Cisco Learning has officially announced the CCNA and CCNP Data Center certifications. Here is a quick breakdown for our blog followers:

CCNA Data Center

Prerequisites: None

Required Exams:
640-911 DCICN
640-916 DCICT

CCNP Data Center

Prerequisites: Valid CCNA Data Center or any CCIE

Required Exams:
642-994 DCUCI v4.0
 (Last day to test:
Feb 28, 2013)
Or
642-999 DCUCI v5.0

—–

642-992 DCUFI v4.0
 (Last day to test:
May 31, 201)
Or
642-997 DCUFI v5.0

—–

AND

642-993 DCUCD v4.0
 (Last day to test:
Feb 28, 2013)
Or
642-998 DCUCD v5.0

—–

642-991 DCUFD v4.0
 (Last day to test:
May 31, 2013)
Or
642-996 DCUFD v5.0

—–

OR

642-035 DCUCT v5.0
642-980 DCUFT v5.0

For example, if you wanted to follow the most current exams/curriculums and you were most interested in Troubleshooting, you would complete the following four exams:

642-999
642-997
642-035
642-980

Anthony Sequeira
Twitter: @compsolv
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/compsolv

The CCIE Data Center Written exam is finally available. You can register now at vue.com. You can become fully prepared to pass using the CCIE Data Center Written Bootcamp from IPexpert.

The topics required for success are:

Cisco Data Center Architecture

• Describe the Cisco Data Center Architecture
• Describe the products used in the Cisco Data Center Architecture
• Describe Cisco unified I/O solution in access layer
• Determine which platform to select for use in the data center different layers

Read Full Entry »

Another topic that we tabled in the CCIE Data Center Written bootcamp in order to cover it here is the built-in NX-OS Ethanalyzer. You are probably very familiar with the Wireshark packet capture and analysis tool. If not, it looks like this and is an extremely popular free tool for basic packet analysis:

Read Full Entry »

Overview

In one of our sessions on the Cisco Nexus in our CCIE Data Center Written Bootcamp here at IPexpert, we were able to dig into the SPAN and RSPAN features on these data center switches.

What then is ERSPAN? Well, first of all, please realize it is also on the blueprint, so we better study it.

Remember that SPAN and RSPAN mirrored traffic and carried this traffic with the Layer 2 domain of the switched infrastructure. Well, you probably already guessed what ERSPAN is about then – yes, it is about encapsulating remote switched port analyzer (ERSPAN) traffic so that we can route it through Layer 3 domains. How might we encapsulate this traffic for transport to the eventual destination port for analysis? Yes, you guessed it again – we can use the Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) for this purpose.
Read Full Entry »

Nestled in the CCIE Data Center Written Exam Blueprint we find the following:

• Describe XML for network management and monitoring

We did not have time during our live lecture sessions in the CCIE Data Center Written Bootcamp in order to cover this one, so let us do it here.

The XML capabilities on the Cisco Nexus device is an alternative which one can use to configure and monitor the device. This Nexus capability relies on the XML-based network configuration protocol called NETCONF. This allows management from an XML tool or application.
Read Full Entry »