[ILUG] Linux/UNIX certification

[Éibhear]

Hi.

Caveat Emptor. I did the exam in Sydney two years ago against RH8.[10].
It's not all /that/ easy.

Gareth Eason said:
[ SNIP ]

> 	If you've been using Linux for a significant period of time, I don't
> imagine that the exams are going to be particularly challenging,

Depends on what you've been doing with Linux during that time.

If you're using a study guide, I recommend that you follow /all/ the
exercises on breaking your practice system and trying to recover from the
failure. Do it a lot if you're not used to recovering from kernel panics
or network problems. You will not know, until you discover it yourself,
how the system is buggered. Nor will you get any score for /nearly/ fixed.
For each "bug" you have to tackle, if it's fixed at the end of the
allotted time, you get the score; if not, you get no score.

> certainly at the RHCE type level. The RHCE is a practical exam, during
> which you build a RH box from scratch, partition the disks, configure ad

Again, when you're asked to build a system, they are looking for the
specific set of requirements. It's not as harsh as the bug-fixing test,
but I was mightily browned off at some of the requirements. Without
breaching the NDA, there was some "What the f*** would anyone want that
for?" questions. I agree with the earlier advice: don't attempt to install
or configure anything that is not specifically required in the exam unless
you know that something that /is/ asked for requires it.

> start some services, break your partition table or MBR or something and
> recover your data using rescue boot, etc. - no rocket science involved
> as far as I can see. I'm sure other people on-list have sat and passed
> it so they may well have a better insight into it than I.

Nearly. I got top score on the bug fixing (because I practiced as per the
advice) and on the MCQ. My score on the system build was not enough to
give me RHCE, so I came away with RHCT(echnician). Not exactly traumatic,
as it was a give-it-a-whirl thing, but disappointing none-the-less as I
had to pay for it myself.

Éibhear, RHCT.



-- 
Éibhear Ó hAnluain
Gibiris.org
Dublin
Ireland