Archive - March, 2010

Upgrading a Cisco 6500

March 21, 2010 in Cisco, How To with 1 Comment

Whenever I get a good idea for a post its come out of something I have done that I think others might find helpful or I was looking for something but did not find a good answer. In first case I usually will search for content before posting because if someone else did it better I see no reason for meto do it again. In second case I usually take  my time to do it right and when I am working on it someone else usally beast me too it so I really just don’t have much content.

Thats what happened with the 6500 upgrade post. Check out Ruhann’s post at http://blog.ru.co.za/2010/03/18/upgrading-a-cisco-6500/ He did a great job in summing up the steps so I am not going to waste time doing that here.

Modular IOS Install

March 17, 2010 in Cisco, How To with 0 Comments

I was going to do a great post on the modular IOS on the 6500 pre-SXI3 and post SXI3 but so far I am not sure exactly where Cisco is going with the newest modular IOS (12.2(33)SXI3 and later) because the hallmark of the old install process was the “install file” command. You can read all about it at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/swmod/configuration/guide/sw_mod_instl_cfg.html. But that process is now gone, look at the release notes for 12.2(33)SXI3: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2sx/12_2sxi/12_2_33_sxi3_newfeatlist.html and you will se that process is deprecated.

So what now? Just install it like any old IOS upgrade and you have modular IOS. Pretty simple. Now make sure you read up on modular IOS before you chose it as it has some hardware limitation (some SIP modules for example.) Most people who have gone to modular IOS have been happy but not everyone. It has taken awhile to get fully stable which is funny because its supposed to be more stable. So read up on it and hopefully with SXI4 I will have something to add to this post.

OEQ Wavier for 360 Students

March 16, 2010 in Certification, Cisco with 0 Comments

This is Cisco big announcement for the CCIE Lab today, you can read about it at https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-6842.

The short version is if you take a class at an approved 360 vendor you can apply for a waiver to skip the OEQ’s on your lab date. While just 4 questions and 30 minutes you HAVE to pass that section to pass the lab. This means they are essentially eliminating 1/3 of the lab for you! I don’t like this. While my favorite instructor (Narbik) is 360 approved I think this is a bad idea. It gives people who used the Cisco preferred vendors 1/3 of their passing score before walking in and it give them an extra 30 minutes on what most see as the hardest section (configuration) because of lack of time. It is purely a money grab. I understand what Cisco wanted to do here, they wanted to eliminate the need for proctors to manually grad questions that open for interpretation. I relate this to back when I took drivers ed. Texas had just passed a law that if you took and passed drivers ed you no longer needed to pass a road test. Which was great, I did not need to mess with that test as I already knew how to drive! However not everyone knew how to drive but still got this exemtion because my drivers ed had not final test! If did all the work you passed. You think the drivers ed place is going to fail students who are then going to go tell their friend to go elsewhere? I see the potential for the same thing possibly happening here. Why would a 360 vendor deny a student a waiver? They are just going to Twitter/Group Study/etc and talk bad about them which is bad for business. I don’t want to imply vendors ARE going to give undeserving students waivers as I know a several of them will not do that. Just the potential for accusations of impropriety exist with this change.

While its too late to get Cisco to change they did say this is temporary but will give at least 60-days notice before it ends. So for at least the next 60 days its part of life, just need to deal with it. I do see this as the first step in removing the OEQ from the labs that have troubleshooting sections so that is a good thing.

On a side note about Narbik, he did say he is not in favor of this change while CCBootCamp is taking credit for the idea as theirs.

Real content coming soon!

March 8, 2010 in IT with 0 Comments

Been laying low for far too long. I have some real content coming soon. First up I expect to a post on monolithic vs modular IOS on 6500′s. I have avoided real content because I have been so busy and did not want post sub-par work. Hopefully what I end up posting will meet that goal. See ya soon.