On January 25, Cisco announced a complete redesign of the exams and the requirements for the Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification. The new program is a three-step track of exams that focus on specific job tasks, including IP Routing, IP Switched Networks and IP Network Troubleshooting. According to Cisco the new exams “reflect the evolving job tasks of global network professionals.” Here’s a brief breakdown of the exams required for the new CCNP certification.
ROUTE (642-902) – Available March 10, 2010:
According to the Cisco Learning Network website, passing the new ROUTE (642-902) exam will “certify that the successful candidate has the knowledge and skills necessary to use advanced IP addressing and routing in implementing scalable and secure Cisco ISR routers connected to LANs and WANs.” The topics for the exam are:
- Implement an EIGRP based solution, given a network design and a set of requirements
- Implement a multi-area OSPF Network, given a network design and a set of requirements
- Implement an eBGP based solution, given a network design and a set of requirements
- Implement an IPv6 based solution, given a network design and a set of requirements
- Implement an IPv4 or IPv6 based redistribution solution, given a network design and a set of requirements
- Implement Layer 3 Path Control Solution
SWITCH (642-813) – Available March 10, 2010:
Cisco’s new SWITCH (642-813) is an important part of the CCNP certification. Accoding to Cisco, passing this exam will “will certify that the successful candidate has important knowledge and skills necessary to to plan, configure and verify the implementation of complex enterprise switching solutions using Cisco’s Campus Enterprise Architecture.” The topics for SWITCH (642-813) include:
- Implement VLAN based solution, given a network design and a set of requirements
- Implement a Security Extension of a Layer 2 solution, given a network design and a set of requirements
- Implement Switch based Layer 3 services, given a network design and a set of requirements
- Prepare infrastructure to support advanced services
- Implement High Availability, given a network design and a set of requirements
TSHOOT (642-832) – Available April 30, 2010
TSHOOT is Cisco’s toubleshooting and problem solving component of the CCNP. According to Cisco “the TSHOOT 642-832 exam will certify that the successful candidate has important knowledge and skills necessary to (1) plan and perform regular maintenance on complex enterprise routed and switched networks and (2) use technology-based practices and a systematic ITIL-compliant approach to perform network troubleshooting.” The are just two topics for this exam, although the second topic is a 25-point list of protocols that the candidate must be able to troubleshoot. The topics are:
- Maintain and monitor network performance
- Troubleshoot Multi Protocol system networks
The new three-exam series replaces the previous four-exam track that included BSCI (642-901), BCMSN (642-812), ISCW (642-825) and ONT (642-845). The final day to take four-exam series tests is July 31, 2010. There will be a brief time (from March 10 through July 31, 2010) when exams for both series will be available.
Tags: CCNP, Certification, Cisco, IT Training