Product Description

CCNP Building Scalable Internetworks (BSCI 642-901) Lab Portfolio provides you with opportunities for hands-on practice to master the technologies necessary to configure advanced routing on a production network.

The labs reinforce your understanding of how to install, configure, monitor, and troubleshoot network infrastructure equipment. You will apply your knowledge of configuration of EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, and BGP routing protocols and how to manipulate and optimize routing updates between these protocols. Other topics covered include multicast routing, IPv6, and DHCP configuration.

Those preparing for the Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI 642-901) certification exam should work through this book cover-to-cover. Or if you need to quickly review configuration examples, you can go directly to the relevant chapter.

CCNP Building Scalable Internetworks (BSCI 642-901) Lab Portfolio includes

• 33 Labs built to support v5 of the Building Scalable Internetworks course within the Cisco® Networking Academy® curriculum providing ample opportunity to practice.
• 6 Challenge and Troubleshooting Labs have been added to the Lab Portfolio to further test your mastery of the topics.
• 4 Case Studies provide practice in planning, designing, and implementing EIGRP, OSPF, and BGP networks. Even if you do not have the actual equipment to configure these more complex topologies, it is worth reading through these labs to expand your thinking into more complex networking solutions.

By successfully completing the exercises in this book you will gain the experience necessary to use advanced IP addressing and routing in implementing scalability for Cisco integrated services routers (ISR) connected to LANs and WANs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62833 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 600 pages

About the Author

David Kotfila, CCNP, CCAI, is the Director of the Cisco Academy at Rensselaer PolytechnicInstitute (RPI), Troy, New York. Under his direction, 350 students have received their CCNA, 150 studentshave received their CCNP, and 8 students have obtained their CCIE. David is a consultant forCisco, working as a member of the CCNP assessment group. His team at RPI has authored the fournew CCNP lab books for the Academy program. David has served on the National Advisory Council for the Academy program for four years. Previously he was the Senior Training Manager at PSINet, a Tier 1 global Internet service provider.

Joshua Moorhouse, CCNP, recently graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) with a B.S. in Computer Science, where he also worked as a teaching assistant in the Cisco Networking Academy. He currently works as a network engineer at Factset Research Systems in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Ross Wolfson, CCIE No. 16696, recently graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) with a B.S. in Computer Science. He currently works as a network engineer at Factset Research Systems.

Customer Reviews

Absolutely essential
First let me say that I was NOT impressed w/ Cisco Press's Exam Certification Guide. Lots of material was not covered in detail, and it wasn't until I went through this book that those gaps were filled.

NOTE: I'm actually just started the CCIE R&S 360 program, and in addition to having used this book for my BSCI, I'm currently using it for my CCIE practice labs. This is hands down the best CCNP book you will ever buy.

The exercises are well thought out and very detail oriented. The command outputs from various show & debug commands are explained in detail. The variety of network topologies used is another point worth mentioning; one of my own difficulties studying for this exam was really grasping routing behavior on NBMA networks. Going through and configuring a Frame-Relay switch [and yes, they give you commands], and then seeing for yourself the difference between Frame-Relay multipoint vs. a series of logical point-to-points w/ OSPF routing...absolutely INVALUABLE.

If you're using the BSCI Exam Certification Guide, this will ABSOLUTELY help you fill in the missing pieces from Multicast, esp. if you plan on going for your CCIE afterwards. This is the ONLY Cisco Press book I've read where I can finally say I "get" multicast configuration.

On a final note, the test had several questions whose topics were ONLY addressed in this book. #1 was dealing w/ EIGRP over Frame Relay multipoint going out the same S0/0 interface; no sub-interfaces. Split-horizion alerts should be going off in your brain, because it's learning about all networks from the SAME PHYSICAL interface. Cisco Press's Exam Certification guide did NOT cover this. #2 Was discussing using IP Prefix Lists to filter route updates in a much more granular manner than an ACL. I.e. filtering based on subnet masks so the specific routes you plan on summarizing will NOT be redistributed, but the single summarized route WILL be. ACL's will block everything due to wildcard masks.

Enough ranting. Do yourself a favor and get this book

A must have for the CCNP home lab.
I bought this lab book after realizing that my other CCNP study resources offered very little in the way of guided hands-on practice. Sure you can always dive into your home lab hardware off the cuff, but time is much better spent using guided, methodical activities.

For the price, this book is a steal. If you are serious about learning for the BCSI this book should be an essential part of your study. A word of caution though: you will need at least 3 routers with 1 FE and 1 serial interface each. If you can't spring for real router try [...]. (You need to find the IOS images from "somewhere"...)

Keep in mind that unlike the CCNA, it is very unlikely that you can pass all of the exams using a single resource. I am also using CCNP Official Exam Certification Library (5th Edition), CBT Nuggets, Transcender, CCNP Portable Command Guide Library and this corresponding Cisco Lab Portfolio for each exam. The books add up but my employer is generous to purchase books for corporal use so it helps defray the cost. Bring on the BCSI!

Errors as usual.
As is typical of just about every Ciscopress book I have ever opened there are many errors. Now to be fair I just cracked this thing open, However, it didn't take me long to start finding the mistakes. Lab #2 covers EIGRP. The diagram depicts a picture with 3 routers and a switch with the IP addressing for the interfaces laid out. Next, you will be given the configuration for the 3 routers. What you find is the actual configuration uses a different IP addressing scheme than the topology diagram. Just plain confusing! Is it that difficult to match the diagram with the actual configuration? Cisco books are always laced with errors and of course there is no errata for this book.