CCNP Help

[Guest]

Can anyone recommend resources/guides for CCNP Routing and Switching, not sure what books to get.... I still have my CCNA books but they don't seem to cover enough detail at all, as expected. 

 

Thanks

 

 

[Lurick]

If they are still on v2 (300 series) of the R&S then this book should do nice for a start:

https://smile.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-Official-Guide-Library/dp/1587206633

 

If that doesn't cover most of it then these two will

https://smile.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-SWITCH-300-115-Official/dp/1587205602/

https://smile.amazon.com/Routing-Switching-ROUTE-300-101-Official/dp/1587205599/

 

Not sure about TSHOOT though

[mynameisjuan]

You're gonna need CCNP Odom books. CCNA will not be enough (hence why its just for CCNA lol) 

 

I will be beginning CCNP in Feb, its a tough test. 

 

BTW reddit 

r/ccna

r/ccnp 

 

are EXTREMELY helpful with very good support. I highly recommend going there for support

[beersykins]

The odom Cisco press books, CBT Nuggets/ine and some hardware lab gear helps.

 

I still need to take tshoot

[Guest]

On 12/21/2018 at 4:10 AM, mynameisjuan said:

You're gonna need CCNP Odom books. CCNA will not be enough (hence why its just for CCNA lol) 

 

I will be beginning CCNP in Feb, its a tough test. 

 

BTW reddit 

r/ccna

r/ccnp 

 

are EXTREMELY helpful with very good support. I highly recommend going there for support

Awesome I will take a look on Reddit! I still have the lab kit too from my CCNA. 

 

Yeah I was just going over the CCNA books refresh myself but quickly realised the massive jump when I looked over the syllabus.

[BSpendlove]

15 hours ago, Pearsonia said:

Awesome I will take a look on Reddit! I still have the lab kit too from my CCNA. 

 

Yeah I was just going over the CCNA books refresh myself but quickly realised the massive jump when I looked over the syllabus.

Don't worry too much, the jump between CCNA and CCNP is very friendly and isn't a massive gap (for R&S) anyway. There are a few things you get introduced to but it just recapping knowledge and ensuring you do know all your basics about things like OSPF, EIGRP, how packets are actually routed from a technical perspective with the RIB/FIB/CEF/etc.., Spanning Tree, a bit of security like securing your routing protocols, securing the management plane of a cisco device, route filtering, route summurization, ensuring you fully understand VLANs (literally the very little details with STP/RSTP/PVLANS etc..). You already learn how to setup neighborships and exchange routes between different routing protocols but the CCNP tries to introduce you into the more detailed theory with OSPF and how the protocol works under the hood with LSAs, the ospf database (LSDB), how the metric formula works in EIGRP, how to filter routes when doing redistribution between 2 routing protocols, again, it's just expanding your current knowledge while introducing into some other basic rules/operations)

 

 

For Route, I found the OCG, Udemy, INE and a ton of blogs online to be the best resource. Switch I only used the OCG and 3750X documentation from cisco. Tshoot, I just recapped over everything from previous and they have the topology released online that you can study and make in GNS3/real lab and do a ton of config/break/fix repeat...

 

CBT Nuggets was alright but a very simple overview of each topic, doesn't go into much depth with Route/Switch. Udemy (Chris Bryant) was also the same, like a high level overview.

 

I also read a few other books along with the CCNP and still re-reading them for the ccie such as TCP/IP Volume 1/2, OSPF: Anatomy, Cisco design guides, Internet Routing Architectures 2nd edition, and more.

 

I personally wouldn't rely on just the OCGs for all the exams (unless you're literally doing it to just pass the exam, I always express my opinion that you should try to learn for the knowledge and not just to get a piece of paper that says 'Pass')

 

I tried putting my CCNP Switch notes into gdrive and haven't had the time to do route:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2kaqHUWZdXxM3dfRWF5d3NWNGM

 

Hit me up if you want to join a discord, I've been talking to a guy over the past year that is studying for his CCNP right now and we try to get on voice quite a bit and always lab together/share ideas.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, BSpendlove said:

I also read a few other books along with the CCNP and still re-reading them for the ccie such as TCP/IP Volume 1/2, OSPF: Anatomy, Cisco design guides, Internet Routing Architectures 2nd edition, and more.

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it! 

 

Good luck with your CCIE, I hear that's a true beast, especially the lab! You doing the R&S one?

[BSpendlove]

13 minutes ago, Pearsonia said:

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it! 

 

 Good luck with your CCIE, I hear that's a true beast, especially the lab! You doing the R&S one?

That's alright,

 

Yeah R&S for sure, it's always been a goal, wasn't too keen on pursuing it this soon because of my previous jobs but now employer is paying for it and is really pushing me to go get it. I'm trying to look through my old resources but never put everything in a single document/location, some other resources I found useful were:

 

Rob Riker - Youtube (Has training online but has posted snippets of his courses on youtube)

Kevin Wallace - Youtube (also does a ton of books including one of the OCGs)

Packetlife - Nice blogs for a wide range of CCNA/CCNP topics

NetworkLessons - Very good style blogs I find

TheLanTamer - Streams literally every day of his CCIE journey but can pick up a ton of stuff for the CCNP

Cisco Community Forums

 

If you are also one of those guys who likes reading, I recommend highly to get a Safari books online subscription since you will be cushioned with knowledge and technical books 

 

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, BSpendlove said:

That's alright,

 

Yeah R&S for sure, it's always been a goal, wasn't too keen on pursuing it this soon because of my previous jobs but now employer is paying for it and is really pushing me to go get it. I'm trying to look through my old resources but never put everything in a single document/location

Can't complain with that then!

 

My long term goal is to get the CCIE Security, but I'm not sure if I want to go down the management route instead and go for my CISSP (I started studying for my CASP after doing the Security+ but I heard mixed opinions on it so I decided to start doing the Cisco certifications instead).