CCIE Practical Studies, Volume I
Reviewer Name: Chuck Price, Network Specialist III
Reviewer Certification: CCNP
This book is a very good source of information for setting up practice internetworks for the CCIE hands-on lab. I went into it as a possible study source for the written portion of the exam. I was able to glean some useful information from it, but nothing I couldn't find in other books. It will definitely come in handy when I start setting up test equipment for the lab.
The material is presented in a very understandable format. I especially liked the fact that the practice labs were grouped by technology. Starting with the basics, in chapter one, it builds up steam as it progresses through the different technologies. Each chapter provides a background and a lot of helpful information on how to accomplish the lab scenario. There are also pertinent troubleshooting commands when things just don't go the way they should. After each lab scenario the author provides a walk-through of how to accomplish the lab.
All this reading, lab setups and practice labs culminate in chapter 18. Chapter 18 is a series of labs that a CCIE candidate might face in the actual live CCIE lab. Each of the five labs goes over an equipment list, a pre-staging section, followed by the rules and the timed section. Answers are not provided for these labs but a link to a Cisco Press website is provided for you to check your work.
I compared these labs with other lab workbooks on the Internet and found that there is not much difference between the lab scenarios. Whereas the workbooks have close to 30 labs they can cost up to several hundred dollars. The labs to be found in CCIE Practical Studies, Volumes I & II will cost you much less and most likely get you to the same level of competence to attempt the live CCIE lab.
While some of the material is dated in reference to the current lab exam, it still is a helpful reference guide. Hopefully it will be updated to bring it more inline with the current exam and emerging technology.