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Thanks for the heads up. I'll skip both and dive into CCENT. How long can I expect to study for this thing? Also is it better to just study for the CCNA or to take it in two parts (CCENT first)?
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Dec 24, 2016 07:08
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Dangerous Mind posted:Thanks for the heads up. I'll skip both and dive into CCENT. How long can I expect to study for this thing? Also is it better to just study for the CCNA or to take it in two parts (CCENT first)? It depends heavily on how much basic knowledge you come in with. I did CCENT with Lammle's book in 2 weeks. I had already taken a CCNA course in the distant past and had been working in the industry for multiple years at that point. If you know nothing about networking it could take a while. If you know some theory then it's going to go real quick since a lot of it is common sense. ErIog fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Dec 24, 2016 |
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Dec 24, 2016 09:08
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I always recommend people take it in two parts unless they're already very comfortable with the material. If you're completely new to networking, tackling the entire CCNA at once can be a bit intimidating and demoralizing.
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Dec 24, 2016 16:59
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psydude posted:I always recommend people take it in two parts unless they're already very comfortable with the material. If you're completely new to networking, tackling the entire CCNA at once can be a bit intimidating and demoralizing. If you have the N+ though you might as well spend an extra 2 or 3 weeks studying and go for the whole CCNA. The overlap between N+ and CCENT is enough that it's not financially reasonable to do it in two parts.
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Dec 25, 2016 04:00
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Last I checked doing both tests vs all at once was like a 5 dollar difference.
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Dec 25, 2016 04:10
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When I did my CCNA I did it in one shot and I found that a LOT of questions seemed to be CCENT focused, so if you've got a limited number of questions in which to cover material from both separate exams, and if you consider CCENT a cakewalk, then you might be better off just studying for both because you'll get more "easy" questions. Then again, this was my personal experience doing CCNA three or four years ago or however long the recert period is now. Things may have changed with the new exam.
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Dec 25, 2016 04:27
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Wanting to get my VMWare cert. I've been sitting on my Stanley course pass for a while, and the 5.5 VCP test expires in three months. Any advice / study outline to follow to knock this out while I can? I have the Lowe/Marshall Sybex book everyone recommends.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:32
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Sub Rosa posted:Wanting to get my VMWare cert. I've been sitting on my Stanley course pass for a while, and the 5.5 VCP test expires in three months. Any advice / study outline to follow to knock this out while I can? I have the Lowe/Marshall Sybex book everyone recommends. Lab, lab, lab, lab, take a deep breath, lab lab lab lab. And then lab some more. Know the blueprint backwards and forwards. Troubleshooting is one of the things they tested me heavily on, as well as networking and storage. Forget memorizing anything but the most basic min/max poo poo.
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Dec 27, 2016 02:18
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Also if you're taking the VCP 5.5 for anything other than a bump in pay or resume padding, you should reconsider studying up for the 6.5 certification because VMWare kinda hosed everyone over with their new-found focus on orchestration.
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Dec 28, 2016 01:26
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Taking Network+ in a few days, anything I should prep for that isn't obvious? I think I've got a decent handle on subnetting and the OSI model, little rusty on common ports that I don't frequently use and connector types as I haven't had to make my own cables or deal with fiber basically ever. Planning on reviewing IPv6 and routing protocols as well. e: May also refresh myself on cable lengths / transmission speeds if the OP suggestions are still valid for this exam; the site it links to is two exams old by the look of it though.
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Jan 4, 2017 04:27
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Mo_Steel posted:Taking Network+ in a few days, anything I should prep for that isn't obvious? I think I've got a decent handle on subnetting and the OSI model, little rusty on common ports that I don't frequently use and connector types as I haven't had to make my own cables or deal with fiber basically ever. Planning on reviewing IPv6 and routing protocols as well. I'm taking this in a few weeks, so I'm curious about this as well
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Jan 4, 2017 07:36
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Anyone take a shot at the 70-743 yet? I just ordered the MS Press book. I have yet to touch 2016 and it's not a priority for work, but I'll have two Hyper-V hosts with space and cycles to spare come late March to really spin up test stuff.
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Jan 4, 2017 20:56
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Taking TSHOOT tomorrow to re-cert my CCNP. Haven't studied at all; let's hope continuous hands-on practical experience for the past two years is sufficient.
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Jan 5, 2017 04:50
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Got 847 on Security+ today (pass is 750). I had three study materials, Gibsons Book, Testout Labsim, and CBT Nuggets. Even with all that it was kind of not full preparation. Lots of obscure trivia questions and scenarios which made you have to comb through the wording of the questions. I had 70 questions and it said I missed 7 sections so with that score I'm guessing some of them were "beta" questions or weighted less. I'll probably get a second CCNA after this, CCNA Security seems like the most logical progression.
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Jan 5, 2017 07:08
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New TSHOOT is pretty easy. Basically the same as the previous version, but they removed the ability to switch between tickets to see what changed in the config and added a few more IPv6 related questions.
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Jan 6, 2017 05:09
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psydude posted:New TSHOOT is pretty easy. Basically the same as the previous version, but they removed the ability to switch between tickets to see what changed in the config and added a few more IPv6 related questions. Congrats on the renewal. I've got my RHCSA exam planned in a month. I'm practising the parts I don't have that much experience with. Which is mostly SELinux.
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Jan 6, 2017 10:27
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LochNessMonster posted:Congrats on the renewal. Me too. You aren't taking it in the PNW are you?
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Jan 6, 2017 19:10
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The Nards Pan posted:Me too. You aren't taking it in the PNW are you? Nah, I live in Europe. How's your prep going?
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Jan 6, 2017 19:39
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LochNessMonster posted:Nah, I live in Europe. Not bad, I'm just about finished with the Van Vugt book (RHCSA portion at least) I'm going to go back through and do all the labs again and then see how I do on the practice tests they provide. I'm feeling pretty confident and I'm looking forward to a more practical, hands-on test than the CompTIA tests. The only certs I have right now are A+ and N+
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Jan 6, 2017 21:03
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The RHCSA was cool and fun. The practice exams did a good job preparing me for the test (which I took in the Pacific northwest). I got my practice exam completion times down to under an hour without reference material, which was a huge help because I had tons of time to reboot and double check at the end. MrKatharsis fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Jan 6, 2017 |
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Jan 6, 2017 21:12
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MJP posted:Anyone take a shot at the 70-743 yet? I just ordered the MS Press book. I have yet to touch 2016 and it's not a priority for work, but I'll have two Hyper-V hosts with space and cycles to spare come late March to really spin up test stuff. CBT nuggets doesn't have a 70-743 video up yet, but they DO have a "whats new in 2016" series that WILL let you spin up VMs in a browser to hands on nano, container, and storage space updates for 2016. All scripted out in powershell for you to play with. Well worth the 80/mo I pay for it now.
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Jan 6, 2017 21:21
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My focus has been in data storage, but only in NAS, which is pretty narrow. I've been thinking about looking into Big Data, but I don't know what's the best choice - Hadoop? Sparks? Or maybe there are courses that cover all of the important technologies? If any storage guys can offer some wisdom, it'd be much appreciated.
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Jan 6, 2017 22:03
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Seventh Arrow posted:My focus has been in data storage, but only in NAS, which is pretty narrow. I've been thinking about looking into Big Data, but I don't know what's the best choice - Hadoop? Sparks? Or maybe there are courses that cover all of the important technologies? If any storage guys can offer some wisdom, it'd be much appreciated. Can you elaborate a little more on what you're interested in? "Big Data" is one of those umbrella terms like "cloud" which are so big they're meaningless (that phrase probably looks pretty good with the cloud-to-butt extension huh?) Since you mention being a storage guy, I'm guessing you care less about the crunching and mining and analyzing of that data, and more about the nuts and bolts of how it's stored? It sounds like maybe you're interested in distributed storage. Things like Hadoop's HDFS, Ceph, Gluster, etc. where you're using a ton of cheap commodity parts to build an enormous and resilient pool, vs buying a traditional fuckoff-huge (and costly) SAN. That's definitely a good area to concentrate on. There may not be a ton of jobs, but there are also very few candidates who know anything about it whatsoever, so you will be in demand in that sense. I'm not aware of much in the way of certs in this field. There's a lot of on-the-job learning going on. If you can find a local meetup group on any remotely relevant topic, showing up to those would be a great way to get some guidance and even mentoring. I'd also suggest leveling up your Linux and networking skills if you really want to go down that path.
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Jan 6, 2017 22:24
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Docjowles posted:Can you elaborate a little more on what you're interested in? "Big Data" is one of those umbrella terms like "cloud" which are so big they're meaningless (that phrase probably looks pretty good with the cloud-to-butt extension huh?) Hey, thanks for the reply. I don't know if I actually can elaborate because it's unfamiliar territory - so I'm not entirely sure what I want. It just seems to be where data storage is headed and it also sounds interesting to me. VMWare is something I might consider as well. It's also worth mentioning that my previous job was outsourced, so I'm looking for anything that would help make my resume look a bit more appealing. I know employers tend to value experience over education, but my previous employer is providing some free training money, so I might as well use it. When you say networking skills, do you mean "plug the ethernet cable here" networking or "go out and meet some recruiters" networking?
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Jan 7, 2017 02:03
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Real networking skills if you're going to be working with distributed clustered storage concepts.
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Jan 7, 2017 02:24
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Yeah I meant routing-and-switching networking heh. Though social networking never hurts, careerwise, either!
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Jan 7, 2017 03:20
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Passed ROUTE today to renew my CCNA R+S with 10 days to spare and get my foot in the door for the CCNP. I feel like I pulled every IPv6 question under the sun. I had one sim that was definitely bugged. I also had one that had a numerical typo in the question at the worst possible spot, so it was asking something that was technically impossible given the topology, but I could tell from the answers what it was really supposed to be asking. I'm going to submit a ticket for the second one regardless because I wouldn't be surprised if they never read the comments. I used the OCG, CBTNuggets, and GNS3 to prepare. CBTNuggets was great for a quick and fun overview of each subject, but it was less helpful now than it was for the CCNA. I also made the mistake of allocating my review time for each subject based on how many chapters it had in the book. Wrong. I enjoyed learning about BGP but I got next to nothing for actual questions. Almost three years of taking no Cisco exams has made me forget how much they love to test on the little poo poo - you know, the stuff that goes in the first two or last two chapters of the book as an "oh, and there's also this" kind of thing. gently caress me. Onward and upward to SWITCH. Time to look for a new publisher to get a SWITCH guide from, because I don't know if I can trust Cisco Press anymore.
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Jan 7, 2017 04:28
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Congrats 
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Jan 7, 2017 04:41
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I'm looking at some certs if some job requirements and if someone who is familiar with them could help me out. Thanks if you can help me out, been in the dumps lately and need to get my career moving again after being in limbo/unemployed for the past few months. CISSP is a requirement for one of them and I always wanted to get my CCNA to be a more rounded sysadmin. My previous employer was all about silo departments so I never got much networking experience. CISSP 1) Upon reading the requirements, I have the five or so years of experience it wants plus my old boss will vouch for it, but how much do they do on verifying that kind of thing? 2) What is the usual study time for taking the test? I'm seeing people with actual lives state they spend about four months. Is this one of those 2-3 week things if you go at it 24/7 and pick up the material fairly well? 3) I'm getting conflicting information about when you exactly take the test. One site said it's only offered a couple of times a year in specific cities, another site you just sign up and go take the CBT whenever. Can anyone share information about that? CCNA 1) One problem is I don't have any gear for actual prep work. Books and virtual labs should be enough right? I don't expect to go for Network only positions but I want to be more well rounded sysadmin. 2) As luck would have it the books my friend gave me are now outdated as they changed the test late last year. Should I just buy the newer versions, or will what I have work? I have the Odem and Lammie books so far. 3) What is the usual amount of study time needed for the test if you could dedicate 24/7 and pick up the material fairly well? I know the how long to study questions are probably frowned on but I'm lucky enough to hold off looking for work for a month or two if I can actually get one of these knocked out.
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Jan 7, 2017 05:27
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ghostinmyshell posted:CCNA GNS3 and Packet Tracer will sort you out. I got my CCNA without ever touching physical equipment (although I may get to do so at work now that I have it). You probably should learn how to crimp an ethernet cable and study up on the various physical connectors, though, so people don't think you're useless. ghostinmyshell posted:2) As luck would have it the books my friend gave me are now outdated as they changed the test late last year. Should I just buy the newer versions, or will what I have work? I have the Odem and Lammie books so far. The books are fairly cheap so I would just advise you pick up the new v3 versions of Odom and Lammle. There's always coupons for Cisco Press stuff if you look around. There's semi-regular sales. If money's tight just start studying from the v2 books while you wait for a sale to roll around. ghostinmyshell posted:3) What is the usual amount of study time needed for the test if you could dedicate 24/7 and pick up the material fairly well? This depends entirely on how much networking knowledge you come in with. If you have a very solid grasp of networking fundamentals then it's very possible to get a CCNA in 2-3 months. If you're not solid on the fundamentals then you're going to be in for a longer haul as you're going to need to wrap your head around exactly what is happening at each layer of the OSI model and why it's important. ErIog fucked around with this message at 10:53 on Jan 7, 2017 |
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Jan 7, 2017 06:04
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CISSP: I don't think anyone really knows ISC2's criteria for auditing a candidate's prior experience. If you have the five years in two or more of the eight domains then you have the five years and it's not going to be an issue either way. When you fill out the form you need to describe your job duties in "detail". I just copied and pasted from my resume, as did my friend who was just certified. I'm just going to guess that as long as you're thorough and appease the human on the other end of the screen that you've worked with two of the eight domains then it won't be an issue. If you do and they don't believe you, the most that would likely happen is that then they would call your references for verification, delaying your actual endorsement. And speaking of endorsement, unless you want to jump through a bunch of hoops like sending company letterheads or employment letters to ISC2 directly, find an existing CISSP to stamp your endorsement. I'm probably one week out from having my CISSP verified (judging by my buddy who took the test a two weeks before me having just received his) and I didn't have to do anything except fill out the online form. I suppose if they come back next week and tell me I'm being audited I'll have to do more work but, knock on wood, that shouldn't happen. My study time was atypical as I ran through a good week long bootcamp and sat the exam the following Monday. To be honest I didn't do that much studying either. I read the 11th Hour CISSP book cover to cover and went through my notes a few times that weekend but other than that there wasn't much. I didn't read the complete CBK book -- I don't think I even opened it past halfway to be perfectly frank. Someone who didn't bootcamp it can probably step in an explain better but if you were truly learning the CBK instead of learning to the test as our bootcamp did I would suggest that this isn't a two week thing even if you are going 24/7. The CBK is /beyond/ dry material. I would give myself five to six months if I were coming in completely fresh with an infosec background. Maybe more. This stuff is really dumb. CCNA: When I took the exam three years ago, you could pass CCENT/ICND2 using just Cisco's lovely flash simulator. It's not extremely deep. That said, you can very very very easily set up a GNS3 virtual lab that will get you 99% of the way there. If you really need a hardware switching setup you can find old 2924s for literally pennies and hook those together. I haven't kept up with CCNA at ALL so I'm not sure what changed, but I wouldn't study with old material. If you have no prior experience with networking then CCNA in a month might be a stretch too, but not impossible. It's certainly much more doable in a month than CISSP which I think is completely unreasonable unless you've got someone paying for a 4k bootcamp. I renewed my CCNA by sitting the full exam three years ago and I did that on maybe a week's worth of studying. When I sat it first six years ago I think I probably put in a good two months. I could have done it in a month but I wasn't nearly as dedicated.
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Jan 7, 2017 06:08
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If you're studying for the CCNA, you can get Packet Tracer for free these days. Which should be plenty to lab up everything you need: https://www.netacad.com/about-networking-academy/packet-tracer/ There is something to be said for hands-on hardware experience... but not much, imo. You can Google image search what the heck a Cisco XYZ switch looks like, and an ethernet port, and a console port... And if you really want to experience what it's like to work on hardware in a datacenter all day, just go find a running motorcycle and lie down next to it for 10 hours. Fun, wasn't it? That said, different people learn differently. I usually do fine with textbook teaching. But for some reason I could not deal with optical networking until I handled some SFPs, GBICs, Twinax, and different fiber types in person. Everything instantly clicked in a way that hours of reading hadn't. But to return to the original point, none of that matters for the cert. It's conducted virtually via PC. Nothing physical about it. So spare the money, and deal with being a tiny bit awkward the first time you're asked to plug tab A into slot B.
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Jan 7, 2017 06:35
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Martytoof posted:CISSP: If you work in security, the various CISSP self study books (especially the Conrad book) are more than enough to pass. I thought it was a fairly easy exam so long as you follow the order of operation of the ISC2 when it comes to answering questions. I still haven't put it in my email signature because I'm not a pretentious dick, but every time I come across an uppity GS-X or contractor who tries to give me poo poo for some minor CIS or STIG technicality on a high level design it makes me reconsider it.
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Jan 7, 2017 06:46
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The Nards Pan posted:Not bad, I'm just about finished with the Van Vugt book (RHCSA portion at least) I'm going to go back through and do all the labs again and then see how I do on the practice tests they provide. I'm using the same book and am almost done wirh reading through the RHCSA part and doing all the exercises for the 2nd time. Highlighted a few areas which I'm going to practise a lot and then see how I do on a practise exam. MrKatharsis posted:The RHCSA was cool and fun. The practice exams did a good job preparing me for the test (which I took in the Pacific northwest). This is what I'd like to do as well. What resource for practise exams did you use?
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Jan 7, 2017 09:54
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LochNessMonster posted:
I just used the exams out of the Jang/Ghori books. Once you get a feel for them, you can construct your own. PM me and we can discuss more.
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Jan 7, 2017 14:36
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Hot drat! posted:I'm taking this in a few weeks, so I'm curious about this as well Managed to pass, none of the question categories were outside what I expected; there were more questions related to fiber connectors and standards than I hoped which was a definite weak point of mine. That could have just been luck of the (presumably) randomized pool of questions. Otherwise the Sybex study guide got me through.
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Jan 8, 2017 16:25
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psydude posted:If you work in security, the various CISSP self study books (especially the Conrad book) are more than enough to pass. I thought it was a fairly easy exam so long as you follow the order of operation of the ISC2 when it comes to answering questions. I don't understand putting certs in an email sig in any context, but the ones that put Sec+ in it are my favorite 
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Jan 9, 2017 22:52
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I'm not going to put mine in my sig until someone tells me it's a requirement for some reason.
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Jan 9, 2017 22:57
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MrKatharsis posted:I just used the exams out of the Jang/Ghori books. Once you get a feel for them, you can construct your own. Thanks for the offer, I just sent you a PM.
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Jan 10, 2017 11:53
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incoherent posted:CBT nuggets doesn't have a 70-743 video up yet, but they DO have a "whats new in 2016" series that WILL let you spin up VMs in a browser to hands on nano, container, and storage space updates for 2016. All scripted out in powershell for you to play with. We have some room on the company Hyper-V box, I might spin a few VMs up or just do Virtualbox on my desktop. It's nice that 2016 allows the Hyper-V role within VMs, so no need to build a home lab to do some baremetal funtimes. I just got the MS Press book and will start studying it on my downtime at work. What I had hoped to be a big project for our satellite office basically got torpedoed by corporate, so downside: no onsite HA for Exchange and file/print servers, but at least I don't have to reshuffle around the rack to make room for new servers and storage. 
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Jan 10, 2017 17:49
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