IE Mock Lab 4 Review

If you plan on taking this lab, don't read this post as it may contain some spoilers. I took this lab yesterday and did okay, though I could have done a lot better. I got a 73, but I finished in about 4 hours. After verifying the whole the lab for the next 2 hours, I didn't really make any major changes. In fact, the only error I noticed was that I had an OSPF key configured wrong. Turns out, there was more...

"Do not configure anything on SW3 for this task." This refers to every thing in this task!

In a hub spoke topology, we were only allowed one map statement on one of the spokes. This means we need that map statement for L3/L2 resolution to the other spoke, then rely on INARP for spoke-to-hub resolution. On the hub, I mapped by local IP for self-ping (which was not required) which in effect turns of INARP for that IP. The bottom line is INARP has to be enabled on one end. My mappings did show up dynamically, but the grader said this wouldn't work after a reboot. I am going to lab this up again and verify.

I missed 3 tasks (out of 13) in the IGP section. One was impossible (IMO) but by looking at the SG it appears the task itself was worded incorrectly, had to do with summarizing in OSPF on R3 and R5. The SG has them summarizing SW2 and R5 which are in the same area so it would have worked. The task said to summarize R3 and R5, which are not in the same area. Another IGP task required a tunnel with a new adressing. I think this violates the rule (clearly stated at the beginning) that we are not allowed to add any addresses. Lastly, I failed to redistribute a BB link into an IGP.

My traffic filter in the security task was fine except I didn't allow IGMP, which then caused me to miss one multicast task. Two Birds, One stone. Meh.

The other two tasks I missed involved TFTP: Limiting access to a router's config via SNMP, and TFTP boot. These were definitely doable, I was just unfamiliar with a couple commands and configured "half-solutions" which are just as good as "no-solutions" :-)

This lab was rated a 9 (from what I here the real thing is about a 7 or so) and recommended by IE to take within the final month of preparation. The grade report wasn't too detailed but then again, there was not a whole lot to explain. The tasks I did miss, were very simple mistakes. There is also a report that says how well you did in relation to other people who took this lab. For example, I got an 11% in NAT which means 89% people also got this right. Each task has a breakdown like this.

I try not to put too much stock in that though. I just want to learn from my mistakes and work on time management. I know a couple people who failed miserably on mocks and then passed the lab. And I am sure there are people who did great on mocks, then failed the real thing. I would rather be part of that first group :-)