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CCSP CSI Exam Certification Guide (2nd Edition) Review by D. Marts
EXAM Study
I used this book to prepare for the recertification for Cisco CCSP. Although this book was written for the 642-541 test, I found it helpful for the 642-542 test that I took. All the exam topics are covered, including: Security fundamentals, SAFE Blueprint Overview, Cisco Security Portfolio, SAFE Midsize Network Design, SAFE Remote Network Design, SAFE Enterprise Network Design, SAFE IP Telephony Design and, SAFE Wireless LAN Design. The chapters are short and only the necessary information is presented. There is no in-depth explanation of how the concepts were developed. The reader needs to be familiar with CISCO products, their features and have the knowledge of how to configure them before reading this book but presumable they have this knowledge in order to pass all the necessary tests to hold the CCSP certification. Some examples are shown of configurations but the syntax is not explained and only relevant commands are shown.
In typical Cisco fashion, the important points are discussed multiple times throughout the book. Diagrams present all possible devices needed to complete the designs of SMR Networks, Enterprise Networks, IP Telephony, and Wireless LAN. There are many tables that summarized the information presented in the text including the descriptions of each device, the possible threats and which device mitigates each threat.
Each chapter starts with a quick quiz to gauge the readers understanding of the subject matter before reading. I found this helpful in that real knowledge was determined before reading the chapter and helped me focus on my weaknesses.
The book is split into 4 sections.
The first section gives an overview of the SAFE concepts and introduces the modules.
The second section introduces the reader to the CISCO definitions of LAN threats and describes which devices are used to mitigate each threat.
The third section introduces the CISCO devices and their features that apply to security issues present in the modules.
The fourth section describes all architectures of all the modules. This is the most beneficial part of the book. The information is presented much more concisely then in found in the CISCO SAFE White Papers. Information from multiple white papers is summarized, presented clearly and consistently here. This allows easy comparisons so differences and similarities are noticed easily. These differences where tested thoroughly by CISCO as were the content of the modules.
In the back of the book are scenarios requiring configurations of ACLs to complete. The only one I found relevant to the test was the configuration of a VPN on a firewall and router.
The information presented in this book can be found in the SAFE white papers and they were read whenever I needed more comprehensive understanding of a topic. I could not find white papers that covered SAFE IP Telephony or SAFE Wireless LAN Design. In the Book, these topics were covered lightly and at the same depth as the other topics.
What is lacking in this book and the white papers is configuration of examples of CISCO VPN Concentrators, IDS Appliances, Call-processing Manager or Wireless Access Point. Basic configuration of each of these devices should be known before taking this test.