ENCOR - Exam and Cert Overview

hello everybody welcome back to this channel for those who are just tuning in for the first time potentially this is the Cisco study group that I've been running for probably on and off since I think November we we ran these on Twitch for a long time though CCNA focus actually was CCENT focused originally we took a look at some CCNA topics at the end and then we really pushed past see sentence ECA and where we did vault into and we're going to continue vaulting into the CCNP track that cisco has so specifically around the encore exam we were on twitch for a long time that platform had its limitations of CBT in general we wanted to move over to YouTube as our platform of choice and so I'm very excited to be building a platform on YouTube and to hopefully get some other videos made I think that's the the biggest advantage to YouTube is that even though it doesn't really matter where you do a live session in the end where if I if developing a library of videos with YouTube we can put it all in one place whereas you know with twitch it would be you know some some content is over here and the live sessions are over there and I understand why some are over there and white some are over here and so this just kind of brings it all together on one platform so I'm excited to be here I hope you're excited to be here we're going to be diving into Encore and really probably staying in Encore for the indefinite future so we're probably gonna see some people come in here study hung up on encore may pass the Encore exam and go on to do bigger and better things and but I know that there's always people out there who are working towards their CCNP Enterprise and by the way ccnp Enterprise is a new name so cisco you know just let's just lay some groundwork here right cisco just completely upended everything with their certifications so their certifications used to be we had the CCENT and then we had the CCNA and by the way if you wanted the security you go get the CCNA security or CCNA datacenter CCNA Wireless and all these different types of CCNA s and then you could also do the same thing CMP level you could go get the CCNP route switch and you get the CCNP data center CCNP security CCNP unified communications are wireless and and that was good I mean that definitely worked for us for the better part of probably 10 or 15 years but I love what Cisco has done to kind of upend the apple cart and say you know what we need a more modern way of handling certifications and so the gist of what they did was they said ok we're gonna get rid of the CCENT you know that that's no longer the foundation they wanted to come back to the CCNA being the foundation having one exam that's yeah I mean yeah CCS the season was one exam well yeah a number of exams regardless just having one sees that when one certification that would give access to kind of all the other technologies they wanted that in the CCNA they wanted the CCNA to be really where network engineers go in order to really start the certification process because whether you're doing data center or security or unified communications or Wireless we all have to have good solid routes which foundational knowledge and so for those who are going straight after a CCNA Wireless for example you can be really really good at the wireless part of technology in general or maybe your job but then you you go through that process you get certified and now you're in a real-life scenario and you're really good with the wireless but you don't necessarily know how packets flow through a switched infrastructure as you can imagine that's pretty limiting from a skill set perspective if I have a network engineer who can troubleshoot my wireless signal but can't tell me how packets flow through the network that's there's less I can do with that network and admin on my team and that goes for all of these technologies so if you're into unified communications for example one way audio problem that's route switch if you can't troubleshoot packet flow through a network then you're not going to be able to offer as much value even as a UC specialized engineer so what Cisco did instead was say okay we're all gonna start with CCNA one CCNA and we're going to build specializations on top of that and so I can take that CCNA and I can get a specialist in our specialization in security or I can get a specialization in data center and then I can do the same thing with CCNP so where the where the CCNA you can get like maybe a specialization to go with your CCNA with the CCNP it's a little even more deep we look at it and say okay well if I'm going to get the CCNP in enterprise networking which is what we're talking about here tonight this is CCNP networking well is here okay where are they going with that oh yeah so the specializations I can get there's a lot of different specializations alright so I'm a guy who has several CC MPs right I have CCNP routes which I have a CC NP and data center once upon a time I had CC n the CC IP which is basically CCNP and service provider and if I told you hey I'm a ccnp data center before all of these changes as far as anybody is concerned in the industry a ccnp data center is an expert at Cisco application centric infrastructure and Cisco UCS and Cisco data center design and Cisco data center networking and and the odds are I'm not necessarily an expert at all four of those things I might be really really good at the networking components but I haven't studied the servers inside the data center quite as much and what these specializations allow us to do is say yeah I can go pass the core exam and that's good but now I can actually get specialization to say look I'm a specialist in datacenter networking and so I'm a network engineer first and foremost and some of those other technologies I'm good with but I'm not necessarily at that professional level with all of them and if I want to go get that professional level they can get additional specializations so let's go ahead and what I want to show Cisco's website here and talk about it real quick though as far as what we're going to be doing tonight we're be talking about the Encore itself okay what what exactly it is I've already kind of given a little bit of an overview of what Cisco did with their certifications got a little exciting I jumped in before you in showing the agenda here you know mentioning the specializations etc and then we're gonna spend the rest of the night just looking at the Encore blueprint so the Encore blueprint is where we're going to spend a lot of our time if we're indeed studying for the Encore and so over the next many weeks what we're going to be doing is going through the blueprint domains one by one and this the goal the purpose of the study group is really to come alongside you with where you are in your journey and give some additional resources maybe develop a community that's you know we're able to encourage each other we've seen a lot of people get there see sense and their CCNA s going through the study group there was a lot of fun and that's that's what this is all about right is just to encourage each other and to stir one another up into being excited how going and getting these certifications and to believe that you can do it and then from a technical perspective hey you know tonight we're going to talk about whatever it is let's say it's spanning-tree one night it's a good opportunity for you take a break wherever you are in your studies and to come in here and make sure that you understand spanning tree or whatever topic it is that we're going to be covering that particular day so with that I want to go ahead and well let's see here what we're doing first we're talking about encore so let's just kind of lay out what encore is now so encore the cisco took their CCNP routing and switching and they renamed it they rebranded it to be called the CCNP Enterprise and I've got this Cisco's website pulled up here it's the ccnp Enterprise certification training web page the homepage the land or so to speak and and the reason they did this is because what they wanted to do is they wanted to bring all of the not only the routing and switching but also the Software Defined Networking we've heard of things like Cisco sd1 and Cisco's software-defined access for example but also the wireless world is now part of CCNP enterprise and so we don't see CCMP Wireless anymore we don't see CCNA Wireless anymore don't see any of the CCNA is for the most part it's just one CCNA again but either way Wireless has just been brought back under the umbrella because Wireless is yes it's its own thing I mean I no disrespect to wireless engineers because I myself was one for the first five years of my career I was very laser focused on wireless technologies but at the same time Wireless is truly just routing and switching with different medium where a lot of the wireless skills come into play our understanding the wireless signal propagation you know understanding all of those parameters but then also just learning how to manipulate Cisco's wireless environments via their wireless controllers or Cisco prime infrastructure or whatever you know hey even SDA now but I think SDA is a big part of that so this goes software to find access SDA is a platform that's meant to bring Wireless underneath that router switch umbrella and so now we've got one platform that's not only managing my entire wrap switch infrastructure but I also have that same platform that's managing all my Wireless for me and so as cisco has continued to bring all of their wireless technologies caught under or alongside or with their routes which technologies it makes sense to treat that all as one on the certification side as well this is another way that they shook up the certification world 100% they they really changed a lot and that's just one of the ways that they did that as far as the Encore exam itself is concerned a couple of things about it so first of all they it is a four hundred dollar exam right now that's US dollars so I'm speaking to us territories at the moment right now because I don't exactly know how that pricing translates around the world but I can tell you relatively you know the CCIE written used to be $400 all right and so the reason will in the PNP I want say the NP was in the 250 to 300 range originally so the reason why it's now basically the price of the CCIE written exam of old is because it is the new CCIE written exam so they they they effectively made this exam into the CCI written because or but they've made effectively into the season because they got rid of the CCI written that's what I'm trying to say so CCIE for those who don't know is a two-step exam you would always go take the written exam and then you would go and fly out and you have to take the lab exam and the lab exam is really the meat of that exam I mean I don't know the ratio the number of people that pass the written is exponentially higher than those who go pass the lab exam and so when it comes down to it went back before all these changes you could look at that and say and getting the route switch written well you let us say CCIE doesn't matter which technology I guess getting the CCI you written was a little bit of a waste if you never got the CCIE and even then it kind of felt like an unneeded step right I mean if I can pass the lab exam I can probably pass the written and so what Cisco did was recognize that that's kind of in us this gap or it's not needed anymore I mean yeah yeah it serves a purpose it's needed on some level but we want to make it more relevant to the person passing it and so what they did was they they still they got rid of the exam because just to kind of add fuel to the fire they're passing an exam passing the written exam got you zero certifications as somebody who has looked at resumes people will look would put on the resume hey I passed the CCI you written the exam but and that's I guess that's okay you can put that on your resume to show that maybe you were thinking about taking the CCIE or you wanted a challenge or you're motivated whatever you're trying to convey with that that's fine but it's not an actual cisco certification doesn't matter that you pass the written it just kind of more of the soft skill it shows that you're driven or what have you and that's good again that's good for trying to get a job but it doesn't actually translate to a certification unless you go past the left so that's where again we're just let's let's just get rid of the exam but let's keep the requirement you still gotta pass something now instead of passing the CCI written to go take the lab you got to pass the core exam for your specific technology track for those who didn't know you didn't have to have any source code certifications to go past the ie I mean if you want to get your CCNP you had to pass the n/a in order to get the NP and that's just kind of the step ladder system right it's like you get this cert and then you can go get that cert CC a was not that way I actually in my last job there was I mean I'm a guy who'll tell you I have to CC II's and for both of them I went CCNA CCNP CCIE okay that was for my round swipes I was for the first one and then the data center came out and the data center came out as an ie before DNA or the NP so the other the IE came out and I was thinking about going and taking it so I thought well just going to go take the written and I was in the middle of going after the written when the na and the NP came out and I thought you know what I'm gonna hit the pause button on the lab exam and you know or the written exam I suppose at that point and I'm just gonna go get the na and the NP and that's what I did again I started at the NA level I got my CCNA data center and then when I got my CCNP data center and then I went and took that ie written I was way more prepared for that I you've written because I was studying so much for the NA and the NP and it elevated my knowledge and my understanding in the a data center space to the point that I could go pass that written and eventually pass the lab that said okay so that's me that's in my last place of employment I was just starting to say we had an engineer very brilliant on the UC side never really passed any certification so yeah I think he had passed a couple like 10 years prior or something he let them expire great engineer just didn't have any certifications and he finally decided you know what I'm just gonna go get that ie and he did he went out he studied for the I II got the written went out to the lab passed the lab literally the only Cisco certification he had was this e CIE and as far as I know to this day that's still the only certification yes I don't know I haven't kept track of him since leaving but either way the the point is this you didn't have to have any certification or to go take the EC CIE and technically that's still true today but now at least in going after the IE and passing the core exam you're halfway to ACC NP and so they're gonna see a lot more people pause I think at the CCNP level anybody who is thinking about just going straight after the IE you're not taking a meaningless exam anymore you're not going after CCIE are ya the cci written which does you no good instead you're gonna go take the NP let's say the core exam again like on core enterprise networking core I'm gonna go take that core exam and at that point I could go take the IE lab but maybe I'm not feeling ready so instead I'll go get a specialization and the specialization plus the core that's what makes the CCNP at that point I've got my CCNP and then maybe I'll feel a little more confident going after that CCNA lab exam alright so that was a little bit of a dovetail but the reason I brought it up is because again it's a $400 exam and that is extremely limiting I'm not a huge fan of that price tag I really am NOT because I've I've always been fortunate for the vast majority of my career my employer has been willing to pay and different employers along the way different employers have been willing to cover exams for their employees not just me but for all of our staff and and that huge because that that's a huge benefit four hundred four hundred US dollars is not a small amount of money especially if you find yourself in a place where trying to get a better job so you can maybe increase your Sal and free up your finances $400 is is tough and so I'm not a fan of that but at the same time it's just our reality so you know a $400 is too tight of a spend for you then then look into honestly if you're sitting there with your CCNA maybe make sure that you're properly paid or you might need to consider a new job in order to elevate your salary so you can afford the training and afford the materials and afford just taking the exam because $400 maybe a lot of us could buckle down and find a way to get $400 what if we fail a couple of times I mean no of a sudden you're talking about three attempts that's 1,200 bucks that's it adds up fast and and I and I get that so not usually a downer on these kinds of things I just I wish that Cisco had kept the price tag down surprised it as much as possible so but they didn't and it just is the reality and so $400 USD again wherever in the world you are it's going to be probably I assume whatever the translation of 400 u.s. dollars is okay so now for the process how do I get my CCNP the way we get our ccmp I already mentioned it briefly I'm gonna scroll down here take a look at this the way we get our ccnp want me to scroll or a zoom in there we go is we passed the core exam in any technology track so we're looking at enterprise networking specifically this could be true with or this would be true with data center security wireless is gone I guess so unified communications any of these other tracks are going to be very similar and how this operates we passed the core exam and we pass a concentration exam not necessarily in that order we don't have to pass the core exam first in fact if I look at those concentration exams I might say you know I've got my CCNA down here I passed my CCNA that's that's good you've got that you could go maybe take one of these special hour concentrations let's say implementing Cisco Sdn solutions and now you'll have a CCNA with a specialization in enterprise networking and so this is where you you could go take the concentration exam first that said I think most people are going through the process as if the core exam is the first it's the foundation it's laying you know this is everything I need to know kind of more broad than deep and then using these concentration exams to go deeper and to get the CCNP so again you have your CCNA you only get your ccnp the process to do that go past the Encore for enterprise networking you know security would be the security core exam they call s course core if you want to say it like that so if they're hauled off on DC I'm I'm working right now on the DC core track for CBT Nuggets so I put out a lot of training material for CBT Nuggets I was actually got to participate in the on core training a lot of fun and and that's great so now I'm on to the DC core so that's the data center core exam so the same thing we're gonna see these core exams COR is what a lot of them end with these exams that are part of different technology tracks so if another technology tracks track interest you then be sure to check those out so either way you have your CCNA you want your CCNP you have to go past the core exam the core exam does not give you a ccmp you have to pass a concentration and it even says choose one so let's say you go out and you pass that same exam the sd1 exam ens DWI so if you were to do that you would have a CCNP you would have a ccnp in enterprise networking specifically and you would have a ccnp enterprise networking with a specialization in implementing Sdn solutions so you put that on your resume you would say hey I am a CCNP enterprise networking individual with a specialization in you win that's sure to catch attention with some of these enterprises that are putting SD win solutions into place it doesn't even necessarily be Cisco right it's just because if you understand Cisco's SD wind deployment you're probably gonna be able to figure out other vendors as well and so it could to an immense advantage over somebody who maybe has a I don't know a CCNP in a different specialization if that company is deploying SD wins so so that's one thing now the other thing is maybe maybe you're you know you got that ccmp and SD win and you're looking at a new job and and this new job they're saying you know we really want somebody with some design experience and like you know what what what I'll do is maybe they maybe they hire you but they still want you to prove yourself or maybe you know about I don't know I'm making up too many details about this fiction fictional scenario but what I'm trying to say is let's say you do want that designing experience and you especially want to on your resume well you have the NP the NPN you have the enterprise networking CCNP with a specialization ST win you can go take this exam the ENS LD and by doing that now you have two specializations you have a specialization SD man and you have a specialization in enterprise network design because of the way cisco has built this you can get the specializations that you desire and add it on top of your foundational CCNP certification so compare that to how it used to be remember I said I have a CC NP and data center and when in fact for the moat let's just erase that for a moment let's go back look I have a CC NP and routing and switching so if I just told you back in the day hey I've got a CCNP and routing and switching and you know these are the topics that are covered on the CCNP you're going to assume that I'm pretty darn good at all of these you assume I'm good at advanced writing and twitching I'm pretty good at SD win I'm pretty good at design I'm pretty good maybe even in Wireless you'd see two of these specializations are wireless this we're wireless went by the way Wireless didn't go away we didn't get rid of the ccnp wireless and just say forget wireless you know you can get a wireless specialization on top of your NP Enterprise so that's if you know for all your wireless aficionados out there you can absolutely still get wireless certified and this is how you do it and then the last one is automation so if you I can tell you right now I am not at the same level I am NOT at a professional level of knowledge on advanced routing and switching and SD win and design and wireless and automation okay I have strengths and I have weaknesses in those categories and so if I today now we're to go get my NP route switch my certifications are going to reflect my strengths and my weaknesses so hopefully that makes sense because I'm a huge fan of this I really am I think Cisco knocked it out of the park with this design with saying hey we're gonna let you specialize in certain ways I think that simplifying the portfolio of exams is great I was never a huge fan of the CCENT I didn't really feel like it particularly fit very well it used to be too easy then they made it too hard and it just I don't know it just felt like too much so now we're simplified there is no CCENT we have CCNA then you have the specializations and then you go get that core exam and additional specializations beyond that and it's just a relatively simple process it really is not an easy process I didn't say easy by the way don't think I said easy it's still it's still difficult process and a challenging one but it's one that will make you a better engineer that's the whole point all right I mean we all want to put a certification on our resume but going after certifications I can point to very specific times in my career where I went after a certification and yes I got to put that certification on my resume afterwards and that was cool but it made me a engineer okay the CCI ease hands down made me a better engineer because of how much time I spent configuring devices but even down here at the NP level yeah it wasn't in the lab as much but studying routing and switching at this level made me such a better troubleshooter it made me such a better designer I mean I I remember in the midst of my CCNP rats which journey actually I just completed my rest which journey and I was talking with a CCIE and we were able to have good conversations I mean he knew more than me don't get me wrong I learned a lot from him but I was able to have good meaningful design level conversations with him because of all of the studying I'd put into the CCNP that were that really came through in a meaningful way at that point so absolutely we're it's challenging but it's worth it we're all gonna get so much better at this technology because we're going through the certification process and yes that might mean we fail an exam and that's okay it might mean that we fail a couple of times but I mean we just get really down at other times but that's why the study group is here yeah you get down you come in and you let us know and we'll encourage you and we'll just do what we can to fill your knowledge gaps and hopefully point you in the right direction watch this video check this training out just here's some basic answers to some basic questions or why I have you and let's come together as a community and see each other succeed because that's that's what this is all about is just coming together and encouraging each other and getting us all over the hump of these exams and and I also say this as a trainer it's easy for me to lose track of this this is a phase yeah I mean you're you're most people watching this you are going to pass the NP you are going to pass the encore and then you're going to move on to the next challenge or maybe that's good enough and and you just need to maintain that over the course of time but either way it's it's a phase we sacrifice for a little while in order to help create a better reality for us on the other side and that mean if that means a better job or maybe it's just a you know higher salary at the job I have or maybe it's better respect you know because when you sign your email and say that your CCNP and your email you you you get more respect that way I mean it's it creates a better reality for us but it does take sacrifice and all I can tell you is I don't regret a single sacrifice that I made along the way it was always worth it to go after some of these certifications so hopefully you'll feel the same way once it's all said and done okay whoo all right so we're about halfway done time to move on to the blueprint so again if you have any questions I should have said this said this at the start if you have any questions be sure to chime in to the chat we're doing this YouTube premier style and so well we'll come together and answer any questions that anybody has but hopefully this all makes sense I will tell you this by the way again I am a CBT Nuggets instructor and I love training for CBT Nuggets phenomenal company phenomenal team of trainers I'm honored and humbled to be part of this fantastic team of trainers we at CBT what we have today we have on course I got to participate in that again as I mentioned in fact if you fire up the encore training you'll be greeted for better or worse with my smiling face because I I've trained on the basically the first two blueprints with with a couple exceptions so first two blueprint items or me and then you also see again talk about some of these fantastic trainers Keith Barker Jeremy Chara Knox Hutchinson Jacob Moran and Chuck Keith so there's six of us in total that come together and an attack this encore exam next we have NRC so NRC is this enter advanced routing and switching right advanced routing and services I'm sorry I was seeing it wrong or fine advanced routing and services this is basically just diving deep into routing and this CBT we also have this course so if you pass the Encore and that's what you want specialize in perfect Keith Parker and Knox Hutchinson do that I did not participate in that one and then we have Ian Otto Ian Otto I believe is taught entirely by Knox Hutchinson I believe Ben Finkel also actually as part of that as well it's automating Cisco enterprise networking solutions there's an auto version by the way I believe for all of the content are all the of the technology tracks so I can datacenter for example there is a DC auto because this goes really pushing this concept of automation to all of the different technology tracks so those are the three that we have at CBT as of the time of this video I promise you there are some Wade sa I just to write sorry I said three I don't know why yeah SD win solutions we definitely want to tackle that one enterprise network design that's a personal passion of mine I promise you that you know I will one day put out content for that however long it takes and then we've got a couple of trainers also very interested in the wireless portion so it wouldn't surprise me if by the end of some season we've got access to no training access to all of these different concentration exams but I think we've probably NRC is gonna be what most individuals who pass the core exam want to go after and so we got that covered and Ian Otto is just I mean frankly we should all be taking that course even if you don't go take the exam we all need to have those automation skills and so between that and all the other automation nuggets that Knox Hutchinson and Ben think Alon some of these others have put together we we all need to make sure we're taking those those courses all right cool so moving on let's take a look at that blueprint so the blueprint down here I think I already expanded it let me collapse that so here is what Cisco wants us to know as part of the encore so again this is not the specialisations this is truly now the encore exam the one exam that we're trying to go pass all right and right away our eyes are probably gonna fall to the where the 30% is that 30% I guess I can't highlight that this goes blocking me from doing that that's cool infrastructure is a major part of this I mean if we glanced at it we'll get more detail later we're talking about layer two technologies layer three technologies ERP OSPF bgp is in here here's the wireless section as well as those IP services a third of the exam is going to be us being really good technically with some of these routing protocols and switching protocols and services protocols and such but look at what some of these other things cisco wants us to know I mean they want us to know network architecture that's design level stuff they wants to know virtual virtual ization like what are we talking about there virtualization will again in more detail we're talking about virtual machines and virtual switching isn't that data center stuff oh yeah yeah his data center stuff it's I like data center stuff it's good we as network engineers need to know data center stuff because of this right here virtual switching switches are no longer just physical devices they're inside our virtual environments and so yeah we need to understand that and it by the way this is the data center stuff here all of this that's just virtual networking concepts the VRS for example and IPSec tunnels and then these two down here I know some people are looking at that and you're either freaking out or really licking your lips and getting excited because Lisbon VX LAN are two network virtualization technologies that we've got to be aware of so I don't know I'm getting excited I'm jumping in network assurance that's a new phrase from Cisco basically means assuring that the network is behaving as it should and really in the context out mmm how do I say that outside the context of CCNP data enterprise networking out of the outside the context of Ankur network assurances for the most part an automated process you're going to be talking about network assurance engines that can tell you run analytics on the and the network and tell you what's going wrong on the network and that's all cool stuff here they just use that phrase to say hey you need to be able to configure troubleshooting tools like span and ER span and IP SLA and such I will get back to that I'm security 20% in security our networks need to be secure not as an afterthought but as the first thought security absolutely has to be the foundation for our exam so you know hey we're talking on an enterprise networking exam that already has branched out into data center and security and check out this remember what I said earlier Cisco really wants us to understand automation so that's the last portion of the exam blueprint so let's dive into this in a little more detail take a look at what Cisco wants us know from an architecture perspective all right so and this by the way these are the two sections that I got to teach as part of the encore section so it's why I mention if you fire it up you're gonna see me because I was section 1.0 is architecture and so there you're gonna see me talking about arcing network architecture and I mentioned already network design is a big passion of mine so I was a lot of fun putting together that content and virtualization as well being that it's data center I quickly volunteered to to do that which you know Jacob Moran being an epic vmware instructor for him to graciously allow me to do the hypervisor section i was really excited about that so I appreciate that Jacob haha I really I wanted to teach all of this stuff - that was the networking stuff all right so architecture what does this guy wants to know so we've got to understand as engineers a little bit more about the architecture of our network so the the curious thing something I've always found funny is that the CCIE is an exam where you go and you put your fingers on the keyboard and you're punching in CLI commands left and right and you just you're so amazing right you're supposed to be so amazing at configuring devices and let you take those CC II's say wow you're so so good at configuring those devices so what do we ask for the CCI used to do in a lot of cases we have them sit in a chair and design stuff like whoa wait a second I didn't I didn't learn how to design things I mean I when I got my CCI routes which I went to a job for a Cisco partner and was in a fifty-fifty role where yes I was going and doing deployments and yes I was taking tickets and troubleshooting issues for customers and such I mean I was I was doing the hands-on but I tell you what when it came to designs I was pretty much the one who handled the designs at that point so any design came through okay customer needs new switches how would you design this network I mean that was very early I when I first got there as like boy I am I I think I know what I'm doing but I didn't study design I studied implementing right the I in CCIE it doesn't stand for implementing but I think of it that way because you compare that to the CCIE with the ççde that is the D is for design the I could might as well stand for implement I mean those are the two certifications that you're supposed to have but there aren't nearly enough CCD ease in the world in fact the CCD e as good as it is for design I mean the vast majority designs are still done by CC IES these days and so what we need to do is actually get some design knowledge but I guess I mean we need to study that and so cisco is telling us hey you know what we need to do is we need to design i'm sorry we need to study how to design these design principles in an enterprise network and we need to be able to design 2-tier three-tier architecture x' I mean understand what the what I was looking for the hierarchical Network model we need to understand that and not just like oh yeah I can draw it it's an it's an access layer and a distribution layer on a core layer but actually no when we use those things and when do we talk about layer 2 to the edge and we're talking about layer 3 to the edge and where does the data center really fit into this and how does the internet come in and all of these design concepts we as CCNP enterprise networking engineers are going to be expected that we can speak to design alright so not only design with the like I would say that this design section 1.1 this is probably for the wired network but then look at 1.2 analyze design principles of a wireless LAN deployment so don't allow centralized and distributed and controller lists and controller based and cloud design models for wireless LANs and then location services if you're a wireless engineer that section is probably not going to be that much of a challenge because you know what all these things are but if you're not a wireless engineer you may need to spend some time in there because you need to understand how wireless networks are designed again whether you are a wireless engineer forced to learn wired designs or whether you're a wired engineer forced to learn wireless designs either way we're becoming better engineers way better well-rounded individuals who can help our enterprise organizations make decisions so that's what that's what the first two sections are about third is interesting because it's a little data center E but at the same time we are dealing regularly these days with enterprises of all sizes huge enterprises if you work for one of those small environments maybe a small business or a school system or government entity or manufacturing facility whatever you are whatever type of company you work for we're seeing cloud be embraced by everyone in the spectrum and so if you don't understand how we connect our network out to the cloud environment we're going to be very limited as network engineer so that's a one three is is understanding the networking of both on-premise data centers with cloud infrastructure so again more well-rounded individuals more well-rounded network engineers that's what we want to be alright so here's here's where things get fun okay unfortunately this is the only say unfortunately well I'm gonna say it like that unfortunately is the only place on the exam or SD win and SD access come in now some of you are saying Jeff why is that unfortunate because I don't know those solutions nobody does very few people really understand those solutions and this means that we don't need to study it any more than this and that's true but I'm telling you right now that is the future of Cisco Networking the SD win and the especially the SD access that is how we are all going to be configuring our Cisco networks one day okay that day is not yet here but hey if you dive in to SD access today you're gonna be well prepared for whatever comes next okay so I do say it's unfortunate because I wish that we had to delve way deeper into these technologies one of the challenges with that is that we just don't get access to all of the SD win and SD access labs like you know it's hard to lab this stuff up right it's hard to get access to some of these GUI interface it's hard to get access to catalyst nine thousands and and I get that and that's a challenge but that doesn't change the fact that we need to know these technologies inside now and so I would I would consider just going as deep into those technologies as you can now again I did the training for those for CBT Nuggets if you're a CBT Nuggets subscriber you're going through that session or those sections you're gonna be a little surprised I think because you're gonna pull I think both of them have three separate skills the skill is about seven or eight videos we're talking about maybe 25 videos apiece just for one little blueprint item and the reason for that is I want you to be prepared not just for the end the encore I mean yeah we need to zero in and not try to learn everything under the Sun but at the same time it's going to be absolutely critical that we know these technologies for our jobs and so preparing you for that is is just what I wanted to do as an instructor and so yeah if you watch those videos I I'm never gonna make a guarantee right but you're probably going to ace the sections on beyond core itself because you're gonna know plenty about these two technologies st way in and SD axis order to go pass but again I just I can't recommend enough that we continue to dry it drill into those technologies as much as we can and hopefully hopefully soon from CBT we'll have more content that drills into SD win and SD axis as well okay looking at that it's still a little bit small let me zoom up even more I know it's good now now we're talking look at that okay maybe just a little bit all right so next one not sick so this is the one section and these first two domains I did not teach Jeremy Chara you know I defer to him all day long you know if he he was really excited about QoS and and wanted to teach it and I said absolutely yes please because we all know how effective he is at communicating and and teaching something like QoS so what's interesting there in there again is Wireless we need to know wireless QoS so be ready for that and then here one not seven okay the word differentiate is is appropriate because this is where we start to differentiate I would say between a CCNA and CCNP what's really the difference yeah aren't you just studying more of the same stuff with a CCNP yeah but you're going your brain is going to start to figure things out in a different way you know when a ccnp is troubleshooting a network problem compared to a CCNA the CCNP is able to very quickly go through the process faster than a CCNA and part of the reason is because you should know and understand the intricacies of switching mechanisms one of my favorite questions that I used to ask when I would interview network engineers for the Cisco partner I worked for I would always as part of every technical issue or technical interview I would ask one question that would tell me where you really are as an engineer and and this question I would ask CCNA s who were would be clueless at a CCNA s who absolutely knew the answer to this and incidentally I'd get the same results for CCN P's I had a CCNP that couldn't answer this question and I'm like you're not ok thank you you know you pass the CCNP good for you but I'm not interested in hiring you into a CCNP level role yeah at this point you know maybe you're at the edge of your seat because you're waiting for me tell you what that question is so you can memorize it right maybe I shouldn't tell you that it's gonna ruin technical interviews the question was simply this you ever be disappointed explain art explain art I actually would regularly get laughed at by people nearby I'd get off the phone from an interview and they're like so they know a tarp is because they all knew this is my favorite question to ask but think about it ARP is the glue that holds layer 2 and layer 3 together if you can't explain ARP then that tells me you don't understand layer 2 and layer 3 if you can't explain how a MAC address gets mapped an unknown MAC address by the way gets mapped to a known IP address that and you don't you're not gonna be able to explain to me how I get from an IP address on one side of the network to an IP address on the other side of the network and again all I can tell you is that question differentiated my candidates not only in my mind but truly their capabilities I mean it reflected their capabilities that every other question I asked I mean if they knew what ARP was they could figure out most of the other things it just seemed like that was the case and if they didn't couldn't answer the ARP question when I moved on to other sections about layer 2 and layer 3 stuff there they were clueless they couldn't answer the question I never had somebody not be able to answer that question and still impressed me on a on a technical interview so why do I bring that up because again that to me back to this word differentiates us as network engineers like it or not we're in a competitive world and you're going to be up against other network engineers who have studied some of this stuff and the way you can differentiate yourself is by studying things like hardware oops hardware and software switching mechanism so we're talking about SAP switching and process switching and ribs and fibs and all kinds of things in here the T key M can you explain the T cam the rhetorical question you not asking people to raise their hands in this virtual setting but at the same time that is a concept that I think puzzles most network engineers which we hear about the T cam we hear about the T cam space we think has something to do with MAC addresses maybe or or access lists or QoS or what have you but what exactly is the T cam why do we call it a T cam so all of these things are going to be concepts that we need to understand and know as ccmp enterprise networking individuals oops all right so that's architecture we're running out of time here let's go ahead and do this so virtualization I already mentioned it we need to be comfortable with virtualization technology inside a data center the network does not stop at the network switch ok cisco has phenomenal nexus switches nexus is my favorite switching platform but if all I know in a data center is Nexus switching or all I know is a network engineer is the concept of a physical switch then my row events in the year 2020 which is the year it is right now and beyond is my Merrill Vince is low I need to be able to explain what a virtual machine is and what the virtual switching world looks like I don't have to be a VMware expert and I don't to be a hyper-v expert or any of these things that's not what this exam covers but it does cover some basic concepts and so I need to understand what those basic concepts are all right so data path virtualization technology so VR F's this look 2.2 this is like classic virtual networking and 2.3 is the modern-day virtual networking all right so concepts like virtual routing and forwarding that's basically VLANs at layer 3 it's nothing we study in CCNA level we study VLANs at CCNA level we're going to assume you know what a via VLAN is the VLAN is to a switch what a vrf is to a router and so we assume you know what a VLAN is so we're going to relate that to 2 layer 3 world explained brf's problem solved we need to be comfortable with the concept of tunneling and part of the reason we need to become from with the concept of tunneling and classic tunneling mechanisms like again GRE an IPSec we need to be comfortable with those because all of our SD X stuff Sdn I said SD X because it's start where to find way and software-defined access and software fine networking software to find servers and storage and everything we're if we're to be comfortable that we need to be very comfortable with tunneling because when I look down here Lisp is both a control plane and a day to play tunneling mechanism and VX LAN is a data plane tunneling mechanism and so we're gonna take these concepts again we take VLANs and we build on VLANs to learn what vrs are and then we take Jerry and IPSec tunneling and we build on that to understand what Lisp and V excellent are the funny thing is is if you if you go through the if you go through the sa the CCC BT training for encore the exam content that that I created up here for CBT going through 1.4 and 1.5 to learn SD win and SD access especially SD access SD access is all about Lisp and V excellent tunnels okay not Lisp tunnels but Lisp as a control plane mechanism and VX LAN as the tunneling mechanism that's how SD access is built and so by going through this section you're going to be pretty comfortable with what Lisp + VX LAN are by the time you get down here whoops so by the time you get down here you're only gonna know what they do but then we're gonna drawl into more detail about how they do what they do so that's the concept of virtualization let me collapse these alright infrastructure as mentioned this is where on the one hand 30% seems like a lot on the other hand like in a traditional and the old the ccnp infrastructure was probably 50 to 60 percent of this exam I mean it was it this is basically again the meat of the exam and yet the meat is only 30% so this is this is the classic things you know we're looking at dynamic static and dynamic trunking protocols and ether channels and a spanning tree by the way rapid spanning tree multi instant spanning tree we need to be comfortable with that and these this is where you're really going to draw it or start drilling into labs you need to be able to configure this these technologies layer 3 same thing Yeji rpoS PF bgp okay we're don't need we need to be bgp experts for the ccmp enterprise network but we need to be comfortable with forming bgp neighbor ships and how Rob's are exchanged and that's about the extent of what we need and then there's the infamous of course the best path selection algorithm so that's a lot of fun that's that whole weight and local preference and this and then all kinds of things for those who have already studied it if you haven't studied it get ready start memorizing some things all right wireless again keep showing up in this exam because Wireless is part of enterprise networking is part of the meat of this exam so we need to be good at wireless some of us are maybe not from a wireless world and you might be grumbling like oh man I've got to learn huh our SSI and signal the noise ratio and interference like these are things that I try to stay at away from as a network engineer well not anymore because we're there basically are no more wireless engineers you're an enterprise networking engineer if you were Wireless now you're an enterprise networking engineer and you know the wired stuff and you are a wired networking engineer rod switch well now you're an enterprise network engineer and you need to know Wireless so describing the access points the antenna types that's all part of it of course we get into wireless LAN controllers and such and so yeah this is Jacob Moran unpacks this he does a phenomenal job of doing that I get to watch a lot of his content that he was putting together as he was creating it and just phenomenal training that'll really just just cement these concepts so it's not don't be intimidated by the wireless just just dive in and and embrace it right IP services ntp all the typical stuff you need to understand some of these things ages are P and V are repeat by the way I cover that earlier as part of the high availability early on in the CBT training here's where you need to learn how to configure it like I explain how it works this is like time to time to configure it in the CLI all right so we're more than halfway done with the exam now network assurance again kind of a fancy way of just saying SNMP syslog etc using these tools pings trace routes better be able to do an extended ping is part of a you know troubleshooting session or what have you IP SLA some of these you won't have studied in CCNA will and IP SLA is one of those yaar span that's a data center only concept so it's like span and are span except frankly it's better it's easier so not nothing to be intimidated by they're interesting we do have some DNA Center stuff in here and so this is where DNA Center would be the controller for software-defined access so we I did I did mention earlier I guess that this stuff doesn't appear elsewhere it doesn't appear elsewhere in great detail but it does show up and show up again an automation security this is hardening your routers in your devices triple-a we need to be very comfortable triple-a if you're still using telnet passwords or anything like that you should absolutely be familiarizing yourself with the Triple A commands at this point access list control playing policing probably goes without saying interestingly REST API security shows up in here it's kind of jumping the gun because we haven't learned about REST API yet that's gonna happen in the automation section but we'll probably you'll probably come back and study how exactly you lock down those restful api s on our network devices that are becoming very very uh merged with the world of automation here's wireless security okay so know how wireless security is handled and then of course these are these are more of the this is gonna be very foundational type of conversation right do you know what the cisco next-generation firewalls look like and and all these things so last but not least is automation again depending on where you are is either gonna be really intimidating or really exciting I push you with somebody who does get intimidated by automation stuff that it's worth it's worth being excited about it's worth pushing past your comfort zone this is this is beyond my comfort zone I am a traditional network CLI guy I just AM and to embrace automation is hard so I hundred percent relate but I can tell you the more I study automation the more I actually put my hands on it oh my goodness it is so cool and so fun and it's a game changer and we talked to again differentiate yourself differentiating yourself I've heard Knox Hutchinson are one of our primary trainers who focuses on Network automation he has said before and I've heard him say several times at this point is like if you have if if you're hiring director and you've got a CCNA on one side and you've got somebody who passed the dev net automation exam the equivalent on the Cisco automation side which one would you hire is like probably really truly probably as an automation guy probably the CCNA because the CCNA is gonna give me what really need today okay but then you have a CCNA and yo CCNA with that automation or maybe you have a CCNP and then you have a ccmp with the automation specialization there's like every every time I'm going to interview that person first because they know what they need they know what they need to know but they're preparing themselves for the future so automation hands down something we need to learn we mentioned rust api's get comfortable with modeling languages yang for example BM by the way that's been around for a long time on Cisco routers it is a tool that Cisco expects us to know as part of the ccnp exams so maybe even comfortable with that and then orchestration tools pup chef at pup chef it chef puppet and then ansible ansible ansible is one that gets a lot of attention in the Cisco Networking world but generally speaking we need to know all four of those whoo okay so when a little bit over not too bad but at the same time I wanted to make sure we covered the entire blueprint so what's our takeaway here our takeaway is that number one first and foremost Cisco did a good job of restructuring Thor exams I'm thrilled with how they did it I think it's phenomenal the Encore as the CCI written the Encore as the foundational exam for a specialization look at a minimum I used to have to take three exams and so on the one hand a member I was commenting earlier about I wish there was more affordable exam I some CCNP courses I data center was for exams routes which is only three but that's still what three or four now it's two I passed the Encore and I passed that a concentration exam and so in that sense it could be cheaper if we are able to pass everything in the first time so number one be very excited about how all of this came together number two we are going to be focusing in on all of these topics in this study group we focused on passing the encore and so unfortunately that's not going to get you to the CCNP because you're staring up to pass the concentration exam that's what places like hey CBT Nuggets right I mean we pride ourselves on providing highest quality training that we can put together and we hire experts in order to make that happen who are skilled at conveying complicated concepts all right yeah I'm telling you watch go watch Jeremy's QoS stuff go watch Knox explaining automation you'll you'll grasp that very very quickly this this study group is not going to prepare you for they give it if all you do is watch this and maybe do a little bit reading on the side or something you're not gonna you're not gonna be prepared this this is not a primary means of study this study group is meant to propel you and give you the energy and to push you past the roadblocks that you face on your journey while you're reading the Cisco press book while you're going through a CBT Nuggets course alright bring your questions bring your concerns and we'll do our absolute best to answer all those and push you again across those hurdles across that ultimately that finish line so with that thank you very much for joining me we are going to be back next week drilling in right away into the architecture section we're going to be talking about the hierarchical network model and so bring your design caps and put those on because it'll be a lot of fun we'll be sketching out all kinds of design elements that we need to know for the Encore with that thank you again for joining me have a good rest of your day [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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Length: 73min 43sec (4423 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 24 2020