Getting back to the CCNP Grind, the next exam to tackle will be the 300-415 ENSDWI / SD-WAN Given that I am working much more heavily with Cisco Viptela SD-WAN technologies, it is time to dive into the SD-WAN exam both to recertify my existing CCNP, and to become as close to a subject matter … Continue reading Cisco 300-415 (ENSDWI) Blueprint – Full review of the CCNP Enterprise SD-WAN Blueprint up to exam day!
This lab session I will be configuring and reviewing all aspects of Site to Site VPN configuration! Will be going through a refresher on pretty basic VPN Configuration including the following topics: Define and configure the Phase 1 and Phase 2 settings for IPSec VPNCrypto Map configuration to define correct "interesting traffic"Configure different NAT statements … Continue reading Cisco ASA Lab – Site to Site IPSec VPN Tunnel Configuration, with explanation of all configs, common VPN Issues / Troubleshooting tips!
I haven't got my score confirmation email yet, but I'm not waiting to celebrate! I will replace the #devnet2020 logo with a passing score to add to the wall of exam passes once I get the official email, but I did indeed pass with a score of 930/1000 today, and I must say that being … Continue reading DEVASC crushed today (12/18/20) with a score of 930 / 1000 – What a feeling of accomplishment and unique skillset to be recognized for!
Right when I thought I hit the Summit (CCNP), I realized I was only beginning! After earning my CCNP R/S (and now Enterprise) I have turned my sites into a much less organized approach to studying certain topics that made sense in my mind, however for the benefit of myself and others I wanted to … Continue reading A mountain of FREE Cisco Developer Resources, including setting up a DevNet PC / Free Video Training / Learning Labs / Sandbox / Code Exchange / MUCH MORE!
I am back and going all-in on the CCNA DevNet, and will blog every exam topic! Quick shout out to my current study resources: Cisco $800 Guided Study Group 8-week course that includes Cisco Learning Modules / Access to Cisco Platinum Library and test exams - So this info if the Cisco Curriculum is correct … Continue reading Cisco DevNet Associate – Blueprint Domains / Topics mapped to Posts here – List will continue to grow! (Will update soon, tons of new posts with exam day info!)
I just absolutely love this graphic, perfect representation of the Cisco struggle! Moving forward I will be posting non-Cert related technologies! After completing my CCNP R/S Certification also earning me the CCNP Enterprise upon track changes, I started with some CCIE track topics like MPLS / DMVPN / Heavier VRF studies, however I have ultimately … Continue reading The CCNP Grind has finally come to an end, it is time to start branching into other vendors / technologies!
On April 5th 2016 (4/5/2016), I made my first post to this blog, and today on October 10th 2019 (10/10/2019) I have passed my final CCNP Exam the TSHOOT 300-135 🙂 Along the way I have hit many major life events that could very well have stopped my progress, gave me a reason to put … Continue reading CCNP R/S Certified – 1,283 days and 286 posts on Loopedback.com later! 🙂
It's been a long couple of years of medical issues that have stopped me from actually taking the exam, but have studied the material over and over, and finally took it today and passed it on the first attempt. I have to say that all of the questions on the exam were absolutely outside what … Continue reading 300-115 SWITCH Exam Crushed! Tips on how I navigated this mentally exhaustive exam for the Pass grade!
Finally after my first two Failed attempts at the ROUTE exam, I have finally FINALLY passed it!!! I have to say I took the first fail as a learning experience, but after some intense brushing up on all topics and failing again, I didn't reschedule a 3rd attempt as I didn't think I wanted to … Continue reading 3 must know tactics to get a “Pass” score on exam day, as can be seen here on my ROUTE exam score printout (finally)! 😀
This side is long overdue for an ASA "quick reference guide" for configurations, so here it is! Before diving head first into brand new studies I wanted to create a bottom up config demo of ASA firewalls for reference when needing to configure or troubleshoot ASA issues, I will give some brief explanations of concepts … Continue reading Cisco ASA lab – Configuring the ASA at Site B with Security Zones / DHCP / ACLs / PAT / Static NAT with explanation along the way!
After assessing how big a leap I had taken forward going into ACI, I am reeling it back to NX When digging into ACI further it became apparent that I had taken a huge leap over some foundations that comes before it like just learning to work with API Configuration on Nexus switches in general, … Continue reading CCNP Data Center – Setting up a Nexus / ASA CML 2.0 Lab, review of API Documentation in CML, and how to use it to work within Postman!
DevNet Sandboxes are an amazing resource, I really encourage you to check them out if you haven't! What is shown above is a "Reserved" Sandbox for ACI in which there are a few things in the Topology: ACI_Simulator - This is the APIC, 1 Spine Switch, and 2 Leaf Switches in a single pod / … Continue reading CCNP Data Center – ACI Lab in DevNet Sandbox (great resource!), ACI Fabric Configuration via APIC Web GUI – Will be adding different config methods (API, CLI) soon!
Putting Multicast labbing on pause to hit Nexus 9K series / ACI / SDN studies and lab it up! After a slight hiccup in continuing on with Multicast studies, I've decided to table that to learn the Cisco Nexus 9000 Data Center switching hardware platform and ACI Software that runs on it, as going back … Continue reading CCNP Data Center – Intro to Nexus 9K Switches and ACI Fundamentals and Design concepts, terminology, then on to DevNet Sandbox labbing!
The "Breakout Tool" in CML allows you to use Putty and VNC to control lab devices, but it is risky to config! The CML 2 VM labbing environment opens devices in a rather rigid and difficult to work with embedded console window like you would see in a DevNet learning lab on developer.cisco.com, fortunately they … Continue reading CML 2 Breakout Tool Configuration for Windows 10 – Step by step guide on how to enable using Putty / VNC outside of CML 2 (hooray for Putty)!
Why does this Topology not look like it was made in MS Paint? Because I am using CML to lab! After trying to NAT, NAT, and then NAT traffic in and out of GNS3 to generate Multicast traffic into my previous Topology the time I spent troubleshooting the lab outweighed the study time - So … Continue reading Multicast Routing – IGMP, PIM, Multicast Trees, PIM Sparse-Mode, PIM Dense-Mode, Multicast Discovery methods to wrap it up!
Above is a Topology I created for Multicast Routing, however I've found in digging into Multicast that I will need to add some LAN segments to really demonstrate behaviors of different Multicast configuration, so this will cover the fundamentals of Multicast before hitting the lab to get our hands dirty! Why we need Multicast Routing … Continue reading Multicast Fundamentals – What Multicast routing achieves, IGMP Versions, Layer 2 mechanisms, and Multicast Address blocks to know!
First DEVASC exam attempt is a swing and a miss THIS attempt! I regret to POST that my first attempt at the DEVASC fell short of the passing grade, the questions were very fair and spread out evenly I felt across all domains, there was just some domains I couldn't cover as much as I'd … Continue reading DEVASC Attempt #1 – A swing and a miss! Came very close, feel good about how much I had down, and know what I need for attempt #2!
(This is not my official DevNet Associate exam results, at least not quite yet!) This practice exam included with the DevNet OCG is amazing for last minute review! 900/1000 was the score of my 2nd practice exam attempt today, I don't mean to misrepresent my initial score of 750/1000 on my first attempt out of … Continue reading DevNet OCG – Includes a practice exam that is worth its weight in gold for exam day preparation!
Time to pull out all the stops and make some online DEVASC Flash Cards! 🙂 After enough review I have concluded that small details get lost in putting together the entire picture of DEVASC Topics, and if I get asked some obscure Status Code Response # on exam day that are easy points, these flash … Continue reading DEVASC Online Flash Cards – All Topics that have glaring details begging to be asked on exam day will be posted here! More to come!
This will cover most things REST API at the fundamental level needed for the DEVASC, some items / tools not entirely clear here should be independently reviewed, as this article is long enough with me doing a full screenshot walkthrough of Postman REST API Tool 🙂 With that, lets get this party started! What an … Continue reading DEVASC REST API Deep Dive – API Types / Methods / Status Codes / Headers / Pagination / Rate-Limit / Tools / Python Scripted REST API Calls – Easy points on exam day!
Kaboom - And then there was APIs! Lets get right into it and get this DEVASC passed!!! 🙂 Northbound vs Southbound APIs, Synchronous vs Asynchronous, Authentication types! API (Application Programming Interfaces) allow Applications to talk to software to perform various tasks (configure / read / delete resources), the most common of these for DevNet exam … Continue reading DEVASC Quick Notes – Northbound vs Southbound API, Async vs Sync, REST API Basics, HTTP and CRUD Verbs, SOAP API, RPC reviewed!
The DEVNET GRIND! 