become good at troubleshooting is understanding
all the protocols and how they work together. You can become good at
troubleshooting by doing labs, labs and even more labs! Cisco released the TSHOOT exam topology
to the public, take a good look at it to understand all the different
components. You don’t want to see this topology for the first time when
you are doing the exam… Look at all the different protocols that are running, how they work together and the exam will be a LOT easier.
CCNP Study Strategy
You now have an idea what the exams are about, and that it’s best to
start with ROUTE, SWITCH and finish with TSHOOT. So where do you start? Buy some CCNP ROUTE study material like a book or some training videos, whatever you prefer. While you are studying for
ROUTE you have time to browse Ebay or something to “hunt” for your
switches that you’ll need for the SWITCH exam. As
you are reading, try to stick to one topic at a time, and don’t read
the book from front to back right away. As you are reading and learning
about a topic or feature, try to configure it yourself on your GNS3
routers or switches and make sure you understand what you are doing.
Look at some show commands, try some debugs. I can’t emphasize enough
how important it is to do labs, labs and even more labs. Most people
make the mistake of trying to “brute force” all the theory in their head
and doing not enough labs. Doing labs is also a lot more fun than just reading books or watching
videos…If you want labs to practice instead of building your own. Also as you are working your way through a chapter, make sure to take notes:
Take notes (I use notepad) to write down some of the commands that
you have difficulty with remembering. This helps to speed up doing labs.
Once you feel you mastered a topic, move on to the next chapter. Try
to focus on 1 item at the time instead of reading about everything at
the same time, focusing is your friend when it comes to studying.
FAQ
Q: Is is possible to become CCNP R&S certified with self-study? A: Definitely yes! Because of GNS3
it’s easy to practice all router protocols on your own computers and
with a couple of switches you will have all the equipment you need. It
will take self discipline to work yourself through the material since
you are not “forced” to be in the classroom and attending a course. Q: How much studying time does it take to pass the CCNP exams? A: This is a difficult question to answer as it is
different for everyone. It depends on how much experience you have in IT
/ networking and how easily you can memorize information. Roughly I
think it will take anywhere between 100-200 hours or so to study ROUTE
and SWITCH each (so that’s 200-400 hours for both!) and TSHOOT maybe
50-100 hours. This includes reading books, perhaps watching videos,
doing labs, reviewing notes, etc. Q: What is the best studying material to use? Classroom training, reading books or watching videos? A: If you are completely new to a topic then
classroom training is probably the best method since you will have
someone in front of you that explains everything. When you don’t
understand something you can just ask it and it will be explained to you
until you understand it. The downside of classroom training is that
it’s quite expensive and depending on the other students the course
might run too slow or too fast for you. Watching videos also works very
well when a certain topic is new to you, I wouldn’t recommend watching
them if you are looking to fill some “knowledge gaps” as you will have
that “I already know this” feeling when watching the video and get bored
easily. Personally I like books best because I can speed up or slow
down reading exactly when I want to. Most networking books can be very
difficult to get through if something is new to you however. In short,
if you are new to something…classroom training will be great. If you go
for the self-study path, see if you can watch some videos and then move
on to reading books. Q: How much time should I spend watching videos or reading books vs doing labs? A: The short answer is that I think you should spend
roughly 80% of your time doing labs and 20% of your time watching
videos or reading books. Q: What hardware should I buy? A: Don’t buy any hardware for the ROUTE exam, you
can do everything with GNS3. For the SWITCH exam the cheapest solution
is to buy 2x Cisco Catalyst 2950 switches and 1x Cisco Catalyst 3550
switch. Most of it applies for the CCNP SWITCH exam as well. Q: In what order should I do the CCNP R&S exams? A: I think it’s best to start with ROUTE, then SWITCH and finish with
TSHOOT. The reason for this is that you will find some “routing” topics
in the SWITCH exam. In CCNP R&S you will learn about multilayer
switches in the SWITCH exam so it’s best to understand routing before
you approach this topic. Even if you decide to do SWITCH first, it
doesn’t matter all too much since multilayer switching will be easy to
understand if you passed the CCNA R&S exam.
Summary
After reading this article I am sure you will have many other
questions, things that I didn’t even think about when I wrote this. Feel
free to ask anything and I will update this article to answer your
question(s)!
In this article we will learn about the main components of a Cisco router and how the boot process takes place. Types of memory Generally Cisco routers (and switches) contain four types of memory: Read-Only Memory (ROM): ROM stores the router’s
bootstrap startup program, operating system software, and power-on
diagnostic test programs (POST). Flash Memory: Generally referred to simply as
“flash”, the IOS images are held here. Flash is erasable and
reprogrammable ROM. Flash memory content is retained by the router on
reload. Random-Access Memory (RAM): Stores operational
information such as routing tables and the running configuration file.
RAM contents are lost when the router is powered down or reloaded. By
default, routers look here first for an Internetwork Operating System
(IOS) file during boot. Non-volatile RAM (NVRAM): NVRAM holds the router’s
startup configuration file. NVRAM contents are not lost when the router
is powered down or reloaded. Some comparisons to help you remember easier: + RAM is a volatile memory so contents are lost on reload, where NVRAM and Flash contents are not.
+ NVRAM holds the startup configuration file, where RAM holds the running configuration file.
+ ROM contains a bootstrap program called ROM Monitor (or ROMmon). When
a router is powered on, the bootstrap runs a hardware diagnostic called
POST (Power-On Self Test). Router boot process The following details the router boot process:
1. The router is powered on.
2. The bootstrap program (ROMmon) in ROM runs Power-On Self Test (POST)
3. The bootstrap checks the Configuration Register value to specify
where to load the IOS. By default (the default value of Configuration
Register is 2102, in hexadecimal), the router first looks for “boot
system” commands in startup-config file. If it finds these commands, it
will run boot system commands in order they appear in startup-config to
locate the IOS. If not, the IOS image is loaded from Flash . If the IOS
is not found in Flash, the bootstrap can try to load the IOS from TFTP
server or from ROM (mini-IOS).
4. After the IOS is found, it is loaded into RAM.
5. The IOS attempts to load the configuration file (startup-config)
from NVRAM to RAM. If the startup-config is not found in NVRAM, the IOS
attempts to load a configuration file from TFTP. If no TFTP server
responds, the router enters Setup Mode (Initial Configuration Mode).
And this is the process we can see on our screen when the router is turned on:
In short, when powered on the router needs to do: 1. Run POST to check hardware
2. Search for a valid IOS (the Operating System of the router)
3. Search for a configuration file (all the configurations applied to this router) Specify how much RAM, NVRAM and Flash of a router
Also, from the information shown above, we can learn some information
about router’s model, RAM, Flash, NVRAM memories as shown below:
Note: The “show version” command also gives us this information. All the above information is straight-forwarding except the
information of RAM. In some series of routers, the RAM information is
displayed by 2 parameters (in this case 60416K/5120K). The first
parameter indicates how much RAM is in the router while the second
parameter (5120K) indicates how much DRAM is being used for Packet
memory. Packet memory is used for buffering packets. So, from the output above we can learn: Amount of RAM: 60416 + 5120 = 65536KB / 1024 = 64MB
Amount of NVRAM: 239KB
Amount of Flash: 62720KB
