Cisco Live!: Survival Guide

By now most people in the networking industry have heard that there will be a large gathering of networking people in San Diego, CA June 7-11.  For those that are going, especially first timers, here are some of my tips and tricks.

Training

This is to me the meat of the week.  The training sessions offered at Cisco Live! are some of the best training you can find.  Most of them are taught by subject matter experts from within Cisco including TAC.  Be ready for a drink from the fire hose of knowledge.

Ben's Cisco Live! Training Tips

• Download the presentations ahead of time.
• Find a good PDF annotation program for your device of choice.
• Take notes directly in the PDFs.
• Turn off your other devices during training if you can.
• Be willing to ask questions.

Networking (People That Is)

Next to the training, networking with other people has been my favorite part of Cisco Live! conferences.  It's great to have a network of people that do the same thing you do, especially when you hit a bug or problem and can suddenly get multiple people's take on it.

Ben's Cisco Live! Networking Tips

• Setup a Twitter Account
• Sit with someone you don't know at breakfast and lunch.
• Be a sponge, some of the greatest minds in our industry will be out and about, you might just learn something.

Surviving the Conference Itself

If you've never been to a very large tech conference, you might not know what you're in for so here are my tips.

Ben's Cisco Live! Survival Tips

• Wear a comfortable pair of shoes.
• Bring first aid supplies for blisters and sunburn.
• Prepare to be cold, hot and then cold again in the same day. (wear layers)
• Travel light, you'll have a lot of stuff to haul back from the conference so plan on that when you pack.  If you're able to wear XL t-shirts figure you'll get 3-4 free ones at the conference.
• Bring chargers and a power strip.  Outlets in the conference center are at a premium so be a friend and bring a power strip.

Hope to see you all there, if you're not registered yet, you still have time.  Just click here.

Still Undecided About Cisco Live? Take a Sneak Peek!

If you still aren't convinced to go to Cisco Live! this year in San Diego, perhaps a sneak peek at two of the courses will help.

BRKRST-2311P - IPv6 Planning, Deployment and Troubleshooting

(1 Hour)  Presented by Jim Bailey - Technical Leader, Cisco

April 21st

10:00am PDT / 12:00pm CDT/1:00pm EDT

This session covers IPv6 deployment and operational considerations. It begins with how network administrators can plan, design and implement an IPv6 solution, using a network readiness approach and holistic Network Architecture Strategy.

For more information and how to view the session, click here.

BRKRST-2311P - IPv6 Planning, Deployment and Troubleshooting

(1 Hour)  Presented by  Amanda Whaley - Cisco DevNet Developer Experience Lead and Community Manager, Cisco and Ashley Roach - API Architect, Cisco 

April 29th

10:00am PDT / 12:00pm CDT/1:00pm EDT

Are you new to coding ? This session will get you started using REST APIs and Python. We will cover coding basics and create some simple examples that retrieve, parse and display JSON data using the Cisco APIC-EM REST API’s.

For more information and how to view the session, click here.

Still not convinced???

If you register before June 5th, you can save $200 on registration.  It's going to be a great conference full of human networking as well as computer networking.  Here are some highlights:

• Sessions, Sessions, Sessions!!! Drink from the fire hose of knowledge.
• Meet the Expert Meet and talk 1 on 1 with a Cisco Engineer
• World of Solutions Explore the solutions of Cisco and their ecosystem partners.
• Aerosmith! Come rock out at the Customer Appreciation Event
• Keynotes Come listen to Mike Rowe and others.

Once you sign up, be sure to also sign up with the Official Unofficial Twitter List maintained by +Tom Hollingsworth aka @networkingnerd

It's Dirty Work, But Somebody's Gotta Do It

Network Engineers are known to have to work in dirty places like under desks, janitors closets (err I mean network closets), and those weird spaces in mechanical rooms in which someone decided to hide a switch or two.  Nothing though in networking compares with some of the jobs that this year's Cisco Live! keynote speaker has done.  He's cleaned poo, made snakes vomit and even greased the crawler for the US Space Shuttle.  

That's right, this year's keynote speaker is none other than the host of Dirty Jobs and Somebody's Gotta Do It, Mike Rowe!  If you haven't followed Mike recently, he's also started his own foundation Mike Rowe Works.  His goal is to bring back the notion that hard work can achieve greatness without the need for a formal higher education.  

His foundation is working to revitalize vocational training in the United States and train people for the over three million jobs that are open because of a lack of skilled labor.  Take Mike's S.W.E.A.T. Pledge today that Skill and Work Ethic Aren't Taboo.

Mike's speech should be humorous, yet poignant and very educational.  If you haven't already registered for Cisco Live!, what are you waiting for? I mean really, a week of awesome training, new and old friends, Mike Rowe and Aerosmith, can you really beat it?

Cisco Live! Social Media Hangout

Cisco's commitment to social media at Cisco Live! has grown steadily.  This year they're announcing a new Cisco Live! Bus Stop gathering area on the beautiful San Diego Bay for social media gatherings.  Below is an artist rendering of what it might look like.  More details to come as we get closer to June.  Definitely stop by and introduce yourself to your fellow Tweeps, Bloggers and Facebookers.  Put a real name with the avatar and handle.  Oh and if you haven't registered yet.... do it!

Cisco Livin' On the Edge!

Cisco Live! is always a great week of training, networking and socializing, but this year is going to put us on the edge. The Customer Appreciation Event band is always one of the things most anticipated in the lead up to the event. This year Cisco has done a wonderful job of bringing us a band that has managed to span decades and still keep going. Without further adieu... the band this year will be ...

So if you haven't already registered for Cisco Live! do it this weekend and get a grip on early bird pricing before it expires!  It's going be a blast and you don't wanna miss a thing.

Linksprinter

Last fall I had the pleasure of winning a Fluke Networks LinkSprinter 200 network tester on Twitter.  Since then it has become my go to tool.

In my environment, I have a lot of links that are poorly labeled and that are on VLANs without DHCP.  This means having to tone out or trace cables when the desktop team or server team comes to me wanting something moved to another VLAN.  That's where the LinkSprinter has been a life saver.  Now when they come to my desk, I just hand them the LinkSprinter and tell them to press the power button once they hook up the cable and wait until it either gives them a red icon or a green solid cloud.  

When they bring it back, I plug it into my spare port and within a minute I have their port reports in my e-mail.  From those reports I can easily see the CDP information and know exactly what port on what switch needs changing.  The tool also tells me about POE, speed, duplex, dhcp and latency to a cloud target.  In the field of course, I also have made use of the wireless feature to see the results instantly on my iPhone.  

I used to carry my OneTouch AT with me a lot more, but I have found the LinkSprinter to replace the OneTouch AT for many smaller daily jobs.  Both its size and its price make it a perfect tool for every engineer and technician.  My organization is currently reviewing the idea of issuing our desktop support team with LinkSprinters to help decrease problem resolution time.

If you haven't bought one, I highly suggest you head over to Amazon and get yours today.

Cisco ONE, Panacea or Another Headache?

Cisco formally announced Cisco ONE today/yesterday at Cisco Live! Milan.  At face value Cisco ONE will allow customers to buy Cisco's software and related licenses separate from hardware.  It seems to me that this could be very beneficial to customers.

One major benefit that I see is that it would appear that licenses will be easily portable between old and new hardware.  This means no more purchasing a new set of ASA licenses just because you're upgrading from a 5512-X to a 5525-X for capacity.  All of the licenses will just move to the new box.  Same would apply to a wireless controller or even switches.  

The other major benefit that I see is that purchasing software might be easier.  One of the goals of this program is to simplify by not needing 100 part numbers just to get the right software for a device.

My only concern is that this could become a similar nightmare to maintaining Cisco SmartNet or Microsoft Enterprise Agreements.  Hopefully Cisco quickly provides tools to help with inventory and transitioning to both partners and customers.

2014 in Review... and 2015 in Preview

Well another year is in the books.  Last year I made a career move and went from being the solo network and voice guy to being part of a large team of network engineers.  The change has been good for me both professionally and personally.

Professionally I'm getting to work with a lot of new technologies due to scope and scale of my new company.  Technologies that I used to scratch my head about why anyone would need them (OTV comes to mind) are now things I use daily.

Personally I can finally take a vacation and not worry about getting called.  It's nice to get completely away from work and not have to worry.  My wife seems to like the change too.  

Twenty fifteen has started off with a bang too as I have finally passed SWITCH, ROUTE, and TSHOOT to earn the CCNP Routing and Switching.  I started this path over four years ago so I ended up having to retake SWITCH this month to get everything within the three year window.  It took two tries, but after missing on the first try this month by 20 points I solidly passed this past Friday.  One thing that I've learned from this is that I need firm deadlines.  Thank you Cisco for changing the CCNP Routing and Switching exams at the end of this month!  

As for the rest of the year, well I'm working on scheduling out the rest of my planned studying and tests so that I have firm dates.  I plan on paying the fee and scheduling the exam right as I start studying to give me motivation.  First on the list is ARCH to complete the CCDP.  After that my manager has me looking at CCNA Voice followed by CCNP Voice as we're planning a 5-6 year conversion from Avaya to Cisco although I may take a slight detour to CCNA Datacenter at some point since Nexus and UCS are fresh in my list of new skills.

So basically I plan to keep learning and growing.  Pretty good goals in my book.  If I ever stop learning, I best be in the ground.