WEBVTT

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 Okay, so here in part two, we're going
 to be talking about, so you've

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 made the decision now that you want to utilize
 someone else's remote equipment.

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 And you're going to
 rent time on that.

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 How do you effectively do that?

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 How do you choose a provider of what's
 the best provider to choose for

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 this? Some things to look
 for, some tips and tricks.

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 And how do you design labs that
 can be used on their equipment?

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 If you've got two choices, if you're
 going to follow a pre-designed lab,

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 like a workbook or something, what are
 the best ways of using that workbook

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 so that you are not spending
 money frivolously?

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 Or secondarily, if you decide to design
 your own labs, what's the best

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 way to do that and also not spend money
 frivolously on the rented rack

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 time? So we're going to
 talk about those topics.

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 So let's get into it.

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 So, like I mentioned, before you spend
 a single penny on somebody else's

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 remote racks, you have to ask yourself,
 do a little bit of self-assessment

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 here, do a little bit of internal thinking
 about yourself and ask yourself,

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 what is the best way
 that you learn stuff?

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 Is it following a pre-designed lab guide
 or is it designing your own lab

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 tasks? Different people have different
 learning styles and need to answer

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 this because the techniques for efficient
 use of labs differ depending

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 on which one of these you're
 going to pursue.

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 So let's start with the first one.


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 So, there are pros and
 cons to both of these.

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 If you're using a workbook or you decide
 to design and create your own

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 labs, pros and cons to both.

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 So let's talk a little bit
 about that real quickly.

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 So where are some of the benefits?


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 Where are some of the positives of using
 a pre-designed lab guide or lab

0:02:14.020000 --> 0:02:23.640000
 workbook? Well, typically if it's a well
-designed workbook, in other words,

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 each task will build upon itself.

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 So when you start the workbook, it'll
 start out with something rather

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 simple, and by the time you get done
 with it, the tasks have gotten harder

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 and harder and more
 and more complex.

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 They've built on each other.

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 They're not just scattered all over the
 place with no correlation to each

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 other. A good workbook, if it's a workbook
 that's built around a particular

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 certification, it will have features
 and protocols that match that Cisco

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 certification. For example, maybe you're
 studying for your CCNP, let's

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 just say. And right now you're thinking
 about doing the CCNP route exam.

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 And you say to yourself, well, if I
 was to just do my own labs on BGP,

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 how do I know when to stop?

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 In other words, do I need to know about
 route reflectors and confederations

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 for BGP? Do I need to know what each
 and every one of these little things

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 in this show output I'm looking at,
 do I need to know what they mean for

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 BGP to pass the route exam?

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 Well, kind of hard to answer those questions
 you can, but if you're following

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 a pre-built lab workbook, hopefully
 the designer of that workbook built

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 it so that it's not too difficult
 and not too easy, right?

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 A CCNP route workbook should not have you
 doing tasks where you're configuring

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 and troubleshooting DMVPN, because that's
 not something you need to know

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 for the route exam.

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 So that's an example.

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 Workbooks, if they're designed well,
 should have lots of screenshots to

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 help you with self-assessment.

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 How do you know if you're
 doing it right?

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 How do you know if you're doing it the
 way the developer of this workbook

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 wanted you to do it?

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 Well, there should be screenshots in
 there to guide you along to make

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 sure that, okay, good.

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 What I'm seeing here matches this picture
 so I'm clearly on the right

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 path. It should have pre-built topology
 diagrams in it as well.

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 So what I mean by this is, well, I
 think that's pretty clear pre-built

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 topology diagrams.

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 And not every workbook has this, but
 some workbooks have questions and

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 assessments to answer.

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 You know, you might have a task and part
 of the task might be, okay, before

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 you configure this command, what's the
 quantity of router LSA's you think

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 router one will see?

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 What do you think the advertising router
 field will be of the type three

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 summary LSA that router
 two is seeing?

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 So it might ask you a question that
 forces you to stop for a minute and

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 think about what you're doing.

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 You just have blindly sort of in a trance
 typing in tasks and typing in

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 tasks and is going through
 it like that.

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 And it might have some pre-configured
 initial configurations as well.

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 Certainly if a workbook was designed
 around the assumption that you're

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 going to be using the exact same equipment
 that the designer used when

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 creating the workbook, it might come
 with some initial configuration so

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 you can just copy and paste
 it onto the equipment.

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 Now what are some of the cons, some of
 the downsides of using a pre-designed

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 lab guide? Well, it's not really designed
 to encourage creative exploration.

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 It's really designed that you follow
 each task through, and if you deviate

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 from the task, you might
 be messing yourself up.

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 If you deviate from the task, you might
 not be able to do the next task,

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 so it's not really designed
 that way for that.

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 Could be poorly written.

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 And this is something
 you have to check out.

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 You know, is the person
 who wrote that?

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 Is there a lot of bad syntax
 in their bad grammar?

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 And this might seem trivial, but bad
 syntax and bad grammar in a workbook

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 could mean that you don't really understand
 what they're asking of you.

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 You don't really know what to
 do or what the objective is.

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 Failure to complete one section might
 result in the inability to continue

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 to remaining sections, so that's
 also something to consider.

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 And how that ties back to this previous
 one is, you know, what if you're

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 going through lab
 task number four?

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 Let's say a lab workbook has 15 tasks
 on a particular protocol, 15 tasks

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 on OSPF, and you're on
 lab task number four.

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 And when you get to lab task number
 four, all of a sudden, to your shock

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 and amazement, that looks like there should
 be another paragraph or sentence

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 in there. The thing says, and on R4,
 configure the command, and there's

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 nothing. Well, now you can't complete
 lab task number four, and if you

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 can't complete that, can you
 move on to the other tasks?

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 That might be a downside to a workbook,
 if the editors didn't catch that

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 when they put it out there.

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 And it may not include tasks on protocols
 or features that you personally

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 wish to explore.

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 You know, it might not have everything
 that you want to do.

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 So one of the things you have to ask
 yourself is, under what circumstances

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 do you retain Cisco iOS
 commands the best?

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 Because, you know, the whole reason
 you're doing this, the whole reason

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 you're getting on the equipment is
 to get exposure to the commands.

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 Not only exposure, yeah, you want to see
 what the output of the show command

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 looks like. You want to see what the
 output of the debug looks like.

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 You want to become familiar with what
 this column means and what this

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 keyword means. But
 that's not enough.

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 In order to pass the exam, you
 have to memorize the commands.

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 You have to know what the
 command is I would type.

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 What show command would I type to see
 if I'm actually in the established

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 state or not with my BGP neighbor?


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 What show command would I type to see
 if I've got a promiscuous port for

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 my private VLAN?

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 You need to know this.

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 And so you have to ask
 yourself the question.

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 For me personally, what is the best
 way I can memorize iOS commands?

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 Is it following a pre-designed lab guide
 where they say, type this command,

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 see this output, type this
 command, see this output.

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 Maybe that works for you.

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 Maybe when you see that,
 it sticks with your head.

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 For me personally, I memorize commands
 better by experimentation and using

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 the question mark very liberally and
 frequently and trying to see what

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 all the commands are and see what's available
 to me and trying out various

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 keywords. That helps the command stick
 in my brain a little bit better

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 than reading through somebody else's
 document that says, use this command,

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 use this command.

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 But it's your own personal style.

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 You have to know that.

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 Okay, so let's say that you decide that
 you do want to use a lab guide.

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 So as we can see here, lab guides are written
 based on one of two assumptions.

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 The first assumption will be that you
 as the customer have access to the

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 same equipment as
 the lab developer.

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 Other lab guides will not
 make that assumption.

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 They will say, hey, look, here's a
 lab I developed in GNS3 or here's a

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 lab I developed on my home rack.

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 But it will be up to you to recreate
 that somewhere else.

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 You will need to find or build your
 own topology to match that of the

0:09:33.480000 --> 0:09:40.660000
 lab guide. So my personal advice is
 not just because I work for INE, you

0:09:40.660000 --> 0:09:43.540000
 know, I am a little influenced that
 way, but my personal advice is that

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 if you decide to use a pre-design lab
 guide, select one that allows you

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 access to the same equipment as
 that used by the lab designer.

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 Why? Well, there's a lot
 of reasons for that.

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 If you're using a lab guide that was
 built by someone and you don't have

0:10:00.680000 --> 0:10:04.980000
 access to the exact same hardware as
 they do, for example, let's say they

0:10:04.980000 --> 0:10:08.440000
 built something in GNS3, okay?

0:10:08.440000 --> 0:10:14.240000
 Well, you might not have access to
 the exact same iOS images that they

0:10:14.240000 --> 0:10:17.280000
 used in their GNS setup.

0:10:17.280000 --> 0:10:20.660000
 Or let's say they built something
 on their own home rack.

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 You don't have access
 to their home rack.

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 So what's that going to mean?

0:10:23.440000 --> 0:10:27.540000
 Well, that might translate to you might
 not have access to the same quantity

0:10:27.540000 --> 0:10:29.880000
 of interfaces as they do.

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 Maybe in the lab they designed they
 have got seven serial interfaces and

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 the best you could come
 up with is five.

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 That's going to be a problem.

0:10:38.800000 --> 0:10:43.260000
 You might not have access to the same
 types of interfaces as they do.

0:10:43.260000 --> 0:10:46.160000
 Let's take serial interfaces
 once again as an example.

0:10:46.160000 --> 0:10:48.620000
 Some serial interfaces
 are slow speed.

0:10:48.620000 --> 0:10:51.680000
 Some serial interfaces are
 high speed interfaces.

0:10:51.680000 --> 0:10:57.160000
 If they built their lab using high speed
 serial, but all you've got access

0:10:57.160000 --> 0:11:00.260000
 to is low speed serial, that's going
 to be a problem because now your

0:11:00.260000 --> 0:11:05.100000
 OSP of cost, your EIGRP bandwidth is
 going to be different than what they

0:11:05.100000 --> 0:11:08.640000
 came up with when they
 develop the lab.

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 If they supply any precon
As we can see here,

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00:09:06,683 --> 00:09:08,210
lab guides are written
based on one of

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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,

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00:09:23,114 --> 00:09:25,947
or here's a lab I developed
on my home rack,

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00:09:25,947 --> 00:09:30,074
but it will be up to you to
recreate that somewhere else.

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You will need to
find or build your

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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

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00:09:43,371 --> 00:09:45,827
is that if you decide to use
a pre-designed lab guide,

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00:09:45,827 --> 00:09:47,507
select one that
allows you access

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00:09:47,507 --> 00:09:49,355
to the same equipment
as that used

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by the lab designer.

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00:09:50,762 --> 00:09:55,383
Why? Well, there's a lot
of reasons for that.

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If you're using a lab guide that

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00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:00,509
was built by someone
and you don't

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00:10:00,509 --> 00:10:04,102
have access to the exact
same hardware as they do,

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00:10:04,102 --> 00:10:08,331
for example, say they
built something in GNS3.

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You might not have access

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00:10:11,645 --> 00:10:13,918
to the exact same IOS images

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00:10:13,918 --> 00:10:16,787
that they used in
their GNS setup.

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00:10:16,787 --> 00:10:18,910
Or let's say they
built something

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00:10:18,910 --> 00:10:20,740
on their own home rack.

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00:10:20,740 --> 00:10:22,534
You don't have access
to their home rack,

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00:10:22,534 --> 00:10:23,423
so what's that going to mean?

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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.

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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.

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00:10:36,632 --> 00:10:39,113
That's going to be a problem.

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00:10:39,113 --> 00:10:41,000
You might not have access to the

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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,

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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

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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.

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00:11:08,506 --> 00:11:11,678
If they supply any
preconfigs for

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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,

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00:11:16,923 --> 00:11:19,410
so you'll have to spend a lot of

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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,

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00:11:23,596 --> 00:11:26,096
say, paste into your switch,

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00:11:26,096 --> 00:11:30,318
each interface says,
Gigabit 001, 002, 003,

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00:11:30,318 --> 00:11:32,661
but on your switch
it's FastEthernet 01,

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00:11:32,661 --> 00:11:34,309
FastEthernet 02
well now you have

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00:11:34,309 --> 00:11:37,348
to edit all that
in a text editor.

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00:11:37,348 --> 00:11:42,227
You might experience bugs that
were not present in their lab.

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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]