Important notes

This study plan is designed to help candidates learn the Cisco Advanced Enterprise Routing and Infrastructure Exam

Alternatively, you can use this study plan to prepare for roughly half of the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure Exam.

This document includes a prescriptive, time-based study plan on the following tab.
The plan is 10 weeks long and requires 10-12 hours per week (may vary based on your learning pace).

There are three types of resources included in this study plan. I chose these resource providers to minimize total co
1. Pluralsight courses Low-cost video training provider which is the foundation of this whole plan
2. gns3vault Labs Free technology-specific labs useful for diving deeper into various technologies
3. Other free content Online challenges/tools, YouTube videos, electronic books, etc.

To use this plan, you'll only need to invest in a Pluralsight subscription. All other resources are free.
My personal contributions are highlighted in green (33% of total). Note that this study plan includes other authors.

Please visit my website for more information about me and my other offerings. (http://njrusmc.net)

Copyright 2021 Nicholas Russo. Consumers may download and edit this document for personal use only.
Downloading and editing this document for redistribution is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Last Updated: 5-Nov-23

uting and Infrastructure Exam topics.

prise Infrastructure Exam.

learning pace).

providers to minimize total cost:

n of this whole plan
nto various technologies
oks, etc.

rces are free.

plan includes other authors.

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personal use only.

rved.
Week Topic Hours
1 EIGRP 1
EIGRP 1
EIGRP 1
EIGRP 1
EIGRP 0.5
EIGRP 1
EIGRP 2
BGP to Internet edge 0.5
BGP basics 0.5
BGP basics 0.5
BGP basics 0.5
BGP policy 2

2 DMVPN-based WAN 0.5

GRE tunneling 0.5
GRE tunneling 0.5
VRF-lite 1
VRF-lite 1
EIGRP miscellaneous features 0.5
EIGRP miscellaneous features 1
EIGRP miscellaneous features 0.75
Generic route filtering 0.75
Enterprise services 0.5
Access-lists 1
Access-lists 1
Access-lists 0.5
AAA 0.25
AAA 0.25
Control-plane policing 0.5

3 DHCP 0.5
DHCP 0.5
DHCP 0.75
EIGRP/BGP with IPv6 0.5
EIGRP 1
BGP policy 1.5
EIGRP 2
EIGRP 3
EIGRP 2
4 OSPF 0.5
OSPF 0.75
OSPF 0.75
General routing 0.75
Route redistribution 0.5
Route redistribution 1
Route redistribution 1
Route redistribution 0.75
Route redistribution 0.75
Route redistribution 0.75
BGP to Internet upstreams (transit) 0.5
BGP aggregation 0.5
BGP aggregation 0.5
BGP basics 0.75
BGP basics 0.5
BGP basics 0.5
BGP policy 1

5 MPLS layer-3 VPNs 0.5

MPLS 1
MPLS 1.5
MPLS 0.5
IP SLA and high availability 0.5
IP SLA 0.5
IP SLA 0.75
BGP basics 0.5
BGP basics 1
Enterprise services 0.5
SNMP 0.75
SNMP 0.75
OSPFv3 and MPLS for IPv6 0.5
OSPFv3 0.75
Technical whitepaper 2

6 OSPF in leaf/spine DC 0.5

Policy-based routing 0.75
GRE/IPsec and OSPF virtual-links 0.5
IPsec 1
OSPF virtual-links 0.75
OSPF area types 0.5
RIP 0.5
 OSPF 0.5
OSPF 0.5
OSPF 1.25
OSPF 1
Route redistribution 1.5
OSPF 0.75
OSPF 0.5
OSPF 0.75
OSPF 0.75
OSPF 1

7 OSPF 1.5
iBGP route-reflection 0.5
BGP 1
BGP 1.5
Enterprise services 0.5
FTP active/passive mode and TFTP 1
File transfer 0.5
File transfer 0.5
Logging 0.5
Logging 0.5
ACL 0.5
ACL 0.5
ACL 0.5
OSPFv3 for IPv4/v6 0.5
Technical whitepaper 1.5

8 IPv6 transition and security 2.75

IPv6 1
IPv6 0.75
IPv6 0.75
Technical whitepaper 3
Technical whitepaper 3

9 Cisco DNA Center 0.5

Cisco DNA Center 2
Quality of Service (QoS) 1.25
Quality of Service (QoS) 1.25
Quality of Service (QoS) 0.25
Quality of Service (QoS) 0.75
OSPF 1.5
 OSPF 2
OSPFv3 0.5
BGP innovation 0.25
BGP innovation 0.25
BGP innovation 0.25
Troubleshooting innovation 0.25
Fast convergence innovation 0.25
Fast convergence innovation 0.25
Fast convergence innovation 0.25
Fast convergence innovation 0.25
Fast convergence innovation 0.25

10 Final preparation 3.5

Final preparation 3.75
Final preparation 3.25
Final preparation 0.5

Bonus Hands-on practice

Recommended Resource ENARSI blueprint topics addressed
Adv Routing: Enterprise Networks (Module 2, 3) 1.5, 1.9 (focus on 1.9.c and 1.9.e)
Lab: EIGRP beginner 1.9.a, 1.9.b
Lab: EIGRP variance 1.9.e
Lab: EIGRP summarization 1.5
Lab: EIGRP auto-summarization 1.5
Lab: EIGRP stub 1.9.d
Lab: EIGRP intermediate Most of 1.9
Adv Routing: Enterprise Networks (Module 4) 1.3, 1.4, 1.11.a, 1.11.b,1.11.c 1.11.e
Lab: Basic internal BGP (iBGP) 1.11.a, 1.11.b
Lab: Basic external BGP (eBGP) 1.11.a, 1.11.b
Lab: BGP basic 1.11.a, 1.11.b
Lab: BGP local-preference 1.11.c, 1.11.e

Adv Routing: Enterprise Networks (Module 5) 1.7, 2.3.a, 2.3.b, 2.3.d, 2.3.e, 3.2.a
Lab: Basic GRE tunnel 2.3.a
Lab: Recursive routing failure 2.3.a
Lab: VRF routing/tunnels 1.7, 2.3.a
Lab: VRF lite 1.7
Adv Routing: Enterprise Networks (Module 6) 1.4, 1.8, 1.9.b, 1.9.d
Lab: EIGRP MD5 authentication 1.9.b
Lab: EIGRP router-ID 1.9.c
Lab: IOS prefix-based filtering 1.3
Adv Routing: Enterprise Networks (Module 7) 3.1, 3.3, 4.1.a, 4.1.b, 4.3, 4.4, 4.6
Lab: Named ACL 3.2.a
Lab: Extended ACL 3.2.a
Lab: Standard ACL 3.2.a
Lab: AAA authentication 3.1
Lab: AAA exec authorization 3.1
Lab: Control Plane Policing (CPP) 3.3

Lab: DHCP server 4.4

Lab: DHCP relay 4.4
Lab: DHCP troubleshooting 4.4
Adv Routing: Enterprise Networks (Module 8) Most of 1.9 and 2.3
Lab: EIGRP for IPv6 (legacy syntax) 1.9.a, 1.9.b
Lab: BGP Multi Exit Discriminator (MED) 1.11.c, 1.11.e
CiscoLive: Troubleshooting EIGRP Most of 1.9
Lab: EIGRP advanced Most of 1.9
Lab: EIGRP troubleshooting Most of 1.9
Adv Routing: Tier 3 ISPs (Module 2) 1.10.a, 1.10.b, 1.10.c(i), 1.10.d
Lab: OSPF DR/BDR election 1.10.b
Lab: OSPF auto-cost reference bandwidth 1.10.d
Lab: Distribute-list filtering 1.3
Adv Routing: Tier 3 ISPs (Module 3) 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.10.c(iii), 1.10.d
Lab: RIP/OSPF redistribution 1.2
Lab: RIP/EIGRP redistribution 1.2
Lab: Redistribution with route tagging 1.2
Lab: One-way redistribution 1.2
Lab: Multipoint one-way redistribution 1.2
Adv Routing: Tier 3 ISPs (Module 4) 1.3, 1.4, 1.11.a, 1.11.b, 1.11.c, 1.11.e, 3.2.c
Lab: BGP aggregation 1.5
Lab: BGP aggregation with AS-set 1.5
Lab: BGP transit AS 1.11.a, 1.11.c
Lab: BGP update-source 1.11.b
Lab: eBGP multihop 1.11.b
Lab: BGP weight 1.11.c, 1.11.e

Adv Routing: Tier 3 ISPs (Module 5) 1.11.d, 2.1, 2.2

Lab: MPLS LDP 2.1
Lab: Basic MPLS layer3-VPN 2.1, 2.2
Lab: Frame-mode MPLS 2.1, 2.2
Adv Routing: Tier 3 ISPs (Module 6) 1.10.a, 1.10.d, 4.5
Lab: IP SLA 4.5
Lab: IP SLA + static routing + object tracking 4.5
Lab: eBGP disable connected check 1.11.b
Lab: BGP multipath load balancing 1.11.c
Adv Routing: Tier 3 ISPs (Module 7) 3.1, 3.3, 4.2, 4.3, 4.6
Lab: SNMPv2c server 4.2
Lab: SNMPv3 server 4.2
Adv Routing: Tier 3 ISPs (Module 8) Most of 1.10, 1.11.a, 1.11.c, 1.11.d, 2.1, 2.2
Lab: OSPFv3 for IPv6 (legacy syntax) 1.10.a
Reading: Scaling OSPF over DMVPN 1.10.a, 1.10.c, 1.10.d, 2.3

Adv Routing: Leaf/Spine DCs (Module 2) 1.6, 1.10.a, 1.10.d, 1.11.a, 1.11.b, 1.11.c
Lab: Policy-based Routing (PBR) 1.6
Adv Routing: Leaf/Spine DCs (Module 3) 1.10.c(iv), 1.10.d, 1.11.c, 2.3.a, 2.3.c
Lab: GRE over IPsec 2.3.a, 2.3.c
Lab: OSPF virtual-link 1.10.c(iv)
Adv Routing: Leaf/Spine DCs (Module 4) 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.10.c(ii), 1.10.c(iii)
Lab: RIP beginner None
Lab: OSPF Stub area 1.10.c(ii)
Lab: OSPF Totally stubby area 1.10.c(ii)
Lab: OSPF Not-so-stubby area (NSSA) 1.10.c(ii)
Lab: OSPF Totally NSSA 1.10.c(ii)
Lab: RIP/OSPF redistribution troubleshooting 1.4
Lab: OSPF inter-area summarization 1.5
Lab: OSPF external route summarization 1.5
Lab: OSPF summarization troubleshooting 1.5
Lab: OSPF authentication 1.10.b
Lab: OSPF Intermediate Most of 1.10

Lab: OSPF troubleshooting Most of 1.10

Adv Routing: Leaf/Spine DCs (Module 5) 1.3, 1.11.a, 1.11.b, 1.11.d, 3.2.a
Lab: BGP route-reflectors 1.11.d
Lab: BGP troubleshooting Most of 1.11
Adv Routing: Leaf/Spine DCs (Module 6) 3.1, 3.2.a, 4.1.b, 4.1.c, 4.3
Protocol Deep Dive: FTP (Modules, 2, 3, 6) 4.1.c
Lab: IOS TFTP server 4.1.c
Lab: IOS HTTP server 4.1.b
Lab: Local system logging 4.3
Lab: syslog server 4.3
Lab: IOS ACL logging 3.2.a, 4.3
Lab: Logging timestamps 4.3
Lab: Time-based ACL 3.2.a
Adv Routing: Leaf/Spine DCs (Module 7) 1.6, 1.10, 1.11.a, 1.11.c, 1.11.d
Reading: BGP Traffic-eng In Leaf/Spine DC 1.10.d, 1.11.c

Transitioning Enterprises to IPv6 1.2, 1.4, 1.10.a, 1.10.d, 2.3.c, 3.2.b, 3.4, 4.4
Lab: IPv6 troubleshooting 1.9.a, 1.10.a, 1.11.a
Lab: IPv6-over-IPv4 tunneling 1.9.a, 1.10.a, 1.11.a
Lab: IPv6 neighbor discovery (ND) 1.9.a, 1.10.a, 1.11.a
Reading: High-scale WAN with 6rd/GETVPN 1.11.a, 1.11.c, 1.4, 2.3.c, 4.4
Reading: Secure Mobile WAN using DHCPv6 PD 1.11.a, 1.11.c, 2.3, 4.4

Adv Routing: Tshoot with Cisco DNAC Assurance 4.7

Self-study: DNAC Assurance Demos 4.7
Designing QoS in IP/MPLS Networks 2.1, 2.3.a, 3.2.a, 3.3, 4.1.b, 4.5
Implementing and Validating QoS Designs 2.1, 2.3.a, 3.2.a, 3.3, 4.1.b, 4.5
Self-study: QoS traffic classes and tools None
Lab: MQC Classification and Marking None
CiscoLive: Designing and Deploying OSPF 1.10.c, 1.10.d
CiscoLive: Troubleshooting OSPF 1.10.c, 1.10.d
YouTube: OSPFv3 Graph Tracing 1.10.c, 1.10.d
Reading: BGP TE with communities/local-pref 1.11c, 1.11e
Reading: BGP TE with conditional advertisement 1.11c, 1.11e
Reading: BGP TE with cost communities 1.11c, 1.11e
Reading: Cisco IOS troubleshooting 1.9.b, 1.10.b, 1.11.b
Reading: Introduction to IP LFA 1.10
Reading: Downstream and Node Protecting LFAs 1.10
Reading: Broadcast Disjointedness and LFA Coverage 1.10
Reading: Improving LFA Coverage using rLFA/MPLS 1.10
Maximizing LFA Coverage using SR and TI-LFA 1.10

Adv Routing: Enterprise Networks (Full course) Most of 1.9, 2.3, 3.1, most of 4.1, 4.4
Adv Routing: Tier 3 ISPs (Full course) Most of 1.10, 2.1, 2.2, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6
Adv Routing: Leaf/Spine DCs (Full course) 1.6, most of 1.10.c, most of 1.11, 2.3.c, 4.1.c
Adv Routing: Tshoot with Cisco DNAC Assurance 4.7

Troubleshooting lab - 20 tickets Most of blueprint

CCIE EI blueprint topics addressed
Most of 1.3
1.3.a, 1.3.c(i)
1.3.b
1.2.g
None
1.3.a, 1.3.c(i)
1.3.a, 1.3.b
1.2.c, 1.2.h, 1.2.i, 1.5.b, 1.5.c.(i, v), 4.5.d(ii)
1.5.a (high level)
1.5.a (high level)
1.5.a (high level)
1.5.b(i), 1.5.b(ii)

1.2.b, 3.2.a(i), 4.2.b(ii), 1.9 (v1.1)

3.2.a(i)
3.2.a(i)
1.2.b, 3.2.a(i)
1.2.b
1.2.j, 1.3.f(iv), 1.3.f(v)
1.2.i, 1.3.a
1.3.c(i)
1.2.f
4.1, 4.3.a(i), 4.3.a(ii), 4.5.c(i)
4.2.b(ii)
4.2.b(ii)
4.2.b(ii)
4.1.b
4.1.b
4.1.a

4.5.c(i)
4.5.c(i)
4.5.c(i)
Most of 1.3, 1.5.b(i, ii), 3.2.a(i)
1.3.a
1.5.b(i, ii)
Most of 1.3
Most of 1.3
Most of 1.3
1.4.a, 1.4.b, 1.4.c, 1.4.d(i)
1.4.a
1.4.d(i)
1.2.f
1.2.a
1.2.a
1.2.a
1.2.a
1.2.a
1.2.a
1.5.c(ii, v), 1.5.e(ii), 4.2.b(iii)
1.5.e(ii)
1.5.e(ii)
1.5.b(ii), 1.5.c(ii)
None
None
1.5.b(i, ii), 1.5.c(i)

1.5.e(i), 3.1.a(i, ii), 3.1.b(i, ii), 1.11 (v1.1)

3.1.a(ii)
3.1.b(i, ii)
3.1.a(i, ii)
4.5.a(i), 4.6.a(ii)
4.6.a(i)
1.2.c, 4.6.a(i), 4.6.b
1.5.a (high level)
1.5.c(v)
4.1, 4.3.b, 4.6.c
4.3.b(i)
4.3.b(ii)
1.4.a, 1.4.c, 1.4.d(i), 1.4.e(i)
1.4.a, 1.4.c, 1.4.d(i), 1.4.e(i)
Most of 1.4, including timer tuning

1.2.d, 1.4.a, 1.4.b, 1.5.a(vi), 1.5.d(i, ii)

1.2.d
1.4.a, 1.4.c, 1.4.d(i), 1.4.e(i), 3.2.a(ii)
3.2.a(ii)
1.4.a, 1.4.b, 1.4.c
1.2.i, 1.4.b, 1.4.c, 1.4.e(iii)
None
1.4.b
1.4.b
1.4.b
1.4.b
1.2.h
1.2.g, 1.4.c, 1.4.e(i)
1.2.g, 1.4.c, 1.4.e(i)
1.2.g, 1.4.c, 1.4.e(i)
1.2.i, 1.4.a
Most of 1.4

Most of 1.4
1.5.a(i, ii, iv, v), 1.5.b(ii), 1.5.e(i)
1.5.e(i)
Most of 1.5
4.2.b(ii), 4.3.c
None
None
None
4.3.c
4.3.c
4.2.b(ii), 4.3.c
4.3.c(ii)
4.2.b(ii)
1.4.a, 1.4.b, 1.4.c, 1.4.e(i)
1.5.a (high level), 1.5.b(i, ii), 1.5.f(i), 1.4.e(v)

4.2.b(i), 4.2.c, 4.5.a(ii), 4.5.c(iii, iv, v)

1.4.a, 1.4.b, 1.4.c, 4.5.c(iii),
None
4.5.a(ii)
1.2.c, 3.2.a(ii), 4.5.d(ii), 4.5.c(iii)
3.2.a(i, ii), 1.5.a(iv), 1.5.c(i, v), 4.5.c(iii, iv, v)

2.1.d
2.1.d
4.4
4.4
4.4.a(i, v, vi)
4.4.a(iii, v)
Most of 1.4
Most of 1.4
1.4.a, 1.4.b, 1.4.c
1.5.c(iv)
1.5.c(ii)
1.5.c(iv)
1.3.a, 1.4.a, 1.5.a
1.3.f(iii)
1.3.f(iii)
1.3.f(iii)
1.3.f(iii)
1.3.f(iii)

1.2.j, most of 1.3, 3.2.a, 4.2.b(ii), 4.3.a(i, ii)

Most of 1.4, 1.5.b, 1.5.c, 3.1, 4.1, 4.3.b
1.4.e(iii), 1.5.a, 1.5.d, 1.5.e, 3.2.a(ii), 4.3.c
2.1.d

About half of blueprint