CCIE Data Center Lab Exam

CCIE Lab Exam Overview:

CCIE Data Center Lab Exam consists of a two-part eight-hour timed exam that is going to tests the candidate’s skills in configuring, diagnosing, and troubleshooting a complex data center topology. The Knowledge of configuration and troubleshooting are important skills that are expected from the candidates and candidates are also expected to configure and troubleshoot the issues as part of their CCIE Data Center Lab exam.

CCIE Data Center unifies the written and lab exam topics documents into a unique curriculum, while openly disclosing which domains are pertaining to which exam, and the relative weight of each and every domain.

The two parts to the eight-hour lab exam are going to be taken in sequence during the day of the exam starting from Part 1, which would be followed by Part 2:

Let’s have a brief knowledge of both the parts.

Part 1: Diagnostic module is written – 1 Hour:

The Candidates would be provided with various pieces of information that would be similar to the information that is provided to a Data Center support engineer that is assisting a customer in finding the root cause of an issue, and similar to information that is provided by someone who is being stuck in troubleshooting an issue. No device access is available in this module.

This module would be including multiple-choice, drag-and-drop style items, as well as point-and-click style items. The Diagnostic module, also known as troubleshoot tickets, contains a set of documents that the candidate is needed to consult in order to be able to understand and identify the root cause of the issue presented. All the Candidates are needed to analyze and correlate the information in order to diagnose among the pre-defined options provided to them.

Part 2: Configuration & Troubleshooting module hands on – 7 hours:

The Configuration and Troubleshooting module are going to test the hands-on practical capabilities of a candidate. It would be consisting of various scenarios based on one topology. At the beginning of the module, the candidate would have a full overview of the entire module; and can make a choice of working on items whether in sequence or not. Candidates aren’t allowed to go back and forth between modules during the commencement of the exam.

Things to Remember in Lab Environment:

The Cisco documentation is available online during the exam, however, the knowledge of the more and more common protocols and technologies is assumed from the candidates. The documentation can only be navigated using the index, as the search function would be disabled. No outside reference resources are allowed in the lab room. You should report any suspected equipment issues to the proctor during the commencement of the exam; adjustments won’t be made once the exam is over.

Lab Exam Grading:

Each question on the lab exam has a specific criterion. The labs are graded by proctors who are going to ensure that the entire criterions are met, and the points are awarded accordingly. The proctors are going to use automatic tools so as to gather information from the routers in order to perform some preliminary evaluations, but the final determination of a correct or wrong configuration is done by a trained proctor.

If the candidates want to pass the Lab exam, they must meet both the following conditions:

•    The minimum cut-score of each individual module is needed to be achieved.

•    The total score of both modules together should be higher as the minimum value of the combined cut-score.

The reason for these criteria is to avoid a candidate from passing the Lab exam while failing or even bypassing one of the two modules.

So now you are aware of the Lab exam and if you are going to appear in it, you should join a good training center so as to gain the required training. My recommendation here would be the SPOTO CCIE Club.