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hackedaccount posted:I dunno, I did Network+ a decade ago and just did my ICND1 for CCENT. I don't want CCNA because I don't want to be a network guy. I want to understand ARP, basic routing, subnetting, TCP ports, and things like that but I'm more of an OS and storage dude. I expect that I'll have a network team at every job so I just want to show I know the basics and can get the network guys the info they need to troubleshoot the problem. As a storage guy a CCNA is an pretty valuable cert. Assuming that you have competent network admins who can configure their switches properly for your network attached storage is a good way to end up getting blamed when your storage doesn't perform properly. This is equally true on the OS side. Even though I rarely do any switch configuration myself the fact that I learned about link aggregation, vlan tagging, basic routing, and how to configure all of that has made it a lot easier to do my job because I can double check the configs to ensure that we are doing things properly on the switch from a storage perspective like using setting the correct native and allowed vlans, using the correct port channel modes, setting the correct load balancing policies, exposing or not-exposing gateways depending on whether I want the network routed or not, setting the correct spanning tree port type, and so on. I work with a lot of storage admins who don't consider that stuff important and only have a basic understanding of networking and they have a harder time troubleshooting and I often discover that they aren't running things the best way possible because they relied on the network team to do it, and the network team doesn't necessarily understand the specific needs of network based storage. In my previous job where I managed a team of storage and backup administrators I considered a Network+ almost completely worthless, but a CCNA or just a working knowledge of how to configure some basic layer 2 stuff on a cisco switch like trunking, tagging or port channel was valuable enough to really increase your chances of getting hired. If nothing else it meant that you were likely inquisitive and interested in technology generally and weren't likely to be one of those people who says "sorry, I just do X, I can't help you with anything outside of my narrow focus."
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Jun 29, 2013 09:13
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hackedaccount posted:Yeah, and what's happening to you is what I'm talking about above: You're doing the network team's job for them, it's duty creep. I work for a vendor. My job is to make sure that the stuff we sell works properly, and if the customer's network team doesn't know how to do their job well enough then I can't use that as an excuse to explain why a post-sales engagement failed. I don't get to play internal politics and pitch the blame over the wall to another team (which almost always proves fruitless because they will just pitch it right back and the blame ends up resting on whoever is less favored by management). Part of the reason I work for a vendor is because I proved to be conscientious about that sort of thing when I was a customer and they hired me out of the account to work for them. If you want to artificially limit yourself because you think that ignorance will keep you from being asked to do things outside of your narrow scope that's fine, but my experience with badly run companies hasn't really lead me to believe that mere incompetence is enough to keep someone from being asked to do a certain job. And really, getting certifications and learning new things isn't about doing your current job, it's about preparing you for the next interview and increasing your value to your next employer. Your current employer probably isn't going to give you a fat raise because you got an extra cert, but a new employer might pay you a good bit and that extra cert and knowledge might just help you land that job. three posted:If your certs aren't at least semi-related to what you do, I think it degrades them and your resume in general. What you do in IT can change pretty often and quickly, so it's very possible to end up with some certs that are irrelevant to your current job, but that you came by honestly. This also depends on the certs. If you've got a bunch of brain dump certs that don't match up with your resume at all that's one thing, but if you've got an RHCE, or a CCNP, or something that generally requires more than just answering a bunch of multiple choice questions then I'll probably give it some weight. That's another reason why the Network+ and A+ don't really mean much. You could pass both of those without ever having held a job in IT or logged in to a computer. The CCNA isn't exactly a hard test, but you'd be really hard pressed to pass it without at least putting in some time on a simulator.
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Jun 30, 2013 02:24
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insidius posted:Passing the CCNA Get your hands on the simulator software however you can. If you aren't working on Cisco gear with some frequency you'll have a hard time passing the CCNA just reading a book. You really need to spend time on the CLI working through problems and trying different things out. The simulator is immeasurably helpful in helping the material stick. Don't sweat it though, the material really isn't that hard, though it does cover a pretty wide swath. Just get a good book, and a simulator, and spend a little time every day for a couple of weeks reading material and doing labs, and playing around on your own to see how things behave and to get the hang of running the commands without reading them out of a book.
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Jul 2, 2013 07:23
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insidius posted:Thank you very much. Is there a specific version I should be looking for? The press books recommend the software from pearson and in fact includes a trial with a small amount of labs and stated that I could visit the website for the full version. Their software does not appear to be updated yet and only covers the older exams. I used the Boson NetSim software and it worked well for me.
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Jul 2, 2013 22:14
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TeMpLaR posted:Anyone have any NetApp certs? Started studying for NCDA and drat does it seem tricky. I've got the NCDA and NCIE. Feel free to PM me with questions.
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Mar 26, 2014 20:57
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Got my CCNA DC today, if anyone is looking at going that route and has any questions. There's no book out for the DCICT exam yet, so if you're looking for pointers on what to study I can tell you what helped me.
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Apr 11, 2014 01:17
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Fag Boy Jim posted:Did you have a CCNA R+S beforehand? If so, how much material was repeated from that exam? (Someone told me a lot of it was basically "CCNA but with NXOS except IOS") I got my R+S about 5 years ago, and never re-upped it. However the material on the DCICN test is very very similar to the R+S CCNA. It covers a lot of the same ground but, as you said, is focused exclusively on Nexus. There is some legacy stuffy that is still on R+S that you won't get, like DTE/DCE, clock rates, older networking technologies, software updates, etc...but all of the subnetting, spanning tree, OSI and DOD model, and very basic switch and routing configuration, and ACL configuration is on there. If you've passed the R+S you should be able to pass the DCICN exam with a minimal amount of studying. The DCICT exam is almost all new material though, mostly related to Cisco's product portfolio centered around Data Center Virtualization. The Lammle book is good for the DCICN exam. OhDearGodNo posted:I'm thinking along the lines of getting R&S before the DC since it's more marketable, how much of R&S is covered under the DC exam? See above. Quite a lot, just in Nexus speak. quicksand posted:Yes please. If you've got experience with networking at the CCNA R+S level then the first test should be easy enough. I would recommend the Lammle book for that. For the second test I used a combination of this and this. Between the two, those covered basically everything on the second test, right down to the exact types of questions you would be asked. The only thing they didn't prepare me for 100% was the product line questions like "Which of these Fabric Extenders have 4 10GBE uplink ports?", however there weren't enough of those questions to cause you to fail the test or even come close if you know the other material. If you want some additional depth on a lot of the same topics this book covers the same material but at something closer to a CCNP level. I read it before watching the CBT nuggets and found that it was way, way more in depth that required for the CCNA material, but it was nice to have handy to reference if I still wasn't quite clear on something. One thing to be aware of is that the DCICT exam has no configuration simulators. It focuses solely on verification so all of the lab and sim questions just require you to pick out little bits of information to answer questions about the configuration. That makes it a little easier since you really only need to know about 15 show commands to get through the whole test. I only had 8 sim questions on my test and I accidentally skipped 4 of them and still passed with a 915, so I wouldn't stress out about them too much. I also didn't do any lab or simulator work (other than having deployed a 1kv before, for other purposes) for the DCICT exam and didn't have any problems with it. Ashley Madison posted:I'm planning to start this up soon, we use a lot of Nexus equipment here. I saw that books were jsut released for the DCICT? Or so Amazon says. All of the DCICT books that I've found are still pre-orders. See above for the material that I used. And yes, there is definitely overlap between the concepts on the CCENT and DCICN. You could probably skip or skim at least half of the material.
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Apr 11, 2014 18:57
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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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Where does the "host" end and the "network" begin? Is the host NIC the property of the network team? What about it's tcp stack? Does the host's routing table belong to the network team? What about it's link aggregation, or VLAN tagging, or subnetting? At what layer of the network stack does a problem become a sysadmin problem? The CCNA is so very very basic that 90% of what you cover is applicable to setting up and troubleshooting host networking. Knowing how ARP works, how IP works, how TCP works, how sub-netting works, how VLANs and link aggregation work, how switches switch packets and routers forward packets are all really useful things to know to troubleshoot issues that begin with the host, not the network hardware. Ive worked with a lot of sysadmins who can't do that stuff because they think it's not their job, and they suck. They are slow to resolve issues, they are quick to blame other groups, and they rarely provide a solution without help or calling the vendor, even for things that should be easy. That's not to say that you need a CCNA to understand networking well enough to be a good sysadmin, but the level of knowledge required to GET a CCNA isn't really much beyond what I'd expect a good sysadmin to know anyway. And if you intend to work in virtualization at any point (you won't have a choice, eventually) knowing a bit about the switch and router side is big help. Also, the idea that someone with an MCSA AND a CCNA is an "IT unicorn" is just hilarious. Not one, but TWO entry level certs? Wow, way to bust the curve buddy!
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Jun 6, 2014 18:34
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TeMpLaR posted:Passed the NCDA with a 92%! Nice job! 7-mode or cDOT?
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Jun 10, 2014 23:05
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TeMpLaR posted:7-Mode for now, but going to start looking at getting my cluster mode certs next (and the 50x series tests) It's been a while since I took the NCIE (3 years, at least), but it was sort of a funky test. A lot were pretty straightforward questions about deploying SAN on a NetApp with a heavy emphasis on virtualized environments, so questions about VASA, SATP, PSP, VAAI, and the actual process of attaching scanning for and configuring LUNs, as well as basic zoning on MDS and Brocade gear. Stuff that you'd probably already know if you'd worked in an FC environment with NetApp before. But then there were questions about things like storage discovery that seemed like they were based on NetApp Professional Services guidelines and aren't necessarily universal or meaningful outside of NetApp professional services. I managed to guess enough of those correctly to pass, but the test did have more of a NetApp employee feel to it than the NCDA. It's actually an easier test in some ways though, because it's focused far less on OnTAP trivia and it doesn't touch on everything under the sun.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:04
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OhDearGodNo posted:Just be ready to shell out $4k for the required class, and that doesn't cover the exam. On top of that even VMware says the class doesn't touch the scope of the exam, you'll need to do a lot on your own. I just passed the VCP-550 and the CCNA DC exams within the past few months, if you have any questions.
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Jun 18, 2014 19:23
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The pricing is borderline extortionate, but the expectation is probably that you will be working in the virtualization field already if you take the exam and so your company is likely to cover the cost of training. They don't really want people taking the exam without prior experience so it's another way of limiting cert collectors who just brain dump material that they have almost no experience with, and then promptly forget everything they learned.
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Jun 18, 2014 20:22
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OhDearGodNo posted:So far they provide 30 days of remote lab stuff, what else can I use other than the trial version? Thirty days should be enough if you have free rein in the labs to do whatever you want. Otherwise you'll want to set up a home lab. You'll only get 60 days of use without a license, but that should be plenty to pass the test. A nested ESXi lab with VCSA and a couple of ESXi hosts would be sufficient, and you could probably fit it on 8GB of RAM if you didn't mind it being kind of slow. As far as what to study, I used this: http://www.amazon.com/VCP5-DCV-Certified-Professional-Data-Virtualization-vSphere/dp/1118658442 I hate the way it's written but it covers enough of the material to pass. I still saw some stuff on the test that wasn't covered in the book, but it wasn't nearly enough to cause me to fail. If you do all of the labs and can pass the practice exams from the book with around 90% success you should be able to pass the test. The one subject area that got me on the exam was Operations Manager, which they focus on more than I expected going in.
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Jun 19, 2014 21:20
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If the switch changed the destination MAC to broadcast then all recipient ports would accept the frame, which is the opposite of what you want to happen.
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Jul 13, 2014 06:58
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The first CCNA DC test is basically a one test version of the CCNA R&S with the focus on NX-OS instead of IOS. The material is very similar but covered at slightly less depth. The second CCNA DC will all be distinct from the CCNA R&S. It focuses on Cisco's DC hardware portfolio and basic verification of configuration on things like UCS, FEX, 1KV, etc....it's harder to study for since there isn't much in the way of lab equipment to simulate that stuff, but the test also doesn't have too many sim questions. It does have a fair number of product specific questions such as "how many 1GbE ports are on X model switch" or "which FEX models support Y feature." Since you're already doing the R&S path you might as well finish that, and then do CCNA DC and CCNP DC, if that's where you ultimately want to end up. However if you aren't working in a very Cisco heavy datacenter and spending a lot of time with UCS, Nexus, and 1KV then you're going to have a really hard time passing the CCNP DC.
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Jul 14, 2014 19:28
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psydude posted:Just wait until you get to SWITCH for the CCNP and like 50% of the poo poo you learn is spanning-tree. It's quickly becoming a legacy technology as SPB and other flat layer 2 hierarchies take over in datacenters, so Cisco really needs to do a refresh of that exam. I guess it still has a place in campus LAN environments, but it lacks any sort of practicality beyond the core/distribution layer. The Data Center exam tracks cover FabricPath (and also spanning-tree).
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Jul 16, 2014 20:06
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wargames posted:What about S+? S+ is a minimum requirement for many DOD contracting jobs so it's a worthwhile investment if you want to go that route. Otherwise it's a pretty dumb cert.
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Aug 16, 2014 16:54
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Tab8715 posted:Welp, I registered and it told me it's processing... The official ICM classes teach you maybe half of what you'd need to know to actually pass the VCP. They are there so that VMware can make more money off of their certifications.
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Sep 9, 2014 23:11
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internet jerk posted:IT sucks unless you're in the security group. Then it's fun. Seriously end user support is awful; evidenced by like every thread on it ever. There are plenty of good IT jobs outside of security depending on what you enjoy, and plenty of terrible security jobs (run Nessus, generate report, send out to admin group, repeat ad infinitum). End user support sucks, but there are lots and lots of jobs that aren't end user focused.
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Oct 3, 2014 04:17
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I had a decent number of vCOPS questions on my 5.5 exam. It's good to know what the major badges are, what minor badges are a member of them, and what they describe. Also good to know the update manager patch workflow.
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Dec 13, 2014 22:55
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DC requires two tests. The first is basically the CCNA R&S but focused on Nexus and none of the legacy poo poo you get on the R&S. Second test might as well be a Cisco pre-sales test. It covers the basics of UCS, 1kv, fiber channel, etc. but what it really covers is Ciscos product portfolio like how many ports does x switch have or which models support layer 3 or which network cards do not support creating virtual interfaces. It's a lot of product sheet bullshit, but not very hard.
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Jan 14, 2015 08:25
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Generic storage certs are pretty worthless. Pick a vendor and get their first level cert. EMC or NetApp are good first choices. The basics of storage are really easy, most of the specialization comes from learning vendor specific features.
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Jan 25, 2015 21:12
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Cenodoxus posted:I'm finishing up the Stanly VCP5 course and I'm getting railed by the free VMware practice tests, which I guess is to be expected because the course feels more like an overview than a deep dive. I used the Sybex guide exclusively and passed, though I'd have access to a home lab.
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Feb 17, 2015 23:58
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MrBigglesworth posted:Dear God, how did you people pass CCNA ICND2 when you go to the crap about netflow/syslog/snmp. I thought STP was boring and dry! This takes the cake. At least with everything else you are dealing with the functional operation of the network. Well, that stuff is all really important to maintaining proper functioning of the network. SNMP and syslog are also run on almost everything in the datacenter so they're good to know about. In large scale operations knowing how to properly monitor systems is maybe the most important facet of the job, especially if you want to avoid middle of the night calls and working three days straight because things you weren't watching closely broke catastrophically.
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Apr 3, 2015 03:42
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Learning SQL and a relational DB is probably one of the soundest career choices you can make at this point. The VMWare market is not going to keep growing because it's reaching a saturation point and competition from other virtualization technologies is ramping up. But databases just keep getting bigger and bigger and more and more necessary.
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Apr 3, 2015 21:06
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Vadun posted:Nexus (Ciscos data center switches) are garbage in comparison to their competitors. If you're working for Cisco or a vendor who only uses Cisco brand gear it's fine, but you may be better served to pick a vendor neutral cert or pick up CCNA data center and whatever equivalent Arista or another vendor has What a weird statement to make without following up in any way on why you think this. Anyway, there are no vendor neutral networking certs that are worth a poo poo beyond network+, which is very basic, and getting a non-vendor neutral cert from a vendor that has a fraction of the market share that Cisco does doesn't make a lot of sense either. The CCNA is a fine general purpose networking cert. The CCNA DC networking test is also fine for general purpose stuff and not really stuffed with a lot of Cisco-ese. The second CCNA DC test that covers UCS and the Cisco product portfolio is much less generally useful though.
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Apr 27, 2015 22:15
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Daylen Drazzi posted:I've decided on pursuing CompTIA Storage+ for my next cert - I spoke with my friend over lunch about it today and he thinks it would go well, along with Linux+, as a companion to my VCP5-DCV, rather than pursuing a vendor-specific cert like EMC. The only problem is the lack of study materials. I found two books total for Storage+, and that seems kinda scarce for something that is supposed to be vendor neutral. Guess it's not one of the more popular certs out there, although it does have the advantage of partially fulfilling the CE requirements for my Security+ cert. In 10 years in the storage industry I've never met or worked with someone with a Storage+ cert. It's almost without value.
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May 22, 2015 03:04
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Daylen Drazzi posted:It would be nice if there was a clear market leader in storage, like VMware is in virtualization, but from what I can see EMC has about 30% of the market share, with NetApp a close second. My unit uses EMC, however the virtualization position I interviewed for 2 weeks ago uses NetApp, so even in the armed forces there's no consistency across the board. Hell, I may as well add a NetApp cert to the list - between it and the EMC cert I'd have a 50/50 chance of finding a company that uses one of them. NetApp is very common in the public sector. EMC has a huge product portfolio so their certs will only be useful for a small portion of what they sell and for a very general understanding of traditional storage architecture and protocols. The NetApp cert will be more applicable to a broader range of positions since it covers ONTAP based arrays which are the vast majority of what they sell. If you're planning on staying on the government contracting side you will probably get more use out of a NetApp cert. NetApp also has a very feature rich simulator that can be used for studying and labs which makes learning it much easier.
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May 22, 2015 23:43
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Ccna holders: how hard is it, really, on a scale of 1 to 10 Depends on your background but someone with a year or so of experience who studies for it should find it to be maybe a 5 or 6.
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Jun 13, 2015 02:25
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MrBigglesworth posted:Ashley Madison did you get your CCNA DC 640-911 yet? I can't remember. I think I am close to wanting to schedule mine. Seems like I said, lot of overlap with regular ICND1 with NX-OS instead, and for that, pretty minor differences. The 640-911 is basically a single test CCNA with NX-OS. If you're comfortable with the ICND1 material then learning the NX-OS commands should be easy enough. The second test is the dumb product knowledge test.
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Oct 1, 2015 03:33
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Daylen Drazzi posted:So I went to the Cincinnati VMUG User Conference last week and got a chance to sit through an NSX presentation. After a discussion with one of the VMware reps there I've decided that after I get my CompTIA Cloud+ cert (I'm taking it to renew my Security+ cert rather than try and get 50 CEUs since a lot of it seems review for me) I'm going to try and get the VCP-NV cert. Now I just need to find some decent resources over the next couple months. There are no books out for the NV yet and the newest version of the test is relatively new, so studying will be a bit of a challenge. You have to piece together information from various blogs that have material. You'll also need to have a lab, and the resource requirements for the edge appliances, controllers and manager are somewhat steep for a home lab. You may also run into weird issues trying to do a nested lab, or at least I have, probably due to the many layers of encapsulation.
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Nov 21, 2015 20:43
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I've got a home lab system that I'm looking to get rid of, if anyone is interested. It's this Shuttle case with an i7-3770s quad core, 16GB of memory and a 240GB mSATA drive. I'm looking to get around $500 for it. I've also got a Cisco SG300-10 layer 3 capable switch that I'll include for another $100. PM me if interested, or just drop a line here and I'll get in touch with you. I can probably also throw in some VMware NFR licenses that are usually good for at least six months.
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Dec 4, 2015 20:04
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MrBigglesworth posted:Ive been reading some scuttlebutt on some other forums, seems that there is poo poo on the test about the actual Nexus stuff about licensing/hardware (slots, Rack Unit size) that is NOT in 640-911 but is actually chapter 2 of the 640-916 Cisco book in that pack. It's been a while since I've taken it, but the 911 is basically just the CCNS R&S with Nexus swapped in for IOS and a with somewhat less depth. I don't recall any hardware specific questions on that one, it was just the usual OSI model, IP fundamentals, subnetting, VLANs/Trunking/Aggregation, and basic routing protocols.
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Jan 8, 2016 20:25
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For a bog standard sysadmin job I'd probably prefer a humanities degree over a computer science degree. The soft skills are much more important than the technical ones.
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Jan 21, 2016 22:02
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MrBigglesworth posted:Why is this becoming such a loving trend? I passed the 640-911 with nothing but the Lammle book.
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Jan 26, 2016 23:14
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The VCP5-DV is really broad and covers basically everything. Outside of the basic virtualization functionality you may get questions on vROPS (my test had a good number of these), features available at different license levels, storage and thin provisioning, the difference between VSS and VDS, Update Manager and the steps to perform and update, configuration maximums...lots of things basically. You don't need to know it all to pass because it's so broad you won't get a ton of questions on any one thing, but you should try to be at least passably conversant in all of those areas. I'd pay particular attention to vROPS as that's one I mostly skipped over and it features a lot.
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Jan 28, 2016 05:57
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I took the VCP6-NV yesterday and passed, if anyone has any questions about it.
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Jan 28, 2016 18:18
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CLAM DOWN posted:^^^ of course MS isn't using standard RAID numbers and has their own terms It's not standard RAID so why would they use standard RAID numbers? RAID5 doesn't just mean "one drive worth of parity" it means "data is stopped across all drives in the raid set and the parity block shifts by one block for each concurrent stripe." Storage spaces uses slabs and metadata to track their assignment rather than rote algorithmic placement, so it's not RAID anything, it's probably closer to an n+m erasure code.
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Feb 2, 2016 23:28
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Keep in mind the re-test frequency on these tests. You don't want to be in the middle of trying to cram for your NP stuff and realize you've only got a couple of months to get your VCP re-upped. The VMware tests are only good for two years, in particular, so plan for having to pass another VCP or delta exam somewhere in that timeframe.
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Feb 6, 2016 22:34
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