CCIE Data Center Lab v2.1

The CCIE Data Center exam will be updated with a minor revision so as to help the candidates stay at the forefront of technologies and skills. The updates are mentioned below:

•    The unified Written and Lab exam topics are updated which includes the additions, removals, and adjustments, and lab environment are also going to cover recent software releases. No new hardware would be introduced in this revision.

•    The manner in which the topics are segmented is also updated. These topics are within the six exam domains and adjustments to the weighting of topics so as to align with the current Cisco Data Center portfolio and industry focus.

•    Also, the specificity of exam topics in each domain is improved, making it clearer on what you may be covered in the exams.

The updated exam curriculum is going to lists the updated domains for the written and lab exams, with the topics represented in the blueprint of the updated exam. The overall technological change between the CCIE Data Center Lab focused revisions 2.0 and 2.1 is less than 20 percent. Over the last two years, there have been changes in the industry as well as in the Cisco data center strategies, and the exam topics are being updated so that the candidates could certify on the latest expert-level skills and technologies.

Topics that are added include the Cisco Intersight, interfabric connectivity, RoCE, and Cisco CloudCenter. Topics that were removed include Cisco FabricPath, Cisco Process Orchestrator, Cisco RISE, vPath, Cisco UCS Central, Data Center Bridging, as well as the Cisco ONE Enterprise Cloud Suite.

There is also an updated segmentation within the six domains in order to align the track to the portfolio of current Cisco data center, as well as to improve the logical structure of the exams. An important change in this minor update includes making the exam topics more explicit and highlights all the technologies that would be focusing on a particular task and subtask.

All the domains are listed tasks that the minimally qualified candidate is going to expected to be able to perform.

Recommended Hardware and Software Equipment

The CCIE Data Center Lab Exam v2.1 environment is also updated. There are no updates to the lab exam hardware, but there are changes being made to the software releases in order to accommodate some new features and technologies. Candidates who are willing to prepare for the exam using the hardware equipment are now advised that they should use the following Cisco equipment and software releases:

•    Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller 3.x

•    Cisco Data Center Network Manager Software 10.x

•    Cisco Integrated Management Controller 3.x

•    Cisco NX-OS v7.x on Nexus 5000 switches

•    Cisco NX-OS v7.x on Nexus 9000 switches

•    Cisco NX-OS v8.x on Nexus 7000 switches

•    Cisco UCS Director 6.x

•    Cisco UCS Software Release 3.x Fabric Interconnect

Exam Format

Well, there are no changes that have been made to the CCIE Data Center exam format in this minor revision. The CCIE Data Center written exam number (400-151) would remain unchanged. The lab exam formats also remain unchanged and consists of only two modules, the Diagnostic module, and the Configuration and Troubleshooting module. The Cisco Learning Network is going to provide you with more information about the lab exam format.

CCIE Data Center Lab is a two-part exam consisting of eight-hour that would be testing the candidate’s skills in configuring, diagnosing and troubleshooting a complex data center topology. Knowledge of configuration and troubleshooting would prove to be an important set of skills and candidates are expected to configure and troubleshoot issues as which is considered to be a part of the CCIE Data Center Lab examination.