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The CMSS exam is now cleared, and so is the self learning path on the Meraki documentation. The learning process has helped me build what I would call a solid baseline, which will get updated with all the cool stuff that come from Cisco Meraki. I focused more on understanding the documentation, rather than remembering every single piece of technology I've been reading about. But let's take a trip down the memory lane.
Where did it all start?
I've worked with Cisco Meraki almost since it was acquired by Cisco back in 2012. While I loved the idea from the beginning, the capabilities were quite limited for the customers segment I worked with back then. But then gradually it has evolved to become one of the leading products in the cloud networking space, covering all customer sizes from small businesses to large enterprises.
Over the years I've been through different trainings certifications, starting with CMNA, Meraki FIT and later on ECMS1 and ECMS2 on Cisco U. The next natural step was the Cisco Meraki Solutions Specialst exam. It has been on my to-do list since when it was announced back in october 2020, but other certifications like CCIE, CISSP and Microsoft CyberSecurity Architect had to come first. Three months ago, I finally decided to go for the CMSS training and exam.
What training materials did I use?
I've learned over the years that you can easily get lost into books and documents focusing on different topics from the exam blueprint, so what I usually do is to pick one primary learning material and supply it whenever I don't understand a specific topic. In this case I went straight for the official self-study material that is available on the Meraki Community page. Besides helping with the exam, the self-study guide is essentially an organized list of the most important Cisco Meraki documents. These documents contain not only the specific technical solutions they are discussing, but also links to most of the other related solutions. I made sure to read and understand each one of them, which is the main reason why the certification process took about three months.
Sharing is caring
During my CISSP studies, I posted once in a while topics that I considered important enough to share with the community. I took the same approach with CMSS, partially as a way to give back, but also to get the chance to discuss the topics with others for better understanding. Below you can find a list of the posts related to this specific exam. Feel free to deep dive into them to learn about the more specific topics. The most discussed post was the one related to the High-Density Wi-Fi based on the Meraki documentation, which has also reached the most people out of any post I've ever made.
📗CMSS : Meraki MX Firewall- What’s behind the routing magic? (3 months ago, 2658 impressions)
CMSS: Brand new Cisco Meraki MX650 and one-armed concentrator architectures (2 months ago, 17456 impressions)
CMSS: Cisco Meraki Automatic Packet Capture on failing clients (2 months ago, 2199 impressions)
📶 CMSS: High Density Wi-Fi Best Practices (1 month ago, 64293 impressions)
WiFi high-density discussion Featured on post from Jussi Kiviniemi (Hamina CEO)
🔐 CMSS: Is your security strategy missing the bigger picture? (1 week ago, 2674 impressions)
How did the exam go?
I made the decision to book the exam late at night on September 1, 2024, for the following day at 10 am. Normally, I tend to book exams 1-2 months in advance, so that the deadline (exam date) serves as a catalyst for the study process, but this wasn't the case with CMSS. I've had my share of Cisco exams, and I've found out that the exam is the last step to close the process, rather than the most important element. What's important is understanding the technology, the reason why something is done the way it is. So, on the exam day I was pretty calm and just went for it. The registration process took about 45 minutes, as some video streaming towards Pearson Vue and a couple of services on my PC weren't closing properly to allow the exam to start. Despite this technicality, all went as expected and I passed the exam with a satisfactory score.
Where do we go from here?
While I've never been a big fan of working in study groups, mainly because I think it's difficult to keep the same pace, I do believe that engaging with the community is an alternative way to participate on discussions about the topics you are studying. This is a tradition that I plan to continue in the future with all my certifications, the next one being Azure Networking Engineer. This has also been in my list for a while, but also downvoted by all the other exciting certifications I've been through. But now it's the time!
Conclusions
I've enjoyed going through all the Meraki documentation over the past 3 months. The self-study guide is an excellent resourse for building a strong foundation baseline for the most important technical solutions technically possible with Cisco Meraki. Engaging with the community has proved to be a very efficient way to supply what's written in the documents.
References:
Announcing the Cisco Meraki Solutions Specialist Certification | The Meraki Blog
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