IT Certification and Career Paths

The topic areas listed are general guidelines for the type of content that is likely to appear on the exam. Please note that the exam generally covers SP technologies, Operations Process Management, and NMS tools. Furthermore, there are questions guided by ITIL v3 Core Service Lifecycle Framework. Please note, however, that other relevant or related topic areas may also appear.

Exam Topics

The following topics are general guidelines for the content likely to be included on the exam. However, other related topics may also appear on any specific delivery of the exam. In order to better reflect the contents of the exam and for clarity purposes, the guidelines below may change at any time without notice.

Manage the network fault management system

• Develop a fault management process for a managed network environment collaboratively with the tools team
• Determine the interaction between the fault management system and the ticketing system in collaboration with the tools team
• Determine the method to gather appropriate metrics for an established fault management process

Manage performance and capacity

• Identify spikes and potential trouble spots based on syslog and/or Network Management System (NMS) output
• Develop a plan to solve a particular performance issue based on syslog and/or Network Management System (NMS) output
• Identify the Network Management System (NMS) metrics and SLA metrics that will be needed in order to further troubleshoot a specific problem communicated orally, written, etc.
• Develop a plan to establish a baseline and monitor the network in conjunction with the tools and performance groups
• Create baseline network performance in conjunction with engineering and architecture teams
• Monitor the network to look for variances against the baseline
• Edit existing scripts which enable a network baseline management plan in conjunction with the tools and performance groups

Manage operations processes

• Collaborate with the process team and NOC management on process development to meet a desired network operational objective
• Develop a specific prototype and test plan for a particular planned network change, working collaboratively with the engineering and design groups
• Develop, for a particular network, a list of needed tools working collaboratively with the tools team
• Develop a detailed operations plan including metrics and reporting functions for a particular network working collaboratively with the process team
• Develop a process change action plan based on the results of a network audit
• Develop and maintain a spares plan for a particular network

Troubleshoot and fix reachability and transport problems within the network

• Identify predecessor steps that have not been executed based on an escalation ticket dealing with reachability
• Determine whether to fix or escalate a ticket dealing with reachability
• Identify the area(s) causing a complex reachability problem of unknown origin
• Troubleshoot a complex routing problem and, considering the technical aspects, determine the risks and fix it
• Troubleshoot a complex security problem and, considering the technical aspects, determine the risks and fix it

Identify problems in implementation plans

• Find issues of a rollout plan received from engineering before deployment
• Identify hardware which is not backwards compatible on a new service rollout plan
• Find hardware that needs operating system upgrades on a new service rollout plan
• Review and provide recommendations on areas in which NOC support plans will not be sufficient on a new service rollout plan

Troubleshoot and fix network performance problems

• Identify predecessor steps that have not been executed based on an escalation ticket dealing with network performance
• Determine whether to fix or escalate a ticket dealing with network performance
• Determine whether to fix or where to escalate a core network fault
• Identify the source of a complex network performance problem
• Troubleshoot a complex network performance problem and, considering the technical aspects, determine the risks and fix it
• Identify a complex application performance problem and isolate it
• Identify a complex computing device (server, call manager, etc - not the network or application) performance problem and isolate it
• Troubleshoot a complex traffic pattern problem and, considering the technical aspects, determine the risks and fix it
• Troubleshoot a complex, chronic performance problem and, considering the technical aspects, determine the risks and fix it

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A variety of Cisco Press titles may be available for this exam. These titles can be purchased through the Cisco Marketplace Bookstore, directly from Cisco Press.