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S.W.O.R.D. Agent posted:Absurdly short or long? The CCNA course at community colleges is often spread over multiple semesters.
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May 27, 2014 19:28
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Okay, I see. I was just trying to get a baseline expectation for how long this may take.
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May 27, 2014 19:54
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ZergFluid posted:The CCNA course at community colleges is often spread over multiple semesters. Back in the olden days when I took it, it was 1 semester. But that was back when it was a single test.
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May 27, 2014 20:07
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Eonwe posted:Professor Messer pretty much owns for the A+. Do this and maybe find some reputable site that sells A+ lab practice exams? http://www.professormesser.com/. His videos are all free. The only thing content-wise you won't really get from him is lab practice. I wouldn't recommend doing anything that seems to look remotely like a brain dump, especially for labs. Awesome, thank you very much! Also, apparently due to my unemployment, I just found out that I qualify for a bunch of free classes at New Horizons. Anyone have any experience with them?
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May 27, 2014 21:55
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Trying to force myself back into the grind of studying for ICDN1. I went through the updated Lammle study guide straight through with all the questions and labs in between up to the last two chapters covering the CCENT in a few weeks, then I just kind of...withered and stopped and got busy with other projects. That was a few months ago. Tested myself with subnetting questions today and seems I'm still pretty strong at that. Gonna go through my notes and rebuild my packet tracer labs to refresh everything before finishing off those last chapters and taking the test. The hardest part for me is getting myself to start going again. Egh. mythicknight fucked around with this message at 04:46 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 04:10
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S.W.O.R.D. Agent posted:Okay, I see. I was just trying to get a baseline expectation for how long this may take. I think it really just depends on you and how much time you are willing to put into it. I'm going to WGU and 1 course's final is the cert exam for the CCENT and a second course's final is the cert exam for the CCNA. This implies 3 months-ish to get your CCNA. I'm nearly done with studying for my CCENT and it has been under a month. Still, I wouldn't rush. Just by having an A+ certification and mentioning that I am working toward my CCNA has gotten me a few interviews this month. Ultimately it will probably be better for you to take a bit more time and have some good understanding. I spent 3 hours just doing subnetting problems and making sure I understand the theory behind subnetting even though I'll likely just be using a subnetting calculator at any job I might have.
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May 28, 2014 05:26
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S.W.O.R.D. Agent posted:Absurdly short or long? The only way you're passing either exam with only 30 hours of study is if you braindump or have experience on the job already. Or both.
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May 28, 2014 14:35
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Keith Barker's CBT Nuggets vids for CCNA Security seem to have good content, but I really wish he'd stop trying to convince me how incredibly fun things like IOS-based IPS are. 
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May 28, 2014 20:46
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Haha. I love Keith Barker. I think he's redoing the CCNP Security videos, or at least I hope he is. He did Firewall and VPN, but another trainer did IPS and SECURE and drat those were so boring. I just met him at Cisco Live last week after his MPLS session and I got my photo taken with him. Awesome guy.
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May 28, 2014 23:49
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Oh yeah, he seems awesome, but at some points, I wanna just be like, dude, you're talking about using some crappy-rear end Java application to do stuff that you could do in 15 seconds with the CLI, stop with the "hello campers!" speech, man
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May 29, 2014 00:35
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Been studying for the NCDA for about 2 months, feel like I am just about ready for it. Nipplefloss sent me this, thought I should post it here: In the mean time I would focus on understanding basic operations like creating volumes, aggregates, snapshots and qtrees, and how those things all work together. Spend time getting comfortable with how to configure snapmirror and snapvault. Understand the changes made to how deduplication works in 8.1 (where the fingerprint database is located is a popular question) and how deduplication interacts with snapmirror and snapvault (whether the data is sent over the wire deduplicated and what happens on the destination after a transfer). Know the command syntax for creating clones. Read up on SyncMirror aggregates and how to create them. Know how to perform takeover/giveback and understand how ha failover works and basic commands to troubleshoot it (cf status). Know how multi-protocol access works. Know about the somewhat obscure ptkk, ndmpcopy, and rdfile/wrfile commands. Know your diagnostic commands like ifstat, systat, and ifconfig. Have a reasonable idea of how WAFL and snapshots work. Know how to troubleshoot disk pathing issues (fcadmin device_map, sasadmin expander_map, storage show disk -p). Know how to make data available via CIFS, NFS, iSCSI and FC and the basic commands required to set up and troubleshoot access. Things like iscsi sessions show, igroup commands, lun map commands, portset commands, etc...Read the release notes for 8.1, 8.1.1 and make note of any major changes like new features added or large changes to existing features. It's a lot of stuff but if you've been working with NetApp for a while then you may find that you just have a few blanks you need to fill in. But the test generally expects you to know a little bit about a lot of different things so you really have to get a little seat time on a lot of different features.
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May 29, 2014 03:01
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XakEp posted:The only way you're passing either exam with only 30 hours of study is if you braindump or have experience on the job already. Or both. I disagree, especially for the CCENT. I've always been a good booklearner, and I studied for both exams while I was living in California off of less than $2k in savings so I ended up taking it very seriously, so I can see why somebody who already has a decent job and doesn't need to worry about being homeless in 8 weeks might have some trouble with the ICND2/CCNA part. But the CCENT? In general all of layers 1-2-3 are very simple and intuitive, especially at the level they expect you to know them for the CCENT. All you really need to know is Source/Destination MAC/IP at all of the really obvious, easy, no-gotchas points through standard traffic. You need to know what a subnet is and how they work, and for that you need to know how binary works. You need to know what a VLAN is and if you already know everything else I've mentioned so far, the concept of VLSM should make sense pretty much instantly. From here, you also basically only need to know the absolute basics of Cisco IOS which is (in my opinion) rather intuitive and self explanatory. You don't even have to really know what you're doing - you can just type in "show" and hit ?/TAB a bunch of times and probably figure out the answer. Maybe if you really aren't a good book learner, or you just don't learn things well in general, or you've never worked with a command line before and all you're familiar with is clicking around in a GUI, or you literally just know nothing about computers, I can see the ICND1 taking you more than 30 hours to study for. If you're a reasonably intelligent human being who knows a little bit about how to computer, there's no way you should need an entire college semester (speaking as someone who has never been to college). It also helps if you're a good test taker. Both of the exams are multiple choice so you are literally already looking at the answer. They also follow the standard formula of "Two of these are obviously wrong and one of them is wrong in such a way that I could mistake it for correct if I had this subject confused for another". Think about the context of the question - if they're asking you a question about OSPF areas I would expect them to slip in a trick answer that would be correct for EIGRP autonomous systems. Generally the overlapping 'subjects' come in pairs or trios - STP/RSTP/PVST, VLANs/Subnetting, OSPF/EIGRP, etc. I've been studying for the RHCSA lately and it is something that I would consider taking a college course for, not only is there a lot of material but it's all rather dense material and the end result is that someone is going to hand you a broken system and say 'Make it do this' - they're not even going to give you a frame of reference for what might be the problem or what is working properly at the moment. You get to do that like, 2-4 times maximum on the CCENT and in all cases they give you like three paragraphs of exposition and things that you should assume are configured correctly.
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May 29, 2014 04:15
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Reiz posted:I disagree, especially for the CCENT. I actually thought that the ICND1 was harder then ICND2 just because of how broad it was and it seemed like it required more memorization. At least with ICND2 it seemed to just focus in depth on a few subjects.
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May 29, 2014 14:32
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Just passed my CCNP SWITCH with a 965/1000!  For anyone still studying, if you're using the official prep materials, the practice tests in that book are about 10x harder than the actual exam. Definitely study up on HSRP, 802.1x port security, and Private VLANs / VLAN Access Maps. These were all key concepts throughout the multiple choice, labs, and sims.
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May 29, 2014 16:34
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TeMpLaR posted:Been studying for the NCDA for about 2 months, feel like I am just about ready for it. Nipplefloss sent me this, thought I should post it here: Good luck! It's a pretty broad but shallow test. Day to day administration of NetApp devices will cover a lot of the material. Just make sure you read up on features that you don't necessarily use to understand their requirements and the basics of implementing them. For me that was sync-mirror, snapmirror sync, and snapvault. And like I mentioned above, pick out big changes in the release notes. between 8.0, 8.1 and 8.1.1
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May 29, 2014 18:05
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I'm working on MCSA server 2012. I'm using the book by William Panel and I'm trying to follow the steps using a lab. I want to start taking tests, anyone have recent experience on the 70-410? Does it follow the exam blueprint or is it heavily weighted towards Hyper-v? I'm probably just being anxious.
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May 30, 2014 02:27
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I need to take the Puppet Certified Professional test, but I've been too lazy to install Puppet Enterprise and see how it's set up. I use the open sores version. They expect you to have some Enterprise experience when you take the test, which tells me that they'll probably ask what the service names are, etc.
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Jun 1, 2014 15:12
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Anyone done the CCNP: Wireless track? Does it require as much lab work/hands on experience as CCNP: R&S, or is it more conceptually based? Also, I figure I might as well start cranking out some of the readings for the CCIE: R&S. I've found a few reading lists; does anyone have any recommendations for lists that worked well for them?
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Jun 1, 2014 19:07
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psydude posted:Anyone done the CCNP: Wireless track? Does it require as much lab work/hands on experience as CCNP: R&S, or is it more conceptually based? Tasty Wheat did. I just started on CCNA:Wireless; should be able to provide gotchas/areas of concentration in the next month or two.
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Jun 1, 2014 19:51
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EdsTeioh posted:Awesome, thank you very much! Also, apparently due to my unemployment, I just found out that I qualify for a bunch of free classes at New Horizons. Anyone have any experience with them? I was sent to New Horizons when I was unemployed, and got my A+ and Network+ classes and exams paid for. I was lost during the classes for A+ because I evidently didn't know nearly as much about computers as I thought I did, but it worked out pretty well this way; there are two A+ classes, one for each A+ test. Each class builds on the information from the one before it, so don't take the first A+ test until you have finished the class for the second A+ test. This helped reinforce the knowledge I needed for the first test when I took it. Also, the instructor let us all know that the percentage of people that actually fail the test is absurdly low, even with the Security+ (at New Horizons anyway). I ended up walking out of New Horizons with all three certs in three months, but the Professor Messser videos probably helped a lot more than any of the online classes New Horizons provided. But then, I was a bit of a slow learner when it came to all this stuff, and was the only one in these classes with no IT experience whereas almost everyone else was being sent to these classes by their employers. Oh, and the instructor liked to play youtube clips from show The IT Crowd. A lot.
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Jun 2, 2014 03:01
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Are the Microsoft developer certs worth it?
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Jun 2, 2014 14:21
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My job is a Xendesktop environment. I came in and finished my VCP, and it's going to take a miracle for us to go to VMware for the desktop side. As such I'm looking at the CCA-V exam. Anyone take it? Thoughts on decent prep material? Looks like there are no books out there just yet - seems like this stuff only dropped last December.
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Jun 2, 2014 15:57
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ARGHHH!!!! I've been studying and labbing my rear end off for the VCP5 exam which I take in a week, and I've already pushed it back three times to give myself an additional month and a half of study time, but despite all this I'm still sitting at around 80% for all the practice exams I've attempted (MeasureUp, Sybex, and even the official VMware Study Guide practice exam). I study some more and retake a practice exam at least two times a day, but that motherfucking score stays at 80%. Getting really frustrated with myself because I know that I can do better and that I'm more than capable of passing the exam. If I can't pull out at least a 90-95% on the practice exams by Friday I'm going to have to reschedule, and that poo poo is getting real old. I just want this thing over with so I can sit back and relax for a few weeks before the next cert climb.
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Jun 3, 2014 02:31
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Daylen Drazzi posted:ARGHHH!!!! I've been studying and labbing my rear end off for the VCP5 exam which I take in a week, and I've already pushed it back three times to give myself an additional month and a half of study time, but despite all this I'm still sitting at around 80% for all the practice exams I've attempted (MeasureUp, Sybex, and even the official VMware Study Guide practice exam). I study some more and retake a practice exam at least two times a day, but that motherfucking score stays at 80%. Getting really frustrated with myself because I know that I can do better and that I'm more than capable of passing the exam. If I can't pull out at least a 90-95% on the practice exams by Friday I'm going to have to reschedule, and that poo poo is getting real old. I just want this thing over with so I can sit back and relax for a few weeks before the next cert climb. Did any of the Stanly codes/offers have a second shot? I forget if they did when I did mine. Maybe instead of gunning on the practice exams, it might be a good idea to look at the exam objectives and what they measure, and then see how well you do it on your own? That'll at least put stuff in context a little better, maybe. Also, take a 24-48 hour break from studying/prepping. Put the books/tests/etc. away and take a deep breath. Diving into that exam to just get it over with is risky, and if you don't feel up to it yet, push it back. Spend the break detaching yourself from the exam success tying into your self-worth. Find your center. Wax on, wax off and all that jazz. Edit: for those interested in the community college VMware courses, someone at VMware finally smarted up and added a column for state/province to what used to be the least helpful spreadsheet of all time: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At5YcMvz2XzJdHFCSVJWcUEzaGpPZ2pxd0taVXVJcnc&hl=en_US#gid=0 MJP fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 13:40
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It's been quite some time since I posted here, but I passed the VCP5 (barely, sadly) yesterday. Did well on most of it, but there were several areas that we do not focus on at our office since our storage is outsourced (for now) for this particular DC. Nevertheless, I am finally a VCP! Edit : I kinda feel like Chris Farley in "Tommy Boy" .... "I GOT A D??? IM GONNA GRADUATE!!" mAlfunkti0n fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 21:25
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MJP posted:Did any of the Stanly codes/offers have a second shot? I forget if they did when I did mine. Discount code didn't have any second shot offers. Took another practice exam this morning at work and got a 91% this time. Definitely feeling far more positive than when I wrote my initial post last night. The problem that I keep running into is those stupid vague questions like "You are in storage views - what do you have to select to make sure you have the latest information" and the choices are two obviously wrong ones and then a choice between refresh and update. Well hell, I can't remember if update is for storage view or refresh. But now I've finally got it down that if you go to the configuration tab and select storage you need to click on refresh to get the most recent information, whereas the Storage View tab requires you to update the information. It's poo poo like that that always messes me up. Obviously I need to pay closer attention to the environmental clues in the question - I admit that I'm not the greatest when it comes to vCenter, but I like to think that I know most of my poo poo. Time to do some more labbing and study a bit.
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Jun 3, 2014 22:27
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Update = query the storage system directly and find out what's new Refresh = query the system as configured and find out what's changed That is the golden difference, IIRC. Update to get new stuff, refresh to see what's changed in existing stuff.
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Jun 4, 2014 14:58
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Blind Marvin posted:I was sent to New Horizons when I was unemployed, and got my A+ and Network+ classes and exams paid for. I was lost during the classes for A+ because I evidently didn't know nearly as much about computers as I thought I did, but it worked out pretty well this way; there are two A+ classes, one for each A+ test. Each class builds on the information from the one before it, so don't take the first A+ test until you have finished the class for the second A+ test. This helped reinforce the knowledge I needed for the first test when I took it. Good to know. I scored mid 60's (out of 100) on my practice test, so I'm feeling pretty good about the test in general. I just want something to reinforce what I already know and correct some bad thinking/habits. And the Net+ is an awesome deal, too. Thanks for the info. Which one did you go to?
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Jun 5, 2014 01:16
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Discount code didn't have any second shot offers. Took another practice exam this morning at work and got a 91% this time. Definitely feeling far more positive than when I wrote my initial post last night. The problem that I keep running into is those stupid vague questions like "You are in storage views - what do you have to select to make sure you have the latest information" and the choices are two obviously wrong ones and then a choice between refresh and update. Well hell, I can't remember if update is for storage view or refresh. But now I've finally got it down that if you go to the configuration tab and select storage you need to click on refresh to get the most recent information, whereas the Storage View tab requires you to update the information. If you focus on practice tests too long you'll only start to focus on the questions and not the logistics behind it. It sucks rear end but just take it and fight through it; mark the VCP this way first guest: go with it honest don't know's: mark for review You are >85% sure do it Take questions for face value and reread them twice before and read them back to yourself before reading the questions. Schedule your test stick do a date, don't study at all 24hrs before the test and relax your mind. I might be able to help you out with a 75% off code. MJP posted:My job is a Xendesktop environment. I came in and finished my VCP, and it's going to take a miracle for us to go to VMware for the desktop side. As such I'm looking at the CCA-V exam. Can you XenApp something, do you know what PVS is, can you setup a basic citrix environment? Congrats that's the CCA-V, I thought the VSTP was harder... but take it for what it is worth. Dilbert As FUCK fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Jun 5, 2014 |
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Jun 5, 2014 02:38
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I think it's funny the guy saying the VCA certs weren't worthless is insulting the CCA which is much more valid of a test. The CCA isn't super hard buts it's appropriate for the level it is. I find it hard to believe the VMware sales test is harder. If you want a good guide to the CCA, the stuff over at http://citrixxperience.com is decent, and is fully allowed as training material by Citrix.
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Jun 5, 2014 02:52
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Scheduled CCNP Route for June 12th. Wish me luck, I'm gonna die.
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Jun 5, 2014 03:40
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three posted:I think it's funny the guy saying the VCA certs weren't worthless is insulting the CCA which is much more valid of a test. Yeah you called out my fanboyism. But doesn't that atleast say something if a view/vmware guy can look at the exam and thing "gee what could have been..." and "is this what the gently caress is this whatcitrix admins are based on?" At least the VCA gives you SOME conceptual understandings of virtualization. The CCA-V just feels like a Technical Sales cert... Eh but tomatoes/tomatos.... Dilbert As FUCK fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Jun 5, 2014 |
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Jun 5, 2014 03:46
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:Can you XenApp something, do you know what PVS is, can you setup a basic citrix environment? No, yes, no. I printed out the Xendesk 7 Cookbook and will start studying for it after a big-rear end event I'm working this weekend ends. My Citrix knowledge in the past has mostly been clearing Xenapp sessions, installing Receiver/ICA/etc. I know what a PVS is only from working at this job. I definitely don't feel like I could even attempt the exam, let alone pass it, with my current Citrix knowledge levels. Past jobs have used Xenapp as their only Citrix solution and VMware as the server side. This job is a full Citrix shop. It's interesting, having a VCP and dealing with some of the weird unhelpful poo poo Xenserver does but, by its design, obviates against overcommitment and other VMware issues. VDI is totally new to me and a lot of what we do, my boss has yet to pass on knowledge, but he knew that I'd be doing both VDI and Xendesktop coming in with zero on either. We have a small MSP that did the design and major stuff behind it. They're smart guys but I feel kinda naked not studying for a cert. I have enough downtime during the day to make it a good thing to do. three posted:If you want a good guide to the CCA, the stuff over at http://citrixxperience.com is decent, and is fully allowed as training material by Citrix. The guides on Citrixxperience are good frameworks but they just link back to Citrix's knowledge base/tech manuals. So if I was to go by their exam guide I'd basically be printing all day to get everything. Kinda wish they'd release 'em all in one file.
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Jun 5, 2014 14:45
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My work has offered to cover my VCP5-DCV class and exam, trying to find the best class area in northern virginia is proving to be a pain in the rear end. Has anyone taken the 5 day in this area, where there are good instructors and actually physical labs to where I can get the most out of this (most say boot camp and I despise that term when it comes to IT training) Edit: also the fast track sea more comprehensive. If I've played a bit with Vsphere and have a grasp of the basic concepts, is it a better option? OhDearGodNo fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Jun 5, 2014 |
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Jun 5, 2014 20:13
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OhDearGodNo posted:My work has offered to cover my VCP5-DCV class and exam, trying to find the best class area in northern virginia is proving to be a pain in the rear end. I took the fast track for the 5 cert. You won't pass based on the material they give you, it's mostly to get done with the requirement. If you can find one look for the academic alliance programs https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At5YcMvz2XzJdHFCSVJWcUEzaGpPZ2pxd0taVXVJcnc#gid=0 for cheaper and more in depth discussions
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Jun 5, 2014 21:02
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:I took the fast track for the 5 cert. If work doesn't care about pricing, just take the 5-day online thing and start studying a VCP book. The course really is just a checkbox, if it's the same one they gave for Stanly.
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Jun 5, 2014 21:18
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They kind of care about pricing, i have about 4k as a max. I need to show them receipt of taking the course, that's it really. Any book recommendations? I believe they also give you a trial copy of the Host at home? OhDearGodNo fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Jun 5, 2014 |
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Jun 5, 2014 21:34
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OhDearGodNo posted:They kind of care about pricing, i have about 4k as a max. I need to show them receipt of taking the course, that's it really. Scott Lowe's mastering vSphere 5/5.5, and a home lab setup. You can download and install a trial of vmware here https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/evalcenter?p=vsphere-55 the lab thread can be a useful resource for setting up and maintaining a lab
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Jun 5, 2014 22:05
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Yeah the vmware "class materials" are a joke. The practice tests dive in to stuff that wasn't even remotely mentioned in the class materials, but they require you sit X number of hours in a classroom in order to take the test. IMHO: find the cheapest, fastest means of checking off the class time requirement, and then self-study the rest.
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Jun 5, 2014 22:35
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Thank you, I'll pick that up. The course days are paid days (not against accrued PTO), and given they're covering it, seems it would be better than me spending time at home going through the course.
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Jun 5, 2014 22:48
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