Amarjeet Singh, CCIE #36375

Mine attempt is pretty ordinary attempt ;) I started CCIE SP journey when CCIE 5 digits were in 28xxx sequence with Narbik R&S workbook which had small labs very easy to understand and to build in GNS3. After doing it i have done INE R&S Vol 1 and first 3 LABs of Vol II. At that time SP Blueprint was changed recently and no new material was available from any vendor. Then i started with INE SPv2 workbook vol1 and also watched ATC of SP v2 from INE. In December INE released v3 ATC that was good news that i was waiting for. I recreated the examples done by Brian in those videos. Finally INE released v3 workbook i practiced on it multiple times. In Bangalore SP seat availabilty is issue; u will not find any seat in next 30-40 days from current date. INE SP rack is also quite full. In final days i have taken 3 weeks off from work. Practiced a lot on GNS3 and rack rentals. Done comparization fo IOS & XR commands in parallel. This was my first attempt of CCIE LAB so i was quite excited. In Bangalore response time from routers was really very quick & had wide screen; that is very helpful in this long LAB. Proctor was also very nice and helping. IMHO before going to LAB you should be very comfortable with technologies and XR syntax otherwise number of tasks that we have to perform will be overwhelming. Verification is very important after each task because other SP technologies flavors will be running on top previous tasks. I had spent around 10 minutes to troubleshoot my MPLS TE tunnels after implementation. So around 20 mins on MPLS TE itself. "Do it once do it perfect" so that troubleshooting of mis-configuration can be saved as there are many many things to do. In content SP LAB was not tough but test you on each technology. INE v3 Workbook & ATC are really good for preparation; Brian McGahan has done a great job and i am not being paid to say this ;) Amarjeet Singh CCIE#36375