NSE8 Lab Study Resources - Narbik CCIE R&S v5.1 Foundations

 Hey All,

I have been working on putting together some scenarios for lab practice and I've found myself falling back on some of the study materials I used when preparing for the CCIE EI (yet to obtain, on the list after the NSE8).

A legendary trainer in this area is Narbik Kocharians CCIE 12410 who is the president of Micronics Networking and Training - his CCIE prep courses and text books are considered almost required reading for any serious candidate for this certification. His text books work through hands on labs that are focused on specific topics to help cement the theory of the different topics in the exam. 

His textbook CCIE Routing and Switching 5.1 Foundations: Bridging the Gap between CCNP and CCIE is well aimed at the skill level required of the NSE8 and fortunately there is actually quite a bit of overlap in its 1100 pages. The chapters within the textbook are:

1. Physical Topology
2. Physical and Logical Topologies
3. Spanning Tree Protocol
4. Point-to-Point Protocol
5. DMVPN
6. IP Prefix-List
7. EIGRP
8. OSPF
9. Redistribution
10. Boarder Gateway Protocol
11. IPv6
12. Quality of Service
13. IPSec VPN
14. Multicast
15. MPLS and L3 VPNs

 In the above I have highlighted the chapters I believe there will be useful labs for study toward the NSE8. Now these labs have been written for Cisco devices so some translation of commands and topologies needs to happen, but the underlying standards and concepts should apply equally to both.

 In the initial chapters Narbik outlines the topology that will be used for the labs in the following chapters. Now again these are written for Cisco devices, but in order to help me with my studies I have re-done these diagrams to better fit the virtual resources Ill be using for study. Mainly:

FortiGate VM running 7.0.9 (so that I have the 15 day trial license)
Cisco vIOS switch image

 I've got access to 4 FortiSwitches as well - Once I have got these racked I will write another two topologies for these:
One using a FortiGate as the switch controller
One with the switches acting as standalone devices.

Physical Topology - Switch Connections and FortiGate to Switch Connections

Physical Topology - Physical Connection between FortiGates

 

 

As stated Ill be using these topologies when going through the lab scenarios outlined by Narbik - regardless of vendor I highly recommend getting a copy of his Textbooks. The labs are really well thought out and for a lack of a better description help expand your experience and perception on networking in general. And aside from that, its genuinely fun to go through the labs.
 

Thanks for reading, hopefully someone else will get use from these diagrams as well.