About Cisco CCIE Data Center Certification
The Cisco CCIE Data Center certification validates the expert-level knowledge and skills of the individuals needed to plan, design, manage, and implement the latest IT data center infrastructure. Those professionals who obtain this certificate demonstrate their technical expertise in the most advanced level with the use of industry best practices. The certification focuses on Layer 2 & 3 connectivity, storage networking & compute, fabric infrastructure, automation & orchestration, and network services. The candidates will be evaluated based on their skills in evolving technologies and the impact on an architectural framework, implementation, operations, and deployment models.
The target audience for this expert-level certification is those practitioners who play the leadership roles in connecting evolving technologies and have the ability to satisfy the business requirements that rely on agile IT infrastructures. The applicants do not need to fulfill any formal eligibility criteria. However, they are required to have an extensive understanding of the topics covered in the associated exams. There are two tests that they should clear in order to get this Cisco certificate. It is also recommended that they have up to seven years of work experience before pursuing it.
Exam Details
To get certified, the students need to take one written exam (350-601 DCCOR) and one hands-on lab test. The first exam is 2 hours long and covers the concepts & equipment commands associated with data center networking infrastructure. The test is available in English and registration for it is done through the Pearson VUE platform. The candidates should pass the practical lab exam within 3 years of completing the written one. If not, the qualifying test will become invalid and the applicants will have to retake it before they can be allowed to sit for the lab exam.
Cisco recommends the Implementing & Operating Cisco Data Center Core Technologies training course to help the individuals prepare for the 350-601 DCCOR test. This course equips them with the technologies and skills required for the implementation of data center compute, SAN, and LAN infrastructure. It also teaches the basics of security and automation in data centers. This option is available for the examinees in several formats, including instructor-led classroom-based training, virtual instructor-led training, as well as self-paced e-Learning.
Exam Topics
To improve the performance in the certification exams, it is important to develop a solid understanding of the domains covered in each test before attempting them. The details of the topics and subtopics of the exams associated with the CCIE Data Center certification are enumerated below.
Written Exam Content
Network: 25%
- Apply routing protocols
- Apply switching protocols
- Apply overlay protocols
- Apply the ACI concepts
- Analyze the packet flow
- Analyze the Cloud service & deployment models
- Explain the software updates and their effects
- Implement the management of network configuration
- Implement infrastructure monitoring
- Describe the concepts of network assurance
Compute: 25%
- Implement Cisco Unified Compute System Rack Servers & Blade Chassis
- Describe the concepts & benefits of Hyper-Flex infrastructure
- Explain the software and firmware updates & their effects on both B-Series & C-Series servers
- Implement the management of compute configuration and infrastructure monitoring
Storage Network: 20%
- Implement Fibre Channel
- Implement FCoE Unified Fabric
- Explain the NAS & NFS concepts
- Implement infrastructure monitoring
- Explain the software updates & their effects
Automation: 15%
- Implement scripting tools & automation
- Measure automation & orchestration technologies
Security: 15%
- Network security application
- Compute security application
- Storage security application
Practical Lab Exam Content
Data Center Layer 2 & 3 Connectivity: 20%
- Layer 2 technologies, including vPC, link aggregation, Spanning Tree Protocol, Static Path bind, Tagging/Trunking, and PortChannel, among others
- Routing Protocols & Features, including OSPF, adjacencies, authentication, LSA Types, network type & Area Types, route redistribution, ISIS, and Route Summarization/Aggregation
- Multicast Protocols, including PIM, IGMP
Data Center Fabric Infrastructure: 15%
- Components of physical fabric, including switches, fabric discovery, and controllers/network managers
- Fabric policies, including access policies, multi-tenancy, and monitoring policies
- Tenant policies, including security, networking, and application profiles & EPGs
- Fabric monitoring, including faults, audit logs, health indicators, and events
- Virtual networking, including vSphere VDS
Data Center Fabric Connectivity: 15%
- VRF Lite
- Layer3Out, including OSPF, BGP, and Transit Routing
- Inter Fabric connectivity, including multi-site, remote leaf, virtual POD, and multi-Pod
- Overlay, including VXLAN EVPN
Data Center Compute: 15%
- Compute resources, including Hyper-Flex, UCSM Policies, Templates, and Profiles
- Compute Connectivity, including Rack server integration, Port Modes, SAN/LAN uplinks
Data Center Storage Protocols & Features: 10%
- FC & FCoE, including zoning, trunking, load balancing NPV/NPIV, and Port-channel
- iSCSI, including multi-pathing and Authentication
- RoCE v2 over the IP Networks
Data Center Security & Network Services: 10%
- Security features, including ACLs, contracts, private VLANs, port security, first-hop security
- RBAC, including AAA, LDAP, Radius, and TACACS+
- Network Services Insertion & Redirection, including policy-based redirection, policy-based routing, route targets, Inter VRF communication, and Prefix Lists
- Services, including SPAN, DHCP, Syslog, SNMP, NTP/PTP, and Flow/Telemetry Export
- Traffic management, including CoPP, scheduling, classification/marking, policing & queueing
Data Center Automation & Orchestration: 15%
- Datacenter tasks utilizing scripts (Ansible & Python), including deploying & modifying configurations; statics & Data Collection; create, read, delete, & update utilizing RESTul APIs
- Data Center Automation & Orchestration with the tools, including UCSD, DCNM, Catalog, Workflows, Tasks, CloudCenter Suite, Intersight, Applications, Action Orchest, and Deployments
Job Roles and Salaries
The Cisco CCIE Data Center certification gives the professionals an edge in the marketplace. If you are looking to distinguish yourself as a leader in the domain of data center technologies, this certificate is worth your attention. It validates your skills and knowledge of complex data solutions and demonstrates to the potential employers that you have what it takes to deliver data center technologies.
Some of the positions that you can take up with this expert-level certification include a Technical Consultant, a Senior Network Engineer, a Software Architect, a Data Center Technician, a Network Infrastructure Architect, a Systems Engineer, and a Data Center Migration Lead, among others. The average salary for these job titles is $85,983 per annum. Depending on your current experience level, you can also earn up to $135,000 per year.
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