1. 

   Grant Burns
   August 26th, 2010 - 22:56

   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.
   
   Rating: 5 / 5
2. 

   Robert Juric
   August 27th, 2010 - 01:48

   In January 2010 Cisco revamped the CCNP certification by narrowing the breadth of topics, while increasing the depth. The CCNP consists of 3 exams: ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT. Obviously focusing on routing through networks, network switching, and troubleshooting.

   The CCNP ROUTE book begins by describing the role of the Network Engineer for the purposes of the CCNP exam. The Network Engineer’s role is to be able to take a given Design Plan and then create an Implementation and Verification Plan. Simply put, the goal is to know how to implement a design and then prove that it works. The ROUTE book is broken into 8 parts: “Perspectives on Network Planning”, “EIGRP”, “OSPF”, “Path Control”, “BGP”, “IPv6″, “Branch Office Networking, and “Final Prep.” As I progress from a CCNA and begin my study I’m excited to see topics covered such as Path Control, BGP, and more IPv6. The ROUTE book is written by Wendell Odom, who you might know as the same author of the CCNA Exam Cert Guide.

   The CCNP SWITCH book begins much like the ROUTE book by breaking down what is expected of the Network Engineer for the purpose of this exam. The SWITCH book is organized into the following parts: “CCNP Exam Approaches”, “Building a Campus Network”, “Designing Campus Networks”, “Campus Network Services”, “Securing Switched Networks”, and “Final Exam Prep”. The Building a Campus Network part of the book covers all of your basic switching technologies such as VLANs and Trunking, VTP, STP, PortGroups, and Multilayer Switching.

   The CCNP TSHOOT book jumps right into the meat of network troubleshooting. Each chapter begins with the traditional “Do I know this Already” quiz and Foundation Topics. From there the chapter begins to introduce a certain network troubleshooting aspect by reviewing the technology or process and then covering how to troubleshoot it. Each chapter also has a Trouble Ticket at the end which I found quite interesting. You are presented a problem, in the form of a trouble ticket along with a network topology diagram and a few Show command outputs. You are then asked to find the root cause and write out a proposed action plan to resolve the issue.

   Each book in the Library is very thorough, yet easy to understand. The authors do a great job of conveying the ideas and methodologies behind the technology, along with plenty of helpful diagrams to help you understand and learn. Each book comes with it’s own accompanying CD which includes some additional Appendixes and learning tools, as well as the Boson Exam Environment which is an invaluable tool for exam prep. Overall I consider this library to be the best source of information to use when studying for the CCNP exam.
   Rating: 5 / 5
3. 

   J. Makowski
   August 27th, 2010 - 02:44

   They’re your typical CiscoPress reference books which are good for studying and occasional reference.

   What these books lack are .pdf copies on the enclosed CDs so you can put them on a laptop and take them with you, rather than hauling around tomes. Previous generation books had .pdf copies. The best you get with this is a 45 day Safari Online access. Not acceptable.
   
   Rating: 3 / 5
4. 

   Tanner Ezell
   August 27th, 2010 - 03:00

   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.
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. 

   Jeffrey Fry
   August 27th, 2010 - 04:18

   With Cisco recently redoing the CCNP certification track, Cisco Press has published a new CCNP certification library. I like the way they package the series, makes having the right study material easy to order and easy to keep organized.

   Each of the books has the standard quiz in the front of each chapter so that you can gauge your knowledge. This helps you to identify and focus on some of your weak points. By utilizing this feature you can help to focus your learning efforts on where they are needed.

   The TSHOOT guide is good not just for troubleshooting, but also for good network practices. It helps to explain why documentation is important and how it helps you. The guide also covers some good tools within the IOS to troubleshoot basic to advances problems in Cisco devices. It covers the routing protocols, security, and even IPv6.

   The SWITCH guide covers the operation and configuration of network switches that will prepare you for real world scenarios, not just what is on the test. There is some extensive coverage of Spanning-tree in this book, and that is a very important topic in Campus networks. STP is a commonly misunderstood and dangerous protocol. An improperly designed or deployed STP topology can be the bane of a network engineer, and this book helps you to understand how to configure, support, protect and troubleshoot STP issues.

   The ROUTE guide is what you would expect from a routing book. It covers routing protocols right from the 2nd chapter – the 1st chapter discusses the planning for CCNP. What is also nice about this is that in the beginning of the chapters there are CCNA foundation reviews to help you “refresh” some of the basics. This is a good thing as we tend to forget some of what we have learned over time, and a good refresher helps to also get your brain in the mode to study the topic. What I liked about this guide was the chapter on IPv4 and IPv6 coexistence. This chapter helps you to understand the coexistence and migration requirements. This topic will probably become more discussed and important as IPv4 address exhaustion is imminent.

   To recap, this is a good study series as well as a future reference series. Having these guides at your disposal for study and work will prove to be an invaluable resource.

   Rating: 5 / 5

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