ROUTE. SWITCH. TSHOOT.
You would possibly recall that again in 2010, the extremely popular CCNP Routing & Switching certification included these three exams. Fast ahead to right now, and I nonetheless keep in mind TSHOOT fondly. The examination was a very new expertise: After answering a couple of multiple-choice questions, you have been introduced with a collection of bother tickets and needed to decide what was damaged in a posh community, the place the difficulty was situated, which know-how wanted to be fastened, and which instructions to deploy to resolve the difficulty. This was correct troubleshooting, and the examination truly examined your data of Cisco routing and switching applied sciences. Cisco even publicly shared the community topologies used within the TSHOOT examination that will help you put together.
I keep in mind taking the TSHOOT examination a number of occasions to recertify my CCNP R&S. I used to be instructing ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT programs for studying companions but in addition at an area Networking Academy. My NetAcad college students loved the problem of fixing these complicated community points as they consolidated their routing and switching expertise.
In 2020, Cisco Learning & Certifications retired the previous CCNP Routing & Switching certification and launched the CCNP Enterprise, changing ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT with the brand new ENCOR and ENARSI exams and programs. Interestingly, the present ENARSI examination subjects embody a number of “troubleshooting” duties, making it a stable contender for changing TSHOOT, however ENARSI additionally serves because the substitute for ROUTE because it covers superior routing subjects.
Although I like ENCOR and ENARSI, I (and plenty of others) miss the TSHOOT examination and course.
When I joined Cisco in 2021, I proposed a Cisco Live session primarily based on my TSHOOT instructing expertise. I designed a posh IPv4 and IPv6 community and created 27 bother tickets for attendees to repair throughout a four-hour instructor-led lab. The lab has been so fashionable that over the previous three years I’ve introduced it 9 occasions at Cisco Live occasions, with a tenth and eleventh arising at Cisco Live Amsterdam in February 2025.
You could be questioning “Patrick, why are you telling me all this?”
Well, I’ve bought some thrilling information to share. WE’VE DECIDED TO BRING BACK THE TSHOOT COURSE!!!!!! We’ve up to date the content material, renamed it, and made it obtainable on Cisco U. for All Access subscribers!
The new studying path is named Troubleshooting Cisco Enterprise Networking Solutions (ENTSH) and consists of two tracks. The first monitor covers troubleshooting methodologies and procedures in addition to finest practices for community upkeep. The second monitor is damaged down into 5 case research that require you to resolve bother tickets logged by your colleagues at fictitious firms.
The case research appear to be this:
On Monday, you arrive at your office at SECHNIK Networking Ltd. Four staff inform you that all the things labored high-quality on Friday, however now they’re dealing with points. As the senior engineers are all out, it appears that you’re the one one on website who can repair the next points:
- Kimberly, the consumer on PC1, can’t entry knowledge on the server at 172.16.200.10.
- Andrew, the consumer on PC2, can’t entry the Internet. Andrew is making an attempt to entry the general public server at 209.165.200.2.
- Carol, the consumer on PC3, can’t use SSH to hook up with the server at 172.16.200.10.
- Jack, the consumer on PC4, says he needs to entry the Internet by IPv6. Jack provides that as a result of Andrew has entry, so ought to he.
Each case research revolves round a unique community infrastructure and can take a look at your data of VLANs, trunks, STP, EtherChanel, FHRPs, EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, NAT, ACLs, SSH, IP SLAs, route redistribution, DHCP, NTP, and AAA.
The labs for ENTSH are totally virtualized and spin up inside three minutes, permitting you to rapidly get began along with your studying. Each lab features a debrief that analyzes and explains the difficulty tickets. These debriefs enable you perceive methods to finest resolve the problems customers report.
If you’re excited about seeing a demo of ENTSH, take a look at the Snack Minute we’ll launch February 18, 2025, during which I’ll present Kareem Iskander and Matt DeNapoli what the brand new studying path seems like.
If you’re planning on attending Cisco Live in Amsterdam or San Diego, you may register for my CCNP Enterprise Hands-On Troubleshooting lab (LTRCRT-2002) and see what number of bother tickets you may repair in 4 hours!
Check out the brand new Troubleshooting Cisco Enterprise Networking Solutions (ENTSH) studying path on Cisco U., and be taught to troubleshoot like a professional!
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