The best thing I like about this lab manual is all configuration files can be downloaded from Cisco Press website. Practice makes man perfect; by troubleshooting various scenarios, which you can build using the above mentioned resource can help you in mastering CCNP TSHOOT topics and can, learn the various approach adapted to trouble shoot more complex Cisco networks. Of course nothing can replace the practical experience but when you simply don’t have that privilege, you can make use of GNS3.

I am hopeful by simply passing Route and Switch exam; you will gain enough confidence and expertise to pass the Cisco TSHOOT exam. Better luck for those who are appearing for the TSHOOT exam, make sure you watch THSOOT Strategies on YouTube by Kevin Wallace which does give you an idea how the real exams look like and do practice the CCNP TSHOOT demo exam available at Cisco web site.

The secret behind passing the Cisco CCNP Troubleshooting and Maintaining Cisco IP Network (CCNP TSHOOT, 642-832) exam depends on how good you are at troubleshooting, your experience on maintain and managing complex networks, and of course the courage to challenge yourself by focusing and thinking logically on tickets appear on the real TSHOOT exam.

Since I passed the Cisco CCNP Troubleshooting and Maintaining Cisco IP Network (CCNP TSHOOT, 642-832) exams I was mentally ready to take the challenge of Cisco TSHOOT exam, but my busy schedule was preventing me. Finally I set the date when should I appear for the Cisco TSHOOT exam and I came out passing the exam. Believe me, it was the easiest Cisco Certification exam I appeared till date in my life.

When it comes to exam preparation I got hold of Cisco Press title “CCNP TSHOOT 642-832 Official Certification Guide” and checked the latest exam topology published by Cisco Systems. Yes Cisco System does reveal the topology which appears on the real exam, which itself will ease your burden of preparations. Since I possess over a decade of experience on maintaining and managing Complex Cisco Networks I didn’t find myself reading the Cisco Press title from cover to cover. Just read first two chapters for the sake of curiosity. But prepared the GNS3 topology based on the exam topology published by Cisco Systems and practiced few scenarios. I will cover the approach need to be adopted by CCNP aspirers who are pretty new to Cisco Networks in the upcoming post.

When you are preparing for the CCNP Switch (642-813) or BCMSN exam (642-812) there are quite a few topics which are important not only from the perspective of passing  the  “Implementing Cisco IP Switched Network” exam or BCMSN exam but also for the day to day network troubleshooting tasks.

One among the key topic is “spanning tree loop guard”. As the name itself suggests Loop Guard is a method used for ensuring no spanning tree protocol loops (STP) occurs in any network topology. Though STP loop guard feature can prevents STP loops as best it can, still chances of loops are there due to unidirectional link failure or congestions issues in the Cisco Switch. It’s always recommended, the loop guard feature to be used in conjunction with UDLD feature. I will cover about UDLD feature in one more article.

The basic function of loop guard feature is to prevent loops conservatively by preventing alternate or root ports from becoming DPs in the topology. If BPDUs are not received on a non-Designated Port, and Loop Guard is enabled, that port is moved into the STP loop-inconsistent Blocking state, instead of the Listening /Learning / Forwarding state.

Loop Guard operates only on ports that are considered point-to-point by the spanning tree, and it cannot be run in conjunction with Root Guard on an interface.

To enable Loop Guard on a Cisco Catalyst Switch, you can use the following IOS command in the global configuration mode

ITKE-3750-AS01(config)# spanning-tree loopguard default

I passed the “Implementing Cisco IP Switched Network”exam successfully couple of days back.  Now I am one step closer to achieving mp CCNP. My approach was simple and straight forward, I read the Cisco Press title CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide. Thanks to Cisco Press and Jamie Adams for providing me a copy of CCNP Study guides. The exam was pretty easy but be careful there are few ambiguous questions which really needs your experience and expert knowledge on the topic.

I have following piece of advice for the CCNP aspirers

• 1) Set the date for exam before starting your preparations (Goal Setting).
• 2) Read Cisco Press title CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide.
• 3) Practice the Boson questions came with the title CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide.
• 4) Watch CBT nuggets if needed as they are really cool videos to watch.
• 5) Practice labs, (create your own scenarios on STP, HRSP, VTP, VRRP, GLBP etc.) If you can afford get three Cisco 3550 Series Switches from eBay.
• 6) A week before exam review all the topics and practice few labs and boson practice test.

(My CCNP Switch Lab)

If you follow the above with dedication and determination nothing can stop you from achieving CCNP.

The  CCNP Switch 642-813 Official certification guide is an amazing title, which can trust for Switch # 642-813 Exam. The author David Hucaby CCIE 4594 carries an honor of writing many titles for Cisco Press especially when it come to switching he is master.

The  CCNP Switch 642-813 Official certification guide comes with seventeen chapters covering wide range of topics

The first chapter emphasizes on the importance of planning for CCNP Switch# 642-813 Exam. In this chapter Cisco Systems have made very clear what they are anticipating for the CCNP Switching and Routing professional and what skill he/she should possess to be CCNP R & S.

In this chapter the author talks about Cisco’s approach to the life cycle of the Network, it is PPDIOO

Prepare - organizational requirements, strategy, financial justification

Plan - network requirements, gap analysis with existing network infrastructure, project plan

Design- design specification created (used for implement phase)

Implement – network is built, additional components added

Operate – maintaining network health, day-to-day operations

Optimize – proactive management, potential to spir network redesign

Tips for the implementation plan

The implementation plan consists of several phases ( for eg : installation of hardware, IOS check, configurations,-over to production, etc.).  It is important to remember the following steps for each phase:

Description of the step

Reference to design documents

Detailed implementation guidelines

Detailed rollback guidelines in case of failure

Estimated time needed for implementation

When it comes to CCNP Routing and Switch Certification I personally prefer to start with Switch# 642-813 Exam. As switching exam should not be a hard exam for CCNA certified Network Engineer.  The Switch # 642-813 exam tests your skills on following topics.

ü  Network design, implementation, and verification plans

ü  Switch operation and port configuration

ü  VLANs, trunks, and VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP)

ü  Aggregating switch links

ü  Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

ü  Multilayer switching

ü  Enterprise campus network design

ü  Router and supervisor redundancy

ü  IP telephony

ü  Wireless LANs

ü  Switched network security

Now come the main question what resources you should use to pass the Cisco Switch#642-813 Exam, lot of resources are available, but when it come to self study guides Cisco Press is the leader and they come with pretty helpful titles.

To begin with you can start preparing with CCNP Switch 642-813 Official certification guide which can be easily ordered from Cisco Press watch out for eBook of day deal too who knows you can own the book for just 9.95 dollars.  For non US residents no worries as Cisco Press ships world wide at very competitive shipping cost, seems that they have some deal with FEDEX as for the last four times when I ordered Cisco press titles they charged me 9 dollars for International shipping thru FedEx and it took 4 days to reach me. In upcoming posts I will try to review the CCNP Switch 642-813 Official certification guide in detail so that you folks can get benefited.

This command can give a good idea of the size of the CAM table and how many hosts are using the network.

 From the above example you can notice how many mac address are used by each vlan and how many free mac address are available

A useful command for troubleshooting purpose as well as it’s a part for CCNP Switch 642-813 curriculum.

I am always a great fan of David Hucaby; he comes up with pretty good titles, which can be easily used for achieving Cisco Certifications by self-study. His latest addition to the world of Cisco Certification is CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide.  Thanks to Cisco Press and David to release this title so soon.

Thanks to Cisco Press and Jamie in especial for making this happen. I don’t believe that I have a CCNP SWITCH 642-813 title with me. As we all know Cisco came up with a new version of CCNP Certification which requires only three exams to pass compared to four in the prevision version of CCNP.

The current CCNP SWITCH 642-813 book is much lighter compared to the CCNP Switch 642-812 book.  It’s divided into 6 parts. I liked the way topics are distributed. This book is written in an easy way it covers all the exam topics and also provides some good troubleshooting steps especially I liked the VTP troubleshooting part.

Pic Courtesy: Cicso Press

A chapter dealing with Securing Switch access is amazing I liked the best practices used for securing Switches. The Author David Hucaby did a commendable job. The CCNP Switch 642-812 title come with 100 practice questions for the CCNP 642-813 exam developed by Cisco Press and delivered by Boson. The CCNP SWITCH 642-813 title is up to date and most of the info referred deals with the latest IOS versions.

Overall this entire book is an excellent source for preparing for Cisco CCNP 642-813 exams, my advice is to buy this book along with CCNP Routing and Switching Quick Reference  book. With these two, you should have everything you need! Best of luck to you all CCNP Certification aspirers.