1 00:00:02,242 --> 00:00:08,977 [music] 2 00:00:08,977 --> 00:00:12,659 Here in part two, we're going to be talking about, 3 00:00:12,659 --> 00:00:16,791 so you've made the decision now that you want to utilize someone 4 00:00:16,791 --> 00:00:18,828 else's remote equipment. 5 00:00:18,828 --> 00:00:22,277 You're going to rent time on that. 6 00:00:22,277 --> 00:00:23,813 How do you effectively do that? 7 00:00:23,813 --> 00:00:27,298 How do you choose a provider of 8 00:00:27,298 --> 00:00:28,673 what's the best provider to choose 9 00:00:28,673 --> 00:00:31,049 for this? Some things to look for, some tips, 10 00:00:31,049 --> 00:00:34,149 and tricks, and how do you design 11 00:00:34,149 --> 00:00:37,731 labs that can be used on their equipment? 12 00:00:37,731 --> 00:00:40,184 You've got two choices. 13 00:00:40,184 --> 00:00:42,374 If you're going to follow a pre-designed lab, 14 00:00:42,374 --> 00:00:44,326 like a workbook or something, 15 00:00:44,326 --> 00:00:46,337 what are the best ways of using 16 00:00:46,337 --> 00:00:48,679 that workbook so that you are not 17 00:00:48,679 --> 00:00:51,331 spending money frivolously? 18 00:00:51,331 --> 00:00:55,696 Or secondarily, if you decide to design your own labs, 19 00:00:55,696 --> 00:00:57,269 what's the best way to do that 20 00:00:57,269 --> 00:00:59,757 and also not spend money frivolously 21 00:00:59,757 --> 00:01:01,712 on the rented rack time. 22 00:01:01,712 --> 00:01:04,996 We're going to talk about those topics. 23 00:01:04,996 --> 00:01:06,039 Let's get into it. 24 00:01:09,182 --> 00:01:12,536 Like I mentioned, before you spend 25 00:01:12,536 --> 00:01:14,275 a single penny on somebody else's 26 00:01:14,275 --> 00:01:16,213 remote racks, you have to ask yourself-- 27 00:01:16,213 --> 00:01:18,576 do a little bit of self-assessment here. 28 00:01:18,576 --> 00:01:20,980 Do a little bit of internal 29 00:01:20,980 --> 00:01:23,067 thinking about yourself and ask yourself, 30 00:01:23,067 --> 00:01:27,549 what is the best way that you learn stuff. 31 00:01:27,549 --> 00:01:31,288 Is it following a pre-designed lab guide, 32 00:01:31,288 --> 00:01:32,727 or is it designing your 33 00:01:32,727 --> 00:01:34,416 own lab tasks? 34 00:01:34,416 --> 00:01:35,405 Different people have different 35 00:01:35,405 --> 00:01:38,217 learning styles and you need to answer 36 00:01:38,217 --> 00:01:40,320 this because the techniques for 37 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:42,714 efficient use of labs differ depending 38 00:01:42,714 --> 00:01:46,959 on which one of these you are going to pursue. 39 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:48,811 Let's start with the first one, 40 00:01:48,811 --> 00:01:51,582 following a pre-designed lab workbook 41 00:01:51,582 --> 00:01:56,391 and what are some effective techniques for that. 42 00:01:56,391 --> 00:01:59,639 There are pros and cons to both of these. 43 00:01:59,639 --> 00:02:01,854 If you are using a workbook or you 44 00:02:01,854 --> 00:02:03,306 decide to design and create your 45 00:02:03,306 --> 00:02:06,651 own labs, pros and cons to both, so let's talk a little bit about 46 00:02:06,651 --> 00:02:07,968 that real quickly. 47 00:02:07,968 --> 00:02:09,262 What are some of the benefits? 48 00:02:09,262 --> 00:02:11,110 What are some of the positives of 49 00:02:11,110 --> 00:02:16,368 using a pre-designed lab guide or a lab workbook? 50 00:02:16,368 --> 00:02:18,687 Typically, if it's a well designed workbook, 51 00:02:18,687 --> 00:02:20,317 it'll have a pre-built 52 00:02:20,317 --> 00:02:23,161 hierarchical learning approach. 53 00:02:23,161 --> 00:02:27,038 In other words, each task will build upon itself. 54 00:02:27,038 --> 00:02:28,529 So when you start the workbook, 55 00:02:28,529 --> 00:02:30,379 it'll start out with something rather simple, 56 00:02:30,379 --> 00:02:32,338 and by the time you get done with it, 57 00:02:32,338 --> 00:02:34,350 the tasks have gotten harder and 58 00:02:34,350 --> 00:02:36,284 harder and more and more complex. 59 00:02:36,284 --> 00:02:37,070 They've built on each other. 60 00:02:37,070 --> 00:02:38,911 They're not just scattered all 61 00:02:38,911 --> 00:02:40,695 over the place with no correlation 62 00:02:40,695 --> 00:02:41,682 to each other. 63 00:02:44,328 --> 00:02:46,290 A good workbook, if it's a workbook 64 00:02:46,290 --> 00:02:49,131 that's built around a particular certification, 65 00:02:49,131 --> 00:02:50,321 it will have features 66 00:02:50,321 --> 00:02:51,968 and protocols that match that 67 00:02:51,968 --> 00:02:53,635 Cisco certification. 68 00:02:53,635 --> 00:02:58,365 For example, maybe you're studying for your CCNP, 69 00:02:58,365 --> 00:03:01,033 let's just say, and right now you're 70 00:03:01,033 --> 00:03:01,927 thinking about doing 71 00:03:01,927 --> 00:03:05,204 the CCNP ROUTE exam. 72 00:03:05,204 --> 00:03:08,262 You say to yourself, Well, if I was 73 00:03:08,262 --> 00:03:12,951 to just do my own labs on BGP, 74 00:03:12,951 --> 00:03:15,176 how do I know when to stop? 75 00:03:15,176 --> 00:03:19,268 In other words, do I need to know about 76 00:03:19,268 --> 00:03:21,581 route reflectors and confederations 77 00:03:21,581 --> 00:03:24,377 for BGP? Do I need to know what 78 00:03:24,377 --> 00:03:25,880 each and every one of these little 79 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,054 things in this show output I'm looking at, 80 00:03:29,054 --> 00:03:31,863 do I need to know what they mean for BGP 81 00:03:31,863 --> 00:03:33,737 to pass the ROUTE exam? 82 00:03:33,737 --> 00:03:36,842 Well, kind of hard to answer those questions. 83 00:03:36,842 --> 00:03:41,087 You can, but if you're following a pre-built lab workbook, 84 00:03:41,087 --> 00:03:42,411 hopefully the designer of that 85 00:03:42,411 --> 00:03:45,762 workbook built it so that it's not 86 00:03:45,762 --> 00:03:49,458 too difficult and not too easy. 87 00:03:49,458 --> 00:03:51,725 A CCNP ROUTE workbook should not 88 00:03:51,737 --> 00:03:54,230 have you doing tasks where you're 89 00:03:54,230 --> 00:03:55,723 configuring and troubleshooting 90 00:03:55,723 --> 00:03:57,828 DMVPN because that's not something 91 00:03:57,828 --> 00:04:00,687 you need to know for the ROUTE exam. 92 00:04:00,687 --> 00:04:03,776 So that's an example. 93 00:04:03,776 --> 00:04:05,627 Workbooks, if they're designed well, 94 00:04:05,627 --> 00:04:07,298 should have lots of screenshots 95 00:04:07,298 --> 00:04:08,751 to help you with self-assessment. 96 00:04:08,751 --> 00:04:11,174 How do you know if you're doing it right? 97 00:04:11,174 --> 00:04:13,926 How do you know if you're doing it the way the developer of this 98 00:04:13,926 --> 00:04:15,129 workbook wanted you to do it? 99 00:04:15,129 --> 00:04:17,356 There should be screenshots in there to guide you along, 100 00:04:17,356 --> 00:04:18,596 to make sure that, Okay, good. 101 00:04:18,596 --> 00:04:20,440 What I'm seeing here matches this 102 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:26,318 picture so I'm clearly on the right path. 103 00:04:26,318 --> 00:04:29,983 It should have pre-built topology diagrams in it as well. 104 00:04:29,983 --> 00:04:34,556 What I mean by this is-- well, I think that's pretty clear, 105 00:04:34,556 --> 00:04:38,168 pre-built topology diagrams. 106 00:04:38,168 --> 00:04:40,057 Not every workbook has this, 107 00:04:40,057 --> 00:04:42,695 but some workbooks have questions and 108 00:04:42,695 --> 00:04:44,132 assessments to answer. 109 00:04:44,132 --> 00:04:47,110 You might have a task and part of the task might be, 110 00:04:47,110 --> 00:04:51,155 Okay, before you configure this command, 111 00:04:51,155 --> 00:04:53,222 what's the quantity of router 112 00:04:53,222 --> 00:04:56,620 LSAs you think Router 1 will see? 113 00:04:56,620 --> 00:04:58,315 What do you think the advertising 114 00:04:58,315 --> 00:05:01,789 router field will be of the Type 3 115 00:05:01,789 --> 00:05:04,838 summary LSA that Router 2 is seeing? 116 00:05:04,838 --> 00:05:06,182 It might ask you questions that 117 00:05:06,182 --> 00:05:07,817 force you to stop for a minute and 118 00:05:07,817 --> 00:05:09,845 think about what you're doing 119 00:05:09,845 --> 00:05:11,796 instead of just blindly sort of in a trance, 120 00:05:11,796 --> 00:05:13,793 typing in tasks and typing in tasks, 121 00:05:13,793 --> 00:05:16,189 just going through it like that. 122 00:05:16,189 --> 00:05:20,191 It might have some preconfigured initial configurations as well. 123 00:05:20,191 --> 00:05:21,469 Certainly, if a workbook was 124 00:05:21,469 --> 00:05:24,558 designed around the assumption that 125 00:05:24,558 --> 00:05:26,304 you're going to be using the exact 126 00:05:26,304 --> 00:05:28,069 same equipment that the designer 127 00:05:28,069 --> 00:05:30,247 used when creating the workbook, it might 128 00:05:30,259 --> 00:05:32,241 come with some initial configurations 129 00:05:32,241 --> 00:05:35,743 You can just copy and paste it onto the equipment. 130 00:05:35,743 --> 00:05:38,574 What are some of the cons, some of the downsides, 131 00:05:38,574 --> 00:05:39,900 of using a pre-designed 132 00:05:39,900 --> 00:05:42,731 lab guide? It's not really designed 133 00:05:42,731 --> 00:05:44,917 to encourage creative exploration. 134 00:05:44,917 --> 00:05:46,019 It's really designed that you 135 00:05:46,019 --> 00:05:48,742 follow each task through and if you 136 00:05:48,742 --> 00:05:52,361 deviate from the task, you might be messing yourself up. 137 00:05:52,361 --> 00:05:53,909 If you deviate from the task, 138 00:05:53,909 --> 00:05:55,999 you might not be able to do the next task. 139 00:05:55,999 --> 00:06:00,479 It's not really designed that way for that. 140 00:06:00,479 --> 00:06:03,333 It could be poorly written. 141 00:06:03,333 --> 00:06:04,948 This is something you have to check out. 142 00:06:04,948 --> 00:06:07,708 The person who wrote that, is there 143 00:06:07,708 --> 00:06:08,995 a lot of bad syntax in there, 144 00:06:08,995 --> 00:06:12,010 bad grammar? This might seem trivial, 145 00:06:12,010 --> 00:06:14,103 but bad syntax and bad grammar 146 00:06:14,103 --> 00:06:15,414 in a workbook could mean that you 147 00:06:15,414 --> 00:06:16,499 don't really understand what they're 148 00:06:16,499 --> 00:06:17,646 asking of you. 149 00:06:17,646 --> 00:06:23,654 You don't really know what to do or what the objective is. 150 00:06:23,654 --> 00:06:27,165 Failure to complete one section might result in the inability to 151 00:06:27,165 --> 00:06:29,365 continue to remaining sections. 152 00:06:29,365 --> 00:06:33,121 That's also something to consider. 153 00:06:33,121 --> 00:06:36,629 How that ties back to this previous one is, 154 00:06:36,629 --> 00:06:42,093 what if you're going through lab task number 4-- let's say a lab 155 00:06:42,093 --> 00:06:45,062 workbook has 15 tasks on a particular protocol, 156 00:06:45,062 --> 00:06:49,649 15 tasks on OSPF, and you're on lab task number 4. 157 00:06:49,649 --> 00:06:51,910 When you get to lab task number 4, all of sudden, 158 00:06:51,910 --> 00:06:54,658 to your shock and amazement, 159 00:06:54,658 --> 00:06:56,447 it looks like there should be another 160 00:06:56,447 --> 00:06:58,346 paragraph or sentence in there. 161 00:06:58,346 --> 00:07:01,505 The thing says, and on R4 configure 162 00:07:01,505 --> 00:07:04,514 the command and there's nothing. 163 00:07:04,514 --> 00:07:06,599 Wel,l now you can't complete Lab 164 00:07:06,599 --> 00:07:08,253 task number four, and if you can't 165 00:07:08,253 --> 00:07:11,777 complete that, can you move on to the other tasks? 166 00:07:11,777 --> 00:07:13,199 That might be a downside to a 167 00:07:13,199 --> 00:07:15,281 workbook if the editors didn't catch 168 00:07:15,281 --> 00:07:18,501 that when they put it out there. 169 00:07:18,501 --> 00:07:20,489 And it may not include tasks on protocols 170 00:07:20,489 --> 00:07:21,666 or features that you personally 171 00:07:21,666 --> 00:07:24,193 wish to explore. It might not have 172 00:07:24,193 --> 00:07:27,647 everything that you want to do. 173 00:07:27,647 --> 00:07:28,987 So one of the things you have to ask 174 00:07:28,987 --> 00:07:32,533 yourself is under what circumstances 175 00:07:32,533 --> 00:07:36,047 do you retain Cisco IOS commands the best? 176 00:07:36,047 --> 00:07:38,083 Because the whole reason you're doing this, 177 00:07:38,083 --> 00:07:40,246 the whole reason you're getting on the equipment, 178 00:07:40,246 --> 00:07:42,798 is to get exposure to the commands. 179 00:07:42,798 --> 00:07:44,353 Not only exposure, yeah, you want 180 00:07:44,353 --> 00:07:46,024 to see what the output of the show 181 00:07:46,024 --> 00:07:47,083 command looks like. 182 00:07:47,083 --> 00:07:50,135 You want to see what the output of the debug looks like. 183 00:07:50,135 --> 00:07:53,056 You want to become familiar with what this column means and what 184 00:07:53,056 --> 00:07:56,205 this keyword means, but that's not enough. 185 00:07:56,205 --> 00:07:59,707 In order to pass the exam, you have to memorize the commands. 186 00:07:59,707 --> 00:08:01,908 You have to know what the command is I would type. 187 00:08:01,908 --> 00:08:04,517 What show command would I type to see 188 00:08:04,517 --> 00:08:05,878 if I'm actually in the established 189 00:08:05,878 --> 00:08:08,251 state or not with my BGP neighbor? 190 00:08:08,251 --> 00:08:09,882 What show command would I type to 191 00:08:09,882 --> 00:08:11,969 see if I've got a promiscuous port 192 00:08:11,969 --> 00:08:13,246 for my private VLAN? 193 00:08:13,246 --> 00:08:14,655 You need to know this. 194 00:08:14,655 --> 00:08:16,752 And so you have to ask yourself the question: 195 00:08:16,752 --> 00:08:19,477 For me personally, what is the best 196 00:08:19,477 --> 00:08:23,400 way I can memorize IOS commands? 197 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:26,570 Is it following a pre-designed lab guide 198 00:08:26,570 --> 00:08:29,420 where they say, Type this command, see this output. 199 00:08:29,420 --> 00:08:30,932 Type this command, see this output. 200 00:08:30,932 --> 00:08:32,006 Maybe that works for you. 201 00:08:32,006 --> 00:08:34,935 Maybe when you see that, it sticks with your head. 202 00:08:34,935 --> 00:08:37,203 For me personally, I memorize 203 00:08:37,203 --> 00:08:39,639 commands better by experimentation, 204 00:08:39,639 --> 00:08:42,364 and using the question mark very liberally and frequently 205 00:08:42,364 --> 00:08:43,910 and trying to see what all the commands are 206 00:08:43,910 --> 00:08:45,520 and see what's available to me, 207 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:46,984 and trying out various keywords. 208 00:08:46,984 --> 00:08:50,444 That helps the command stick in my brain a little bit better 209 00:08:50,444 --> 00:08:52,812 than reading through somebody else's document that says, 210 00:08:52,812 --> 00:08:54,734 use this command, use this command. 211 00:08:54,734 --> 00:09:00,285 If that's your own personal style, you have to know that. 212 00:09:00,285 --> 00:09:01,932 Okay, so let's say that you decide 213 00:09:01,932 --> 00:09:05,815 that you do want to use a lab guide. 214 00:09:05,815 --> 00:09:06,683 As we can see here, 215 00:09:06,683 --> 00:09:08,210 lab guides are written based on one of 216 00:09:08,210 --> 00:09:10,177 two assumptions. 217 00:09:10,177 --> 00:09:13,060 The first assumption will be that you, as the customer, 218 00:09:13,060 --> 00:09:17,318 have access to the same equipment as the lab developer. 219 00:09:17,318 --> 00:09:19,471 Other lab guides will not make that assumption. 220 00:09:19,471 --> 00:09:23,114 They will say, hey look, here's a lab I developed in GNS3, 221 00:09:23,114 --> 00:09:25,947 or here's a lab I developed on my home rack, 222 00:09:25,947 --> 00:09:30,074 but it will be up to you to recreate that somewhere else. 223 00:09:30,074 --> 00:09:31,542 You will need to find or build your 224 00:09:31,542 --> 00:09:33,485 own topology to match that of the 225 00:09:33,485 --> 00:09:39,909 lab guide. My personal advice - and it's not just because I work 226 00:09:39,909 --> 00:09:41,844 for INE, I am a little influenced 227 00:09:41,844 --> 00:09:43,371 that way - but my personal advice 228 00:09:43,371 --> 00:09:45,827 is that if you decide to use a pre-designed lab guide, 229 00:09:45,827 --> 00:09:47,507 select one that allows you access 230 00:09:47,507 --> 00:09:49,355 to the same equipment as that used 231 00:09:49,355 --> 00:09:50,762 by the lab designer. 232 00:09:50,762 --> 00:09:55,383 Why? Well, there's a lot of reasons for that. 233 00:09:55,383 --> 00:09:57,840 If you're using a lab guide that 234 00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:00,509 was built by someone and you don't 235 00:10:00,509 --> 00:10:04,102 have access to the exact same hardware as they do, 236 00:10:04,102 --> 00:10:08,331 for example, say they built something in GNS3. 237 00:10:08,331 --> 00:10:11,645 You might not have access 238 00:10:11,645 --> 00:10:13,918 to the exact same IOS images 239 00:10:13,918 --> 00:10:16,787 that they used in their GNS setup. 240 00:10:16,787 --> 00:10:18,910 Or let's say they built something 241 00:10:18,910 --> 00:10:20,740 on their own home rack. 242 00:10:20,740 --> 00:10:22,534 You don't have access to their home rack, 243 00:10:22,534 --> 00:10:23,423 so what's that going to mean? 244 00:10:23,423 --> 00:10:25,604 Well, that might translate to you 245 00:10:25,604 --> 00:10:27,204 might not have access to the same 246 00:10:27,204 --> 00:10:29,863 quantity of interfaces as they do. 247 00:10:29,863 --> 00:10:31,269 Maybe in the lab they designed, 248 00:10:31,269 --> 00:10:33,688 they have got seven serial interfaces 249 00:10:33,688 --> 00:10:36,632 and the best you could come up with is five. 250 00:10:36,632 --> 00:10:39,113 That's going to be a problem. 251 00:10:39,113 --> 00:10:41,000 You might not have access to the 252 00:10:41,012 --> 00:10:43,266 same types of interfaces as they do. 253 00:10:43,266 --> 00:10:46,183 We'll take serial interfaces, once again, as an example. 254 00:10:46,183 --> 00:10:48,791 Some serial interfaces are slow speed. 255 00:10:48,791 --> 00:10:51,708 Some serial interfaces are high speed interfaces. 256 00:10:51,708 --> 00:10:54,631 They built their lab using high 257 00:10:54,631 --> 00:10:56,928 speed serial but all you've got 258 00:10:56,928 --> 00:10:59,636 access to is low speed serial. That's going to be a problem, 259 00:10:59,636 --> 00:11:02,264 because now your OSPF cost, 260 00:11:02,264 --> 00:11:03,785 your EIGRP bandwidth is going to 261 00:11:03,785 --> 00:11:05,503 be different than what they came 262 00:11:05,503 --> 00:11:08,506 up with when they developed the lab. 263 00:11:08,506 --> 00:11:11,678 If they supply any preconfigs for 264 00:11:11,678 --> 00:11:13,798 the lab, those preconfigs will not 265 00:11:13,798 --> 00:11:16,923 copy and paste into what you are using, 266 00:11:16,923 --> 00:11:19,410 so you'll have to spend a lot of 267 00:11:19,410 --> 00:11:21,744 tedious time editing what they've 268 00:11:21,744 --> 00:11:23,596 given you. Maybe their preconfig, 269 00:11:23,596 --> 00:11:26,096 say, paste into your switch, 270 00:11:26,096 --> 00:11:30,318 each interface says, Gigabit 001, 002, 003, 271 00:11:30,318 --> 00:11:32,661 but on your switch it's FastEthernet 01, 272 00:11:32,661 --> 00:11:34,309 FastEthernet 02 well now you have 273 00:11:34,309 --> 00:11:37,348 to edit all that in a text editor. 274 00:11:37,348 --> 00:11:42,227 You might experience bugs that were not present in their lab. 275 00:11:42,227 --> 00:11:44,098 They designed it in GNS using 276 00:11:44,098 --> 00:11:46,295 a certain flavor of IOS that you 277 00:11:46,295 --> 00:11:48,018 don't have access to. 278 00:11:48,018 --> 00:11:50,432 The version of IOS that you are using 279 00:11:50,432 --> 00:11:52,960 might have bugs that they didn't have, 280 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,017 and now you got to deal with that. 281 00:11:55,017 --> 00:11:57,408 And then lastly, you might not have 282 00:11:57,408 --> 00:11:59,211 access to all the commands and 283 00:11:59,211 --> 00:12:03,087 features that were present in the lab designer's IOS. 284 00:12:03,087 --> 00:12:06,899 Maybe the IOS they used has a certain keyword, 285 00:12:06,899 --> 00:12:08,835 or the output of show command is a 286 00:12:08,835 --> 00:12:10,139 certain way that's not matching 287 00:12:10,139 --> 00:12:11,984 up with what you have. 288 00:12:11,984 --> 00:12:14,049 That's the risk that you run if you're 289 00:12:14,049 --> 00:12:15,599 using a lab guide that somebody 290 00:12:15,599 --> 00:12:17,641 else built and you don't have 291 00:12:17,641 --> 00:12:20,586 access to the same rack or the same 292 00:12:20,586 --> 00:12:22,566 equipment that they do. 293 00:12:22,566 --> 00:12:23,911 That's the risk that you're running. 294 00:12:28,414 --> 00:12:30,149 So some time management techniques 295 00:12:30,149 --> 00:12:31,595 - what's our objective here? 296 00:12:31,595 --> 00:12:33,311 We want to avoid idle time. 297 00:12:33,311 --> 00:12:35,138 Every single minute in that rack 298 00:12:35,138 --> 00:12:37,279 is costing you a nickle or a dime 299 00:12:37,279 --> 00:12:39,691 or something, and that can add up after 5, 300 00:12:39,691 --> 00:12:44,894 10, 15 minutes of not using that rack, so we want to avoid that. 301 00:12:44,894 --> 00:12:46,854 Here's things you should do. 302 00:12:46,854 --> 00:12:50,733 Read through the lab guide prior to renting any time on the rack. 303 00:12:50,733 --> 00:12:52,872 Ensure that you understand the objective: 304 00:12:52,872 --> 00:12:54,595 what is this task really 305 00:12:54,595 --> 00:12:55,898 trying to get me to do? 306 00:12:55,898 --> 00:12:59,292 What's the ultimate endgame of this task? 307 00:12:59,292 --> 00:13:02,958 What am I supposed to learn from it? 308 00:13:02,958 --> 00:13:04,727 Ensure that you understand the instructions. 309 00:13:04,727 --> 00:13:09,660 If they're badly written, if the grammar is bad, 310 00:13:09,660 --> 00:13:11,055 you might say, Forget this lab. 311 00:13:11,055 --> 00:13:12,322 I can't even understand what this 312 00:13:12,322 --> 00:13:13,527 guy's trying to tell me to do. 313 00:13:13,527 --> 00:13:17,486 So make sure you can understand everything in there. 314 00:13:17,486 --> 00:13:19,024 Ensure that it's readable. 315 00:13:19,024 --> 00:13:21,096 You might be going through a lab guide and it looks good, 316 00:13:21,096 --> 00:13:23,072 but all of a sudden, on page 5, 317 00:13:23,072 --> 00:13:24,503 there's a bunch of weird characters 318 00:13:24,503 --> 00:13:26,878 in there - some editing mishap 319 00:13:26,878 --> 00:13:29,111 happened and a particular paragraph 320 00:13:29,111 --> 00:13:30,748 or a series, you can't even 321 00:13:30,748 --> 00:13:32,628 understand it because certain things 322 00:13:32,628 --> 00:13:34,217 have been garbled. 323 00:13:34,217 --> 00:13:36,329 That will influence it. 324 00:13:36,329 --> 00:13:38,110 Ideally, if you can, estimate the 325 00:13:38,110 --> 00:13:39,501 amount of time you will need for 326 00:13:39,501 --> 00:13:43,574 each task. For example, you might 327 00:13:43,574 --> 00:13:45,020 read through a task that's really long. 328 00:13:45,020 --> 00:13:46,002 You've got to scroll through 329 00:13:46,002 --> 00:13:47,729 lots of HTML to get from the top 330 00:13:47,729 --> 00:13:50,538 to the bottom, and you say to yourself, 331 00:13:50,538 --> 00:13:52,570 I think if I do this task, 332 00:13:52,570 --> 00:13:55,873 it's probably going to take me about an hour. 333 00:13:55,873 --> 00:13:58,586 Okay, do you have an hour right now to do it? 334 00:13:58,586 --> 00:13:59,683 Are you on your lunch break? 335 00:13:59,683 --> 00:14:00,773 Do you have a full hour? 336 00:14:00,773 --> 00:14:02,051 Do you have a conference call to 337 00:14:02,051 --> 00:14:03,908 do in about 45 minutes from now, 338 00:14:03,908 --> 00:14:06,801 or maybe you've already rented some rack time, 339 00:14:06,801 --> 00:14:09,700 you've only got 45 minutes left of your rack time. 340 00:14:09,700 --> 00:14:14,179 Do you have time to accomplish this? 341 00:14:14,179 --> 00:14:19,244 Or on the flip side, if you say, Well, I think I can do these two 342 00:14:19,244 --> 00:14:21,573 or three tasks in probably a couple of hours, 343 00:14:21,573 --> 00:14:24,194 knowing that advance will prevent 344 00:14:24,194 --> 00:14:26,186 you from plopping down a bunch 345 00:14:26,186 --> 00:14:29,962 of money and pre-reserving six hours of rack time. 346 00:14:29,962 --> 00:14:32,391 Why spend money and reserve six 347 00:14:32,391 --> 00:14:34,248 hours when you're really only going 348 00:14:34,248 --> 00:14:35,837 to need about two hours? 349 00:14:35,837 --> 00:14:37,194 So that's good to know how much 350 00:14:37,194 --> 00:14:39,710 time you're going to need for each task. 351 00:14:39,710 --> 00:14:41,179 If you're not given the IOS 352 00:14:41,179 --> 00:14:42,374 command to accomplish a task, 353 00:14:42,374 --> 00:14:44,154 look it up and write it down. 354 00:14:44,154 --> 00:14:45,574 This will save you a lot of time as well. 355 00:14:45,574 --> 00:14:46,977 You don't want to be going through 356 00:14:46,977 --> 00:14:48,460 the config guides and the IOS 357 00:14:48,460 --> 00:14:50,449 command references and stuff while 358 00:14:50,449 --> 00:14:52,452 that time is counting down on 359 00:14:52,452 --> 00:14:56,305 your remote rack and consuming money. 360 00:14:56,305 --> 00:14:59,340 Print multiple copies of the topology drawings. 361 00:14:59,340 --> 00:15:00,770 You want to have hard copies of 362 00:15:00,770 --> 00:15:01,948 those topology drawings so you can 363 00:15:01,948 --> 00:15:04,662 write on there, okay, here is what my OSPF area is. 364 00:15:04,662 --> 00:15:07,744 Here is who they want me to make the designated router. 365 00:15:07,744 --> 00:15:09,425 Here's the IP addresses of everything 366 00:15:09,425 --> 00:15:10,630 because they didn't give it to me. 367 00:15:10,630 --> 00:15:13,290 So make sure you've got all that stuff upfront, 368 00:15:13,290 --> 00:15:16,419 before you click the start button, or the access button, 369 00:15:16,419 --> 00:15:18,944 or whatever it is, on your remote rack. 370 00:15:22,446 --> 00:15:24,898 Now, once you start working on the remote rack, 371 00:15:24,898 --> 00:15:26,759 ignore any timers. 372 00:15:26,759 --> 00:15:27,874 You don't want to be 373 00:15:27,874 --> 00:15:29,384 sidetracked by constantly looking 374 00:15:29,384 --> 00:15:30,847 up in the corner there, and saying, Okay, 375 00:15:30,847 --> 00:15:32,660 I got 15 minutes left. 376 00:15:32,660 --> 00:15:34,166 I got 12 and a half minutes left. 377 00:15:34,166 --> 00:15:36,536 I got 9 minutes left. 378 00:15:36,536 --> 00:15:38,744 It's going to cause you unnecessary stress. 379 00:15:38,744 --> 00:15:45,348 You want to be focused 100%, on what you're doing right now. 380 00:15:45,348 --> 00:15:47,873 Don't worry about how much time is left on the rack 381 00:15:47,873 --> 00:15:51,366 once you started out. 382 00:15:51,366 --> 00:15:54,673 When you feel the urge to experiment, do so. 383 00:15:54,673 --> 00:15:57,894 I reckon now, one little caveat here. 384 00:15:57,894 --> 00:16:01,172 If you're getting through a task, and maybe the task says, 385 00:16:01,172 --> 00:16:03,470 Okay, issue the show command and take a look. 386 00:16:03,470 --> 00:16:04,980 And you say, You know what? 387 00:16:04,980 --> 00:16:07,163 I wonder what would happen if I went 388 00:16:07,163 --> 00:16:09,176 back and I typed in that previous 389 00:16:09,176 --> 00:16:11,085 command but I added this keyword to it. 390 00:16:11,085 --> 00:16:13,647 Well, you can do that but here's the thing. 391 00:16:13,647 --> 00:16:15,836 Before you go off track and you start 392 00:16:15,836 --> 00:16:17,933 doing things off the lab guide, 393 00:16:17,933 --> 00:16:19,574 save your configs. 394 00:16:19,574 --> 00:16:24,603 In the router switch, issue the command terminal monitor 0 - 395 00:16:24,603 --> 00:16:27,895 term mon 0. Type show run. 396 00:16:27,895 --> 00:16:29,343 And by doing term mon 0, that means 397 00:16:29,343 --> 00:16:30,784 it'll just scroll through the 398 00:16:30,784 --> 00:16:32,332 show run from beginning to end. 399 00:16:32,332 --> 00:16:34,905 It won't pause and say more, more, more. 400 00:16:34,905 --> 00:16:36,871 Term mon 0 means start and just 401 00:16:36,871 --> 00:16:38,499 keep going until you reach the end 402 00:16:38,499 --> 00:16:39,802 of the command. 403 00:16:39,802 --> 00:16:42,617 Do show run, capture it all to a text file, 404 00:16:42,617 --> 00:16:44,839 and now do your experimentation. 405 00:16:44,839 --> 00:16:47,563 Play around because that way if you mess something up, 406 00:16:47,563 --> 00:16:51,255 write erase, reload, copy and paste your config back in, 407 00:16:51,255 --> 00:16:52,405 and you're right back where you 408 00:16:52,405 --> 00:16:54,275 were before you start experimenting, 409 00:16:54,275 --> 00:16:57,773 before you went off track. 410 00:16:57,773 --> 00:17:00,682 When you have an aha moment, write it down. 411 00:17:00,682 --> 00:17:03,626 You say, Oh cool, look at this. 412 00:17:03,626 --> 00:17:08,389 I was messing around with the load on a particular interface, 413 00:17:08,389 --> 00:17:10,537 but no matter how I mess around with the load, 414 00:17:10,537 --> 00:17:13,339 when I do my show IP EIGRP topology, 415 00:17:13,339 --> 00:17:14,898 it never changes in there. 416 00:17:14,898 --> 00:17:18,033 Apparently, the actual load of 417 00:17:18,033 --> 00:17:19,903 the interface is not affecting my topology. 418 00:17:19,903 --> 00:17:21,187 Aha, I didn't know that. 419 00:17:21,187 --> 00:17:25,379 Write that down so you don't forget that. 420 00:17:25,379 --> 00:17:28,935 If lab tasks are independent, not cumulative. 421 00:17:28,935 --> 00:17:30,274 So what I mean by here is, 422 00:17:30,274 --> 00:17:31,872 there's some lab guides where they're 423 00:17:31,872 --> 00:17:33,394 written in such a way that you can 424 00:17:33,394 --> 00:17:35,692 go right to lab task number 9, 425 00:17:35,692 --> 00:17:37,250 skipping the previous eight tasks, 426 00:17:37,250 --> 00:17:39,483 or right to lab task number 17, 427 00:17:39,483 --> 00:17:42,759 and download an initial configuration 428 00:17:42,759 --> 00:17:44,879 and it starts you right there. 429 00:17:44,879 --> 00:17:47,939 It's not forcing you to go from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5. 430 00:17:47,939 --> 00:17:49,128 That's what I'm talking about. If they're 431 00:17:49,128 --> 00:17:51,341 independent and not cumulative, 432 00:17:51,341 --> 00:17:53,113 try to recreate some of the previous 433 00:17:53,113 --> 00:17:55,201 tasks from memory and add 434 00:17:55,201 --> 00:17:57,005 to your current task. 435 00:17:57,005 --> 00:17:58,333 Here's an example. 436 00:17:58,333 --> 00:18:00,180 Maybe you're doing a switching lab, 437 00:18:00,180 --> 00:18:04,343 and in task number one it had you create 438 00:18:04,343 --> 00:18:06,435 some VLANs - gave you the commands 439 00:18:06,435 --> 00:18:08,933 for that - some VLAN verification. 440 00:18:08,933 --> 00:18:11,510 Okay, now on task number two, when you 441 00:18:11,510 --> 00:18:13,069 download the initial configuration 442 00:18:13,069 --> 00:18:15,162 or you copy and paste it, it's already 443 00:18:15,162 --> 00:18:16,279 got those VLANs in there from 444 00:18:16,279 --> 00:18:17,687 task number one. 445 00:18:17,687 --> 00:18:19,356 Well remember, what's your objective here? 446 00:18:19,356 --> 00:18:22,139 Your objective is to memorize these commands. 447 00:18:22,139 --> 00:18:24,977 So maybe it's a better idea to, 448 00:18:24,977 --> 00:18:27,872 instead of downloading that initial configuration, 449 00:18:27,872 --> 00:18:29,121 type it in yourself. 450 00:18:29,121 --> 00:18:30,870 Even though the lab task number 451 00:18:30,870 --> 00:18:33,774 two assumes the VLANs are already there, 452 00:18:33,774 --> 00:18:35,837 why don't you recreate them a second time, 453 00:18:35,837 --> 00:18:37,307 a third time, a fourth time, 454 00:18:37,307 --> 00:18:38,560 because that's what's really going to 455 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:40,741 help to reinforce these commands 456 00:18:40,741 --> 00:18:46,082 and get them in your head. And save 457 00:18:46,082 --> 00:18:50,352 your configs often to local.txt files, to text files. 458 00:18:50,352 --> 00:18:53,165 You'll never know, you're using 459 00:18:53,165 --> 00:18:56,230 somebody else's rack, their data center 460 00:18:56,230 --> 00:18:57,908 could have a power outage and all 461 00:18:57,908 --> 00:18:58,359 of a sudden, you're in the middle 462 00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:00,634 of your stuff and you lose everything. 463 00:19:00,634 --> 00:19:04,366 Or a particular router or switch you're on could crash and die. 464 00:19:04,366 --> 00:19:05,951 Nothing more frustrating than you 465 00:19:05,951 --> 00:19:07,237 spent the last hour and a half 466 00:19:07,237 --> 00:19:10,557 creating this really complex convoluted configuration 467 00:19:10,557 --> 00:19:12,494 and you didn't save it. 468 00:19:12,494 --> 00:19:14,333 You never issued write memory, 469 00:19:14,333 --> 00:19:16,712 and now the thing crashes and dies. 470 00:19:16,712 --> 00:19:18,944 So, frequently save your configs to 471 00:19:18,944 --> 00:19:21,421 text files so you can recopy and 472 00:19:21,421 --> 00:19:24,223 paste them if you have a need to do so. 473 00:19:24,223 --> 00:19:29,223 [music]