CCIE test and numbering
by Terry Slattery
A lot of people have misconceptions about the CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) program and its numbering. I was consulting at Cisco in 1993 when I first heard about the program and inquired about participating. Brad Wright was the program manager and he knew what I had been doing with Cisco (CLI development, consulting, and training) and told me what I needed to do. I quickly re-worked my schedule and took the written qualification test, attended the Cisco Troubleshooting class, and setup a time for the hands-on test, all within two weeks.
In those days, the hands-on test was two days. One day of build-it and one day of fix-it after they break it. Stuart Biggs, one of the senior Customer Engineers at Cisco, assembled the lab gear and wrote up the test. The network gear was AGS, AGS+, and MGS routers. Cisco didn’t have switches at that time. I kept Stuart running around getting documentation, appliques (for the AGS gear), cables, and other things. I don’t know which of the two of us was busier.
Regarding the numbering, the folks at Cisco didn't want to start with the number '1'. So they decided to start with 1024, (2 ** 10), a common binary number. The lab was assigned the first number, 1024, and they placed a plaque with that number on the door (someone told me that the plaque has been kept and moved to one of the new test labs). Stuart was awarded the first real number, CCIE # 1025, because he created the test. I passed the hands-on test, designing and building the network in one day, then fixing the things he broke in just over half a day. I was awarded the next number, CCIE # 1026, in August, 1993, the first non-Cisco person to achieve the CCIE and the first to take the test. A bunch of Cisco employees soon followed and many of them are still working at Cisco. Something like five of the first ten CCIEs work in the same building at Cisco.
Occasionally, someone will tell me that they met a CCIE who has a number lower than either Stuart's or mine and I just laugh. There's a Cisco web page where you can check the status of CCIEs. You have to know their CCIE registration name. It is a good thing to check when interviewing CCIEs.
-Terry
Terry Slatery asked us to post this invitation to join the Cisco Mid-Atlantic Users Group (C-MUG). The folks over at Chesapeake Netcraftsmen are a brain trust and are creating a forum to share information with any interested network engineer in the region. Go check it out and tell them Eman sent you!
Cisco University is now the Cisco Mid-Atlantic User's Group!
Chesapeake NetCraftsmen is proud to announce the formation of the new Cisco Users Group for the Mid-Atlantic area. The Cisco Mid-Atlantic Users Group (C-MUG) has evolved from the Cisco University presentations sponsored by the Virginia and Maryland Cisco sales teams. The new Cisco Users Group will continue to bring you top-notch technical presentations and information on the latest Cisco technologies and products.
NetCraftsmen Will Be @ Networkers @ CiscoLive In San Francisco
Jun 27 - Jul 2, 2009
Chesapeake NetCraftsmen will be at @ Networkers @ CiscoLive in San Francisco this summer. We hope you get a chance to stop by and visit our technical folks either at our booth #1526 in the World of Solutions area, or between sessions.
In addition to helping in our booth and attending technical breakouts, two of our senior consultants, Pete Welcher and Carole Warner Reece, will be presenting labtorial sessions at Networkers:
- LTRCRT-2341 -- "CCIP Prep: Influencing BGP Route Selection". This 4 hour lecture and lab session provides discussion and and hands on labs on tools for influencing BGP route selection including: AS Path filters and regular expressions; Prefix-list filters; and using route maps, weights, and local preference.
- LTRCRT-2342 -- "CCDP Prep: Case Study Designing the Enterprise Data Center". This 4 hour lecture and case study session reviews design considerations for the enterprise data center. Attendees will practice design skills in a collaborative small group classroom environment .
You can click the following graphic to link to CiscoLive Registration:
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