Introducing Juniper Certifications and Labs

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:05Hello, and welcome to the JNCIA-Junos certification

0:09playlist, here on CBT Nuggets.

0:10My name is Knox Hutchinson, and I will be your guide

0:13throughout this playlist.

0:14Now before we actually jump into the exam topics themselves,

0:17I wanted to take a moment to actually explain

0:20to you how Juniper certification really works.

0:23And what can you expect out of this playlist, and what

0:25can you expect out of the JNCIA-Junos preparation

0:29and examination itself.

0:31Beyond that, I also wanted to talk about ways

0:33that you could get hands-on experience with Juniper

0:35by building your own lab environments.

0:37So this is all going to set you up for success

0:40as you begin your journey into Juniper Networks, a vendor

0:43that I've been working with for years,

0:44and I'm very excited to talk to you about.

0:46Get ready, because this skill is going

0:48to be all about how you can prepare yourself

0:50for what to expect from the JNCIA-Junos,

0:53and how you can build your own home lab to practice along

0:56with this type of equipment.

0:57Let's get going.

0:05Now, there's an OK chance that you may be brand

0:08new to Juniper certification.

0:09And that's great.

0:10Welcome to this new and exciting journey.

0:12In order to actually understand what

0:14it is that you're preparing for in the exam

0:16that you may be thinking about taking,

0:18let's take a look at the entire Juniper certification

0:21program first of all.

0:22And that may help you decide which

0:24tracks you want to go down and what

0:26content you want to study, what your long-term goal may

0:28actually be.

0:29Let's take a look at what the Juniper certification

0:31offerings are.

0:32Now, on the page in front of us, I have Juniper's certification

0:36offerings, and more importantly, their certification

0:38tracks, listed on the page in front of us.

0:41If you actually Google Juniper certifications,

0:43you can very quickly find this exact same page

0:46that we're on here.

0:46Notice at the bottom is that it actually gives you

0:48a little guide as to how you should choose to explore

0:52your Juniper journey.

0:53And this is what we want to talk about first.

0:55There's a lot of overlap from one certification or one track

0:59to the next.

1:00And Juniper knows that.

1:01And that's how they design these actual certification tracks.

1:04So your first step is to actually figure out

1:07what track you want to go down.

1:09If you are here because you're interested in the JNCIA-Junos

1:13exam, you're already narrowing it down to three tracks--

1:16Data Center, Enterprise Routing and Switching,

1:20and Service Provider Routing and Switching.

1:22How do we know that?

1:24Because we can look at the associate level

1:26certifications themselves.

1:27And we see JNCIA-Junos applies to all three of those tracks.

1:33Now, if you're interested more in the security offerings,

1:36like the firewalls, the Mist AI, which is also widely used

1:39in wireless, the design tracks, the cloud tracks,

1:44or the DevOps automation tracks, these

1:46have different JNCIA exams associated

1:50with them, or in the case of the design, the JNCDA.

1:53They are different exams.

1:54But the JNCIA-Junos is the core, the center,

1:58of what Juniper certification is really all about.

2:02And that's why the three most popular

2:04certifications that they have--

2:05Data Center, Enterprise, and Service Provider--

2:08all start with JNCIA-Junos.

2:11So another way to put this is by taking the JNCIA-Junos,

2:15you're not just limited to one track.

2:17The JNCIA-Junos would then entitle

2:21you to take the next tier of specialist exams

2:24that lead to it.

2:25For instance, the JNCIA-Junos in the service provider world

2:29allows you to take the JNCIS Service

2:31Provider, an exam I just took two or three weeks ago

2:34at the time of this recording.

2:35The JNCIA-Junos also allows you to take the JNCIS Enterprise.

2:40And very interestingly, the JNCIS Enterprise

2:44is applicable also to Data Center.

2:46It's not until you get to the professional level

2:49that they distinguish Data Center from Enterprise.

2:52And of course, there's a JNCIP service provider.

2:55So it starts out like a tree, where JNCIA-Junos is the root.

3:00And it exists in three places.

3:02Then we have JNCIS Service Provider or JNCIS Enterprise

3:07that we could take.

3:08And then from there, we can choose

3:10to take JNCIP Data Center or JNCIP Enterprise.

3:14You need to start thinking about two things at this point.

3:18While the cool thing about this is that JNCIA-Junos gives us

3:21options as to where we want our certification journey to go

3:25and what kind of curriculum we want to study,

3:27we also need to keep that in the back of our mind

3:30that we should choose which certification track is

3:33going to be best for us.

3:34Maybe we're doing this professionally,

3:36because we want it to apply to the job that we have

3:39and advance further in the job that we have.

3:41Or maybe we want to change gears a little bit

3:43and do something different one day.

3:45Maybe we're in the enterprise world right now,

3:47and we want to switch to service provider some day.

3:50The JNCIA-Junos is a great starting point,

3:53because we have the option to do either.

3:55And this is why I wanted to have this conversation first

3:58about which certifications you should actually be going for.

4:01So know that the JNCIA-Junos is applicable to three

4:05different tracks.

4:06That's Service Provider, Data Center, and Enterprise.

4:09And then beyond that at the Specialist level,

4:11Enterprise applies to both Enterprise and Data Center.

4:14It's not until you get to the Professional level

4:17that we actually have three different tracks with three

4:19different exams.

4:20The cool thing, though, is that JNCIA-Junos

4:22is the root of our tree that we can span out from as we

4:26progress through our journey.

4:27So this sets up the certification offerings

4:30within Juniper.

4:30In the next Nugget, we're going to take a deeper dive

4:33into the exam blueprint of the JNCIA-Junos

4:35and what is the real spirit of this exam all about.

4:38I hope this has been informative for you.

4:40And I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:05So at this point, you've now decided

0:07that you want to go for one of the three tracks

0:09that has the JNCIA-Junos as part of it.

0:12Those were Data Center, Enterprise,

0:14or Service Provider.

0:15The JNCIA-Junos is all about where it starts.

0:19Now we need to set up expectations

0:21of what is the JNCIA-Junos really about.

0:25This is going to be a little bit different

0:26from other associate-level exams that you may be familiar with.

0:30So let's take a look at the exam topics of the JNCIA-Junos,

0:33and then really understand what the spirit of the exam is.

0:37So now it's time to talk about the JNCIA-Junos.

0:39And I've hinted at this, a few times now, that this exam is

0:42really different from other associate-level exams

0:45that you may be familiar with, or experienced with,

0:47in the past.

0:48Because at the heart of the JNCIA-Junos,

0:51it's not necessarily about networking.

0:55This exam is more about how Juniper approaches networking.

1:00That's why the name of this exam isn't JNCIA-Service Provider

1:04Networking.

1:05It's not JNCIA-Enterprise Networking.

1:08It's JNCIA-Junos.

1:11Junos is the operating system that all Juniper devices run.

1:15So what the JNCIA-Junos is all about

1:18is it's actually about the operating system.

1:21That's the spirit of this exam, it's

1:23getting familiar with how Juneau's really works

1:26and what makes it so different.

1:27Because it is wildly different from other networking platforms

1:31that you've worked with, at the end of the day.

1:32Although it's very fun and exciting.

1:34Let's take a look at the JNCIA-Junos exam blueprint.

1:37Now I'm going to click on the one that's

1:39in the Service Provider Routing and Switching section.

1:41And you see, it does take me into the Service Provider

1:45Routing and Switching Certification Track.

1:47But JNCIA-Junos tab that we're on, here,

1:51would be the exact same if I had clicked on the Data Center

1:54or the Enterprise section.

1:55All of this content below is the exact same.

1:58So don't get thrown off, and think that this is just

2:00for Service Provider.

2:01It's not.

2:01The JNCIA-Junos is the JNCIA-Junos, no matter which

2:05reason you're taking it for.

2:07So if we scroll down a little bit,

2:08we see some interesting info about this.

2:10First of all, it is a 90-minute exam

2:13that is comprised of 65 multiple choice questions.

2:17Keep that in mind, they are multiple choice questions.

2:20So this is what you're going to need to know.

2:22You also immediately know whether you've

2:24passed or failed, which is also kind of nice.

2:26Now let's actually take a look at the exam blueprint itself.

2:29If I were to break this down, it's

2:31broken down into what I'm going to call six domains.

2:34One, two, three, four, five, and six.

2:37We have the Operating System Fundamentals,

2:39and what they're really talking about here

2:41is the architecture of the operating system itself.

2:45No, you don't need to be a computer engineer,

2:47and actually understand how an operating system works.

2:50What we're really talking about, when

2:52we talk about the OS Fundamentals,

2:54is how is Junos designed differently.

2:57How is it designed to behave differently

3:00from its competitors, from its vendors that it competes with.

3:03So if I clear the screen a little bit and expand this,

3:05you can see it's talking about how does it

3:07handle the actual software architecture.

3:09And then a major talking point about Junos, a little spoiler,

3:13is how it separates completely, physically, the control plane

3:17and the forwarding plane.

3:18Now we're going to talk so much more about this

3:20because it's a major talking point, and a major design

3:23advantage to going with Juniper, and what makes these Juniper

3:26devices so stinking performant.

3:28So you got to understand, before you've even typed any commands,

3:32how does Juniper actually treat traffic.

3:35How does it make decisions, and how is it

3:36designed under the hood.

3:38That's what they want you to learn, right out of the gate.

3:41The next thing is User Interfaces.

3:43How do you actually use the CLI, and navigate the CLI.

3:46And you may be thinking, well, navigating

3:48a CLI couldn't be that hard.

3:49Why does it deserve its own domain?

3:51Again, Juniper does things wildly

3:54different from other platforms that you're used to seeing.

3:56Now there's a lot of things that are in common with it,

3:59and similar to it.

4:00But still, this is one of those things that

4:02could be a little bit of a shock if you're

4:04coming from a different vendor, and into Juniper

4:06for the first time.

4:07Don't worry, it's actually really exciting and really fun.

4:10And at the end of the day, once you've

4:12done it a couple of times you'll go oh, I really like this!

4:15It's structured very cleanly, in a way

4:18that logically makes sense!

4:20And you'll like this a lot, the syntax of Juniper commands

4:23and how the CLI is structured.

4:25Just trust me, you're going to really enjoy

4:28this particular content that's coming up.

4:30Configuration.

4:31Now Juniper handles configuration a lot differently

4:34from other vendors.

4:36And this is one of the cool things about it--

4:38how it actually makes changes to the configuration,

4:41and how we can reverse changes in the event

4:43that something goes wrong.

4:45Throughout this section, we're going

4:46to be working through how we can create user accounts,

4:49set IP addresses, and actually check

4:51what the history of our configurations have been.

4:54You'll learn, again, that this is one of the ways

4:57that Juniper really sets itself apart--

4:59how the configuration is actually handled,

5:02as opposed to the running config.

5:03Then in the Operational Monitoring and Maintenance,

5:06this is where Juniper does things

5:07wildly different from other vendors and platforms

5:10that you've heard about in the past.

5:12Why?

5:12Here's another little spoiler, Juniper actually

5:15runs on top of FreeBSD or Linux variants.

5:18It used to be only FreeBSD.

5:20Now it's FreeBSD or Linux, depending

5:22on which platform you use.

5:23But here's the thing, you need to actually understand

5:25how Juniper is going to use monitoring

5:28and operational tools, and how we

5:30could restore, or default config, or recover

5:33these devices.

5:34Because it is different from other platforms.

5:36It's only once we've gone through this stuff

5:38that we actually get into the networking itself.

5:40And this is another huge thing that I

5:42want to talk about immediately, up front.

5:44And set this precedence, up front.

5:46We are only going to be focused on routing.

5:48I repeat, the JNCIA-Junos is only focused on routing.

5:53That's Layer 3 and above.

5:56We're not talking Layer 2.

5:58There is no VLAN or ethernet configuration at all,

6:02as part of the JNCIA-Junos examination.

6:05And this one catches people off guard.

6:07The thing is that VLANs and ethernet configuration changes

6:11a little bit, whether we go into Enterprise, or Security,

6:14or Service Provider.

6:16And that's where they save Layer 2 configurations

6:18for the JNCIS-level examinations.

6:21That doesn't mean I'm not going to talk a little bit about.

6:23It if you're going to be working with switching,

6:25you should probably know a little bit

6:26about how to configure a VLAN on a switch

6:28or something like that.

6:29But know that it's not on the JNCIA-Junos exam.

6:32What they really want you to understand

6:34is the fundamentals of routing.

6:35How would a Junos operating system make a routing decision?

6:40How would you deploy an interior gateway routing protocol,

6:43like OSPF?

6:45And then beyond that, it goes into some actually

6:47advanced-level topics, with Route Policies and Firewall

6:50Filters.

6:51With Routing Policies, we are actually

6:53talking about things like route redistribution.

6:56How do we get static routes shared into an OSPF domain?

7:00Or BGP routes shared into an OSPF domain?

7:03We use routing policies for this.

7:05And this is what kind of throws people off, too.

7:07This is actually an advanced routing topic.

7:09This doesn't even show up in other vendors

7:11until later in their game, in their advanced routing topics.

7:14But it's here in the JNCIA-Junos exam.

7:16Again, don't worry.

7:17We've got covered.

7:18We're going to teach you how all of these things work,

7:20and how to configure them on a Junos device.

7:22Then the Firewall Filters are, more or less, like ACLs.

7:26So we're going to talk about how to configure those, too.

7:28And all of the different options that are available.

7:31Just know that the spirit of where they're

7:33coming from, with Route Policies and Firewall Filters,

7:36isn't to teach you about route redistribution.

7:39It's to show you how Junos implements this differently

7:42from other vendors.

7:43And it's a very logical structure, one more time.

7:46The spirit of this entire exam isn't necessarily

7:50about networking, so much.

7:51It's how to implement networking on a Junos-running device.

7:56So the expectation, when you join and start this JNCIA-Junos

8:00journey, is that you already have

8:02some fundamental networking under your belt.

8:04You already know things like the OSI model,

8:06and how a router would make a route decision,

8:09and why configuring usernames and passwords on switches

8:12is the important thing.

8:13You already know what SSH does, and NTP does.

8:16Now it's how do you configure them on Junos.

8:18This is different from previous versions of the JNCIA-Junos

8:22exam.

8:22The first time I took the JNCIA-Junos exam was almost

8:25five years ago, at this point.

8:27And it was very entry-level, assuming that you knew nothing

8:30about networking.

8:31Now the JNCIA-Junos exam has shifted its focus,

8:34and is primarily focused on just Junos itself,

8:37assuming, maybe, that you're already

8:39coming from a different vendor.

8:41Or that you already Network+ level content.

8:44So this sets up the expectation about what

8:46the JNCIA-Junos is all about.

8:48I can promise you this, if your interest is going into JNCIS

8:53or JNCIP you will want to pay close attention

8:56to how the Junos operating system really works.

9:00Because it will set you up for success when it comes

9:02time to actually deploy these networks in the real world.

9:05Or even, taking it a step further,

9:07automating them if you're interested in the DevOps track.

9:09So that's been understanding the spirit of the JNCIA-Junos exam.

9:12I hope this has been informative for you,

9:14and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:05So we're ready to dive into the JNCIA-Junos at this point,

0:08and here's the thing.

0:09As you progress through your JNCIA journey

0:12or all the way up to JNCIS, JNCIP, or maybe even JNCIE,

0:18at some point you're going to realize,

0:19I need some way to practice these commands.

0:22I need some form of a lab.

0:24Now, we can do this with hardware,

0:25or we can do this with software.

0:27There's even a virtual lab offering.

0:28In this Nugget, what we're going to talk about

0:30is some of the hardware options that you

0:32can use to purchase a physical home lab.

0:35For instance, in my very own home lab,

0:37I happen to have some Juniper switches as well as a Juniper

0:40firewall.

0:40Let's talk about the equipment that I

0:42recommend you use to build your own physical Juniper home lab.

0:46Now that we understand what the JNCIA is all about,

0:49we're going to get started talking about how to actually

0:51implement and configure Juniper devices

0:54with initial configurations and then routing on top of that.

0:57When it comes time to do that, it

0:59may help if you have a way to follow along or at least

1:02networking devices themselves, physical or virtual,

1:05so that you can type the commands

1:06and really drill that muscle memory into mind.

1:09Let's first start by talking about the hardware

1:11options available to you.

1:13I'm going to use eBay as my favorite place

1:15to purchase used equipment.

1:17And one of the devices that I recommend checking out

1:20that's both affordable and can give you

1:21both layer 2 and layer 3 options is the Juniper EX2200 device.

1:27When you see EX, you should know that the EX

1:30is for "enterprise switching."

1:32This is actually an exam topic itself is understanding

1:36the Juniper offerings, the hardware offerings

1:39and the different platforms.

1:40And the EX-series devices are the enterprise-grade switches.

1:44See this guy right here?

1:46This is an EX2200 that I'm going to be using

1:48to configure as we go along.

1:50But also, sitting to the right of me here,

1:53I have a Juniper EX4200, which is

1:56a larger, more powerful switch that takes up a lot more space.

2:00You can see the EX2200s though come in a couple different form

2:03factors.

2:04The dash-Cs that you see here are the small form factors.

2:08And then you have the regular EX2200s,

2:11which are the full-size rack mount switches that

2:13are the full-size form factor.

2:15As you can tell, the EX2200 devices are pretty affordable.

2:18They range in about the $50 to $60 range.

2:21And you can get the 2200-Cs new in box

2:25for just over $100, $135, $155.

2:29If you wanted something that's not end-of-life though,

2:31because the EX2200s are end-of-life,

2:34the EX2300s are what is the newer version

2:37or the newer models of these, and these are still supported.

2:40You can see you can get them new, sealed in box.

2:43They, of course, are more expensive,

2:44but they are still supported.

2:46You can still get new versions of the operating system, which

2:49you'll find out is a pretty big deal,

2:51especially when it comes time to create your Juniper account.

2:54And then you can practice going through operating system

2:57upgrades and things like that.

2:59Those are exam topics, and they remain exam topics.

3:02Monitoring and maintaining your environment remains on the exam

3:05as you progress even through the JNCIS.

3:07Now, here are the EX4200s that I'm talking about.

3:10These are larger switches.

3:11They are louder switches too.

3:13But they do provide PoE and overall

3:16are what are generally deployed in enterprise environment.

3:19Now, lastly, if you're interested in the firewall

3:22offerings, you're going to be looking at the SRX-series

3:25line of devices.

3:26Again, exam topic-- if you see SRX,

3:28you should know that that is for the security products,

3:31the firewalls themselves.

3:33The SRX300 is what I have in my physical environment.

3:37And it does kind of look like this

3:38where there's roughly six to eight ports

3:40depending on which model you get.

3:42There's a console port, and this is primarily

3:44used for a small business or branch office environment.

3:48Now, fair warning, the configuration,

3:50even though it is running Junos, this is a firewall,

3:53and we have to deal with security zones

3:55and stuff like that.

3:56And those are not JNCIA-Junos topics.

3:59You will not see security zones really anywhere

4:01in the service provider, data center, or enterprise track.

4:04That's why JNCIA security has its own track

4:08and its own certification.

4:09So if you do end up getting an SRX device,

4:12know that some of the configurations,

4:13the initial configurations that you need to bring it to life,

4:16are going to be a little bit different than what we

4:18cover in the JNCIA-Junos exam.

4:20Nonetheless, it's good to have one of these

4:22because it will help you get familiar with the security

4:26offerings.

4:26And beyond that, it can even introduce you

4:28to the SD-WAN offerings within Juniper's line of product.

4:32So my recommendation, if you're getting

4:33started in Juniper devices, I would actually

4:36recommend probably picking up something like the EX2200

4:39device.

4:40Now, I did warn that the JNCIA itself does not

4:43cover VLANs or layer 2.

4:45And obviously, if you're buying a switch,

4:47that's going to be a big part of it.

4:48So know that the initial configuration

4:50to get a switch up to life goes just a little bit

4:53beyond what JNCIA-Junos brings to the table.

4:55But nonetheless, this is the product

4:57that I am going to be using in my environment as well

5:00as the virtual products, like the software-based products

5:02that I'm going to be talking about in the very next Nugget.

5:05So that's been understanding how we

5:06could deploy a hardware-based lab environment for our JNCIA

5:10studies.

5:11I hope this has been informative for you,

5:12and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:05Now sometimes, physical hardware labs

0:07are out of the questions for a lot of people

0:09because of space constraints.

0:10We don't have the space to put all this equipment,

0:12or electricity constraints, or even budgetary constraints.

0:15We don't have the money to go out and purchase

0:17this physical equipment.

0:18And that's OK because Juniper does offer virtual lab images

0:22that you can download and run in applications

0:25like EVE-NG or GNS3.

0:27As long as you have a Juniper account,

0:29you can walk through the steps to get entitled

0:32to the evaluation images, which you can then

0:34use in lab environments like GNS3 and EVE-NG.

0:37In this Nugget, what we're going to do

0:39is introduce you to what the images are

0:41that you can download and places-- the resources--

0:43that you can go to get them set up in your own environment.

0:46Let's get going.

0:47Now maybe a much more attractive option to you

0:49is going to use a virtualization platform or a QEMU platform,

0:52something like GNS3 or EVE-NG.

0:55Me personally, I'm going to be using EVE-NG

0:58for my virtual demonstrations throughout this playlist

1:01and any other Juniper playlists that I work on in the future.

1:04I really prefer to work with that platform.

1:06And it runs Juniper products great.

1:08So here's how we can get started.

1:09From Google you can just search for Juniper downloads.

1:13And right there, the very first thing that pops up

1:15is downloads for Juniper Support.

1:17Let's give it a click, and I'll show you what you need to do.

1:20The first thing you need to do, is

1:21you need to create a Juniper account.

1:24This does have to be a business account.

1:26So go up here in the top right corner, click on Account

1:29and choose User Registration.

1:31You'll type in your email address in the fields here.

1:33And then choose what country you want to choose.

1:35And then you can see, you've got three different ways

1:38that you can create your email.

1:39You have an authorization code.

1:41Maybe you've purchased something and they've given you

1:43a code that you can type in.

1:44You can do that there.

1:46If you have a product serial number--

1:47maybe you followed along in the previous Nugget and you

1:49actually purchased something off eBay--

1:51you can use that serial number right here

1:53to create your account.

1:55If you have a Cloud Marketplace or a cloud service provider--

1:58maybe you're doing something like SD-WAN or cloud provider--

2:01you could do something like this.

2:03Or lastly, you can just choose Guest User access

2:05if that's the best way that you want

2:07to create your user account.

2:08Now, in my case when I created my account,

2:11I had already purchased an EX2200 device off of eBay

2:14and I used its serial number to create my own account.

2:17If you haven't purchased something off eBay,

2:19you may probably want to go with the Guest User access.

2:22So go through the process of creating your user account

2:25first, and then you can make your way back to the Downloads

2:28page here.

2:29Now, here's the next thing I want to draw your attention to.

2:32Kind of by my head right down here

2:33at the bottom right corner of the screen,

2:35you see this Get Support?

2:37Chances are you're going to be clicking on that next.

2:39But here's how we'll make sure.

2:41We'll start out by typing vSRX.

2:43Now a quiz question-- what was the SRX line of products

2:46for, after all?

2:47It was for the firewall products.

2:49Those were our security products.

2:50And you see, when I type in vSRX,

2:52there is a vSRX evaluation.

2:55If you give that a click, it shows you

2:57what the download options are for you,

2:59and this is where you can actually

3:00download the images needed to run Juniper devices.

3:04Right here, the KVM appliance, this qcow2 file, this

3:08is what is going to be needed at least in EVE-NG's environment

3:11to run the vSRX appliance.

3:13So if you click this, you'll find out

3:15pretty quickly if you have the privileges or the rights

3:19to actually download this.

3:20And nine times out of ten you'll find out that you don't.

3:22And that's when you need to initiate the Get Support

3:25session right here.

3:27Now the support session, itself, is

3:28going to start up by being driven by an automated bot.

3:31What you should do is, you should try and tell

3:33this automated bot that you are trying to get entitled

3:37to evaluation software.

3:38And after a few back-and-forths with the bot,

3:41it will ask you if you want to speak to a customer service

3:44representative.

3:45You say yes to that, and you tell

3:46that person you're just trying to get access

3:48to the evaluation products.

3:50And these evaluation products, you

3:52want to specifically tell them you

3:54want the vSRX, which again is for security products.

3:59You want the vMX.

4:01These are routers.

4:03When you see the MX Series devices, these are routers

4:06and these are largely used in the service provider world,

4:09though they can be used in the enterprise world.

4:12And you want the vQFX.

4:16These are Data Center switches.

4:18You want to tell the support chat

4:20that you want the evaluation entitlements to vSRX, vMX,

4:25and vQFX.

4:26You want all three.

4:27So that way, when the time comes, you can search for vMX.

4:31And you see, there's vMX Evaluation.

4:33You can give that a click.

4:34And then there's the KVM options right here.

4:37You may notice now though that this wasn't a qcow2 file.

4:40This is actually a tgz, which is kind of like a zip file.

4:44And that's because the vMX and the vQFX

4:49actually contains two appliances in it.

4:52Why does it contain two appliances?

4:54Well, that's kind of spoiling the entire point

4:56of the operating system architecture.

4:58And that's what we're going to talk about in the next skill.

5:00Just know that the vSRX is going to be

5:03one image whereas the vMX and the vQFX

5:07is going to contain two images and two appliances.

5:10And yes, you do have to have both in order

5:13to get them set up.

5:14Now, if you're going to be doing this in EVE-NG,

5:16which is what I'm using, you can go to EVENG--

5:19or EVE hyphen NG dot net.

5:21Click on Documentation at the very top of the screen

5:24and then under HowTo's click the HowTo's dropdown

5:27and scroll on down until you get to the Juniper section.

5:30You'll see there's vMX, vQFX, and vSRX-NG.

5:35That's the ones that you're going

5:37to want to be working with is vMX, vQFX,

5:40and vSRX-NG if you're downloading the latest

5:43versions from their website, which I recommend.

5:46When you click on Juniper vMX here,

5:48it does walk you through step-by-step

5:50how you go about adding these images into your environment.

5:53You do need to go through all of these steps--

5:55every single one of them-- in order to get this fully up

5:59and running.

5:59But that is the instructions on how

6:01you can go about freely and legally acquiring the Juniper

6:05images for your own virtual lab.

6:07And then if you're using EVE-NG, how you can actually get them

6:10set up in your environment.

6:11It does really help to have the physical hardware already

6:15to have a serial number entitling you

6:17to Juniper equipment and creating a Juniper account.

6:20So if you did pick up a switch on the previous Nugget

6:23when you went through the eBay phase

6:24and you bought something off eBay,

6:26try and create that Juniper account

6:28using the serial number.

6:29And in the worst-case scenario, create an account

6:31with Guest Access and speak to customer

6:33support in order to get serial numbers applied to your account

6:37or to get the entitlements to the evaluation images.

6:40Then you can follow along with EVE-NG documentation

6:42on how to actually get those evaluation images up

6:45and running in your environment.

6:46So that's been understanding how you

6:48can get a virtual lab of Juniper hardware up and running.

6:50I hope this has been informative for you.

6:52And I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[INTRO SOUND PLAYING]

0:05Our last option for getting acquainted

0:07or familiarized with Juniper hardware or equipment

0:10is actually to use their virtual labs.

0:12They offer lab scenarios online for free to access

0:16as long as, again, you have a Juniper account.

0:18So what we're going to do in this particular Nugget

0:20is introduce you to Juniper vLabs.

0:22A little warning though, this is for some more advanced

0:25studying.

0:26This is going to be more towards your JNCIP and JNCIE levels

0:30because these are going to be pre-built labs for scenarios.

0:33Nonetheless, it's a great way for you

0:35to get hands on a command line and actually type some commands

0:38to see what they do.

0:39Let's explore Juniper's vLab's option.

0:41The last thing that we should talk about

0:43is Juniper's online lab option, which

0:45is known as Juniper vLabs.

0:47If I actually just Google Juniper vLabs,

0:49it's the first thing that pops up just like it says.

0:52Now, like I said before, there's a little bit of a fair warning

0:54that this is really used case specific.

0:57This isn't going to be just a sandbox environment where

1:00you can tinker around and do whatever you want.

1:02But it is a great way to actually jump into devices

1:04and just poke around and see what all these devices can do.

1:08You can see right here it's kind of small text, test drive vMX,

1:12vSRX or some of their other offerings

1:14like the NorthStar Controller or the Contrail Enterprise

1:18Multicloud.

1:18These are SD-WAN or enterprise grade SD in solutions.

1:23So when you sign in with your Juniper account,

1:25just like I'm doing right now and I'm

1:27getting signed into Juniper's vLabs, we can see right here,

1:30here's a standalone vMX information.

1:33I can click Launch right there and it

1:35launches the Juniper vLabs.

1:37I see that there is a vMX device here.

1:40This is what the topology layout would look like,

1:42and if I click on the instructions in the top left,

1:45you can see it pops out this little screen.

1:47And it actually shows you how to use this sandbox environment so

1:50that you could follow along and perform some actions

1:53on this vMX router.

1:54This is a great way just to jump in

1:56and type some commands to keep this thing up and running.

1:59Now, fair warning, there are some limitations

2:01onto how or what you can actually

2:03do on this network device.

2:05Otherwise, there may be people in there

2:06trying to break this device and we

2:08would lose connectivity to it.

2:09But you should know that this is another option for you

2:12that you should explore if you're trying to get hands

2:14on with Juniper devices.

2:16They have virtual labs for a bunch of different platforms

2:18and for a bunch of different scenarios

2:20that you can use right now for free as long

2:23as you have a Juniper account.

2:25So that introduces the Juniper vLabs option.

2:27I hope this has been informative for you,

2:29and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:05If you're here because you're considering

0:07going for your JNCIA-Junos certification,

0:10or if you're just interested in learning more about the Juniper

0:12platform in general, then guess what--

0:14you're in luck, because you're already

0:16in one of the best places that you could be when

0:18it comes to learning Juniper.

0:19Right here, at CBT Nuggets, watching this

0:22playlist all about the JNCIA-Junos.

0:23But here's the other kicker for you.

0:25You may seek other resources for learning,

0:28and you may find out pretty quickly

0:30there's not a whole lot out there.

0:31What I want to show you, in this particular Nugget,

0:33is that there are other resources out there that

0:35can really benefit you in your long run

0:37as you study and learn more about the Juniper platform,

0:40and all of the products and services

0:41in the architecture of the OS, and everything else that

0:43comes with it.

0:44But beyond that, there's some even more additional items

0:47that would really help you out.

0:48Things like a voucher for taking the certification exam.

0:51That's what we're going to cover in this Nugget, some

0:53of the other learning resources that will really help you

0:56in your Juniper journey.

0:57And things that you'll want to get acclimated to using,

1:00as part of your certification or your actual professional career

1:03development.

1:04Let's keep going talking about the other Juniper learning

1:06resources that could help you, as you

1:08learn throughout the Juniper Certification Playlist.

1:10I think this is really one of the coolest things

1:12about Juniper is that they want to lower

1:15their barrier to entry.

1:16And that's why they created a particular resource that really

1:19helps people get started learning with Juniper,

1:21and going for their certifications.

1:23In fact, they created this resource

1:25that enables people to more affordably take their JNCIA

1:30certifications.

1:31Now, as you've already seen, they offer multiple JNCIAs.

1:34So here's a way that we could actually

1:36get acclimated to the Juniper certification journey,

1:39as well as receive an exam voucher that significantly

1:43reduces the cost for the JNCIA certifications.

1:45Let me introduce you to the Junos Genius.

1:49From Google, I'll search for Junos Genius.

1:51I'll type in Junos Genius, and right here the very first thing

1:55that pops up-- you see, we've got

1:56this cloud.contentraven.com.

1:59I've been told that they're considering

2:01changing to a different platform,

2:03but that's not official.

2:04We don't really know for sure if that's really going to happen.

2:06For now, at the time of this recording,

2:08Junos Genius is hosted on this cloud.contentraven.com.

2:11Just give that a click, the first thing that pops up.

2:13And you'll be greeted with this login page, right here.

2:16Now, if you don't have an account,

2:17go ahead and create one.

2:18It's free to create this account.

2:20And I've already got an account, as you can see here

2:22on this page, with my username and password prepopulated

2:25for me here.

2:26Notice also that they have a Junos Genius

2:28app that's on iTunes, or the App Store, as well as Google Play.

2:32So you can also access this type of content

2:35from your cell phone, when you're on the go.

2:37So I'll click login, and it will take me into Junos Genius.

2:41And across the top, you can see, here

2:43is where we break down the different categories

2:45of resource learning items that we have here.

2:48Notice these things right here, these practice tests.

2:50You've got the Associate Level practice

2:52test, Specialist Level practice test, Professional Level

2:55practice test--

2:56that's right, there's practice tests

2:57here in this certification, or this Junos Genius Content

3:01Raven, website.

3:02Now, I'm going to get into these practice tests

3:03a little bit more in just a moment.

3:05But the first thing I wanted to show you

3:06is the very first line, right here.

3:08This Get Started for Free section.

3:10You see these Certification Tracks, Certification Tracks,

3:14Certification Tracks.

3:15That's exactly what these are.

3:16These are Certification Tracks that

3:18are designed to help you go from one end to the other.

3:21Now think about this for one moment.

3:23If you've been following along on this particular skill,

3:25what were the certifications that use the JNCIA-Junos?

3:29This is your little pop quiz in the middle of this Nugget.

3:31What were those certifications that

3:33had the JNCIA-Junos as their root tier?

3:36There were three Certification Tracks

3:38that had the JNCIA-Junos as the root tier.

3:41That was the Enterprise Track, the Data Center Track,

3:44and the Service Provider Track.

3:46So here we go.

3:47We can see that we've got a Data Center Track,

3:49we've got an Enterprise Track, and-- if I scroll over,

3:52with this little arrow right here on the right hand

3:54side of the screen, I now see there's

3:56also the Service Provider Track down here, towards the end.

3:59If I give any of these a click, like the Enterprise Track

4:01here, we see now it's broken down

4:03into the three certifications that make this up.

4:06Worth pointing out that the JNCIE,

4:09the expert-level content, is not available on Junos Genius.

4:12But every other exam that they have--

4:14JNCIA, JNCIS, or JNCIP--

4:18will have some content here that's available to you.

4:20So from within here, if I click on the JNCIA-Junos,

4:24it does take me into the JNCIA-Junos Track.

4:28The first thing is there is a Terms and Conditions Read Me

4:30that you have to go through.

4:31And then there is some video content, that's right here.

4:34Now if I scroll down just a hair,

4:37we see that there are two practice

4:39exams for the JNCIA-Junos.

4:41And then there is the Voucher Assessment Test.

4:44So in order to take the Voucher Assessment Test,

4:47you do have to go through all of the preceding content.

4:50You do have to go through the Read Me,

4:52you do have to go through the video content,

4:54and you have to take the Practice Tests.

4:55You do have to pass the Practice Tests,

4:58or at least attempt them.

4:59It is worth pointing out that-- it

5:00might be a glitch in the videos, or something--

5:02that if you merely click on one of these videos,

5:04and let it start running, once you actually exit out of it,

5:07it does mark the entire video series as completed.

5:09So here, you can see, I'm letting this one run,

5:11right here.

5:12If I click close, it would then show that this is completed.

5:14So you could actually just click on all of these, and just blast

5:17right through them.

5:18But you'd be missing out on some good content, too.

5:20So once you go through the video content,

5:22and you take these practice exams,

5:23you can then take this Voucher Assessment, right here.

5:27And if you pass the Voucher Assessment,

5:29you will get emailed a little voucher code

5:31that you can use to redeem your JNCIA-Junos.

5:34Now the time of this recording, it's a 75% off discount,

5:38or it equates to be about a $25 exam fee.

5:41The Specialist Exams are a little bit more expensive,

5:45and there is no Voucher Assessment

5:46for Specialist or Professional.

5:47The voucher is really for the JNCIAs,

5:51but it's not just the JNCIA-Junos.

5:53Like I said, it's the JNCIA-DevOps,

5:55it's the JNCIA-MistAI, it's the JNCDA

5:59for the Design Certification.

6:00So if I click back, and then I click back one more time,

6:03you should know that from the top layer right here,

6:06you can get to the Voucher Assessments

6:08for each one of the tracks.

6:09So whether it's Security, Enterprise, Automation,

6:13whatever you want to go for.

6:14That JNCIA-- if you start with that root JNCIA,

6:17you can get the voucher assessment right there.

6:20And that's a really, really incredible offer

6:22that I really encourage you to go for,

6:24if you're considering getting your certification

6:26with Juniper.

6:27But beyond that, once you get past the JNCIA

6:29and you want to get into the JNCIS,

6:31they've got a certification track for the JNCIS.

6:34Now, a little bit of my advice, here.

6:36It's not necessarily a warning, or a bad thing.

6:39Just for me, personally, I found that these were out of order.

6:43In fact, these e-learning courses are basically

6:45sorted alphabetically, and it's not necessarily the best way

6:48to learn them.

6:49And I've blogged about the preferred way

6:51that you could learn some of this content,

6:53like in the JNCIS Service Provider--

6:54a better way that you could do about those things

6:56on dataknox.dev.

6:58But nonetheless it is content that can

6:59help you prepare for your JNCIA, JNCIS, or JNCIP certifications.

7:04Now let's scroll down, just a hair,

7:06and move into the Practice Tests.

7:08If you don't want to go through those certification videos,

7:11or you don't care about the Voucher Assessment,

7:13and you just want to go straight into Practice Tests,

7:15you can find additional Practice Tests broken down

7:18by their level--

7:19Associate, Specialist, or Professional level.

7:22And then, again, you can see exactly which

7:25Practice Tests you're taking.

7:26So here's JNCIA-DevOps.

7:28They have a Practice Test One, and a Practice Test Two.

7:31That way you could take these Practice Tests really any time

7:34that you want.

7:34You've got unlimited tries on these Practice Tests, here.

7:37So you can just take these over, and over, and over again,

7:40if that's what you want to do.

7:41And really drill down into these.

7:42One of the cool things that I like about these Practice Tests

7:45is that it tells you exactly why the questions were--

7:48the answers were right, or why the questions were--

7:50or the answers were wrong.

7:52So if I just click on something here, I didn't really, like,

7:54read this question or anything, but then I say "Show answer."

7:57It tells you why these were the correct answers,

7:59and why the wrong answers were the wrong answers.

8:01And this becomes less about just gauging your readiness

8:05for the certification, and more of an additional learning

8:08resource, that I really recommend

8:09that you take advantage of when you're going

8:11for the JNCIA, JNCIS, or JNCIP.

8:15So I'll exit out of this certification,

8:17and then I'll exit out of this one more time.

8:19And again, I can't stress this enough,

8:21you'll find Associate-Level, Specialist-Level,

8:24and-- if I scroll down a little bit more--

8:26Professional-Level Practice Tests here for you.

8:28And there's multiple Practice Tests.

8:30So you could get exposed to over 100

8:32different Practice-Test-style questions that could really

8:36prepare you well for the actual certification exams themselves.

8:39So ultimately, my recommendation for you

8:41is, if you're serious about Juniper certification exams

8:45and Juniper certification prep, you really

8:47want to take advantage of that Associate-Level voucher, as

8:50well as these practice exams.

8:52I have found that they made a critical difference

8:54in my readiness for taking the actual exam itself.

8:58These practice exams, they really either

9:00bolstered my confidence, or they made me check myself and assess

9:04where I was weakest at.

9:05So that way, I could go back and learn more

9:07about these particular items.

9:08There are, lots of times, things that often catch me

9:10off guard, when I'm, like, oh wait a minute,

9:12I didn't think about this, or that specific scenario.

9:14And these practice exams help fill

9:16in those gaps that are going to be wildly

9:18helpful for your success.

9:19Now scrolling down a little bit more,

9:21there's some other things that I want

9:23to draw your attention to that I think

9:24are going to be useful in your professional career.

9:27Not necessarily for the certification journey itself,

9:30but when you actually start working with Juniper gear.

9:32The first one is the hardware-specific content

9:35and Deployment Courses.

9:37You can see things like the QFX, data-center style, switches.

9:41The ACX, this is a Service-Provider-style router.

9:45The PTX is also a Service Provider super-core router.

9:48These are some complex machines that we're

9:51talking about, at this point.

9:52Rather than just 1U or 2U little units,

9:54we're talking about these giant units that take up whole rooms

9:58because they're doing nothing but massive-scale

10:00routing, switching, and all these other types

10:02of data-center-style services.

10:04So these are the books and learning resources that--

10:07if you were to actually dive into a Data Center,

10:09or a Service Provider, or actually get hands-on with some

10:12of the massive-scale equipment the Juniper's really known

10:15for--

10:15these are the things where you're

10:17like, OK well that's great, I know the core about Junos.

10:19And I understand how routing really works and everything.

10:21But what is it that makes that platform so unique, or so

10:24different?

10:24And how would the deployment actually

10:26work in those types of items?

10:27How do you even cart the thing into the room,

10:29because it's so big?

10:30This is where these hardware-specific guides are

10:33going to come in handy for you.

10:34And you can start to learn what makes

10:36Junos, and their different platforms,

10:39so special or so unique.

10:40In the next skill, when we talk about the Junos architecture,

10:43we're going to talk about the releases themselves,

10:46and the actual versioning of Junos.

10:48And you'll learn pretty quickly that while every single Juniper

10:51device runs Junos, they offer some different specialties,

10:55or some different roles, or some different features

10:58that other platforms don't offer.

11:00For instance, it kind of makes obvious sense

11:02to say things like a firewall doesn't offer the same services

11:06that a switch does, but they both run Junos,

11:08at the end of the day.

11:09They just don't offer the exact same commands.

11:12Because they don't offer the exact same services.

11:15And that's where this hardware deployment guide is really

11:17going to come in handy for you.

11:18Now the Day One Books are absolutely outstanding.

11:22This is one of the best features that

11:24come with the Junos Genius, the ability

11:26to read the Day One Books.

11:28The Day One Books live up to the name.

11:29They're for what do I do on day one, when it comes

11:32to this specific technology?

11:34Sure you're seeing things like "Segment Routing,"

11:36and "Deploying vSRX on KVM," and "MACsec Up and Running,"

11:40and you're thinking, wait a minute--

11:41I'm just here for the JNCIA-Junos.

11:43I don't really see much use, for me, as a Day One Book.

11:46But if you scroll all the way on over to the right-- aw,

11:49keep going-- you'll see this View All button.

11:50Give that a click.

11:51And then, if you scroll all the way to the bottom,

11:55you can bring up a bunch of different books

11:57that you may actually find very useful.

11:59I love "Exploring the Junos CLI."

12:02I love "EX Series Up and Running,"

12:04because this is a very common deployment in enterprises,

12:07to deploy EX series routers.

12:09I love "Exploring IPv6."

12:12There's nothing too advanced, when

12:14it comes to deploying routing within IPv6.

12:17And this is a book that would help you get up

12:18and running with these, on day one.

12:20If I scroll up just a little bit more,

12:23you'll also find a couple books that I really love.

12:26Especially if you're coming from the Cisco IOS world.

12:28You've got "Junos for IOS Engineers,"

12:31and also some other things like "Junos QoS for IOS Engineers."

12:35They know that they're up against Cisco, and all

12:38of these other IOS engineers, and learners typically

12:41start out in these Cisco or Cisco-like environments

12:44before they dive right into Junos.

12:46So they've created these types of readings

12:48to compare what commands you would type in Cisco,

12:51and then what those correlated commands would be in Junos.

12:54So that way you could actually learn--

12:56if I'm coming from a Cisco environment,

12:57here's the related command in Junos.

13:00So that wraps up Junos Genius, and I highly recommend this

13:03as a learning resource in general,

13:05whether you're going for certification prep or not.

13:07But if you are going for certification prep,

13:09know that I highly recommend it for the voucher, as well

13:12as the practice exams.

13:13Now the other things that you're going to want to get used to

13:15in the Juniper world, when you start

13:17working with Juniper devices, is the Juniper TechLibrary.

13:21If you search for Juniper TechLibrary,

13:22you'll find it at juniper.net/documentation.

13:26It's right here, highlighted on my screen.

13:28Yeah, you want to get used to this place,

13:29because you're going to be reading lots of documentation

13:32throughout your journey.

13:33Just about anything that you Google,

13:34if you see that there is a Juniper TechLibrary

13:37document on it, that's probably where you want to be.

13:39That's probably what you want to be reading.

13:40So if you look at the Juniper TechLibrary,

13:42they've got the platform-specific items,

13:44or the routing-specific items, switching-specific items.

13:47And all of these different platforms

13:49can get you down to the command that

13:51are applicable to your specific platform, or your specific use

13:54case.

13:54So get used to reading documentation

13:56from the Juniper TechLibrary.

13:58And if you Google things, and you see that /documentation,

14:01that's a great place to start.

14:02Now lastly, you may be thinking about physical textbooks.

14:04What physical textbooks do I recommend?

14:07Well, this is the old textbook, from like 20 years ago.

14:10And it's really, really robust.

14:12It's, like, gigantic.

14:13It's, like, this thick.

14:14And I don't know that this textbook, necessarily,

14:18is going to be the best way to get you prepared

14:20for today's JNCIA, but there is a lot

14:23of good information in it.

14:24I have this book, I've read it.

14:26And it does help prepare you for the JNCIA, to an extent.

14:29You just have to know-- you have to be familiar enough

14:31with the exam blueprint to know when the textbook goes

14:34beyond what you need to know, and decide whether or not

14:38you want to continue going.

14:39Just know that this textbook was for a much "more-bigger"

14:42version of the JNCIA, and that's not really what you're up

14:44against these days anymore.

14:45But it does have relevant content in it.

14:47More applicable-- I really, really

14:50like the Juniper O'Reilly books.

14:52There's a lot of good O'Reilly books.

14:53When you start getting into things

14:55like Data Center, or Service Provider,

14:56or Enterprise you'll find even more, specific, O'Reilly

15:00textbooks for the type of use case you're using.

15:02In fact, this is the Junos Enterprise Routing textbook.

15:05And this is really good, especially

15:07for the JNCIS or JNCIP, Enterprise Routing guides.

15:11But it also does have some information that's definitely

15:13applicable to your JNCIA.

15:15I also loved the book "MPLS in the SDN Era."

15:22This is what I read when I was going for my JNCIS Service

15:25Provider.

15:26Now this book went way beyond what

15:28was needed for the JNCIA Service Provider, but very cool

15:30nonetheless, because it did go deep

15:32into the inner workings of MPLS.

15:34As well as, not only how to deploy

15:36these types of technologies in Junos,

15:39but also Cisco technologies.

15:41So nearly every example in the "MPLS in the SDN Era"

15:44had not only Junos, but also IOS XR.

15:47And it was primarily written with a multivendor environment,

15:50which, let's be realistic, that's what

15:52we go up against these days.

15:53Just about every environment that we work in is multivendor.

15:56So these are the resources that I recommend

15:58when you're going for your Juniper JNCIA, JNCIS,

16:02or JNCIP certification exams.

16:04Or if you're just getting started

16:06within Juniper platforms, and you're

16:07working with the hardware, and you

16:09need some additional resources.

16:10I highly recommend checking out all of these items,

16:13as that will bolster your skills and boost you up

16:15to the next level.

16:16I hope this has been informative for you,

16:18and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:05So that introduces you to the Juniper certification track,

0:08as well as the spirit of the JNCIA-Junos examination itself.

0:13We now understand that this exam is less about networking,

0:17even though networking is a big part of it,

0:18and more about introducing you to how Junos does networking

0:23differently.

0:23This is what sets you up for success

0:26when it's time to explore Enterprise or Service

0:28Provider or Data Center because now you're

0:30acquainted with the way that Juniper

0:32is going to be doing things.

0:34Beyond that, we've introduced some ways

0:35that you can follow along with some hardware or some software

0:38images.

0:39I hope this has been informative for you.

0:41And I'd like to thank you for viewing.