CCNP SWITCH Prep

While preparing for this weekend’s CCNP study group session, I reviewed the CCNP switch exam blueprint and the official lab book. I noticed a major gap in covered exam objectives in the lab book.  Having passed the CCNP SWITCH exam, I wanted to share with my study group colleagues what is not covered in the Cisco lab book and what we should do to create or find other labs to help solidify knowledge on the topic areas in question.

Now some topics may not have a lab as the topic may be only testing on your understanding of the topic (highlighted green). Some topics are ones where you need to understand how to configure, test, and troubleshoot (highlighted red). See below:

1.1 Configure and verify switch administration
1.1.a SDM templates
1.1.b Managing MAC address table
1.1.c Troubleshoot Err-disable recovery

1.2 Configure and verify Layer 2 protocols
1.2.a CDP, LLDP
1.2.b UDLD

1.5.d EtherChannel misconfiguration guard

1.6 Configure and verify spanning tree
1.6.c PortFast, BPDUguard, BPDUfilter
1.6.d Loopguard and Rootguard

1.7 Configure and verify other LAN switching technologies
1.7.a SPAN

1.8 Describe chassis virtualization and aggregation technologies
1.8.a Stackwise

2.1 Configure and verify switch security features
2.1.a DHCP snooping
2.1.b IP Source Guard
2.1.c Dynamic ARP inspection
2.1.e Private VLAN
2.1.f Storm control

2.2 Describe device security using Cisco IOS AAA with TACACS+ and RADIUS
2.2.a AAA with TACACS+ and RADIUS
2.2.b Local privilege authorization fallback

This list is not 100% accurate as I am using the table of contents as a reference. However, seeing a lot of exam objectives that need to you to know the commands and output leads me to believe that supplementation is needed.

The official lab book also has some topics that are not mentioned in the exam blueprint:

Chapter 5: InterVLAN Routing
Lab 5-1 Inter-VLAN Routing
Lab 5-2 DHCP
Chapter 7: Network Management
Lab 7-1 Synchronizing Campus Network Devices using Network Time Protocol (NTP)
Lab 7-2 Configure Campus Network Devices to Support Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv3)
Chapter 8: Switching Features and Technologies
Lab 8-1 IP Service Level Agreements and Remote SPAN in a Campus Environment

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