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Roger Perkin

Network Automation Architect

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roger perkin ccie cisco consultant header image

CCIE BLOG

Cisco Certified Internetwork Export (CCIE) is accepted worldwide as the most prestigious networking certification in the industry. For senior networking professionals who design, build, implement, maintain and troubleshoot complex enterprise networking infrastructures.

I passed the CCIE Lab exam in Routing & Switching in August 2015, receiving my CCIE Plaque through the post was the end to a very long journey to become CCIE #50038

You can read my entire CCIE Journey here > My CCIE Journey

I am now focused on Network Automation:
Check out my Ansible Training or my Network Automation Courses also check out the Network Automation Conferences happening this year

Also coming soon my Network Automation Bootcamp

ansible network automation course

 

CCIE Blog

This CCIE Blog covers CCIE Jobs, CCIE Salary and my journey to passing the CCIE Lab Exam in Routing & Switching v5 – Reviews on CCIE Training and Bootcamps.

My all time top post was: How to build CCIE V5 Lab with CSR100V routers

Understanding the Cisco CCIE Lab Exam

Other popular posts were:

CCIE Salary

Are CCIE Bootcamps Worth it?

CCIE Written

How Many CCIES are there in the world?

Remember, the only way to achieve CCIE is “Relentless Pursuit” – Don’t give up!

CCIE Routing & Switching is now CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure

The CCIE Routing & Switching exam was replaced with a newer version in 2021 and is now called the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure Exam.

CCIE

I am now focused on Network Automation mainly Ansible and Python. If you have not heard of Ansible before check out this post first.
What is Ansible used for? or Gitlab vs Github

In my spare time I work as a Magician in Southampton Hampshire

 CCIE Routing & Switching Posts

CCIE Continuing Education Program

The Cisco Continuing Education Program is a brilliant initiative from Cisco. It is not widely known about but Cisco recently announced a new program to help you re-certify your CCIE without taking the …

My CCIE Journey

This text is taken from chapter 1 of my eBook the CCIE Blueprint  It covers my journey from Desktop support engineer to CCIE #50038. It was a long journey which took me 5 attempts over 2 …

CCIE Lab Builder Review

The Cisco CCIE Lab Builder allows you to run your R&S topologies in the actual CCIE Routing & Switching virtual environment. To access the CCIE Lab Builder you purchase a subscription package …

CCIE Plaque has finally arrived!

After passing the CCIE Lab Exam in Routing & Switching v5 on August 27th 2015 my CCIE Plaque has finally arrived. After all the late nights and weekends of studying and the cost of the training, …

INE CCIE Wall of Success

INE have trained over 3,800 CCIE’s more than all the other training companies combined. Once you have submitted your passing story to them, they will feature you on the CCIE Wall of Success. I …

CCIE Jobs – Live Job Listings

For a live listing of CCIE jobs visit the CWjobs website here http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSeeking/CCIE Or other live listings on Technojobs http://www.technojobs.co.uk/jobs/ccie This site is not …

CCIE V5 Blueprint

The is the CCIE V5 expanded blueprint from INE – I will be linking from this blueprint to separate blog posts on each topic as my studies progress. The CCIE V5 blueprint from Cisco does not …

9 Best Websites if you want to Become a CCIE

During my CCIE journey I have used many online resources from paid to free, the list below shows my top 10 ccie related websites that I used on a regular basis to to get information and study …

CCIE Benefits – What are they?

Now that I have passed the CCIE Lab exam people are asking me “What are the CCIE benefits?” As for tangible benefits to me personally they are in no particular order: I can now go to the …

I passed the CCIE Lab Exam!

Well the post that I have been dreaming of writing since the start of this blog is actually being written. I passed the CCIE Lab Exam in Routing and Switching v5 in Brussels last week and am now CCIE …

CCIE Podcast Pilot Episode 1

[podcast title=”CCIE Podcast – Pilot Episode 1″]https://www.rogerperkin.co.uk/podcast/The-CCIE-Podcast-Pilot-Episode-1.m4a[/podcast] This is the pilot episode of the CCIE Podcast, a …

Spanning-Tree Portfast – The Definitive Guide

The spanning-tree portfast command is a very simple feature but often mis-understood. In this short post I will explore how this feature behaves, how it works and how to configure it on a cisco …

Software Defined Networking – SDN

Software defined networking (SDN) is an approach to computer networking that allows network administrators to manage network services through abstraction of lower level functionality. This is done by …

CCIE RFC List for Routing & Switching Lab Exam

In computer network engineering, a Request for Comments (RFC) is a memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable …

MPLS Configuration Example Step by Step

If you are looking for an MPLS Tutorial or step by step mpls configuration examples, this basic MPLS VPN configuration example will guide you from configuring the first router to  a 3 router MPLS …

How to build CCIE V5 Lab with Cisco Cloud Services Router CSR 1000V

How to build CCIE V5 Lab using ESXi and Cisco Cloud Services Router CSR 1000V This post will detail how to build a CCIE v5 lab using Vmware and the Cisco CSR1000v cloud services routers. …

Mastering Switching topics in CCIE Version 5

With the new ccie version 5 blueprint there are a lot of version 4 students who are trying to work out what has changed, what is new and what has gone. For new students to Version 5 it is probably …

CCIE Video – from Alexandre Vasseur

I do not know anything about Alexandre Vasseur except for the fact that he has passed his CCIE Lab exam and has made this amazing video to celebrate that fact. We all need small things to keep us …

CCIE Version 5 here I come

Well I am sad to say that I did not get my digits at my last attempt at the CCIE Lab exam. Everything was in place I had prepared well, I went to the NH Airport Hotel a day early so had an extra …

CCIE Study Techniques

I get a lot of emails from people who read my blog asking my how I study. For most people they think I can tell them a magic formula, but the truth of the matter is that there isn’t one. You can …

CCIE Lab Exam Cost

A lot of people ask me how much does it cost to get a CCIE.  The short answer to that is a lot of money. The average cost is between £10000-£15000. The CCIE lab exam cost alone is $1936 if …

How many CCIEs are there in the world?

If you are trying to find out how many CCIEs there are in the world, you might find that these statistics are not readily available. Now why would Cisco want to stop publishing the figures for how …

CCIE Lab Exam Attempt 2 – Fail!

Well I am sad to say that I did not make it as a CCIE yet. My second attempt at the CCIE Lab Exam in London ended with a fail. Mobile Lab Experience I will first describe my mobile lab experience and …

CCIE V5 Announcement – Routing & Switching

It if finally here the CCIE V5 Announcement that we have all been waiting for! Well at least it is not the mad rush we were expecting and 6 months is good amount of time for anyone who is currently …

How to double your CCIE Study time

For those of you starting out on your journey to the CCIE certification, you may be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material you have to get through. Now there have always been methods to study …

Are CCIE Bootcamps worth it?

One question anyone who is pursuing the CCIE Certification will always ask is, “Are CCIE Bootcamps worth it?” The short answer to this is yes but there are a lot of other things to be …

CCIE Troubleshooting Guides

During my CCIE Studies I have come across many different resources for troubleshooting but one resource that I have found very valuable is of course cisco.com – I have bookmarks and evernote …

CCIE Lab Exam – Attempt#2 booked for London

Well I am now locked in for the 5th December for the 2nd attempt of the CCIE Lab Exam in London at the Mobile Lab. The lab will be taking place at Cisco Systems, London Office in Finsbury Circus. That …

7 x CCIE Neil Moore

There is only one person on the entire planet who has 7 CCIE’s His name is Neil Moore. Recently passing the CCIE Data Center exam Neil has added number 7 to his list and does not intend to stop …

INE 5 Day CCIE Troubleshooting Bootcamp – Final Thoughts

Well after 5 days of CCIE Troubleshooting tickets with 20 other students and Brian Dennis in London this week, I am back home and just trying to process what I have learnt! Day 1 – full write up …

CCIE Mobile Lab London

  UPDATE: Since writing this post the CCIE Mobile Lab in London location has changed to Bedfont Lakes Cisco UK Headquarters Cisco Systems 9-11 New Square Bedfont Lakes Feltham Middlesex TW14 8HA …

5 Day INE CCIE Troubleshooting Bootcamp Day 1

For the next 5 days I will be attending the INE 5 Day CCIE Troubleshooting Bootcamp with Brian Dennis in London. I am going to blog here my experience of this class, mainly for my own reference but …

This week I am mainly doing Troubleshooting Tickets

In 7 days time I will be attending the INE CCIE Routing & Switching 5-Day Troubleshooting Bootcamp  This is the one International location for this bootcamp and is held in London The CCIE Routing …

First CCIE Stuart Biggs dies at 53

The man who led the team that created the CCIE program has died at the age of 53. Stuart Biggs was CCIE #1025 He was a technological genius who helped to develop Cisco’s first company website and …

7 CCIE Strategy Mistakes – What I will do differently next time!

Download the PDF here Although at the time of writing I have not yet passed the CCIE Lab Exam in Routing & Switching, but I wanted to write down my 7 CCIE Strategy Mistakes that I made on my …

CCIE Lab Attempt #1 Brussels – Close but no Cigar!

Well I have returned from Brussels after my first attempt at the CCIE Lab Exam in Routing and Switching in Brussels and sadly on this occasion I did not bring home my digits. Simple fact I was not …

How to Study for the CCIE Lab Exam

Jeremy has just released a little video on how to study for the ccie lab exam. Tweet Jeremy got me through my CCNP and if you have not heard of him before you should check out some of his videos. …

MPLS LDP Troubleshooting

When faced with a troubleshooting ticket involving MPLS you need to clear the basics first to ensure that everything is working from a Label Distribution perspective. First establish IGP connectivity …

How much sleep do you need before the CCIE Lab Exam?

How much sleep do you need is a question I have never actually got an answer to. This question has become very important at this point in my life as I am studying for one of the hardest certifications …

CCIE Questions and Answers

Bob McCouch CCIE #38296 has recently passed his CCIE in Routing and Switching and has done a great write up on some general questions about his approach to the lab and how his 2nd attempt was his …

How to automate loading INE rack details to SecureCRT

I have started to use a lot more ccie rack rentals from INE and currently use Secure CRT as my terminal client. At the moment I am using the tabbed screens and to set this up you need to enter a …

Travel arrangements for CCIE Lab Brussels

With my first CCIE Lab attempt in 59 days, it was about time to arrange my travel and accommodation. I live in Southampton in the UK so my best plan to get to Brussels is to get a train to London and …

How to Study Better

How to study better Exams are a stressful thing to study for—even to the most organised students.  Most students are afraid of pulling in a goose egg instead of an A and so they talk themselves out of …

Top 10 CCIE Routing and Switching Books

This top 10 CCIE Routing and Switching books list is a bit of a deviation from the Cisco recommended list. It is made up mainly of books recommended by Brian Dennis on the last CCIE bootcamp I …

show ip alias

If you want to quickly see what ip addresses you have configured on your router you can use the command show ip alias This will give you a much cleaner output than sh ip int brief or sh ip int brief …

INE CCIE Bootcamp London 2013

I am just packing to head up to London for 5 days of intense studying. Brian Dennis CCIEx5 is in town running the 10 day Routing & Switching bootcamp, I could only get a week off work, so decided …

Debug Condition Interface – Cisco

During an INE Volume II lab I discovered a great way to filter the debug output from a router. The Debug Condition Interface command allows you to only show the debug output from a specific interface. …

132 Study Days left before my CCIE Lab Exam!

I now have 132 study days left before my first attempt at the CCIE Lab exam in Routing and Switching v4. I have started a complete study guide mapping out exactly what I am going to be doing between …

CCIE Data Center Blueprint

The CCIE data center blueprint details all the topics that will be covered in the new CCIE Certification from Cisco the CCIE Data Center. Focussing heavily on NX-OS this new track is perfect for …

Route Distinguisher and Route Target – MPLS Tutorial

Route Distinguisher vs Route Target – aren’t they the same thing? No they are not! In this post I am going to clarify the difference between route distinguisher and route target …

How to Check CCIE Status

CCIE Verification Tool If you are thinking of hiring a CCIE you need to know the engineer holds a valid CCIE certification. To verify CCIE status you just need to know the engineers first and last …

CCIE Training from INE

INE CCIE training is in my opinion the best there is. If you are looking for the best CCIE Training money can buy INE have been leading the field for many years and to date have trained more …

What is a CCIE? How to become a CCIE

Apart from the people I work with and anyone else I know in IT, most people have not heard the term CCIE, most people have heard of Cisco but fewer actually know what they do. The question I get asked …

CCIE Lab Booking – How to book the CCIE Lab Exam

After passing my ccie written last week I am now going to book the CCIE Lab exam which I plan to take at the end of January 2013. This fits in well with my schedule and study plan. CCIE Lab booking is …

Spanning Tree Port States

Rapid Spanning Tree 802.1w reduced the number of port states from 5 down to 3 this short blog post details the 5 STP port states for Spanning Tree 802.1d and then Rapid Spanning Tree – as always …

Routing Bits Handbook Review

Upon high recommendation I purchased the Routing Bits Handbook for R&S from routing-bits.com If you are unaware of this publication this Routing Bits Handbook Review will bring you up to speed. …

CCIE Routing and Switching Certification Guide 4th Edition

The first requirement of the CCIE Lab exam is to pass the written exam. The one and only resource you will need for this is the official CCIE routing and switching certification guide from Cisco. …

CCIE Rack Rental

If you do not have the money / space or desire to build yourself a CCIE Home lab, then the best way to get hands on lab experience is through a CCIE Rack Rental. What is a Rack Rental? Basically you …

Debug IP Routing –

One debug command that comes up when preparing for your CCIE Lab is debug ip routing. This is a very powerful command that you would not really run in a live environment, in fact we are not allowed to …

CCIE Candidates Don’t give up – Advice from CCIE’s

I came across this post today about an engineer who had failed the CCIE Lab exam 3 times and was losing the will to go on. It was written by Emmanuel Conde and has some great advice from CCIE’s …

CCIE Blogs I read

Studying towards the CCIE Lab exam is a lonely journey and unless you are attending any CCIE Training, chances are you will not meet up with many other engineers currently going for the lab exam. The …

CCIE Prerequisites

There are actully no prerequisites to the Cisco CCIE Certification. Cisco do recommend you have at least 3 years hands on experience with Cisco hardware and have an in depth understanding of routing …

Is CCIE still worth it in 2022?

After the long nights of studying and the weekends away from your family and friends, wife and children. Many network engineers have times where they say“Is the CCIE still worth it?” …

MPLS LDP router-id loopback0 Force

Whilst configuring an MPLS lab I came across the force option on the MPLS LDP router-id command and was not sure what it did? After reading the documentation I will now explain the MPLS LDP router-id …

CCIE Written Exam – Implement IPv6

I have let my CCIE Written Exam expire and I need to schedule my CCIE Lab Exam! So I am going to just brush up on a few topics and get this exam passed. The topic I am going to be focussing on today …

CCIE Lab Equipment to practice

If you are studying for the CCIE or in fact any Cisco Certification you will need access to Lab Equipment. But what CCIE Lab Equipment do you need. The current CCIE R&S v4 lab exam will test you …

CCIE Salary

The CCIE salary is no longer what is used to be. Working in IT in the late 90’s the CCIE was the certification to get, based on a gruelling 2 day exam with most students not passing on their …

INE CCIE Bootcamp Review

I am writing this INE ccie bootcamp review the week after completing the 10 day CCIE bootcamp in R&S with Brian Dennis in London Feb 2012 If you are looking for a CCIE bootcamp in your final …

sh ip protocols summary

show ip protocols summary or sh ip prot sum This very simple command will show you all the current routing protocols running on the router. If you are logging onto any router for the first time, and …

CCIE Video Training Review

If you are seriously considering taking any CCIE certification then you need the assistance of a CCIE Training provider. There are many out there but this blog post is going to review my favourite …

CCIE Data Centre or CCIE Data Center??

It was announced at Cisco Live that there will be a CCIE Datacenter cert. Or CCIE Datacentre if you are in the UK! Great blog post from Mark Snow over at INE …

Where is the BGP Best Path Selection Algorithm

If you are trying to find the BGP best path selection algorithm on the DOC CD it has been removed from the 12.4 documentation for some crazy reason! You will need to go to this link …

PPPOE Cisco Doc CD location

One of the essential elements of your CCIE studies is mastery of the DOC CD If you can find any topic on the DOC CD within 15 seconds you will have all the information you need at your fingertips. …

CCIE Written Exam Preparation

I tried to book my CCIE Lab exam today for next year and the system would not let me? The reason is my current CCIE Written Exam expires on the 21st December so I am unable to schedule a lab exam past …

TCL Script – Ping Test

One of the major parts of the CCIE Lab Exam is ensuring you have full reachability in your network. How do you ping all your addresses? TCL script or “Tickle Script” as it is usually …

CCIE Lab Locations – CCIE Lab Exam Centers

After passing your CCIE written exam for any track candidates must make an initial attempt at the lab exam within 18 months. There are 10 ccie lab locations worldwide. Bangalore, Beijing, Brussels, …

VTP password and other wierdness

I was working through INE’s Vol 3 workbook tonight and thought I would do VTP. This should have been a very simple topic to master – there are not too many commands and it is a very simple …

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