Category: Word from the author

Please note:

This has nothing to do with networking in particular! Not if you look from only one perspective. If you look from totally different perspective, with Cisco ACI and all other SDN solutions, you will probably meet with Python programming language (because you will) and then, somewhere in beginning of Python exploration this is the first question that will cross your mind. Of course, if you think like me!

Although not directly related to networking, the question bothered me for some time now and the answer is not only really logical when you read it but it is also given by a cool guy named prof.dr. Edsger W. Dijkstra

For almost every networking geek it will be enough to read through it.

Intro

After getting the CCIE I found the next thing I wanted to get my hands around. Python. As it seems, Cisco ACI fabric will be the next big thing in Cisco world. Other vendors all have something about SDN to offer these days. Most important part for us, networking engineers, is that they want us to give up the CLI and get us to use Python and REST calls to speak with our network equipment. Python was the logical next step.

I signed and passed Dr. Chuck’s Coursera Python class:

• Programming for Everybody (Python) by Charles Severance

And got some books:

• Python for Informatics by Charles Severance (Coursera Professor)
• Learning Python, Fifth Edition by Mark Lutz
• Python Pocket Reference, Fifth Edition by Mark Lutz
• Fluent Python by Luciano Ramalho

After first few great lectures on Coursera by Dr.Chuck the question was born!

The Question

So my questions arose: “Why the hell in Python slices and range exclude the last item?”, “Why?”, “It’s not logical to me!”

The Answer

This is the story on how I became CCIE# 46173

To be honest, when I look back, I do not really know the main reason behind going through all this trouble, but I can tell you the story about how I did it. It’s mostly a thriller, and some drama towards the end. I will give you an overview of the whole process including the materials used, videos watched, books read and struggles that I went through.

I think that is the right thing to do. This article is for all of you out there who are still trying to study for this exam and need some suggestions. One of the most important things for me was to gather others candidate experience and suggestions in making a good study plan and get the info about the books and stuff. This is also a perfect occasion to brag about passing the damn thing and write a bit about myself. On technology blog, this is a rare opportunity when is alright to write a self reflection.

Please note that this article is more or less pure speculation. The fact is that CCIE R&S v5 blueprint will be presented 28th January 2014 on Milan’s Cisco live event everything else is yet to be announced.

From Milan’s Cisco live 28.1.2014 there is an CCIE R&S v5 blueprint event scheduled. When Cisco wants to speak about new CCIE lab blueprint on Cisco live it means that this blueprint will be announced prior to that event (couple of months before). That leads us to the conclusion that there will be new blueprint announcement this month. There is a big possibility that predictions about changes written in my article about CCIE v5 blueprint here should be changed for the lab exam somewhere around April 2014. Everything in details will be described on that event where Cisco will give out all the details of changes in new CCIE lab v5 blueprint.

There was a chance of announcement this summer when I was following Cisco Live in Orlando. After the event went through it was obvious that there was no mentions about the CCIE lab blueprint change. Later I was reading some blogs about Cisco’s way of changing the blueprint. From all of them it’s clear that new blueprint is never announced on some Cisco live event. It’s always discussed in detail in first event after the announcement. We have this situation now. There is a Cisco Live event in Milan, Italy in February and there is an CCIE v5 blueprint event scheduled for 28.2.2014. Based on all those information we are almost sure to see the announcement this month.

I am studying for the exam for 6 months now!?!

For us studying for the lab exam, the old topology and all the topics from v4 are still valid but for how long?

UPDATE on 2.11.2013 – There will be an update in February 2014!

Read all about the new announcement in the latest article here! with all new topics added and removed from CCIE lab exam v5.

UPDATE on 23.07.2013 – There will be not update this year to v5 at least not for now…

So, there are some news. The news is that at this moment, few weeks after Cisco Live in Orlando we can say that CCIE lab exam v5 update is not going to happen this year. I other words, for us studying for the lab exam, the old topology and all the topics from v4 are still valid. Many of us will think now that we can be in peace for another year now and try to learn and understand everything so that we can pass the exam before the change. From my perspective, maybe this is not the whole truth. I think that even the change in the exam and all the topics mentioned down here that would change will not necessary mean that the exam would become more difficult. My perspective is that if you are prepared to pass the CCIE lab on v4, you will be probably also prepared to pass it on v5. My point is in that there is so many networking topics covered here that all the changes would not disturb you in your goal, maybe only those people who studied but not really with 100% understanding. The road to CCIE is not short, and is not easy either but it can be fun and in the end it will be worth the effort.

Learn and enjoy the process to, not only thinking on the resulting cert. In that way, you will probably be more succesful even in the CCIE lab changes a bit.

This story will be a turning point for my blog future starting with a change in writing methods and changing those methods to a more causal fashion.

INTRO

For now all my text here where somehow depersonalized and tech oriented in a way that it was all written like in some book. User manual to me concise. Maybe this is the main reason that now when I got back to revise some parts of the texts there was an impression that those text are very boring. There is something missing inside them, maybe me?
Of course, I didn’t start to write this blog two years ago because there was a huge need for someone new to write about old networking stories about protocols and networking standards. I did start to write because I was young enthusiastic freshy networker who was in his all day job searching, part-time Cisco teaching and CCNP studying period.
That was actually not job free time for me, but it was intense and fulfilling time. Having some experience with web before and now spending whole days with my head inside Cisco Press books it was somehow natural to start a blog. Yes I know, everybody wants to write something on the web, but that is the main reason for this post, I you wondered what is this all about. I can now finally say that if I did not give up writing this blog until now then it’s the real proof that there is actually somebody reading it and that I can finally consider myself a networking blogger but more that all an networking geek. Jup, that’s right, there are people who are not ashamed of being geeky technicians.