Changes to the CCNA Voice Certification Exam

James Hanback. You’ve spent many nights reading through CCNA Voice IT certification training manuals, answering CCNA Voice practice question, and searching –perhaps in vain –for a CCNA Voice simulation environment that allows you to use the Cisco Unified Communications 500 (UC500), to practice all that you learned from CCNA practice exams hearsay and study guide screen shots. You think you are ready to get your latest Cisco certification. But, when you sit for the CCNA Voice exam, you discover that what you had studied is outdated news, cold water, stale bread, and other metaphors. Rumours of the death or extinction of the UC500 topic on the CCNA Voice exam are not exaggerated.
The CCNA Voice Voice exam (640-460) tested your knowledge of the concepts and configurations of small Voice over IP networks. This is the type you are most likely to deploy in a small or medium-sized company. The exam focused on the configuration, deployment, and maintenance of Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express, CME (call management), Cisco Unity Express (CUE), for voice messaging, and UC500, which is an all-in-one solution with the handy graphical user interface (GUI), Cisco Configuration Assistant (CCA).
The CCNA Voice 640-461 exam switches the focus to a larger VoIP network. You will still need to be able to administer CME but you also need the skills to deploy, configure and maintain large-scale VoIP networks.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM).
UCM is the big brother to the CME call processing platform. The Voice exam covered administering CME using the command-line interface. For 640-461, make sure you know how to set up user accounts, enable certain features, and generate reports using the GUI. There is no way to issue a show-running-config.
Cisco Unity Connection
Unity Connection is the voice messaging component for the enterprise-level Cisco VoIP network. You should be able to add users and enable Unity Connection features. You should also be familiar with the protocols and methods Unity Connection uses for communication with other products within the VoIP environment.
Cisco Unified Presence (CUP), Know More
CUP is the diplomat for the enterprise VoIP network. It is the component that makes all other VoIP components talk to each other. It is important to understand what CUP does and how they do it. CUP also has a client side, known as Cisco Unified Personal Communicator. Personal Communicator software allows an end user to make and receive calls from their workstation. It is important to familiarize yourself with how Personal Communicator works with UCM and CUP.
Learn the basics of VoIP
While you won’t need to learn all the background information about VoIP for the exam, it is important to understand the basics of how a VoIP network works. You should be able to understand the basics of VoIP network protocols, call quality, as well as call signaling.
Learn How to Troubleshoot
The 640-461 exam is focused on administrative and support roles. You should be able to troubleshoot a VoIP network. You should also know the common problems that can arise from misconfigurations of Cisco Unified Communications components.
You haven’t wasted your time if the CCNA Voice 640–460 materials were used to prepare you for the 640-461 exam. If you don’t have any experience with these products, you might struggle with questions related to UCM, Unity Connection and CUP.