CCNP Routing and Switching Official Certification Library: Exams 642-902, 642-813, 642-832 (Certification Guide Series) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Cisco recently revamped the CCNP track to realign its focus on pure routing and switching. The new exams are SWITCH 642-812, ROUTE 642-902, and TSHOOT 642-832. A trio of CCIEs authored these guides. A valid CCNA is a prerequisite for the CCNP exams, so CCNA level knowledge of topics covered within the guides is assumed. The guides set out to fully cover CCNP exam topics, but often a basic review is included with each chapter.

I recently completed the CCNA certification, and am now pursuing the new CCNP v6 track in addition to the CCNA Security certification. I've typically self-taught and used the Official Certification Guide for each Cisco exam, and they are typically high quality. The books in this library are no exception.

The SWITCH Official Certification Guide includes coverage of Spanning Tree, VLANs, trunking, security, L3 switching, and other topics related to Cisco switching. I found Hucaby's writing style to be very readable and felt coverage was sufficient. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Enterprise Campus Network Design.

The ROUTE Official Certification Guide includes the familiar IGPs, BGP, IPv4, and IPv6 in great detail. Wendell Odom is probably one of my favorite authors, as I just seem to `get it' when he writes. This is the largest book in the series, and I was impressed with the depth of coverage on each subject.

The TSHOOT Official Certification Guide is, as the exam name suggests, all about troubleshooting Cisco switches, routers, and the like. The book contains several scenarios with networks that have some type of problem related to topics covered in the exam. Each scenario has a network diagram. From the diagram, you must be able to follow the flow of the packet as it travels towards its intended destination to determine where the path breaks down. I think this is a great idea for an exam because this is what a lot of us IT pros are tasked with. Kevin Wallace shares many troubleshooting methodologies, and I think there is a lot of value in that alone.

Each book includes a Boson exam simulation, and it is very nice for finding out where you stand. Overall, I'd recommend these guides to anyone pursuing CCNP certification.

Recently I have had the opportunity to review these books as part of my journey to the CCNP certification. I had high expectations for these books prior to receiving them, and needless to say they do not disappoint.

Recently the CCNP track was updated and now includes only 3 exams (from 4). These books reflect those changes and do so in an effective manner.

I started my journey a bit out of traditional order by starting with the TSHOOT book, primarily because it closely related to some projects I was working on. Kevin Wallace is by far one of my favorite Cisco Press authors and this book continues his tradition of excellence. His writing style and format "just works" as it were. Perhaps my favorite part of these books were the various scenarios presented that give some real-world style networks and issues to resolve. Personally, this is my favorite style of learning. Reading is great, but reading towards a purpose is even better. All in all, I believe this book delivers more than just as study prep towards an exam and includes valuable real-world usable today information.

ROUTE was my next book. For me, this book was a hit/miss, not so much because of the book itself, but because of the nature of my work. Routing is my second least favorite topic trumped only by QoS, that said this book was more interesting than I initially expected. It is full of ton of great information including some which I had not learned in my career (especially around IPv6). I particularly enjoyed the chapters on OSPF and EIGRP (what I mostly see). Odom does a good job of delivering the information in a way that is enjoyable to read.

Lastly, the SWITCH book. I think this book would be invaluable for the majority of NOC type engineers. From an implementation standpoint this book doesn't miss a beat, everything you could need is in here. L3 routing/switching, 802.1q trunking, Spanning Tree Protocol, VLANs, etc. In some cases, I thought the chapter could have gone more in-depth; but in fairness this book is geared towards the exam. In that regard, I believe this book delivers 100%.

Additionally, the set includes a network simulator (which I didn't play with as I own a Mac) which is a nice touch. I would have liked PDFs to be included but I understand why they weren't as well.

All in all, if you are going for the CCNP, this set will get you there. If you're an implementation engineer I think there is enough information to be gained to justify the purchase.

I fully recommend this series.

After completing my CCNA certification, I decided to pursue my CCNP using this library. Here is a breakdown of how I felt about each book. In the end, I was able to complete the CCNP exam track with the help of this book and ALOT of hands on lab time. I would not solely depend on these books to pass the CCNP exam track. Overall I would have to rate the set 4.5 stars (due to the switch book, please see below for further explanation). The $90-100 spent on this library is a small investment towards the knowledge you will gain from reading them. Good luck for those pursuing their CCNP!

ROUTE: (4 stars)
Coming from a CCNA certification, I decided to pursue my CCNP starting with the ROUTE exam. I've used books previously from Wendell Odom to pass my ICND1 and ICND2 exams. For those coming from CCNA get ready to have your head explode from the knowledge dropped on you from this book. I was fortunate enough to get a 5th printing of the book which corrected many of the errors others have stated (which can be found in the errata). So if you pick up this book, please make sure you have the latest printing or you will have to correct the book using the errata.

As for the book itself, as others have stated, the first time I read this book it seemed a little confusing. Although the topics were laid out in a clear and concise manner. I felt like I would have to already know what the book was discussing so I could just fill in the gaps because the topics are discussed in a very in-depth manner. This book was nothing like the books written for the ICND1/2. This book expects you to have expert knowledge in OSPF, EIGRP, Frame Relay, etc before even attempting to read it. Which is why I say to get additional training material if you are coming straight from a CCNA perspective. Once I took more training (Simplified Route Book, CBT Training and lab time) I went back through the book and it made more sense and I was able to comprehend what it was actually trying to teach me.

Overall, I rate this book 4 stars because it will help you pass the ROUTE exam, but you will definitely need additional resources and a lot of hands-on experience/lab time. My one grip with the book is it doesn't cover enough information on the branch topics (Hence the 4 stars). Make sure you follow up with the technology used for branched networking with additional resources to supplement the book! I recommend this book for your exam study, but I would encourage those studying for the exam to use additional material (as always) to fill in any holes/gaps.

SWITCH: (3 stars)
This book can get a bad rap for multiple reasons. The first several prints of this book left out critical information that was needed to pass the exam such as SNMP, Syslog and IP SLA all of which can now be found in the back of the latest print (6th) under the Appendix. This additional information can also be found on Dave Hucaby's blog. So with the updated book, is it enough to pass the switch exam? In my opinion, no it does not. While the book has essential information for understanding switch technology, it does not contain all the information you will need to pass the exam. Several key areas in which is lacks more in-depth information includes Networking Planning, Verification (one chapter in the book) and COS/QOS levels (one page). There may be more, but these are the areas I felt I was under prepared when I sat the exam using just this book and hands-on labs. If you're preparing for the exam, please do yourself a favor and either search the internet for additional information on these topics or invent in additional books that cover them more in detail.

With that said, the book overall is written well and the concepts are not difficult to understand. Do not let the small size of this book deceive you on how difficult the SWITCH exam is. In contrast, I actually found the SWITCH exam more difficult than the ROUTE exam. Overall, the book is an excellent resource, and I would give it an overall 3.5 stars (if I could). I would hardly classify it as an official certification guide (as others have stated) due to the fact that it is missing critical information needed to pass the exam. Depending on how you look at it, the book has great information regarding switching and I felt the exam tested on more irrelevant topics (for a lack of a better word) then for what I expected and prepared for. Is it the books fault or just a questionable exam?

As with everything else, get the book and study it, but don't let it be the only source of your studies because it will throw you off guard when you sit for the exam.

TSHOOT (5 stars):
If you're pursuing your CCNP and have completed the ROUTE and SWITCH exams, this book will be a great conclusion to your studies. It covers troubleshooting methodologies and most common used commands to find out trouble areas. This book also covers additional material which would've been nice to know during lab time with the ROUTE and SWITCH exams, for example port span and remote port span. It also includes how multicasting works and the difference between spare and dense mode, not very indepth, but great knowledge to have. If you've mastered the ROUTE and SWITCH material the TSHOOT exam will be a breeze. It's a very practical exam and mostly consists of simulations. Visit the Cisco website which gives you the topology used and the exam format. The Boson test exam which is included with this book is a nice refresher, but by no means will prepare you for the real exam. So use it lightly and really examine how to troubleshoot different problems area of BGP, EIGRP, OSPF, etc. I gave this book 5 stars because it is easily readable and it helps apply all the knowledge you have learned to troubleshoot networks. Out of the 3 books for the CCNP certification exam track, this easily has to be my favorite. Well written, concise and the information presented is invaluable.