Juniper JNCIS-SP: Service Provider Routing and Switching Specialist (JN0-364)

Service provider and large-enterprise networks fail in the seams between protocols: Spanning Tree domains stretched across customer and provider gear, iBGP full-mesh limitations, and MPLS label paths that engineers configure but never verify. When only one or two senior engineers understand how these pieces fit together, every change window carries outage risk.

Role fit: This course suits Network Engineers and Team Leads who already operate routing domains, MPLS cores, or redundant edge devices. It assumes enterprise networking fluency. The segment routing skills explicitly expect prior MPLS exposure, which earlier skills in this course provide.

Time investment: Plan for about 21 hours across 18 skills per learner, covering provider bridging (Q-in-Q, LACP, MC-LAG, STP), OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, MPLS with LDP, RSVP and CSPF, segment routing, tunneling, chassis high availability, and IPv6. Sequence the skills in order, because MPLS foundations underpin the later traffic engineering and segment routing content.

Change-management notes: Instructors stress design before CLI work and validating with show commands rather than trusting a config. Learners follow along on replicable lab topologies, but some features, such as Layer 2 frames over GRE, don't fully work in virtualized environments.

Assign the course as a Playlist so the team works through it in order, and use Team Reporting to track progress toward JN0-364 readiness.

Service provider teams rarely fail on syntax. They fail on design gaps that show up later as outages. This training walks through those scenarios on Junos so your engineers can catch them before customers do.

• Fewer self-inflicted LAG outages. Your team learns to deploy LACP across EX, QFX, and MX platforms. That includes the often-missed chassis aggregated Ethernet device count setting that leaves bundles down and engineers troubleshooting the wrong thing. They also learn MC-LAG designs that keep customer links redundant across two provider chassis.
• Cleaner multi-customer Layer 2 services. Engineers see why plain 802.1Q and end-to-end spanning tree become an administrative burden across mixed Cisco and Juniper customer gear. They then plan and deploy Q-in-Q provider bridging with a design-first order of operations.
• Faster, evidence-based validation. Labs model verifying LDP sessions, label exchange, and customer-side LACP bundles with operational show commands, so changes are confirmed rather than assumed.
• More predictable MPLS core behavior. Your team builds from label-switching basics through RSVP, including mechanisms such as BFD, path MTU, authentication, ultimate hop popping, and co-routed bidirectional LSPs. They also cover BGP fundamentals and how BGP differs from IGPs such as OSPF and IS-IS, giving Team Leads a shared vocabulary for service provider routing decisions.

For IT Directors, the result is a team that troubleshoots routing domains with confidence, delivers resilient edge designs, and has training aligned to the JN0-364 exam.

Knowledge

• Why 802.1Q falls short at carrier scale, and how Q-in-Q provider bridging, LACP, and MC-LAG give customers redundant Layer 2 services
• How Spanning Tree Protocol elects a root bridge, chooses blocking ports, and prevents loops and MAC address table flapping
• How OSPF adjacencies form through the state machine, what DR/BDR elections do, and how area types and LSAs shape design; how IS-IS levels scale
• How MPLS label switching works, including label structure, LDP and RSVP signaling, and how CSPF combines the IGP with RSVP to build traffic-engineered LSPs
• How BGP differs from IGPs like OSPF and IS-IS, and how basic BGP on Junos supports service provider routing designs
• Junos advanced routing options for making and manipulating routing decisions, plus IPv6 and tunneling concepts used in service provider environments

Ability

• Plan and deploy Q-in-Q, LACP, and MC-LAG on Junos EX, QFX, and MX platforms, including setting the chassis aggregated Ethernet device count
• Configure and tune OSPF and IS-IS as the IGP for an MPLS core
• Enable LDP and RSVP, then confirm sessions and label exchange with operational show commands
• Build CSPF-based LSPs using tie-breaking rules and admin groups
• Configure basic BGP on Junos and deploy GRE tunneling
• Enable IPv6 and IPv6-capable routing protocols on Junos devices, and validate every change from both the provider and customer side before calling it done