Review: Network Warrior

[tripwire45]

Author: Gary A. Donahue
Format: Paperback, 598 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc. (June 21, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0596101511
ISBN-13: 978-0596101510

Review by James Pyles
August 1, 2007

The subtitle of Donahue's book immediately caught my eye; Everything You Need to Know That Wasn't on the CCNA Exam. Since most CCNA certification books advertise themselves as containing everything you need to know for the exam, why do you need to know information not relevant for the test? Perhaps because after having earned your CCNA, you still might not be in much of a position to administer Cisco-based networks. How could that be?

Over the years, certification test designers have been working to make the testing process more relevant to "real-world" scenarios so that if a particular certification indicates that the person who holds it can do a certain job, when you hire them, they'll actually be able to do the job. After all, test questions don't always reflect what happens in a real-life server or telcom closet.

While I'm a great admirer of the various Cisco Press certification books, they are primarily written to help the reader pass certification exams, not get through a job interview or manage a production network on a day-to-day basis. As such, all of the networking scenarios and troubleshooting examples speak more to the test than to the work. Gary Donahue comes right out and says in the Preface that all of the examples in Network Warrior come from his own experiences working in networks with Cisco equipment. Donahue has worked as a "networking engineer, consultant, manager, and director" and has spent 25 years getting his hands dirty in networking, so his credentials seem firm.

Donahue leverages his knowledge and the practical examples he includes in this text and aims all of that at the CCNA level (or higher) "network warrior" who wants to know what happens after they've passed the test. He takes all of the concepts a person studying for the CCNA learns about such as VLANs, EIGRP, and CIDR and puts real muscle and skin on their bones. He takes many other things the CCNA exam may not require such as converged networking, PIX Firewall configuration, and server load-balancing and does the same thing.

The book takes some pretty dry material and manages to liberally moisten it so that reading the content gives a more lubricated feel and less of "metal-on-metal". It also isn't afraid to render the author's personal opinions about how to do things which may or may not be the "Cisco way". Chapters 36 and 37 also set this book apart.

Just about every book on a technical subject has a troubleshooting chapter. Chapter 36 in this book is called "Failures". This basically is the troubleshooting chapter but from the point of view of someone who's actually been confronted with these problems and sweated through the solutions. Chapter 37 is called "GAD's Maxims" (the author's initials). The maxims won't help you figure out why you can't ping a router or tell you how to enable VLANs on a switch but they will tell you how to real networking environments and real human work environments operate. You'll need those skills after you pass the CCNA and just after you are hired to work in networking.

Donahue's "Network Warrior" isn't designed to help you pass a test. It's designed to help you pass real life. Whether you're a newbie fresh out of school and looking for your first job, or an experienced technician looking for a better way to make sense of what you do, this book will be a real asset to you in your education and your career.