Archive for August, 2008

Applescript to Sync SmartGroups with iPhone

Friday, August 29th, 2008

Since the iPhone does not sync SmartGroups from the MacOS Address Book (only regular groups), I wrote this script to automatically create ordinary groups with the contents of my SmartGroups.  I name all of my SmartGroups starting with “SM_” and the script creates regular groups with the same name, but starting with “_” (so SM_Family would become _Family).

Note that this script will delete all contacts from any regular groups that begin with “_” and match the name of a SmartGroup, so be a bit careful before you run it the first time.

on replaceString(theText, oldString, newString)
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldString
    set tempList to every text item of theText
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to newString
    set theText to the tempList as string
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
    return theText
end replaceString

tell application "Address Book"
    set theGroups to every group
end tell

repeat with aGroup in theGroups
    if id of aGroup contains "ABSmartGroup" then
        set theName to "_" & replaceString((name of aGroup), "SM_", "")

        tell application "Address Book"
            if group theName exists then
                remove every person from group theName
            else
                make new group with properties {name:theName}
            end if
            add (every person in aGroup) to group theName
        end tell
    end if
end repeat

tell application "Address Book" to save addressbook

Narbik Workbooks!

Friday, August 29th, 2008

CCIE Day 3-6
Catching Up

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Catching up a bit from the weekend.  Didn’t get much done on Friday or Sunday, other than a bit of reading, due to other commitments.  However, on Saturday I did a 4-hour rack rental with CCIE2Be.com and a second 8-hour rental with IPExpert.  The CCIE2Be session was spent working on the IEv5 Workbook #1 bridging and switching content.  Ended up going about halfway through.  For the IPExpert session, I re-did the first half of their Switching focus lab, concentrating on speed and not making stupid oversights.  Went pretty well.

Last night I tackled the first half of the IEv5 frame relay lab, using my Dynamips lab setup.  Went very well, and the virtual setup seems to work well so far.  We’ll see how it goes when I get to more involved labs, but if it continues to go as well as the frame stuff did, my rack costs should go down quite a bit.  As far as the content, I had a bit of trouble with back-to-back frame relay and some of the more non-standard Inverse-ARP scenarios, but after re-watching the IE frame relay class-on-demand I now feel comfortable with those as well.

Tonight I’ll be finishing up the IE frame relay lab and probably hitting the IPExpert version.  I may spend a bit of time getting my Dynamips lab working with the IE initial configs (updating interface names and the like).  My Narbik workbooks should arrive tomorrow and I’ll be hitting his FR labs then.  After that, it’s on to IP!

CCIE Prep, Day 2
IPExpert Vol. 1, Sec. 1-2

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Tonight was my first real practice session using the ProctorLabs rack rentals and IPExpert’s workbook 1.  Overall, it went well, and I was quite impressed with both products, although I ran into a couple of minor headaches:

  • some of the ProctorLab racks apparently have 4 x 3560 switches instead of 3 x 3560 and 1 x 3550 as shown in the lab topology.  This caused a couple of unexpected problems relating to different default trunk modes.
  • the Section 1 logical topology diagram had a labeling error (swapped fe0/0 and fe0/1 on R9), which led to a bit of fun in getting layer 3 reachability.

In terms of the labs themselves, I did fairly well although I’m not quite at the level of concentration I’ll need to be at for the real exam.  I found myself getting distracted and making simple mistakes that would have resulted in dropping quite a few points on the exam.  I’m sure this will improve as time goes on.  Some specific things I stumbled on:

  • not defining loopback interfaces on every router.   My verification scripts didn’t test this as I was only pinging directly attached interfaces.
  • neglecting to enable VTP v2 to meet a specific requirement of ensuring the MD5 hash values match between authenticated devices.
  • not reading/studying the SPAN-related question to see that it was actually asking for RSPAN.
  • a pretty big fumble on the mac-address ACL section.  I really need to study this in detail, especially the bits involving matching on the EtherType.
  • I ended up skipping the section on private VLANs.  I’m fairly confident I could have gotten by using the DocCD, but I definitely don’t have a solid handle on them yet.

In general, I think it went well for a first practice session.  I was hoping to supplement the IPExpert lab with the new InternetworkExpert v5 Bridging/Switching labs, but unfortunately GradedLabs seems to be booked solid all weekend and all next week.  Looks like I’ll have to hit some content I can practice under Dynamips.

I think tomorrow I’m going to spend some time going back through the STP and Catalyst security CODs and do some DocCD review and read the BCMSN study guide a bit.  I still need to hit the IPExpert MST and Rapid-PVST labs, but those are areas I’m definitely weaker in so I want to get some book knowledge in my head first.

My Narbik Workbooks shipped

Thursday, August 21st, 2008
Hi Brian,

This email is sent to notify you that your order has been shipped.

Your order was shipped via UPS and your tacking number is 1Z0000000000000000.

Looks like my Narbik workbooks will be here next Friday Wednesday (they’re coming UPS Ground from California).  I have no shortage of things to work on until they get here, of course.

CCIE Lab Prep, Day 1

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Rebooting my prep days since I’m now preparing for the lab instead of the written.

Last night I watched the InternetworkExpert class-on-demand sections for Ethernet Switching, VTP, Layer 3 Switching and EtherChannel, and parts of Spanning Tree.  I had watched all of them before so it was mostly a review.

Tonight is my first IPExpert/ProctorLabs rack session, in which my goal is to finish sections 1-2 of Workbook 1 (general setup and PVST+).  I need to do quite a bit of studying on MST and Rapid-PVST before diving into those sections.  The workbook suggests 5 hours as an estimated time-to-complete for sections 1-2, so we’ll see how that goes.

I’m hoping my Narbik workbooks show up fairly soon so that I can stay consistent between the IPExpert labs and the Narbik labs.  I want to try to maximize my learning on each technology section during the first phase of my prep so that I’m as ready as possible when starting the actual lab scenarios.

My Lab Exam Strategy

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Now that I have a date looming in the not-so-distant future, it’s time to get serious about a strategy for preparing.

Study Materials

My plan is to use a mix of study materials from different vendors.  I was (extremely) fortunate to win one of IPexpert’s End-to-End training packages at Cisco Networkers this year, which provides an electronic copy of all their self-study materials, along with a two-week instructor-led boot camp.

In addition, I was able to purchase the InternetworkExpert self-study package with their workbooks and classes-on-demand (thanks to their 4-month payment plan).  I’ve already been making use of both the IE and IPexpert technology lectures (both audio and video) in my CCIE Written preparation, and will continue to do so for the lab prep.

Finally, I purchased a copy of Narbik’s Advanced Technology workbook, based on many, many recommendations.  This has not yet arrived.

Strategy, Part One

For the first phase of my preparation, my plan is to break things down by major technology section (switching, RIP, BGP, QoS, etc.) and do a deep-dive on each one.  The basic strategy will be:

  • watch the InternetworkExpert class-on-demand videos for the technology
  • work through the IPexpert workbook 1 labs for the technology, using ProctorLabs rack rental for switching-related labs and my Dynamips lab for everything else.
  • work through the InternetworkExpert workbook 1 labs for the technology, but only the ones for which version 5 labs are available.  I’m not crazy about the format of the v4 labs since they don’t separate the questions from the answers, which in my mind makes it easier to “cheat” instead of learn.  I may still use them for review later, though.
  • work through Narbik’s workbook labs for the technology, using CCOnlineLabs rack rental for switching-related labs and my Dynamips lab for everything else.

In addition, I’ll be using the IE and IPexpert audio content on my iPhone whenever I’m out and about to fill in gaps, as well as downloading and reading the various PDF’s from CCO.

Strategy, Part Two

Once I’ve worked through each of the individual technologies, my plan is to use a combination of the IPExpert workbook two multi-technology labs along with some of the easier IE workbook two labs (difficulty 6-7) to start getting a feel for more involved lab scenarios.  That will build up to full practice labs using the IPexpert workbook three labs, the higher-difficulty IE labs, and finally both the IE Mock Labs and the 5-day IPexpert mock lab workshop.

…and somewhere in there, I’ll sleep. :-)

Ready for 4 Months of Stress and Lack-of-Sleep

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

And here… we… GO

RESERVATION INFORMATION:
Name:  Brian Landers
Track:  Routing and Switching
Lab date:  January 07, 2009

LAB LOCATION and START TIME:
Cisco Systems
7025 Kit Creek Road
Lake Building, 3rd building on the left
Research Triangle Park, NC  27709

Yes, I’m Alive… and One Step Closer

Monday, August 18th, 2008

CCIE Study Links

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Moved this to its own page here.