Owing to the constant changes in network technologies, Cisco updates their certification exams every few years. One of their certifications, CCNA is the associate-level exam that checks the skills required by an individual to design, implement, and troubleshoot medium-sized networks.
Before appearing for the exam, candidates need to go through ample training with a CCNA course or any other state. In addition to a written test, candidates also have to pass a practical examination.
This practical exam forms a significant part which requires prolonged hours of lab practices. Hence, enrolling for the course or training programme becomes necessary especially for practising with Cisco lab kits.
Institutes providing these courses keep updating their syllabus as Cisco changes the exam patterns. The latest change to CCNA came back in 2016. Some of the key changes in each of the exams are discussed below.
- 100-105 ICND1
The following includes the changes made in the 100-105 ICND1 exam:
Added:
- Device configurations back-up and restoring.
- NTP and NAT configuration now included.
- Connectivity issues related to DHCP and DNS.
- Configuring and verifying IPv6 Stateless Address Auto Configuration (SLAAC).
- IPv6 addressing types now include Anycast.
- Collapsed Core architecture and three-tier architecture.
- Infrastructure components and their impact on wireless controllers, access points, and firewalls.
Removed:
- Cisco Express Forwarding, an advanced layer 3 switching technology has been removed from this exam.
- Hubs and bridges are now replaced by access points, wireless controllers, and firewall basics.
- Owing to the availability of numerous transition technologies, dual IPv4/IPv6 stack coverage has also been removed.
- Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) now removed from 100-105 ICND1 and added to 200-105 ICND2.
Moved:
- Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) moved to Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP).
- 200-105 ICND2
The 200-105 ICND2 includes the following changes:
Added:
- Single-homed enterprise branches connectivity configuring and verifying using eBGP IPv4.
- ACLs verification using APIC-EM Path Trace ACL.
- Topics included in VPN are Client VPN technologies, Site-to-Site VPN, and DMVPN.
- LAN switching topics include more explanation.
- Application of cloud resources in enterprise network architectures.
- Dual-homed vs. single-homed Intelligent WAN topology.
- PPPoE, GRE, MLPPP, PPP included in WAN technologies.
- WAN technologies now include VPN, Broadband PPPoE, MetroE, and MPLS.
Removed:
- FHRP or First Hop Redundancy Protocol do not include GLBP and VRRP anymore.
- Serial WAN
- Frame Relay
In this particular section, nothing has been moved as the previous one.
- 200-125 CCNAX
The 200-125 CCNAX is a composite of the two exams mentioned above and conform to the same changes.
These include the major changes that Cisco has brought in their CCNA certification exams. Since 2016, CCNA course institutes has also been updated and they have acknowledged these changes in written and lab practices.
Hence, candidates who are willing to pursue this training programme should enrol themselves at institutes which have upgraded their syllabus according to the latest changes.
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