Cisco CCNP Certification Path

Vendor: Cisco

Certification overview

Cisco CCNP certifications are worldwide accepted IT certifications designed for Cisco Networks professional level engineers. There are the following courses:

• CCNP Data Center
• CCNP Routing and Switching
• CCNP Security
• CCNP Service provider
• CCNP service provider operations
• CCNP Voice
• CCNP Wireless

CCNP certified engineers find employment 60% more quickly than those who do not hold this certificate, according to some surveys. Employers trust Cisco certificate holders since these trainings are strict, unified – generally accepted in more than 160 countries and fair. There are several exams required to pass in order to get the certificate, which proves the wide field of expertise covered with the trainings.

Apart from the above mentioned trainings, Cisco offers bootcamps, condensed trainings that last only a few days. One of the short-lasting trainings is the Cisco tshoot. This training and its exam is a qualifying exam that is needed for getting the CCNP Routing and Switching certificate.

CCNP Tshoot stands for Cisco Certified Network Professional troubleshoot, which refers to troubleshooting and maintaining Cisco IP networks. There are some info on Cisco tshoot that are significant for the trainees:

• The course lasts for 5 days only
• It is led by instructors in class
• Additional 9.5 hours of online practice are required
• 1 year minimum of professional experience is a must prior to taking this course

Getting through this training will provide you knowledge in the following areas:

• Layer 2 switching
• Branch office operations
• Layer 3 path control
• STP
• HSRP
• VRRP
• GLBP
• Enhanced interior gateway routing protocol
• Open shortest path first
• Link aggregation protocols
• Switch security
• Inter VLAN routing solutions

Tshoot demo is available on the official Cisco page and demonstrates or simulates the exam. This demo was marked as the best teaching and practice method by more than 80 % of examinees, who especially valued its easy-to-handle feature. It offers a number of 4 choices tickets with questions. The tshoot demo is very useful since it is designed in order to help in reviewing device configuration. After gettin familiar with the main scenario, one should begin the evaluation of trouble tickets. The fault condition will be described in the trouble ticket scenario. The examinee must determine the solution by answering the questions. There are aiding commands, such as show, ping, trace that help the trainee in the fault identifying.

CCNP tshoot lab manual is a practice and studying material that guides the trainee through a number of processes required to perform in order to complete the training. It is consisted of the following topics:

• Assembling, maintenance and troubleshooting tools,
• Connectivity and spanning tree
• Switching and first hop redundancy
• Connectivity and EIGRP
• OSPF and route redistribution
• BGP
• IP addressing – NAT and DHCP
• Router performance
• Management plan security
• Control plane security
• Data plane security
• Troubleshooting complex environments

It is rich in photos, diagrams and explanations which thoroughly guide the trainee through all the processes necessary to understand in order to successfully finish the mentioned training and prepare for the exam. Furthermore, this lab manual exercises are crucial for successful applying of the knowledge in practice after getting the certificate.

Required Exams

Tshoot exam, which is marked as 642-832 in Cisco academy, is the only exam required for getting ths certification. The exam is consisted of 35 to 40 questions from topics covered in the related course. The exam duration is 135 minutes and is available only in English language. Passing this exam guarantees that the examinee can:

• sucessfully plan, design and perform routed and switched network maintaining processes
• perform ITIL-compliant network troubleshooting

Required Courses

Troubleshooting and maintaining Cisco IP networks is the course required to be taken by the Tshoot exam examinees. This course gives basics of complex network planning, design and maintenance, in relation to routed and switched networks, as well as troubleshooting. The course is one of the short-duration Cisco courses. It is limited to 5 days only. It is led by highly educated Cisco instructors. There are practical sessions and online sessions as well.

Study Material

A lot of differnet study material is available online and as material to take from the instructors. However, some books are mandatory, such as:

• CCNP TSHOOT Exam Certification Guide
• CCNP TSHOOT Cert Kit
• CCNP TSHOOT 642-832 Quick Reference

These materials, along with online training questions, CCNP tshoot lab manual, test simulations and in-class notes are enough to successfully pass the exam.