Cisco Live 2010 - Tuesday and Wednesday

I thought I'd be able to keep up with this on a daily basis, but I was wrong. So here's a recap of the bulk of the conference. I'm sitting in a Virtualization Case Study on Thursday while writing this.

Picking up where I left off in my previous post, I attended the LISP session. It was a good refresher, as I had not followed up on the technology since my first introduction at Cisco Live 2009. I'll save my thoughts on the technology for a later blog post.

On Tuesday I attended an Overlay Transport Virtualization Breakout Session. It was a good compliment to my OTV Lab on Sunday. I felt that the presenter glossed over the significant architectural change that introducing Data Center Interconnect (DCI) brings to a network. He (rightly) stated that configuring OTV is fairly trivial, assuming you have the appropriate NX-OS and a pair of Nexus 7000 switches. Once you enable L2 adjacency between disparate DCs, there's no going back. On the plus side, if you need DCI, OTV looks much better than the alternatives (dot1q dedicated links, carrier VPLS, internal VPLS, EoMPLSoGRE, L2TPv3... I'm sure I am missing a couple).

The John Chambers keynote was good as usual. The introduction of the Cisco Cius was probably the highlight. I haven't investigate it yet, and probably won't get around to looking into it in detail. I have to confess that I'm not terribly interested in technology. I don't personally own any Apple products and I've only carried a Blackberry smart phone for three years. Probably the 'coolest' technology that I own is an original Kindle, which meets my nontechnical reading needs. For that matter, I only have a single Cisco router (and no switches) at my home. Somehow I manage to keep up, so don't let anyone convince you that you need racks full of equipment to participate in our industry.

My one complaint is that I always feel like my organization is 5 - 10 years behind when I leave the keynote. For example, the Cisco Live 2008 keynote was centered around complete virtualization. Two years later, we're nowhere near there. I know the point of the keynote is to show the future direction of Cisco, and I wouldn't want anything to change, but I don't like the feeling of being behind. I always leave the session with a sense of urgency to get us back on track. This year I brought my manager, so hopefully he'll feel the same way and we can get things moving a bit faster.

After lunch on Tuesday I attended a second Panel on Experiences with Deploying IPv6. I am finally convinced that my employer needs to begin the transition. This was a great session. Presenters from Comcast, Google, Microsoft and Tata described their IPv6 deployments and gave recommendations. For once, Apple took a bit of a beating (and not from the Microsoft presenter) because no Apple OS supports DHCPv6. This requires the use of SLAAC for acquiring IPv6 addresses in mixed PC environments. It's not a show stopper, but flexibility would be nice. I prefer SLAAC anyway for the simplicity, but I am firmly in the minority, based on a show of hands during the session.

On Tuesday evening I spent a few hours with John Chambers and my ~75 closest CCIE/CCDE friends. This was my first year attending the CCIE/DE NetVet reception. It was quite an experience. John Chambers took questions for about 1.5 hours, and gave very direct responses to some difficult questions. I received some great information that will help me position my organization for upcoming shifts in Cisco strategy. While I'm fairly confident this was information I could acquire elsewhere, when it comes from the CEO, it is reliable.

After the NetVet reception I spent an hour or so attending the CCIE party at the Voodoo Lounge. I didn't stay long, but I did get a picture of the cool (both literally and figuratively) CCIE logo ice sculpture. I would have preferred the original laurel leaf router logo, but I was still impressed.


On Wednesday morning I attended "IS-IS Network Design and Deployment". I was looking forward to this session more than any other, as I have had great difficulty getting this content from other sources. There are a few books that cover IS-IS, but Cisco Live Virtual has never had the audio for this session. The slide deck I found in the past (and the one used during this presentation) lacks sufficient detail to reconstruct the information. The presenters did not disappoint, and I took about four pages of notes (the only notes I've taken at Cisco Live 2010). I intend to write a separate blog post on why IS-IS can no longer be ignored by Enterprise-focused networkers. If this describes you, you'll have a year or two to prepare.

After lunch I attended a session called "Designing Multipoint WAN QoS". This session didn't stand out in the session list when I was registering, but I was tipped off by a friend (the presenter) that it would be a good session. He didn't disappoint. I am almost embarrassed to say that I had never given much thought to the problem this session attempts to solve. It certainly deserves an individual post, but I'll describe it in a few sentences here. The best example of the issue is the Teleworker problem, where the remote user has a small Cisco router with a VPN tunnel to a Corporate headend router. The user also uses the same ISP connection (DSL, cable, etc) for home Internet usage. The problem is how do you ensure that the ISP connection prioritizes real-time Corporate traffic over general Internet web traffic downstream (towards the remote user)? To put it more generally, how do you get outbound QoS from a Service Provider network that is not QoS-aware?

My last session on Wednesday was Enterprise IPv6 Deployment. I've seen this content before, and originally I had scheduled a DCI session (DCI w/ Advanced-VPLS), but I thought it would be best to reinforce the IPv6 content. The presenter (Shannon McFarland) is very good, so I was not bored by seeing some of the information for a second time. His recommendation to begin in the core and work out towards the edge is somewhat unconventional, but he defends it well, to the point that I was convinced. Maybe more contemplation will change my mind. More information to come in the future. The biggest point he wanted to get across was "Dual Stack Where Possible, Tunnel When You Must." Tunnels introduce MTU issues and create difficult-to-troubleshoot network architectures. Maybe he should talk to the TRILL, LISP and OTV groups! :)

Cisco Live 2010 - The First 36 Hours

A quick update on my Cisco Live 2010 experience. On Sunday I attended an OTV labtorial. It was quite useful; I'm getting more confident in going that direction for an upcoming data center relocation project.

On Monday I attended the first half of an MPLS Security session. It was good, but I had to leave prematurely to take my Cisco exam. I feel like the 2nd half would have been great though, so I've made a note to revisit that one after it gets posted to www.ciscolivevirtual.com.

I passed my CCDE written exam, with a score between the first attempt (good score, during the beta) and my second attempt at Cisco Live 2009. I don't care much about what score I receive on an exam, provided it is a passing score, but I'm glad to see my score went up from last year.

I'm sitting on a Panel discussion on VPN right now. I don't think I have attended a Panel session before, and I was really missing out. This session is highly interactive, with no Powerpoint slides. Great info on GETVPN, DMVPN and a bit of EasyVPN info. The crowd isn't too interested in EasyVPN though, so the presenter responsible for that is having an easy time with this session. I am registered for a second Panel tomorrow on IPv6 Deployment Experiences, which should be great. It was a tough call registering for that, as there is also a LISP Panel at the same time. They are right next door to each other, so I may slide over to the LISP session if I'm not getting much out of the IPv6 one.

Speaking of LISP, my next session is "LISP - A Next Generation Networking Architecture". I attended this session last year and found it fascinating, but I never got a chance to follow-up on the content at home. I spoke briefly with Dino Farnacci (one of the protocol authors). He said there is a bunch of new content in this year's presentation. I finally have a use-case in my network, if I end up utilizing OTV to extend Layer-2 between my data centers during my upcoming DC migration. The Internet use-case is very cool, but I don't see a good reason to jump on board anytime soon. The list of attendees for this session is quite impressive. There are plenty of influential industry voices, so I hope the presentation goes well. If it does, the roll-out of LISP will benefit greatly.

Professional Life Update

I’ve been relatively quiet on this blog, but for some good reasons, or what I think are good reasons.  Here is my attempt at creating some excuses, it is left to the reader to determine if I get a pass :)

In March I taught my first CCDE Practical Bootcamp class.   It was a captive class, for a specific company.  I had a great teaching experience, and most of the feedback was positive, with two helpful suggestions for improving the course.  I was satisfied (but not thrilled) with the student’s results on the subsequent Practical exam.  I had hoped that my class would have had a larger impact on the candidate’s results, and I take responsibility for improving the course for future cohorts.

In May I taught my first CCDE Written Bootcamp.  I was more apprehensive about teaching this course than the Practical course, as I had no way of knowing whether the students would be properly prepared for the course.  The advantage of the Practical course is that all students are expected to have passed the CCDE Written exam prior to attending, so I could be comfortable with the level of knowledge they brought into the course.  There are no official prerequisites for the Written course, so some of the students could be very ‘green’.

Fortunately my fears were unfounded.  This was also a captive course, with all students from a common organization.  The training coordinator did a great job of ensuring that all students were prepared for the course.  At the conclusion of the course all students took the CCDE written exam and I was very happy with their results.  The student feedback was again very positive.  My biggest area for improvement is to get more familiar with the delivery of the supplied course materials for the written class.

So those paragraphs explain what I did for a couple of weeks… Where has my other time gone?  Well, the feedback from the Practical Bootcamp students indicated that they wanted some mock tests added to the syllabus.  I agree 100%; a simulation of the Practical exam is critical for preparing students.  I’ve spent the last couple of weeks developing these new materials.  My first opportunity to deliver them is coming up on July 12th in Washington DC, when I deliver the CCDE Practical Bootcamp course for CCBOOTCAMP.  If you are interested in attending, or just want some more information, please visit the CCBOOTCAMP website or write me an email.  I’ll also be at Cisco Live in Las Vegas next week, so if you would like to chat there, let me know and I’ll make some time.

Aside from these items, I also have a real job, which occupies the majority of my professional time.  Outside of that, I’ve become a bit of a soccer fan, at least as long as the USA is involved in the World Cup tournament.

Cisco Live 2010 Schedule

For anyone who is interested, I’ve posted my tentative Cisco Live 2010 schedule below.  I have a habit of switching sessions at the last minute, so if you don’t see me at one of these Breakout Sessions, don’t assume I slept in.  :)  I’ll be especially vigilant this year, with both my manager and my wife in attendance!  I added asterisks to my “must see” sessions.

My primary focuses for this year’s event are Data Center Interconnect and IPv6 Preparation.  I also sprinkled in a few sessions that caught my eye, such as IS-IS Network Design and the VPN Panel.  It occurred to me after last year that if I was interested in a panel discussion, it is necessary to attend in person.  I couldn’t find any of the sessions on Cisco Live Virtual last year.

As always, if you see me walking by, please say hi.

 

Sunday

Start: 1:00 PM End: 5:00 PM

*** LTRDCT-2008 Deploying Overlay Transport Virtualization

 

Monday

Start: 9:30 AM End: 11:30 AM

BRKSEC-2145 MPLS Security

Start: 11:00 AM End: 12:30 PM

Cisco Exam

Start: 12:30 PM End: 2:30 PM

PNLSEC-1010 Panel: VPN

Start: 3:00 PM End: 5:00 PM

*** BRKCRS-3045 LISP - A Next Generation Networking Architecture

 

Tuesday

Start: 8:00 AM End: 9:30 AM

BRKDCT-2049 Overlay Transport Virtualization

Start: 10:00 AM End: 11:30 AM

*** GENKEY-7846 Keynote and Welcome Address

Start: 12:30 PM End: 2:30 PM

*** PNLRST-2303 Panel: Experiences with Deploying IPv6

Start: 4:00 PM End: 6:00 PM

BRKSPG-2602 IPv4 Exhaustion: NAT and Transition to IPv6

 

Wednesday

Start: 8:00 AM End: 10:00 AM

BRKRST-2335 IS-IS Network Design and Deployment

Start: 12:30 PM End: 2:30 PM

*** BRKRST-3500 Designing Multipoint WAN QoS

 

Start: 3:00 PM End: 3:30 PM

Micronics Booth for CCIE Flyer Elvis Guitar Giveaway

Start: 4:00 PM End: 6:00 PM

BRKDCT-2011 Design and Deployment of Data Center Interconnects using Advanced VPLS (A-VPLS)

 

Thursday

Start: 8:00 AM End: 10:00 AM

BRKVIR-2007 Data Center Virtualization Case Study

Start: 10:30 AM End: 11:30 AM

GENKEY-7848 Closing Keynote: Author Ben Mezrich

Start: 12:00 PM End: 2:00 PM

BRKMPL-3102 Designing NGN SP/Enterprise Networks for Scale and Reliability

Start: 2:30 PM End: 4:30 PM

*** BRKSPG-2051 Evolution of Service Provider Edge Architectures

CCIEs and Social Skills

In the late 90s, CCIE certified networkers were hard to come by.  If I recall correctly, there were fewer than a half-dozen CCIEs in my state when I passed the exam in 1998.  Granted, Delaware is a small state, so that may not be saying a lot.  But trust me, there were not many CCIEs floating around.  I had met and spoken with a grand total of two CCIEs prior to earning my own cert.  Marty Adkins was my instructor for Cisco Internetworking Troubleshooting and a one day mock CCIE lab.  Doug Willard was a former employee of the company I worked for.  I ran into him at a Cisco presentation a few weeks prior to my first CCIE lab attempt, and he provided useful time management advice.  I’ve lost contact with Doug, but I still keep in touch with Marty.  Both gentleman were polite, well-spoken and a joy to deal with.

Fast-forward a year or so.  I was now CCIE certified and working for a consulting company.  My new job put me in contact with my other networking professionals.  I quickly learned that not all CCIEs carried themselves with the same professionalism as Marty & Doug.  During one sales opportunity with Netigy, we sent one of our newer CCIEs to meet with a prospective client’s technical staff.  The client had a CCIE on staff as a contractor, and he immediately took control of the meeting by declaring that Netigy’s CCIE had a higher number (It was in the 5000s, gasp!), and therefore was too inexperienced to help out.  The sales call was basically postponed for a few days until I was available to attend, since my number was low enough to satisfy this guy’s requirement.  Once that BS was settled, it was determined that our original CCIE was by far the most experienced of the three CCIEs involved with this particular network design, and he eventually spent several months with the client solving their issues.

While this was nonsense, at least it led to work for my employer.  My least favorite situation was visiting a prospective client who had already met or worked with a CCIE who had a bad attitude.  As I mentioned before, Delaware is a small state, and one of the few CCIEs who pre-dated me was notorious for his poor social skills.  As I came to learn, he threw temper tantrums at client sites and denigrated other non-CCIE engineers when mistakes were made.  His reputation was known throughout the area, and his attitude was associated as much with the CCIE credentials as it was with his employer.  Following that act into a sales situation was difficult.  Everyone began the meeting on the defensive, as if they were expecting all CCIEs to behave the same way.  Eventually the client would determine that not all of us acted with an air of superiority, and real work could be accomplished.

I don’t see this behavior from CCIEs much any more.  There are still many who border on ‘pompous’, but that isn’t so terrible.  Most CCIEs have a well-earned sense of confidence in their skills… and there is a fine line between ‘pompous’ and ‘confident’.  But it is now rare to find networkers who function like the ones described above.  I suppose it has a lot to do with the vast number of active CCIEs in the world.  I long ago lost count of the numbers in my area, but I am certain there are now hundreds in my metro area of Philadelphia.  With the loss of exclusivity, poor social skills are no longer tolerated in the work place.  That’s a good thing.  It also appears that the first two dozen CCDEs are for the most part a humble, well-mannered group.  We may occasionally stray on the dark side of the confident/pompous line , but peer pressure will surely rein us in before we get too out of line.  I’d hate to have to battle the same stereotypes over the next few years of my career!

Cisco Live 2010

 

This will be my fourth consecutive year attending Networkers @ Cisco Live. That qualifies me as a NetVet, which I always figured was a way of identifying employees of companies that receive too many Cisco Learning Credits. Now that I've been recognized, I see that it is a badge of honor for dedicated network learners, or something like that! :)

How and why have I attended Cisco Live for four straight years? When I decided to go to Cisco Live 2007, I hadn't been to formal Cisco training in six years. I had last attended Networkers (Orlando) in 2000, and frankly I didn't feel like I got much out of the experience. Most of it was my fault, as I brought my wife and two year old son with me.  I had also attended the year before in New Orleans, and several of my seminars repeated material.  Cisco Live Anaheim in 2007 was a great experience for me.  I reconnected with many former colleagues and built new relationships with Cisco enthusiasts.  When I saw that Cisco Live 2008 would be in Orlando, I decided to attend that one as well.  Orlando is my adopted summer home, so the travel costs were negligible.  Two colleagues from my employer attended as well, which added an additional team-building component to the experience.  We also were able to use Cisco Learning Credits from a major network upgrade purchase to keep our training costs down.

I had no plans to attend Cisco Live in 2009.  Two of my direct reports were scheduled to attend the San Francisco event.  My intention was to take a hands-on Nexus 5000/7000 class to prepare for a new Data Center deployment.  One of my other team members took the Nexus course in the spring of 2009 and reported that the experience was less than ideal.  So I shifted gears and applied my CLCs to Cisco Live 2009, with the added component of two hands-on Nexus Labs (Hands on Nexus 7000 and a VPC lab).  I also chose a number of Nexus-based Breakout sessions.  By focusing on a specific technology area I was able to sidestep the seminars I had attended over the previous years.

This year I’ll be focusing on the topics of Data Center LAN Extension and IPv6.  To this end I registered for an Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV) Lab and a number of Data Center and IPv6 breakout sessions.  Two members of my team are also attending, along with my manager and another co-worker.

How do I get value out of repeat visits to Cisco Live?

• Attend with co-workers – I derive a lot of value from meal times, visits to the World of Solutions and attending breakout sessions with my team members.  Last year we had a Meet the Engineer session about Performance Routing that was extremely helpful as well.  My team is distributed among three company offices, and I work from home, so face time with co-workers is very valuable.
• Don’t attend the same sessions – This might seem obvious, but it needs to be said.  The sessions will not change considerably from year to year, so even if you love BGP, pick something else to concentrate on.  You WILL get bored by the first 75% of any presentation, even the ‘Advances in BGP’ session.  If you absolutely need to know the latest in BGP, write yourself a note to watch the session on Cisco Live Virtual once it is posted.
• Visit the World Of S0lutions – The WoS does change from year to year.  I’m not much of a fan of the trinkets, but I do like visiting booths to see what is new in the field.  I’ll usually grab a couple of items for souvenirs for the kids.
• Take a Certification Test – It’s free, so it would be a waste not to take advantage of this benefit.  I generally take an exam that will recertify me.  This year I’ll be retaking the CCDE Written exam.  Wish me luck :)

I’ll post my schedule once I have a finalized version.  I generally change my plans repeatedly as I learn more about the sessions.  The one must-see breakout for me is BRKRST-3500, Designing Multipoint WAN QoS.  It’s a tricky issue, and I’m very curious to see how the problem is solved.  I also know the presenter, so I know it’ll be a good session.

Thoughts on Recertification

 

I know several former CCIE-certified individuals who have let their certifications lapse.  Most did it because their careers had taken them (at least temporarily) far enough away from the technical realm to make recertification difficult.  The easy decision at the time was to forego the effort of recertification.  In a few of these cases, circumstances eventually led them back into the technical field, where I’m sure they regretted letting the CCIE certification go dark.  Interestingly, I’ve never heard of anyone going back to take the lab to restore their CCIE certification.

Is recertification difficult?  Sure, at times it can be.  The first three times I recertified my CCIE, I took the old CCIE WAN Switching exam.  I would have taken it a fourth time, but the track was retired in 2006.  Because I was in a somewhat non-technical role, I decided to take the “easy” way out and recertify with the CCIE R/S exam.  Somehow I forgot about the “S” part, and went into the exam woefully unprepared for the switching questions.  My score report was a bit lopsided, with high marks for Routing, Security, etc, but extremely low marks for Switching.  I did not pass.  After a significant study break I retook the exam and passed.  Since then, I’ve taken the CCIE Security exam and the CCDE Written.  This summer I plan to take the CCDE Written again at Cisco Live.  I won’t say I’ll never take another CCIE recertification exam, but I think it is highly likely that I’ll continue retaking the CCDE Written for my future recertification requirements.

There is one certification that I have let lapse.  In 2003, I earned the CISSP certification.  At the time I was performing contract work at General Electric, and there was a lot of talk about moving my work offshore.  I felt it was the right time to add some new credentials to my resume, and security was a hot field.  About a year later I found a new opportunity that did not require my CISSP credentials, so I had no strong reason to keep my certification active.  I was also quite disappointed by the convoluted continuing education requirements and the yearly renewal fee.  For that matter, I don’t know anyone who has been satisfied with the CISSP program.  I may be too cynical, but it seems like a profit center for ISC2, rather than certification program.