How to Prepare for Cisco CCNP R&S
Knowledge Foundation
Before I dive into CCNP R&S, let’s talk a little bit about CCNA R&S first. I am going to assume that you passed the CCNA exam and now you are looking to become CCNP R&S certified. Before you start with the CCNP material, you should consider if your “knowledge foundation” is strong enough. Most of the topics in CCNP are not new but will be more in-depth than what you learned from CCNA. To illustrate this, take a good look at the Cisco certification pyramid:
Most students don’t pay a lot of attention to this picture but if you take a good look, you’ll see that CCNA is the largest part of the pyramid. If you want to pass the CCNP exams you will have to be absolutely 100% comfortable with the things you learned in CCNA R&S. If it’s been awhile since you became CCNA certified, please do yourself a favor and re-read your CCNA material or do some more CCNA level labs. If you have difficulty doing subnetting questions without a calculator or have no idea anymore how spanning-tree, frame-relay, OSPF and EIGRP work…then CCNP will be a very bumpy ride. If you are familiar with everything from CCNA then CCNP will be a very enjoyable ride! Be honest with yourself, even if you passed the CCNA exam…if you had some difficulties with certain topics, visit those again and make sure you have no knowledge gaps. If you want to learn how to ride a motorcycle, you should start learning how to ride a bike…having said that, let’s look at the CCNP R&S exams!
ROUTE
Let’s start with an overview of all the major ROUTE topics:- EIGRP Packets and Metrics
- EIGRP Summarization
- EIGRP over Frame-Relay
- EIGRP Authentication
- EIGRP Advanced Features
- OSPF LSA Types
- OSPF Summarization
- OSPF Special Area Types
- OSPF Authentication
- OSPF Virtual Links
- Routing Manipulation
- Redistribution
- BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)
- IPv6 Routing Protocols
- IPv6 Tunneling
My recommendation is to start with the ROUTE exam first, since you will find some routing-related topics in the SWITCH exam while there are no “switch” topics in the ROUTE exam. Also, you won’t need any hardware to study for this exam since you can do everything with the GNS3 router emulator!
SWITCH
Let me show you the major topics of the SWITCH exam:- VLANs and Trunking
- Private VLANs
- Spanning-Tree Basics
- Rapid Spanning-Tree
- MST (Multiple Spanning-Tree)
- Spanning Tree Toolkit
- Etherchannel (Link Aggregation)
- InterVLAN Routing
- Gateway Redundancy (VRRP, GLBP, HSRP)
- Switch Security
- VoIP / Video on Switched Networks (Quality of Service)
- Wireless
If you are fuzzy about spanning-tree and its port states like the designated, non-designated, root port, port priority and such…please take a look at the CCNA material again before you start with SWITCH!
To study SWITCH at home you will need some real hardware switches. GNS3 can only emulate routers and the NM-16ESW switch module which doesn’t support rapid spanning tree, multiple spanning-tree or the different etherchannel protocols. You don’t need expensive hardware, my recommendation is to buy 2x Cisco Catalyst 2950 switches and 1x Cisco Catalyst 3550 switch. Most of it also applies for the CCNP SWITCH exam.
TSHOOT
The TSHOOT exam is different compared to what you have seen so far. The ROUTE and SWITCH exams are similar to CCNA, you will get some multiple choice questions, labs, click-all-that-apply questions, etc.TSHOOT is different as the exam will present you with a (large) network topology that has a number of issues. You don’t have to fix these issues but you have to be able to look at the configurations of the devices and answer what the problem is. If you want to pass this exam there are two things you will have to do:
- Truly understand all the topics that you learned in CCNA, ROUTE and SWITCH.
- Become familiar with the topology that Cisco uses in the TSHOOT exam.
Cisco released the TSHOOT exam topology to the public, take a good look at it to understand all the different components. You don’t want to see this topology for the first time when you are doing the exam…
Look at all the different protocols that are running, how they work together and the exam will be a LOT easier.
CCNP Study Strategy
You now have an idea what the exams are about, and that it’s best to start with ROUTE, SWITCH and finish with TSHOOT. So where do you start?Buy some CCNP ROUTE study material like a book or some training videos, whatever you prefer. While you are studying for ROUTE you have time to browse Ebay or something to “hunt” for your switches that you’ll need for the SWITCH exam.
As you are reading, try to stick to one topic at a time, and don’t read the book from front to back right away. As you are reading and learning about a topic or feature, try to configure it yourself on your GNS3 routers or switches and make sure you understand what you are doing. Look at some show commands, try some debugs. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to do labs, labs and even more labs. Most people make the mistake of trying to “brute force” all the theory in their head and doing not enough labs.
Doing labs is also a lot more fun than just reading books or watching videos…If you want labs to practice instead of building your own.
Also as you are working your way through a chapter, make sure to take notes:
- Take notes (I use notepad) to write down some of the commands that you have difficulty with remembering. This helps to speed up doing labs.
FAQ
Q: Is is possible to become CCNP R&S certified with self-study?A: Definitely yes! Because of GNS3 it’s easy to practice all router protocols on your own computers and with a couple of switches you will have all the equipment you need. It will take self discipline to work yourself through the material since you are not “forced” to be in the classroom and attending a course.
Q: How much studying time does it take to pass the CCNP exams?
A: This is a difficult question to answer as it is different for everyone. It depends on how much experience you have in IT / networking and how easily you can memorize information. Roughly I think it will take anywhere between 100-200 hours or so to study ROUTE and SWITCH each (so that’s 200-400 hours for both!) and TSHOOT maybe 50-100 hours. This includes reading books, perhaps watching videos, doing labs, reviewing notes, etc.
Q: What is the best studying material to use? Classroom training, reading books or watching videos?
A: If you are completely new to a topic then classroom training is probably the best method since you will have someone in front of you that explains everything. When you don’t understand something you can just ask it and it will be explained to you until you understand it. The downside of classroom training is that it’s quite expensive and depending on the other students the course might run too slow or too fast for you. Watching videos also works very well when a certain topic is new to you, I wouldn’t recommend watching them if you are looking to fill some “knowledge gaps” as you will have that “I already know this” feeling when watching the video and get bored easily. Personally I like books best because I can speed up or slow down reading exactly when I want to. Most networking books can be very difficult to get through if something is new to you however. In short, if you are new to something…classroom training will be great. If you go for the self-study path, see if you can watch some videos and then move on to reading books.
Q: How much time should I spend watching videos or reading books vs doing labs?
A: The short answer is that I think you should spend roughly 80% of your time doing labs and 20% of your time watching videos or reading books.
Q: What hardware should I buy?
A: Don’t buy any hardware for the ROUTE exam, you can do everything with GNS3. For the SWITCH exam the cheapest solution is to buy 2x Cisco Catalyst 2950 switches and 1x Cisco Catalyst 3550 switch. Most of it applies for the CCNP SWITCH exam as well.
Q: In what order should I do the CCNP R&S exams?
A: I think it’s best to start with ROUTE, then SWITCH and finish with TSHOOT. The reason for this is that you will find some “routing” topics in the SWITCH exam. In CCNP R&S you will learn about multilayer switches in the SWITCH exam so it’s best to understand routing before you approach this topic. Even if you decide to do SWITCH first, it doesn’t matter all too much since multilayer switching will be easy to understand if you passed the CCNA R&S exam.
Intermediary devices have a number of functions like regenerating and
resending the data signals. For instance, data signals can only travel so
far on a copper wire without having to be regenerated and resent. If the signals
travel too far beyond specifications, without being regenerated, then the
signal, in this case voltage will weaken and the end device will not be able to
correctly decode the binary 1s and 0s. Intermediary devices also maintain
information about paths through the network. For example routers know
paths to different networks and switches know which end devices are connected to
which ports on the switch. Intermediary devices can also report errors
close or route data to other paths when there is failure on a link, prioritize messages according to QoS, and filter data according to
access lists which can permit or deny the flow of data.
