Am I ready for RHCE?
 

Hello Friends,

I've done instructor led RHCE course (3 month, costs 18 grand INR in India). I think I've prepared RHCE well. I've studied RH033 RH133 and RH253 along with Michel Jang RHCE Book. I've also taken ref. of Fedora 8 Bible and another Linux administration book. I just gave assessment tests on RedHat website and in RH033, RH133 and RH253, I respectively got 40, 38, 35 marks.

I am in touch with Linux with like a year as a desktop and I've been using it as server (at home!) since 5 months. I am thinking to give RHCE exam shortly.

Am I prepared? I know there are RHCEs in this forum. Please guide me if you think I should do something more. :-)

How much time have you spent studying, total? Have you studied hard? Can you answer questions without hesitation? You say you've been Linux, but have you been using RHEL or CentOS or some other distribution? Have you read Jang's book multiple times (read: more than once)?

You say you've used Linux as a server for 5 months. What roles does your server fulfill? If it is just a web server, you should start doing more with it.

Can you help people solve problems on this forum?

Do you really think 3 months of instructor-led courses is enough to prepare for RHCE? Our RHCE preparation courses are 1 year. There are four courses- an intro course, administration, advanced administration, and shell scripting/programming. The cost for all four courses together is $864USD, which I believe is 42967 INR.

If you have the diligence and commitment, 3 months is more than enough.

Ultimately, only you know if you're ready. If you know you have an excellent grasp of all RH concepts, then take the test.

However, if you rely on any kind of multiple choice questions to complete a test, I would argue that you are not prepared enough to be 100% sure you'll pass.

If you do take the test...I would like to know if the RH300 (in other words the Red Hat Classes) are worth it...

I have been a sys admin for 3 years working with Sun Solaris and RHEL. I have also read Jang's book, but I feel like the class would help...but I'm not sure... $3000+ is a lot of money to "just take it and find out"...

I'm wondering if it's worth the money...

In any event...let us know how it turns out!

-C

To LinuxCrayon

I've used Fedora, CentOS, RHEL 5. I can configure servers listed in RHCE Prep Guide on RH website for basic operation and basic security and can basically configure SELinux bools for that services to run. I can work with LVM, extend partitions, add physical volumes, can make RAID and add modify user and their password and age etc.

I've read Jang's book one time and I've practised everything in it. I've tried to understand every command I find in that book (successfully) :-)

I've solved many exercises, and I am having RH302 Actual Tests PDF. And I find that I can solve most of exercises in it.

I can work with RPM and set yum repos etc. I can set scheduled jobs in Cron and At, and I am able to configure autofs and other little things given in RHCE Prep Guide. So now what you think?

Sounds like you're pretty well prepared. :)

Interesting...makes me wonder if I'm ready...

I've set up and configured the services specified in Jang's book for basic operation and basic secutity...still working on SELinux since I'm a little "weak" on SELinux...

I am VERY comfortable with LVM, making software RAIDS, and working with physical volumes (using fdisk, parted, mkfs, etc).

I have a good understanding of RPM and YUM. I'm good with cron; at I'm familiar with (but probably will have to use the MAN pages for at). I'm familiar with autofs, however this is another "weak" point.

I can do installations over the network via NFS (also I am confident in my "kickstart" skills).

...It looks like I am "almost" ready...but not quite...I'm still wondering/considering the RH300 class...not sure yet...

-C

Well its not needed that you're very good at SELinux, and if you wanna be, its whole diff course of RedHat :-)

RHCE need for SELinux is that you shd be able to set bools and security context of files that allow services to run. And my faculty said me, when he gave exam, he was told to shut SELinux up first. LoL!

Not that I want to be an expert (although that would be nice :D)

But I'm unfamiliar with which options to pass to a directory...

Do you know if the SELinux GUI tool that Red Hat supplies enough to get through the test? I'm usually "all about the command line"; but in the case of SELinux, I am willing to make an exception!

-C

Those guidelines were that not to say, "Okay, you know enough to take the exam." It was more there to say, "If you know this better than the size of your shoe, you should have no problem passing."

Note that I'm NOT an RHCE. These are just general test-taking guidelines. If you don't know every intimate detail of a test's subjects (all of them), then how can you say for sure you'll pass? Still, even if you don't know them all backward and forward, you still have the ability to pass.

At the start of every quarter, one of my instructors always said:

Basically, the better you know the material, the easier the test will be. If you have knowledge that goes beyond the test requirements, you're even better suited. But a fundamental understanding of most test subjects are sufficient to POTENTIALLY pass a test.

This is why I'm considering the class...

I guess you never know until you're there! :D

-C

That's very true.

Keep in mind, though, that RH300 is 8 hours per day for 5 days.

If you've taken a psychology class, you know that the best way to learn anything is in 20 minute increments. Trying to absorb anything for more than 20 is almost pointless--the rate of decay increases exponentially. Also, you forget most (something like 80% IIRC) of what you learn within the first HOUR. From there it tapers. Also, the best time to learn something is before bed--most information in your short-term memory is placed into your long-term memory while you sleep.

Just some food for thought about "cram sessions." I'm not saying DON'T take RH300...just that it might be worth weighing the ridiculous multi-thousand-dollar USD cost against the actual benefit (known as a CBA). Being informed about the human learning process just helps weigh things a little, I think.

If you think it will help you, take it. If you have the cash to blow on it and it's not going to hurt your finances, take it.

If you're worried about your pocket, more traditional training (ie, classes at a local technical college or university) might be a good way to go.

Very True...

I have been working as a systems administrator for my company for about 3 years now.

We currently have various Sun Solaris machines and Red Hat Enterprise Linux machines.

I'm not going to lie to you. We have WAY more Solaris than RHEL. But it is enough to where I'm administering RHEL daily.

I've been reading Jang's RHCE book and doing all the labs...

I know that with my experience, I probably won't do that bad...but for some reason I am "scared" to take the test...and I somehow feel like I "need" the class to pass...

But $3K _is_ a LOT of money....oh well...I guess I can take the test...if I don't pass _then_ I can take the class....who knows...I might just pass! :-)

-C

I think you will pass, you're experienced custangro. Just get Michel Jang RHCE ebook and couple more that you think you should read. I am also referring RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed. Get your hands on SELinux, its just changing bools to yes or no sometime... (most time) and setting security context. SELinux Mgmt GUI tool is really best thing to do it. It gives you whole list of services, you click on one and you see the bools related to that service, aint that easy? :p

If you want RHCE 300+ exercises, email me...

yes u can
 

hi dear i hope u can write what i suggest u is attend mock classes

self practice is differ than certification view, am also attempting to

rhel5 cert on 13-11-08 i have not read jang's.but am attending mock

classes in one of well known institute in hyderabad.India

Best of luck i hope you and i get 100% marks

Thanks In Advance
jnreddy