UPDATE:

Revisions have been made to our materials that obsolete some (but not all) of the information in this document.
Please see the latest updates here.

Introduction

Many of you have been asking us for an update to our CCIE Voice to CCIE Collaboration materials transition. This document will serve to update you both on where we currently are with new materials, as well as give you a transition path and material to work on until we have everything fully transitioned over to the new Collaboration blueprint.

Overview

If you happen to be quite new to beginning to study for the CCIE Collaboration then you may not be aware of what many others already know, namely that this is not a brand new CCIE track, but rather a renaming and slight evolution of the CCIE Voice track. In fact, when we begin to talk about Collaboration, many technologies and products that are very active in your enterprise come to mind: TelePresence, MCUs, WebEx, VCS-C / VCS-E Expressway. Yeah - none of that is in the CCIE Collaboration Written Blueprint nor the CCIE Collaboration Lab Blueprint (Note: VCS is present in the backbone only - and all the hard work is on the VCS and out of the control of the student). So then you think to yourself, "... well Jabber, Jabber must be in the blueprints at least!" - and it is in the blueprint ... and from looking at the written and lab blueprint we can clearly see that it's worth a whopping 6% in the written and 8% in the lab. So then what is new to this lab from the old CCIE Voice exam? Not terribly much. New telephony dial plan features in UCM such as EMCC, CCD, Hunt Group Queuing, ILS and SIP URI dialing. Video --which we were always told in years past from the content manager at the CCIE Techtorials at Cisco Live that it was testable in the old Voice lab so you had to study it and INE covered it in our materials-- there just weren't any endpoints to test it out with, and now there finally are with the SIP 9971 IP Phone with USB camera attached. So really there are a lot of new telephony features, but little in the way of true Collaboration. So then how does this affect your studies and what new material do you really need? While there are quite a number of new features in UCM and other application platforms that we have already developed content for and will be releasing very soon, this means that there is already a vast amount of content that INE offers today that you can be studying with. What will follow is a breakdown of our existing content along with the very few sections that are no longer relevant (basically anything that relates to H.323 Gatekeeper). Everything else that we offer is 100% valid and very much worth studying. Even though this is labeled a Collaboration exam - it is still very much a Dial Plan and Troubleshooting-centric exam, with the vast amount of points going towards getting a proper dial plan functioning along with the necessary media resources to allow that dial plan to function (40%), and troubleshooting that setup (25%). Major difference is simply that now the media resources now include Video. And we have you covered in spades when it comes to dial plan, troubleshooting and all of the other ancillary product-specific topics such as UCCX, Unity Connection, CUE and CME.

Update on New Collaboration Materials

Racks:

We have built completely new racks that should be released into the scheduler at the end of next week. I have included an updated rack diagram below and each rack has the following specs:

• Cluster1:
• VMs: 3x UCM, 1x IM&P, 1x CUC, 1x UCCX, 2x Jabber
• Rack Phones: 3 direct attached 7961s (remotely controlled w/ variphy)
• Remote Phones: 3 including 9971s at your physical study location via L2VPN
• Cluster2:
• VMs: 3x UCM, 1x IM&P, 1x CUC, 1x Jabber
• Rack Phones: 1 direct attached 7961 (remotely controlled w/ variphy)
• Remote Phones: 2 including 9971s at your physical study location via L2VPN
• IP/PSTN Cluster:
• VMs: 1x UCM, 1x IM&P, 1x VCS, 1x TMS, 1x Jabber/JabberVideo
• Rack Phones: 1 direct attached 7961 (remotely controlled w/ variphy)
• Remote Phones: 1 at your physical study location via L2VPN
• Shared between Clusters:
• Site Routers: 3x 2911 running IOS 15.2(4)M5 each with:
• 1x HWIC-2T for Frame Relay (sigh, yes Frame Relay)
• 1x VWIC3-1MFT-T1/E1 for ISDN PRI
• 1x PVDM3-128/256 for Transcoding/Audio/Video Conferencing
• 1x EHWIC-4ESG-P and PWR-2911-POE (branch sites only) for PoE switching
• 1x SM-SRE-710 (branch 2 site only)
• PSTN Router: 1x 2811 running IOS 15.1(4)M3 with:
• 1x HWIC-4T for Frame Relay
• 3x VWIC2-1MFT-T1/E1 for ISDN PRI
• 2x PVDM2-64 for TDM to VoIP
• HQ Site Switch: 1x 3560E-V2 running IOS 15.0(2)SE5

Videos:

I have already recorded 30 hours of videos that cover newer feature topics like Jabber, URI dialing, video phones and video conferences between 9971 and Jabber (w/video) and in depth troubleshooting on MGCP, H.323 and especially SIP, that are being edited by our video department and should be released within a few days. I will update this post with the new playlist in the next section as soon as they finish.

Tasks:

Again, we have already created quite a number of tasks and screenshot-based solutions, and they will be coming out very shortly on our new delivery system that we announced at our INE Rewired party at Cisco Live this week.

How to Use Existing INE CCIE Voice Materials

Below is a list of our CCIE Voice products with links, along with the very few sections of content that are no longer tested and that may be skipped. Also, I offered in another blog post an 18 month plan, complete with downloadable spreadsheet to plan out your exact study dates. As our video department finishes editing more videos and releases them, I will update this post with links to that material.

CCIE Collaboration - Unified Communications on Unified Computing System (UC on UCS) Videos
All new and relevant and necessary for written.

CCIE Collaboration CCD/SAF Videos
All new and relevant and needed for both written and lab.

CCIE Voice ATC Videos
Everything relevant except the sections related to “H.323 Gatekeeper”:

• H.323 Gatekeeper with CUBE - Concepts & Slides Part 1
• H.323 Gatekeeper with CUBE - Concepts & Slides Part 2
• H.323 Gatekeeper with CUBE - Demonstration Part 1
• H.323 Gatekeeper with CUBE - Demonstration Part 2
• H.323 Gatekeeper with CUBE - Demonstration Part 3
• H.323 Gatekeeper with CUBE - Demonstration Part 4

CCIE Lab Preparation Videos:
Everything relevant except the sections related to “H.323 Gatekeeper”:

• Dial Plan - H.323 Gatekeeper: Part 1
• Dial Plan - H.323 Gatekeeper: Part 2

CCIE Deep Dive Series Videos:
Everything relevant except the sections related to “H.323 Gatekeeper” and I even cover things such as CME with both SIP and SCCP phone configurations:
Module 08 :: Expert H.323 Gatekeeper :: Runtime 7 hours 6 minutes

• Provisioning IOS H.323 Gatekeeper
• Registering CUCM with H.323 Gatekeeper
• Registering CUCME with H.323 Gatekeeper
• Routing Calls from CUCME to CUCM via Gatekeeper in Multiple Zones with Dynamic E.164 Aliases
• Routing Calls from CUCM to CUCME via Gatekeeper in Multiple Zones with Multiple Tech Prefixes
• Routing Calls from CUCME to CUCM via Gatekeeper in Multiple Zones with Multiple Tech Prefixes
• Routing Calls from CUCME to CUCM via Gatekeeper in Multiple Zones with Static E.164 Aliases
• Routing Calls from CUCM to CUCME and Back via Gatekeeper in One Zone with One Tech Prefix
• Gatekeeper Call Admission Control
• Routing Calls from CUCM to CUCME and Back via Alternate Gatekeeper Clustering in Multiple Zones with Multiple Tech Prefixes using GUP

CCIE Voice Volume I Workbook:
Everything relevant except the sections related to “H.323 Gatekeeper”:

• Expert Gatekeeper
  • Provisioning IOS H.323 Gatekeeper (GK)
  • Registering CUCM with an H.323 Gatekeeper
  • Registering CUCME with an H.323 Gatekeeper
  • Routing Calls from CUCM to CUCME via Gatekeeper
  • Routing Calls from CUCME to CUCM via Gatekeeper
  • Gatekeeper - Call Admission Control (CAC)
  • Gatekeeper - One Zone w/ One Tech-Prefix
  • Alternate Gatekeeper - Clustering with Gatekeeper Update Protocol (GUP)
  • Extensive Testing
  • Troubleshooting Gatekeeper

CCIE Voice Volume II Workbook:
None of the Full Multi-Protocol "Mock Labs" in Volume II contain any H.323 Gatekeeper tasks, but do contain tasks that a CCIE Collaboration lab today would require you to accomplish, making them all great labs for a prospective student to shoot for being able to accomplish in 5-6 hours maximum, leaving you additional time for the extra tasks that would be related to new features. These are still very relevant mock labs!

Recommended Reading

It should go without saying that for any person wanting to attain a CCIE certification, that hundreds of hours go into reading alone (outside of hands-on lab hours) during your studies. Much of this will come as you work within the construct of our materials.

First up is the Unified Communications 9.x System Reference Network Design Guide (SRND) It's around 1200 pages and worth reading every single page.

Reading some of the Midmarket Preferred Architecture guides such as this one for general Collaboration and this one for Jabber can be great entry points and ongoing reference guides.

Also, this time when Cisco wrote their written and lab blueprints, they took some time to include links at each topic level to reading material that are usually system guide references to the topic. Occasionally they want you to pay to gain access, and usually it's really not worth it - plus you already have an INE All Access Pass to the same topics, so it's most likely redundant. At any rate, most of the links are to very good documentation reference materials to read.
CCIE Collaboration Written blueprint breakdown topics.
CCIE Collaboration Lab blueprint breakdown topics.

This next book is incredibly written and covers WAY more than you need to know for the CCIE Collaboration lab, but is still definitely worth the read if you do any enterprise, SP or Data Center work with Quality of Service. End-to-End QoS Network Design: Quality of Service for Rich-Media & Cloud Networks, 2nd Edition

And as Brian so eloquently put it in an earlier blog post, for those of you that have never heard of Cisco Live Online On-Demand Library before, you’re welcome. This is where all the video recordings and PDFs of slide decks live from every Cisco Live convention for the past 5 years. Use the filters on the left to limit your search to presentations with video, from the past few years, and limited to Collaboration and Voice - such as this filter is already setup for.

How to Study for the CCIE Lab Exam

At the risk of ever-so-slight plagiarism (at least I work for the same company :)), I'm going to reiterate pretty much word-for-word what Brian said during his pass of the CCIE Data Center lab, simply because many people that study for this exam probably wouldn't have had much reason to come across and read much in the way of a data center post.

Brian Dennis and Brian McGahan teach a methodology that I have also been personally using and teaching for the past 8 years, even if I didn't always have this very simple set of slides to define it as I found they had when I arrived at INE 5 years ago. I saw these two simple slides they created and that I now use in every class I teach.  This methodology is essentially a four step process of learning and testing incrementally.  This is also the same methodology that has helped Brian Dennis obtain five CCIEs, Brian McGahan to obtain four CCIEs and the CCDE, and myself to obtain three CCIE, so you can quite easily trust that it works.

The methodology is a basic four step process as follows:

• Gain a basic understanding of the technologies
• Gain basic hands-on experience to reinforce and expand your understanding
• Gain an expert level of understanding
• Gain an expert level of hands-on experience

It might seem self-explanatory that you need to start at the bottom and work your way up, i.e. A then B then C then D, however over the years we’ve seen so many CCIE candidates try to shortcut this process and try to go from A directly to D.  Traditionally these are the candidates that end up taking the lab exam 5, 6, 7 times before passing, essentially trying to brute force their way through the lab.  Believe it or not, INE has had customers in the past that have attempted the CCIE Lab Exam in the same track 10 or more times before passing.  Coincidentally, these are also usually the customers that don’t want to hear that they don’t know something or that their methodology is wrong. Go figure.

The CCIE is much more about the journey than it is the destination. You really only cheat yourself coming out of the process without truly being an expert at the technologies covered, so make sure you really take the time and be meticulous about going through absolutely everything.

Summary

INE has tons of material that you need to make you truly an expert. Don't wait until every last bit of new material has been released to get started now. You need an incredibly deep solid understanding of the core fundamentals, and INE already has 90% of the content you need to make you an expert, and more being released in every few weeks. Also, since INE has made the commitment to treat CCIE Collaboration as CCIE Voice v4 for our customers, and therefore ensure your investment, there is no reason you shouldn't get started with your studies today, and add on to them as we continue to add the new feature topics!

We've heard you loud and clear, and we understand that gaining access to Nexus 7000s, Nexus 5000s, UCS and Storage for hands-on practice is probably one of the more difficult parts of studying for the CCNA/CCNP and CCIE Data Center certifications. That's why we're happy to announce that we have just added 5 new DC racks available for rental immediately.

Enjoy - and remember to lab responsibly this holiday season.

First off I’d like to thank all of you that participated in beta testing both the CCIE Data Center Technology Lab Workbook and DC Rack Rentals, and for all the constructive feedback that was submitted. Yesterday the DC rack system left beta, and is now publicly available for bookings.

Data Center rack rentals cost 20 tokens for the base topology, which includes Nexus 7000, Nexus 5000, and Virtual Machines. There are three add-ons to the topology, which are Nexus 2000 & SAN, UCS & SAN, and ACE 4710. Each of the add-ons cost 5 tokens apiece, which means the maximum cost for the full topology is 35 tokens per session. With bulk token pricing this equates to about $11 USD per hour for rental, which is much more affordable than any other vendor out there.

For more detailed information on how to book sessions and use the system, please see the CCIE Data Center Rack Rental Access Guide.

Before the end of the month we will also be launching a second "Mock Lab" Data Center topology that will be used for full-scale 8-hour lab scenarios. More information about the availability of rentals on this topology will be posted soon.

Happy Labbing!

INE is proud to announce that our long awaited CCIE Service Provider Version 3.0 Rack Rentals are now available, which includes access to IOS XR routers! Furthermore during the initial beta testing of our new rack scheduling system, SPv3 rack rentals are FREE to book! Our new rack scheduler is easier to use than the previous version, and breaks rack sessions down into 3 hour blocks as opposed to the previous 6 hour blocks, which allows for more granularity and affordability in your study schedule. The new scheduler will remain in beta for the next week or so, during which sessions are free to book, but are limited to 1 concurrent session scheduled per customer. Below is a short HOWTO video that I created on using the new scheduling system:

For those of you on mobile platforms the direct link is http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4DzgoiS9tPI

Additionally a new update has been posted to the CCIE SPv3 Workbook, which now includes the first Full Scale Lab. These updates can be found in the Workbooks tab of the members site, as seen in the above video.

As continuing pioneers of so many firsts in the CCIE training space, we have noted before on this blog how we have been offering you for over 6 months now, the first and only 100% web-based remote control client that controls not only CUCM SIP & SCCP phones, but also that controls SRST & CME SIP & SCCP phones. And we give it to you at no additional cost to your rental - it's built-in to every rack for free (no need to install a messy Windows-only software client). And now, we are very excited to offer you another first - the ability to access and control everything in our Voice Racks, with no need for any VPN client.

Simply use one of the following HTTP links below to access your Voice Rack (you must have a valid session during the time you try to authenticate):

• pub.vorackX.ine.com
• sub.vorackX.ine.com
• cuc.vorackX.ine.com
• cups.vorackX.ine.com
• uccx.vorackX.ine.com
• util.vorackX.ine.com
• pstn.vorackX.ine.com

Where X is your rented rack number

Please take a moment to watch this instructional video on how to use this VPN-Less connection to access and control your Voice Rack and IP phones.

So to summarize:

• No messing around with silly macros which don't apply in the CCIE Lab
• Actual support for SRST (not only CME)
• Who needs VPN?
• A software client? Our lips shudder to even think it. No, we live in the real, web-based world
• 7960's in our 3 Sites? What's the point?? They aren't usable when studying for the CCIE Lab - they're vastly different in every realm of configuration, which will only distract you from studying for the real exam - so why would we even consider including them? We don't, save for a PSTN phone, which just like in the real lab, you don't configure.

And to top it all off, our Voice Racks cost 1/4 of any others.

We look forward to continuing to being the first to bring you the best and brightest innovations that get you one step closer to both of our goals: You Passing Your CCIE Lab Exam.

INE is happy to announce that we now have all 21 Modules of our new CCIE Voice Deep Dive completed --115 hours of recorded class-on-demand style video (no breaks or dead-air in the recordings - that's 115 hours of actual learning!)-- completed and ready for your consumption!

As we mentioned in a previous post, The author and poet Maya Angelou said “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”. Well that is certainly what we have attempted to do with the CCIE Voice Deep Dive self-paced Class on Demand series – that is to bring the human instructional voice element to infuse deeper meaning to what is already fantastic Cisco Documentation. Anyone that has set out and determined to undertake the task of studying for and ultimately passing any CCIE Lab exam, knows that at some point during your studies, the words on paper (Cisco Docs, RFCs, books) – while a absolute phenomenal source of information – can at times seem to loose their impact. Perhaps you have been studying too long, read one too many docs, have the time pressure of your family and friends waiting for you to return to be a part of their life, or perhaps you are just starting out on your adventure and don’t know where to begin. Whatever stage you are at or whatever the case may be, it is certainly helpful to have a tutor and mentor there beside you at times, assisting you in understanding what each complex technology’s documentation is trying to teach you, in possibly a deeper and more insightful way than you can manage on your own.

For each complex topic we have held (or will soon hold) an online class where we dive down deep and explore all the concepts, practical application, and troubleshooting associated with each technology topic. The general format for each Class-on-Demand Deep Dive module spends between 4-7 hours on the given topic for that day, and during that time follows this outlined training methodology:

• Collectively discuss and teach all concepts involved in the technology
• Whiteboard concepts to further deepen every participant’s understanding
• Define a specific set of tasks to be accomplished
• Demonstrate how the tasks and concepts are implemented and properly configured
• Test the configuration thoroughly
• Vary the configuration to understand how different permutations effect the outcome
• Debug and trace the working configuration to understand what should be seen
• Break the configuration and troubleshoot with debugs and traces to contrast from the working set

Before we go on with the 21 module outline, here are a few demos of this Deep Dive series:

Demo 1: Module 10 :: Dial Plan :: Globalization Prezi - Theory and Reasons :: Runtime 1 hr

Demo 2: Module 10 :: Dial Plan :: Inbound Calling Party Localization :: Runtime 30 mins

Demo 3: Module 12 :: CUBE :: Conforming to ITSP Reqs: SIP Header Conversions :: Runtime 51 mins

Demo 4: Module 13 :: Unified Mobility :: Mobile Connect Access Lists and Exclusivity :: Runtime 20 mins

Here is the outline for the complete Deep Dive series:

Network Infrastructure

Module 1 :: Network Infrastructure, RSVP CAC, and LAN & WAN Quality of Service :: Runtime 10.5hrs

• NTP
• VLANs
• TFTP
• DHCP
• Multicast (Infrastructure)
• LAN QoS - including:
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Classification and Marking
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Conditional Trust
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Ingress Interface Mapping
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Ingress Interface Queuing
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Ingress Interface Expedite Queue
• Catalyst 3560/3750 L2 CoS to L3 DSCP Mapping
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Egress Interface Mapping
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Egress Interface Queuing
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Interface Queue Memory Allocation
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Egress Queue-Set Templates
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Weighted Tail Drop (WTD) Buffer Allocation
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Egress Interface Expedite Queue
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Egress Interface Sharing
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Egress Interface Shaping
• Catalyst 3560/3750 Scavenger Traffic Policing
• CUCM RSVP-Based Locations for Call Admission Control
• WAN QoS Classification
• WAN QoS Low Latency Queuing (CBWFQ-PQ)
• WAN QoS Traffic Shaping
• WAN QoS Frame-Relay Fragmentation

Unified Communications Manager

Module 02 :: CUOS GUI and CLI Admin :: Runtime 3.6 hrs

• CUCM WebUI: Service Activation and Stop/Start/Reset
• CUCM WebUI: Bulk Administration Tool (Import/Export, Phone Reports, etc)
• CUCM WebUI: DB Replication Status
• CUCM WebUI: Trace Files
• CUOS CLU: TFTP Files Management
• CUOS CLU: Status and Hostname
• CUOS CLU: DB Replication Assurance
• CUOS CLU: DB Replication Repair and Cluster Reset
• CUOS CLU: Trace Files
• CUOS CLU: RIS DB Search
• CUOS CLU: Performance Monitor (PerfMon)
• RTMT: Trace Files
• RTMT: Performance Monitor (PerfMon)

Module 03 :: CUCM System and Phone - SCCP and SIP Fundamentals :: Runtime 4.4 hrs

• CUCM Services
• UC Servers and Groups
• Date/Time with NTP Reference
• Regions and Codecs
• Location-Based Call Admission Control
• SRST References
• Device Pools
• System Parameters
• Enterprise Parameters
• Phone Button Templates
• Softkey Templates
• SCCP Phone Basics
• SIP Phone Basics

Module 04 :: Users, Credentials, Multi-Level Roles and LDAP Internetworking :: Runtime 3.6 hrs

• CUCM User Credentials and Policies
• LDAP Synchronization for CUCM and Unity Connection
• LDAP Authentication for CUCM and Unity Connection
• CUCM End Users
• CUCM User Roles
• CUCM Multi-Level Administration
• CUCM Device/Phone/Line User Association
• UCCX and CUP Basic Users

Module 05 :: Call Features - In-Depth :: Runtime 5.3 hrs

• SCCP and SIP Phone Display
• Phone Firmware
• Phone Logging
• Ring Settings
• Basic and Advanced Call Forwarding Display
• Auto-Answer Options
• CallBack (Camp-On)
• Intercom
• Advanced Call Hold Options
• Call Park
• Directed Call Park
• Advanced Call Park Settings
• Call Pickup
• Group Call Pickup
• Other Call Pickup
• Directed Call Pickup
• Call Pickup Attributes
• Shared Line
• Barge and cBarge (Conference Barge)
• Privacy
• Built-In IP Phone Bridge

Module 06 :: Media Resources - MTPs, Conf Bridges, Annunciator and Music on Hold :: Runtime 5.6 hrs

• IOS Software MTP
• IOS Conference Bridge
• IOS Transcoding
• Media Preference and Redundancy
• Meet-Me Conferencing
• Ad-Hoc Conferencing
• Annunciator
• Unicast Music on Hold
• Traditional Multicast Music on Hold
• Alternate Multicast Music on Hold

Module 07 :: Expert Gateways & Trunks :: Runtime 5.9 hrs

• ISDN Switch Types and Advanced CNAM options
• ISDN Information Elements
• SIP Trunks - Fundamental and Advanced Options
• H.323 Gateways - Fundamental and Advanced Options
• MGCP Gateways - Fundamental and Advanced Options

Module 08 :: Expert H.323 Gatekeeper :: Runtime 7.1 hrs

• Provisioning IOS H.323 Gatekeeper
• Registering CUCM with H.323 Gatekeeper
• Registering CUCME with H.323 Gatekeeper
• Routing Calls from CUCME to CUCM via Gatekeeper in Multiple Zones with Dynamic E.164 Aliases
• Routing Calls from CUCM to CUCME via Gatekeeper in Multiple Zones with Multiple Tech Prefixes
• Routing Calls from CUCME to CUCM via Gatekeeper in Multiple Zones with Multiple Tech Prefixes
• Routing Calls from CUCME to CUCM via Gatekeeper in Multiple Zones with Static E.164 Aliases
• Routing Calls from CUCM to CUCME and Back via Gatekeeper in One Zone with One Tech Prefix
• Gatekeeper Call Admission Control
• Routing Calls from CUCM to CUCME and Back via Alternate Gatekeeper Clustering in Multiple Zones with Multiple Tech Prefixes using GUP

Module 09 :: Dial Plan - Line Device Approach and the Not-So-Basic Fundamentals :: Runtime 7 hrs

• Class of Service: Calling Search Spaces and Partitions
• Gateways, Route Groups, Local Route Groups/Device Pools
• Route Lists and Standard Local Route Groups
• Route Patterns and Translation Patterns
• Digit Manipulation: Calling & Called Party Transformations and IOS Dial Peers
• Private Line Automatic Ringdown (PLAR)

Module 10 :: Dial Plan - Globalization & Localization of both the Calling and the Called Numbers, and with Mapping the Global Number to the Local Variant :: Runtime 6.3 hrs

• Inbound PSTN Calls (Ingress from PSTN, Egress to Phones): Calling Party Globalization :: GW Incoming Calling Party Settings
• Inbound PSTN Calls (Ingress from PSTN, Egress to Phones): Calling Party Localization :: Phone Calling Party Transformations
• Outbound PSTN Calls (Ingress from Phones, Egress to PSTN): Called Party Globalization :: PSTN Patterns - a.k.a. "Translation Patterns are the *New* Route Patterns"
• Outbound PSTN Calls (Ingress from Phones, Egress to PSTN): Called Party Localization :: Digit Manipulation: Calling & Called Party Transformations and IOS Voice Translation Rules & Dial Peers
• Mapping the Global Number to the Local Variant :: + Dialing and One-Button Missed Call DialBack

Module 11 :: Dial Plan - Unlocking the Full Potential of Globalization & Localization :: Runtime 4.2 hrs

• System & User Speed Dials and Corporate Directory
• Call Forward on Unregister
• Automated Alternate Routing Made So Simple
• Multiple Backup Gateways for Every Site using only Standard Local Route Group
• National and International Tail End Hop Off (TEHO) Made Easy
• Globalized Call Routing using H.323 ICTs

Module 12 :: Dial Plan - Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) with SIP Normalization :: Runtime 6.5 hrs

• SIP Trunk to SIP ITSP for PSTN Call Routing
• Conforming to ITSP Reqs: Various SIP-Attributes
• Conforming to ITSP Reqs: SIP Header Conversions
• Advanced Call Admission Control Mechanisms with CUBE
• Skype SIP Trunk for Branch2 Site
• Testing Supplementary Features

Module 13 :: Unified Mobility - Getting the Most out of Single Number Reach and Direct Inward System Access :: Runtime 6.8 hrs

• Mobile Connect Basics
• Mobile Connect Ring Schedule
• Mobile Connect Localization
• Mobile Connect Access Lists and Exclusivity
• Mobile Connect Interaction with Local Route Group
• Mobile Voice Access - Inbound Call Recognition and Display
• Mobile Voice Access and Direct Inward System Access (DISA)
• Mobile Connect Mid-Call Features - Supplementary Services

Module 14 :: Device Mobility & Extension Mobility - What They Have in Common and When To Use Each :: Runtime 4 hrs

• Device Mobility - Between Sites but Within a Country
• Device Mobility - Between Sites and Between Countries
• Extension Mobility
• Device and Extension Mobility and TEHO Interactions

Unified Communications Manager Express

Module 15 :: CUCME System and Phone Basics - SCCP and SIP :: Runtime 5 hrs

• IOS DHCP
• IOS Clock and Network Time
• IOS TFTP Server
• SIP CME Server Setup
• SIP CME Phone and DN Setup
• SCCP CME Server Setup
• SCCP CME Phone and DN Setup
• CME Directory Services
• SCCP CME Server Redundancy
• Endpoint Registration with External SIP Proxy Server
• CME Templates for SCCP and SIP Phones and DNs
• CME Phone Customization

Module 16 :: CUCME Dialplans, Class of Restrictions (COR) & Media Resources :: Runtime 5.6 hrs

• PSTN Dialing from CME
• IOS Voice Translation Rules in CME
• Load Balancing Calls in CME
• Class of Restrictions for CME
• Multicast Music on Hold for CME
• IOS Transcoding for CME
• IOS Hardware Conference Bridge for CME
• Multicast Broadcast-Paging in CME
• MTP and DSP Resources in CME
• Speed Dials in CME

Module 17 :: CUCME Advanced Call Features :: Runtime 4.2 hrs

• Shared Lines and Feature Ring with SCCP Phones
• Shared Lines with Barge and Privacy for SCCP Phones
• Intercom for SIP and SCCP Phones
• Night Service Bell for SCCP Phones
• Call Park for SIP and SCCP Phones
• Call Blocking for SIP and SCCP Phones
• CallerID Blocking for SIP and SCCP Phones
• Call Transfer and Forwarding for SIP and SCCP Phones

Module 18 :: CUCME Call Coverage and Survivable Remote Site Telephony :: Runtime 3.5 hrs

• CME as SRST Fallback Mode (SIP, SCCP and MGCP Fallback)
• Traditional SRST Fallback Mode (SIP, SCCP and MGCP Fallback)
• 4-Digit Reachability from CUCM & SRST While in Fallback Mode
• Call-Coverage - Call Pickup Groups
• Call-Coverage - Basic-Automatic Call Distribution (B-ACD)
• Call-Coverage - SIP and SCCP Hunt Groups and IOS Hunting

Unified Contact Center Express

Module 19 :: Unified Contact Center Express – Integration, CSQ Provisioning and Custom Scripting :: Runtime 5.1 hrs

• UCCX Setup and Integration and Troubleshooting Being "Locked-Out"
• CSQ Setup with Preferential Agent Choice
• Basic Custom Scripting – Examination of UCCX Editor and “Simple Queuing.aef” Default Script
• Basic Custom Scripting – Day of Week & Time of Day
• Basic Custom Scripting – Reroute to Voicemail or Proceed to Queue
• Basic Custom Scripting – MoH in Queue
• Basic Custom Scripting – How Many Times Through Queue with Option to Go to Voicemail
• Basic Custom Scripting – Nested Queues for More Available Agents
• Basic Custom Scripting – Agent-Based Routing
• Basic Custom Scripting – Testing and Debugging

Unified Messaging

Module 20 :: Messaging - Unity Connection & Unity Express :: Runtime 2.4 hrs

• Unity Connection
• Unity Express

Unified Presence

Module 21 :: CUCM Presence and Cisco Unified Presence Server - Integration and Client Usage :: Runtime 4 hrs

• CUCM-Only Presence with Subscribe CSS
• CUCM-Only Presence with Presence Groups
• CUPS & CUCM Integration and CUPC Personal Communicator Provisioning
• CUPS and IP Phone Messenger (IPPM)

And for those that couldn't get enough of this trailer for this series the first time, here it is again:

A while back, Cisco began consolidating all of the CCIE lab equipment used by candidates when sitting to write their practical lab exam. Most of the lab hardware now resides in San Jose, California US, with only the Storage and Wireless awaiting movement. While most of the CCIE tracks' practical lab examinations are able to be completely self-contained inside a single rack, the pesky Voice exam remains an abnormality with the need for hardware IP phones at the testing site where the candidate may sit for the exam.

Having the IP phones in a completely separate location -- and therefore seemingly an entirely different L3 IP subnet -- would seem to present a major challenge for candidates attempting to test certain configuration tasks such as Multicast Music on Hold, many QoS mechanisms, SRST, and even smaller things such as CDP discovery and DHCP. So how is Cisco able to get away with having phones at a remote location (5000 miles or more in some instances), and yet still allow candidates to configure and then properly test what they critically need to?

Layer 2 Tunneling - that's how. It's the only way to make phones "look" via CDP like they are connected to the same switch that they students are configuring on their rack - even if this couldn't be further from the truth (pun intended). This also allows everything else to function and work as perfectly as if the phone actually were on the same physical L2 wire, but alas, they most certainly are not.

Now to do this, it requires a good investment in a good number of additional routers and switches to make it all work, since after all there are a number of physical L2 LANs per candidate rack, and many more than simply one rack, not only in San Jose, but also at each remote testing site.

INE is very happy to announce that -- in both a strong desire to provide the exact same environment as the real lab, and also our response to listening to student requests from bootcamps this year -- we have put forth the necessary investment in both capital and man-hours to setup the necessary infrastructure to allow every Voice class that we run to be identical to taking a seat in the actual CCIE Voice lab exam. When you take a seat in any one of INE's Voice classes, that your 2 CorpHQ 7961 IP phones, your 1 Branch1 7961 IP phone, and your 2 Branch2 7961 IP phones will both appear to their respective site L2 switches, and function, just as if they were directly connected to your rack. It's as if we are now transporting each Voice rack of equipment with us no matter where we travel. Oh - did I mention that? This will be the standard no matter where you sit an INE Voice class - London, Seattle, Chicago, RTP, and anywhere else that we may have an on-site class requested and put together (some possibilities at the moment are Dubai, Bangalore, and Sydney).

On that note, we also just released our new training schedule with dates and expanded locations for 2011. Only dates through March are posted on the site at the moment, but the rest should be posted up either today or Monday (13 Sept).

So just to recap what you get when you train with INE for your CCIE Voice exam:

• 5  7961 Hardware IP Phones on your desk in front of you, plus 1  7960 PSTN phone
• Every 7961 IP phone functions exactly as it would as if it were physically and directly connected to its site's layer 2 switch (and just as it actually is in the real CCIE lab exam)
• An instructor who has helped hundreds of people become CCIEs and who has been developing training materials and teaching the technologies needed to pass the CCIE Voice exam for over 5 years now

• And for when you are not in class, but studying on your own: 7961 hardware IP phones attached to every INE rental rack for you to remotely control if you don't have your own (separately purchased IP phone remote control software is necessary for a reduced INE Student Edition cost)
• Of course we support you connecting your hardware IP phones to our rental racks if you  have them, as well as have have a Cisco IOS router or ASA/PIX

It is also worth updating everyone that we have released a few more CCIE Voice Deep Dive modules (scroll to bottom of linked page for each module details), and next week we will be completing two additional modules (both on different forms of Mobility) to round out our complete section relating to the CUCM server. So currently we are up to modules 1-12 and we have over 70 hours of class-on-demand style training with extremely detailed walk-throughs of every configuration and debug/trace in CUCM. Once we finish up the last two modules on CUCM, we will be moving onto CME, and you can expect the same level of detail on absolutely every aspect of that platform as well!

Happy Studies!

-Mark Snow

That is a very true saying - in fact one that we believe strongly in here at INE. However we also understand just how expensive it can be to undertake studying for any CCIE Lab exam. That is why, whenever we can, we try to reduce the load on you - the students - to bear this cost. Take for instance our CCIE RS Volume II for Dynamips - we do all we can to provide you the best available instruction while trying to reduce, or sometimes even be able to eliminate the hardware costs associated with studying.

So now we have taken to task trying to do the same for our CCIE Voice track products. We can't quite virtualize all of the routers used as voice gateways (pesky DSP's and TDM trunk cards that dynamips won't ever be able to support since we actually need hardware for the drivers to be able to trigger the signaling), but we thought we would try to reduce the hardware cost for you, the student, in any way we can with the necessary hardware. Anyone having decided to study for the CCIE Voice lab exam has no doubt realized that even if you decide not to take on the enormous cost of building your own rack to practice with, and instead, to rent rack time from any vendor on the market, you still must purchase your own hardware 7961 IP Phones along with some sort of a hardware VPN solution (such as an ASA 5505 or 851 ISR router) at a minimum in order to be able to practice for all of the most important features tested in the lab. This is quite simply due to the fact that the much older 7960's and all current SCCP Software Client phones (including Cisco CIPC, IPBlue VT-GO*, etc) don't support any of the newer features - those that are most critical to studying for the latest lab exam. Even if you can manage to find refurbished 7961 IP Phones from eBay for roughly $150/phone and $500/ASA5505 - you still have to invest over $1,000USD just in hardware before you are ready to rent the rack! Seeing as how the 7961 phones are already a generation behind the current ones, and the possibility that when you pass your lab 6-12 months from now that they will likely be 2 generations old and harder to sell for the same price you paid for them - it becomes a very expensive venture to undertake!

To that end, we have made the decision to equip each of our voice racks with three 7961 phones (one at each "site" within the rack topology). Now the only way adding these phones to our racks makes any sense for our students is if we give them some way of controlling them. So we decided to form an exclusive partnership with the most premier remote phone control software company on the market - VoIP Integration. They recently upgraded their very popular Remote Phone software and have added a bunch of features, not to mention made the screen refresh rate a lot faster. Anyway - onto the good stuff. If you are a current (or future) Voice customer of INE, our strategic partnership with them will allow you to purchase their normally $199 Remote Phone software for a significantly reduced cost. One license will allow you to run multiple instances of the software in order to allow you to control all of the phones connected to your rack from a single PC.

If you have the ability to procure these hardware 7961 phones, they are still a great study option, and we still of course still support both IPSec EzVPN in Network Extension Mode and SSL VPN for everyone of our 14 Voice racks, just as we have done for well over a year now. And of course every live Voice course that we teach uses six hardware 7961 IP Phones - that won't change.

Students outside the US who have experienced higher latency and trouble getting their remote hardware phones to stay registered to CUCM or CUCME may also wish to consider this option and ultimately find this to be a very acceptable alternative.

One final reason that drove us to form this partnership and invest in phones for our racks was that we've been asked by so many of our Voice students to provide an option for them to study with 7961 phones as they travel from site to site, and don't wish to, or in many cases simply cannot, take their hardware phones with them. This gives them the inexpensive option to study using either our phones directly connected to our racks or else their own phones at their main study location connected to our racks via VPN, remotely controlled with this software.

Either way you choose, you now have an equally suitable option for studying for your Voice lab. The only unfortunate part about this is that you know have less of a reason not to be studying for your exam.

Only thing you have to do to qualify for this deeply-discounted version of VoIP Integration's Remote Phone software is to have 1) purchased any one of INE's Voice Products, and 2) send me an email expressing your wish to purchase a copy of their discounted software. VoIP Integration will then in turn send you an email to purchase the software at the discounted rate.

Finally - stay tuned for a new announcement approximately one week from now on a brand new Voice product that I personally am very excited to deliver! Something that I have been wanting to do now for a very long time, and something that so far, every live classroom student that I've run the concept by, has emphatically communicated back to me how deeply needed this type of instruction is in the Cisco UC marketplace, well beyond the help for the CCIE exam that it will provide. I wish I could give you more info right now - but my flight is landing for my next week's training class, and I am being told to put my laptop away. So watch this blog early next Friday for the announcement of when this product will (so very soon) launch!

In the (modified) words of Napolean Dynamite:

I hope all of your wildest (studying) dreams come true,

Mark Snow

*IPBlue VT-GO can register to CUCM as a 7961/62 phone, however it does not actually act like one. Many of the most important features tested in the lab, specific to the 7961, don't work with the IPBlue soft-client - such as Globalization and Mapping Globalized to Localized, G.722 codec negotiation, and many of the softkeys needed.

Hi Everyone,

I know you’ve been waiting for this for quite a long time - please take my sincere apologies for the delay. What we were trying to do is come up with an upgrade that allows for affordable home CCIE lab racks; hence the time spent seeing the if new scenarios will fit the upraded topology. Right now, our existing hardware list for a typical rack is:

R1 – 2610XM 32F/128D
R2 – 2610XM 32F/128D
R3 – 2611XM 32F/128D
R4 – 2611XM 32F/128D
R5 – 2611XM 32F/128D
R6 – 2611XM 32F/128D
SW1 – 3560
SW2 – 3560
SW3 – 3550
SW4 – 3550

BB1, BB2, BB3 – 2511s

And all the hardware is cabled as described on this page: How to build a CCIE rack (oh, ignore the old router models, just pay attention to the cabling). So what we're doing for the new topology is a gradual upgrade:

1) Replacing R4, R5 and R6 with Cisco 1841 ISRs, having 64M flash and 128M RAM minimum.
2) Getting new routers to run 12.4T images with ADVANCED ENTERPRISE SERVICES feature set and therefore supporting MPLS. Other routers may still run older 12.4 images with the same feature set (ADV. ENT. SERVICES).
3) No interface cards need to be changed or replaced and no cables should be re-wired. You may re-use the same WIC cards with the 1841s, provided that they are v2 – AFAIR v1 cards are not supported in HWIC slots.
4) In place of 1841s you may actually use any ISR, such as 28xx or 38xx or even the older 3725 – anything that can run 12.4T ADV. ENTERPRISE SERVICES.

With the three ISRs being added you can play with any basic MPLS VPN scenario, using R4, R5 and R6 as MPLS P/PE routers and the remaining routers as CEs. Additionally, the three new routers allow for enough bandwidth to test all the features introduced in 12.4T train. As time passes we plan to gradually replace the remaining 2600XM models with the ISRs, but for the new blueprint becoming effective as of October 14th having three 1841s is enough to test the new features. Later this month and during September you will see our rack-rental partner Graded Labs Inc. upgrading its hardware, keeping a mix of the "old" and "new" racks for some time, to accomodate those preparing for the old blueprint.

Lastly, I know there is a lot of people using Dynamips emulator for their studies. We’re working on releasing our updated Dynagen .NET topology shortly. To summarize the changes, we replaced R1, R2 and R3 in the Dynamips topology with 2600XMs and made R4, R5 and R6 to be 3725s running the latest 12.4T code. This should mimic our real hardware topology pretty close, with maybe some exceptions to interface names.

Stay tuned for more updates!