Exam Profile: CCIE Collaboration Lab v1.0
Date: Nov 5, 2014
The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification is commonly recognized as the industry’s most prestigious technical certification. CCIE candidates can pursue various tracks including Routing/Switching, Collaboration, Data Center, Security, Service Provider, Service Provider Operations, and Wireless. To attain a CCIE certification, a candidate must pass a written exam and then successfully complete the corresponding hands-on lab.
The CCIE Collaboration Lab is widely considered to be one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, of all the CCIE labs.
Exam Details
- Number of Questions: The CCIE Collaboration Lab presents you with a series of tasks in different topic areas. The number of tasks varies.
- Types of Questions: The CCIE Collaboration Lab consists of multiple hands-on tasks. Integrated into many of the tasks are troubleshooting issues you must overcome to successfully complete the task. Also, many of the tasks have interdependencies, meaning that settings you configure for one task could impact one or more other tasks.
- Passing Score: You must score an 80 percent on the CCIE Collaboration Lab to pass. When you take the lab, each major task is labeled with how many points the task is worth. The number of points totals 100.
- Time Limit: The exam has a time limit of 8 hours. A lunch break is included, which does not take away from the 8 hours allotted for the lab.
- How to Register: You can register for the exam at the Cisco website at http://bit.ly/ccieregister
Trouble Spots
The two main challenges in the CCIE Collaboration Lab are
(1) The lab contains a wide variety of topics on which you will be challenged.
For example, a typical lab might address the following topic areas:
- Collaboration Infrastructure: This area requires you to configure routers and switches for technologies such as voice and data VLANs, DHCP, DNS, CDP/LLDP, and NTP.
- Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM): This area might require you to register phones to a couple CUCM clusters. Some phones might be run the SCCP protocol, whereas other phones might run SIP. After registering the phones, you will probably be challenged with configuring phone features (for example, native call queuing, call park, or BLF speed dials). You might also be challenged to configure URI dialing, call admission control (for example, Enhanced Locations, RSVP, or SIP preconditions), mobility (for example, Extension Mobility, Device Mobility, or Mobile Connect), and Service Advertisement Framework (SAF) with Call Control Discovery (CCD).
- Dial-Plan and Call Routing Features: This area typically represents a large percentage of the lab points. Be prepared to configure dial-plans to accommodate features such as redundancy, number globalization, number localization, and call history dialing. This topic area requires mastery of a variety approaches for digit manipulation (for example, voice translation profiles, calling party transformation patterns, called party transformation patterns, translation patterns, and transformation masks).
- Cisco IOS Gateways: This area might require you to configure a Cisco IOS router as a Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express (CUCME) router and to register phones (both SCCP and SIP) with that router. The CUCME router might also contain a Cisco Unity Express (CUE) module that you are required to configure to provide services (for example, voice mail, automated attendant, VoiceView, and Voice Profile for Internet Mail [VPIM]) to CUCME clients. Other possible tasks you might be asked to perform on a Cisco IOS gateway include configuring a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE), configuring SAF/CCD, and configuring an ISDN PRI connection.
- QoS and Security: This area might require you to configure a collection of router and switch quality of service (QoS) features (for example, LFI, MLPPP, FRF.12, cRTP, VAD, classification, and marking) for voice and/or video traffic. In addition, you might need to configure security features available by default in CUCM, such as toll fraud prevention.
- Cisco Unity Connection (CUC): This area might challenge you to integrate CUC with CUCM or CUCME. Alternately, you might have a couple CUC servers (each in their own one-server cluster) and have to configure them to exchange voice mail messages. Other possible topics for the CUC section include the configuration of various call handlers and call routing rules.
- Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX): This topic area focuses on the Cisco UCCX server, which can be used to support mid-sized call centers. You might be challenged to configure a UCCX server, via GUI interface. Also, you might need to create and/or modify UCCX scripts using the UCCX script editor.
- Presence: The presence feature can monitor a user’s willingness to participate in a call. For example, if a phone is off-hook, that information might need to be reflected on another phone (that is, a watcher). You might be challenged to configure the presence features available in Cisco Unified Communications Manager or Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express, in addition to the configuration of a Cisco Unified Presence server (CUPS). In addition to CUPS server configuration, you might also be required to configure a Cisco Jabber client (for Microsoft Windows).
Keep in mind that the preceding list is just an example of the topics that might appear on your CCIE Collaboration Lab. You should closely examine the Cisco CCIE Collaboration Lab Blueprint (http://bit.ly/collaborationlab) for a complete listing of topics that might appear on the lab.
(2) The number of tasks you need to complete in 8 hours can seem daunting after reading through the lab.
Because time can be your enemy on the lab, you want to avoid going back and revisiting prior tasks. For example, if you configure service parameters, partitions, and calling search spaces early in your lab and then later discover that you need to set up Automated Alternate Routing (AAR), you would have to go back and enable AAR in the service parameters and create the appropriate AAR partitions and calling search spaces.
By spending 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning of the lab to read through all the tasks, you could identify such interrelated topics and minimize having to retrace your steps. Also, the time constraints leave little time to troubleshoot any configurations that you do not get right the first time. So, be careful in your configurations to minimize the issues you will have to troubleshoot.
Preparation Hints
The most important element of your preparation is hands-on practice. You can either rent rack time or construct your own home lab. Expect to put in a minimum of 500 to 700 hours of practice rack time. The following link on the Cisco website provides a listing of equipment and software versions you can expect on the CCIE Collaboration Lab:
CCIE Collaboration Lab Equipment and Software List: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-20807
(NOTE: You must be logged in to access this page.)
Cisco also offers expert-level CCIE Collaboration training through its Cisco 360 program. You can find more information here:
The Cisco Expert-Level Training for CCIE Collaboration: http://bit.ly/collaboration360
In addition to your hands-on practice, you also need to do quite a bit of reading to deepen your understanding of key topics appearing on the CCIE Collaboration blueprint. A collection of recommended books are provided in the Recommended Study Resources section.
Many CCIE Collaboration Lab candidates also benefit from collaborating with other candidates during their study. You should familiarize yourself with the CCIE Collaboration Lab study group available at the Cisco Learning Network (CLN):
CLN CCIE Collaboration Study Group: http://bit.ly/collaborationgroup
Recommended Study Resources
First, you might want to read a foundational book (written by the author of this exam profile) that covers topics such as signaling protocols and gateway configuration:
- Implementing Cisco Unified Communications Voice over IP and QoS (Cvoice) Foundation Learning Guide: http://bit.ly/cvoicebook
You might then consider some of the books focused on Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) operation:
- Implementing Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Part 1 (CIPT1) Foundation Learning Guide: http://bit.ly/cipt1book
- Implementing Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Part 2 (CIPT2) Foundation Learning Guide: http://bit.ly/cipt2book
For your Cisco Unity Connection (CUC) studies, consider the following Cisco Press book:
- Cisco Unity Connection: http://bit.ly/unitybook
Cisco Press also offers a collection of more than 70 videos (created by the author of this profile) demonstrating lab exercises from the CVOICE, CIPT1, CIPT2, TVOICE, and CAPPS curriculum:
- CCNP Voice LiveLessons: http://bit.ly/ccnpvoicevids
For many CCIE Collaboration Lab candidates, one of the most challenging lab topics is Cisco Catalyst QoS configuration. The following video (created by the author of this exam profile) available on YouTube provides a comprehensive examination of Cisco Catalyst 3750 QoS configuration:
- Cisco Catalyst 3750 QoS Configuration Video: http://bit.ly/catalystqos
Although you might not find any hardcopy book focusing on Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX), you can check out the following administration guide:
- Cisco Unified CCX Administration Guide: http://bit.ly/uccx90
For your Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express (CUCME) studies, you can reference the following administrator guide:
- Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express Administrator Guide: http://bit.ly/cmeguide
For your Cisco Unity Express (CUE) studies, you can download the following guide:
- Cisco Unity Express 8.6 Installation and Upgrade Guide: http://bit.ly/cueguide
The Cisco Learning Network also has a comprehensive list of study resources you definitely should examine:
- Cisco Learning Network CCIE Collaboration Lab Exam Resources: http://bit.ly/collaborationstudy
Finally, you should familiarize yourself with the following design document:
- Cisco Unified Communications System 9.0 Solution Reference Network Design (SRND): http://bit.ly/srnd90
Where to Go from Here
First, you should build your library of documentation for your reference and ongoing learning during your studies. Then, become acquainted with some of the available CCIE Collaboration discussion boards and blogs (such as the one mentioned earlier in the “Preparation Hints” section). Next, determine how you are going to do your hands-on practice. Will you use a rack rental, or will you build a home lab? When you have your home lab, you need a collection of practice labs to work through. These labs can be purchased from a CCIE Collaboration training company of your choice.
Consider attending a CCIE Collaboration Lab boot camp from a CCIE training provider (such as a Cisco Learning Partner [CLP] participating in the Cisco 360 program). Finally, because you are going to be spending hundreds of hours working through your practice labs, find a way to make it fun. Crank up the music, celebrate your successes, and become incredibly curious about the topics you are studying.