Monday, February 20, 2012

Cisco Certifications: Cisco CCIE Data Center

Expert Level Knowledge and Experience

CCIE Data Center certifies the expert-level skills required to plan, prepare, operate, monitor, and troubleshoot complex data center networks. Professionals who achieve CCIE Data Center certification have demonstrated their technical skills at the highest level.

Requirements for Certification

Strong technical skills are assumed at the expert level, and CCIE candidates are encouraged to use Cisco authorized training to fill any gaps, before attempting certification. CCNA and CCNP focus on developing a solid foundation and are strongly recommended as a path to CCIE, but are not mandatory prerequisites. You are expected to have an in-depth understanding of the topics in the exam topics and are strongly encouraged to have three to five years of job experience before attempting certification. You can review the exam preparation materials included on this page for more information.

Step One: CCIE Data Center Written Exam

You must pass the two-hour, written qualification exam covering concepts and equipment commands related to packet-based networking infrastructure, before you are eligible to schedule the lab exam.

350-080 CCIE Data Center Written Exam

Associated Certifications: CCIE Data Center
Duration: 120 minutes (90-110 questions)

Exam Description

The CCIE Data Center written exam validates an engineer's ability to design scalable, reliable, and intelligent Data Center Virtualization solutions.

Exam Format

  • The written exam is a 2-hour, multiple-choice exam with 90-110 questions.
  • The exam is closed book and no outside reference materials are allowed.
  • Candidates will be required to answer each question before moving on to the next question. In other words, candidates will not be allowed to skip a question and come back to it at a later time.
  • The overall exam score and the exam passing score will be reported on a scale from 300-1000.

Step Two: CCIE Data Center Lab Exam

The eight-hour lab exam tests your ability to configure actual equipment and get a service provider network running in a timed test situation. You must make an initial attempt of the CCIE lab exam within 18 months of passing the CCIE written exam. If you do not pass the lab exam within three years of passing the written exam, you must retake the written exam before being allowed to attempt the lab exam again.

Lab Exam Overview

Configuring a network to given specifications
The lab exam is  an eight-hour, hands-on exam which requires you to configure and troubleshoot a series of complex networks to given specifications. Knowledge of troubleshooting is an important skill and candidates are expected to diagnose and solve issues as part of the CCIE Data Center lab exam.

Lab Environment

The Cisco documentation CD is available in the lab room, but the exam assumes knowledge of the more common protocols and technologies. The documentation can only be navigated using the index; the search function has been disabled. No outside reference materials are permitted in the lab room. You must report any suspected equipment issues to the proctor during the exam; adjustments cannot be made once the exam is over.

Lab Exam Grading

Each question on the lab has specific criterion. The labs are graded by proctors who ensure all the criterion are met and points are awarded accordingly. The proctors use automatic tools to gather information from the routers to perform some preliminary evaluations, but the final determination of a correct or incorrect configuration is done by a trained proctor.

Results

You can review your lab exam results online (login required), usually within 48 hours. Results are Pass/Fail and failing score reports indicate major topic areas where additional study and preparation may be useful.