Hello Everyone,

Some time ago Brandon wrote an excellent article titled “Working with ISAKMP Profiles”. This blog is going to complement this giving you few configuration examples.

ISAKMP Profiles can be thought of VPN connection distinguishers. They group Phase 1 and 1.5 parameters and allow mapping them to different IP Security (IPSec) tunnels. This is somewhat similar to the ASA tunnel-group concept.
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This post is about the technology that has somewhat limited use in real life – at least most interesting (complex) parts of it.
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We are pleased to announce that we were in attendance at the CCIE Voice Techtorial, given by Ben Ng (Cisco CCIE Voice Program Manager) at the Cisco Live Networkers Conference.  In that 8-hour session, we found out some interesting information regarding the CCIE Voice Written and Lab exam that we would like to pass along to you in no particular order.

There were no changes to the blueprint announced (thankfully!). All software versions will remain at 7.0 and are likely to remain at this release for a couple of years. It is worth pointing out that Cisco are well aware of the fact that there are several “bugs/undocumented features” that can be expected with any “.0” release. However candidates are expected to provide workarounds where applicable.

As most of you know, the Core Knowledge questions were removed some time in May 2010 and were replaced with troubleshooting tasks. The speaker repeatedly brought attention to the types of troubleshooting tasks candidates can expect. We have tried to summarize some of the most important points raised below.

• There is no dedicated troubleshooting section for the time being- troubleshooting is embedded into the configuration tasks of the exam. This is subject to change- in other words they may look at providing a dedicated troubleshooting section at some point in the future.
• Troubleshooting tasks account for approximately 15% of the points on the CCIE Voice Lab exam.
• Candidates will have to troubleshoot existing configuration which has built-in errors. More details of example errors are given below.
• Infrastructure tasks will for the most part be complete and will not be the responsibility of the candidate. However configuration might not be 100% correct!
• Going forward phones will be pre-configured into the UCM database. It was mentioned that SIP endpoints have not been tested thus far but candidates should expect SIP endpoints in the lab in the very near future. Interestingly it is the intention to have phones pre-registered with the correct firmware in advance- that means candidates will not be responsible for changing the firmware of the phone. This will come as a relief to many of you since this process is time-consuming.
• Troubleshooting tasks could potentially include in depth knowledge of the protocols used for establishing call setup. Detailed knowledge of the call flow involved in protocols such as SIP/MGCP/H323/SCCP/Q931/etc will be required in order to explain why certain calls to the “provider” are failing. It was mentioned that the candidate may not even have to fix the problem and instead create a text file with the relevant traces/debugs and a suitable explanation. A process not too dissimilar when you create a TAC case.
• Cisco will continuously modify the content of the lab and this includes changing the number of UCM and UCME sites. You can expect 3 UCM sites, 3 UCME sites or anything in between!
• Gatekeeper/CUBE/SIP Trunk tasks will be added to the lab at some point in the near future (if not already!). The PSTN provider in the lab may not necessarily be a T1/E1 connection but rather a H323 or SIP ITSP.
• Security related tasks (authentication and encryption of signaling and media) are not going to be tested since these tasks are too difficult to maintain and implement. However the CCIE Voice Written test which will be updated later this year will cover those topics.
• The Voice CCIE pass rate is currently between 20% and 25% but expect that figure to drop as the impending lab updates will no doubt increase the difficulty of the test.

Overall we were very pleased with the outcome of the discussion- no major updates for a couple of years will come as a huge relief to all training vendors. The IPexpert BLS and bootcamps have for more than a year now been covering SIP Phones, CUBE, multiple UCME sites and detailed knowledge of the protocols involved in call set up. The biggest takeaway from the session was undoubtedly troubleshooting is going to be the singular most important skill candidates will need to pass the lab – if you are going to pass the CCIE Voice going forward you need to focus on the why and not only the how as has been the case in the past.

Amy Ryan CCIE# 24677
Senior Technical Instructor
IPexpert Inc

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CCIE Candidates,

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve updated our schedule to now include Q1 for 2011. You will find the dates and locations for our CCIE R&S, CCIE Voice, CCIE Security and CCIE Service Provider classes with new 2 locations added (Brussels, New Jersey / New York). We will be updating our website to include information pertaining to our CCIE Wireless products and classes within the month of July – Classes for CCIE Wireless will begin in Q1 2011 and will be announced when the website is updated. Please know that onsite classes are added on an “as requested basis. If you have a group of 6 or more potential students, you can contact a Training Advisor at sales@ipexpert.com, www.ipexpert.com/chat or +1.810.326.1444 to discuss onsite / group rates.

Regards, – Wayne

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Per popular request, this post has the purpose to explain the solution of the problem of BGP peering with an an unknown AS. I would like to start by stating the obvious.

This is a solution in a search of a problem. Popular as it may be with CCIE workbook vendors and rumor has it with CCIE exam authors, real life has almost no use of this. When faced with a log message that you will read about in few paragraphs, solution is using the phone and not doing the other stuff I’m about to write. That said, it’s an interesting and fun problem.

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