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Cisco CCNP ONT (642-845) Exam Guide
Optimizing Converged Cisco Networks (ONT 642-845) is one of the 4 exams (or 3, depending on the CCNP path you choose) that must be completed in order to obtain your CCNP certificate.
The ONT exam is focused more on the Quality of Service (QoS) side of networking, whilst introducing some basic Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) management and security solutions.
Basically, you will gain an understanding of why users experience better performance in some networks as opposed to others. One example of this is why during a call to another department or branch office you may experience difficulties hearing the person on the other end, or the call might be breaking up (also called jitter).
You gain knowledge of what it takes to provision for, and support a VOIP network, securing, and providing QoS for a Cisco WLAN solution.
The ONT exam consists of approximately 50-60 questions that must be completed in 90 minutes, for English speaking nationals, with an additional 30 minutes for everyone else.
How to Become a CCNP
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the requirements to become a CCNP include a valid CCNA certification and passing the following exams:
ONT 642-845 Exam Topics
The topics covered for the Optimizing Converged Cisco Networks are:
Describe Cisco VoIP implementations
- Describe the functions and operations of a VoIP network (e.g., packetization, bandwidth considerations, CAC, etc.)
- Describe and identify basic voice components in an enterprise network (e.g. Gatekeepers, Gateways, etc.)
Describe QoS considerations
- Explain the necessity of QoS in converged networks (e.g., bandwidth, delay, loss, etc.)
- Describe strategies for QoS implementations (e.g. QoS Policy, QoS Models, etc.)
Describe DiffServ QoS implementations
- Describe classification and marking (e.g., CoS, ToS, IP Precedence, DSCP, etc.)
- Describe and configure NBAR for classification
- Explain congestion management and avoidance mechanisms (e.g., FIFO, PQ, WRR, WRED, etc.)
- Describe traffic policing and traffic shaping (i.e., traffic conditioners)
- Describe Control Plane Policing
- Describe WAN link efficiency mechanisms (e.g., Payload/Header Compression, MLP with interleaving, etc.)
- Describe and configure QoS Pre-Classify
Implement AutoQoS
- Explain the functions and operations of AutoQoS
- Describe the SDM QoS Wizard
- Configure, verify, and troubleshoot AutoQoS implementations (i.e., MQC)
Implement WLAN security and management
- Describe and Configure wireless security on Cisco Clients and APs (e.g., SSID, WEP, LEAP, etc.)
- Describe basic wireless management (e.g., WLSE and WCS). Configure and verify basic WCS configuration (i.e., login, add/review controller/AP status, security, and import/review maps)
- Describe and configure WLAN QoS
Preparing for Your CCNP ONT Exam
• CCNP ONT Books
The only book that I would recommend is the CCNP ONT Official Exam Certification Guide from Cisco Press.
It covers all of the 642-845 exam topics and it is the official study guide for the ONT exam. The book also includes practice exam questions on a CD-ROM and it’s reasonably priced.
If you have another CCNP ONT book that you’d like to recommend feel free to post it in the comments below.
• CCNP ONT Training Videos
Train Signal’s CCNP Training Package covers all 4 of the CCNP exams in detail including: BSCI (642-901), BCMSN (642-812), ISCW (642-825) and ONT (642-845), but you can get the single ONT Training if you’d like.
Chris Bryant CCIE #12933 is an excellent instructor. I really enjoy his videos and I’m still using them to prepare for my final two CCNP exams.
Forgive me for using the “CCIE #12933″, but it’s literally stuck in my head. It’s usually how Chris begins each video series. And having watched his videos for hours after hours, well, it’s only right that I remembered :)
• Cisco Learning Network
The Cisco Learning Network is a fantastic community to be a part of while preparing for any Cisco exam.
Make sure you browse the ONT Section and join the study group for that section. Doing this enables you to receive emails every time someone posts a comment or question to that part of the community. I found this particularly helpful. I was literally receiving emails all the time, and even when I’m not at a PC, I’d still get emails to my mobile, so I was always able to keep up to date with the latest discussions that were taking place.
Also, the moderators are very fast at responding to your questions, so you don’t have to wait a long time before you get a response.
• Cisco Simulators
Personally I didn’t use any simulators for this exam. I found the materials to be mostly theoretical, with probably a couple of straightforward commands to use in order to implement the QoS technique that best suits your configuration.
This was another reason why I really found this particular exam to not be as interesting as the ISCW exam, or even the BCMSN and BSCI.
However, for those of you who must practice the commands, there are a variety of rack rental vendors you can choose from. Unfortunately, you can’t use Packet Tracer to practice these commands as it’s only suited for the CCNA and CCNA Security certs. But here’s what you can use:
• CCNP ONT Practice Exams
As usual, my choice for practice exams is the Transcender test engine.
Taking practice exams after you’ve finished going through the study materials helps you to identify your weak areas. It also gives you detailed explanations for each incorrect answer, thereby further helping you to zone in on that subject area.
Another great feature about this particular test engine is that the explanations aren’t just for the correct answers. It explains why each option would be either correct or incorrect.
How I Prepared For and Passed My ONT Exam
Well, immediately after passing the ISCW exam on Friday, November 13th (a so called black Friday :), I began reading the Cisco CCNP ONT 642-845 Official Exam Certification Guide that I mentioned above.
Let me be honest, I hated this particular exam. The chapters seemed to take forever to finish, and when I finally completed them, I felt as if someone tried to teach me French. I was reading stuff about sample rate, paketization, Quality of Service, Nyquist theorem. Whoa! This stuff can literally give you a headache if you didn’t like theory.
At this stage I was really feeling dumb for not understanding the materials. Luckily, after watching Chris Bryant explain the topics, it began to get clearer to me. And suddenly, before you knew it, I was grasping the concepts.
Let’s take the Nyquist theorem for example. The name alone sounds daunting, and with the added graphs the book had, it reminded me of a Physics class. But it turned out that it wasn’t that bad after all. Personally I felt the book went too deep into the explanations of this particular topic, which completely confused me, but that was probably just my lack of understanding.
It took me approximately a month and a half to prepare for this exam which was about the same for the ISCW. Actually, the ironic part to this whole story is that my score on the ONT was actually higher than my score for ISCW! And I loved the technologies that were a part of the ISCW materials as opposed to the ONT stuff.
I completed my ONT exam in just about an hour with lots of time to spare.
Next Step on My CCNP Journey
As for my next exam, I’m still pondering on whether to do the 642-892 Composite or whether to take the BCMSN followed by the BSCI. Either way, you’ll know exactly which path I chose and why in my next post about my CCNP journey.
Best of luck on your next exam and feel free to post if you have any suggestions for Cisco study materials or methods used.
Related Posts:
- Passing My Cisco CCNP ISCW Certification Exam
- CCNP Exam Options: Which Exams Will Qualify For Your CCNP?
- Do You Have What It Takes To Pass Your CCNP ISCW Exam?
- Cisco Revises CCNP: BSCI, BCMSN, ISCW & ONT Exams Retire
- The Complete CCNA Security Certification Guide
- The Complete Cisco CCNA Certification Guide
- Tackle Another CCNP Hurdle with Our New BCMSN Training!
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