Learn to Troubleshoot Like a Pro on Cisco U.

ROUTE. SWITCH. TSHOOT.

You might recall that back in 2010, the very popular CCNP Routing & Switching certification included those three popular exams. Fast forward to today, and I still remember TSHOOT fondly. The exam was a completely new experience: After answering a few multiple-choice questions, you were presented with a series of trouble tickets and had to determine what was broken in a complex network, where the issue was located, which technology needed to be fixed, and which commands to deploy to resolve the issue. This was proper troubleshooting, and the exam actually tested your knowledge of Cisco routing and switching technologies. Cisco even publicly shared the network topologies used in the TSHOOT exam to help you prepare.

I remember taking the TSHOOT exam multiple times to recertify my CCNP R&S. I was teaching ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT courses for learning partners but also at a local Networking Academy. My NetAcad students enjoyed the challenge of solving those complex network issues as they consolidated their routing and switching skills.

In 2020, Cisco Learning & Certifications retired the old CCNP Routing & Switching certification and released the CCNP Enterprise, replacing ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT with the new ENCOR and ENARSI exams and courses. Interestingly, the current ENARSI exam topics include multiple “troubleshooting” tasks, making it a solid contender for replacing TSHOOT, but ENARSI also serves as the replacement for ROUTE since it covers advanced routing topics.

Although I like ENCOR and ENARSI, I (and many others) miss the TSHOOT exam and course.

When I joined Cisco in 2021, I proposed a Cisco Live session based on my TSHOOT teaching experience. I designed a complex IPv4 and IPv6 network and created 27 trouble tickets for attendees to fix during a four-hour instructor-led lab. The lab has been so popular that over the past three years I’ve presented it nine times at Cisco Live events, with a tenth and eleventh coming up at Cisco Live Amsterdam in February 2025.

You might be wondering “Patrick, why are you telling me all this?”

Well, I’ve got some exciting news to share. WE’VE DECIDED TO BRING BACK THE TSHOOT COURSE!!!!!! We’ve updated the content, renamed it, and made it available on Cisco U. for All Access subscribers!

The new learning path is called Troubleshooting Cisco Enterprise Networking Solutions (ENTSH) and includes two tracks. The first track covers troubleshooting methodologies and procedures as well as best practices for network maintenance. The second track is broken down into five case studies that require you to resolve trouble tickets logged by your colleagues at fictitious companies.

The case studies look like this:

On Monday, you arrive at your workplace at SECHNIK Networking Ltd. Four employees tell you that everything worked fine on Friday, but now they are facing issues. As the senior engineers are all out, it seems that you are the only one on site who can fix the following issues:

• Kimberly, the user on PC1, cannot access data on the server at 172.16.200.10.
• Andrew, the user on PC2, cannot access the Internet. Andrew is trying to access the public server at 209.165.200.2.
• Carol, the user on PC3, cannot use SSH to connect to the server at 172.16.200.10.
• Jack, the user on PC4, says he wants to access the Internet through IPv6. Jack adds that because Andrew has access, so should he.

Each case study revolves around a different network infrastructure and will test your knowledge of VLANs, trunks, STP, EtherChanel, FHRPs, EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, NAT, ACLs, SSH, IP SLAs, route redistribution, DHCP, NTP, and AAA.

The labs for ENTSH are entirely virtualized and spin up within three minutes, allowing you to quickly get started with your learning. Each lab includes a debrief that analyzes and explains the trouble tickets. These debriefs help you understand how to best resolve the issues users report.

If you’re interested in seeing a demo of ENTSH, check out the Snack Minute we will release February 18, 2025, in which I will show Kareem Iskander and Matt DeNapoli what the new learning path looks like.

If you’re planning on attending Cisco Live in Amsterdam or San Diego, you can register for my CCNP Enterprise Hands-On Troubleshooting lab (LTRCRT-2002) and see how many trouble tickets you can fix in four hours!

Check out the new Troubleshooting Cisco Enterprise Networking Solutions (ENTSH) learning path on Cisco U., and learn to troubleshoot like a pro!

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