Hey, What is the best option during the installation part when installing the OS and installing the packages? How long should it takes to install te require packages?

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Get RHCE certified AND several Microsoft certifications. Of course, you still have to know what you're doing.

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I just passed RHCE on friday and I did not take any courses nor do I actually work on linux (though that is the goal.) the best advice I can give you it to go the the redhat website and download the requirements they have. I used the lang book and it was good but there were some mistakes and frankly its too long. your best bet is to do the following. set up 2 machines...if you dont have redhat uses centos 5.x. now make one the server that will stay permanent. since the official objectives say you need to be able to connect to an nis domain as well as an ldap domain, set those up on this server. since using the automounter is also part of the official list, learn to set this up as well so you can mount the home directories on this server on your second machine. now this server once setup you should just keep for these and for other testing purposes. then you set up a second server...this will be your main machine that you do most of your study prep on. in other words the first server you setup will be only for connecting to the services the rhce curriculum says you must know how to become a client of. it will also be for testing the services you set up on the second machine. now the second machine should be knocked down and reinstalled often...this is how I passed. I set up my own cheat sheet based on the official redhat list available at https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/prep_guide/

there will be nothing on the exam not stated here. now based on the criteria here, your own knowledge, any redhat books or material on their site...start setting up and breaking your networking, x configuration etc and grub config. this is the stuff in the morning that can stop you cold and not even allow you to continue to the afternoon even if you know how to setup the services cold. then go through the list and setup all the services as per the requirement. test everything and make sure you know how to secure the services through any of the methods availbalbe (ie selinux /etc/hosts.allow/deny. important AS YOU DO THIS STUFF START TO GET YOUR OWN CHEAT SHEET GOING. this way once you are done you can quickly repeate the steps you didn't know for the next time. because the only way to get this is to continually wipe your system clean and do everything again from scratch. trust me speed counts on this exam and "kind of" knowing how to set this stuff up will ensure you do not have enough time to finish the test. finally...make you cheat sheet as specific as possible. for instance make it a question answer. dont say "set up a virtual web site" say..."setup a virtual host site with a document root of xxxx and a server name of xxxxx. this way when you reset up your machine after running through all the exercises you can really start to fly and can really get this stuff in your fingers. also running and rerunning the test will greatly imporove your vi skills.

now let me say I took the test twice. the first time I went from the the book and did minimal actual hands on. I did pass my rhct but failed the rhce by a big margin. well I took a month inbetween and spent my time woking off the rhce list I have linked above, knockign down and reinstalling my machine again and again, all the while making my cheat sheet. well it made all the difference. out of the 9 people in my exam I was done first and passed the rhce by a comfortable margain. and I know many of the others had just taken the official course because during lunch break I saw them studying their official redhat books. so the moral to the story? THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT THE RHCE COURSE WILL GET YOU A PASS. because imop 4 days is not enough to get this stuff "in your fingers". which is where you need the knowledge. you have to almost go onto autopilot to get through the exam in the time allotted. and the only way to do this is to have the exam not that different then what you did when you were practicing again and again at home. so

1) follow the sheet and test everything..
2) remember that securing services is big on this test so don't think that setting up a webserver or samba means you are done
3) make your own cheat sheet and make it as specific as possible so that you can fly through the requirements
4) break and fix your x, networking and anything else redhat recommends. because if you cant get through the first 4 requirements in the first hour you are toast...no matter how much high end networking or setting up services stuff you know.

just repeat repeat repeat and go off the redhat sheet...I mean I have no doubt actual linux/unix guru's get creamed on this test...but I a home user passed...because I stuck to the official curriculum, make a cheat sheet and was able to really concentrate on the stuff I would need to pass this exam...not to be a linux guru but to pass THIS exam. good luck

Great Job

I am looking to take this test over the summer. you have given me hope.


now your recomended CentOS
I have been using Fedora b/c it is made by Red Hat. is CentOS closer to Red Hat than Fedora is?

any specifics will lose my my cert...but really I doubt it would help anyway because the test is not the same from test to test. I just can't stress enough distilling the info into a cheat sheet. remember you need to know how to setup BASIC services and secure them. so its not going to say "make your samba server a pdc on a microsoft domain" or setup cgi scripts for your web server. you are going to have to setup up basic web sites and basic ftp servers and basics mail server. but you will need to know how to secure them through either a firewall, selinux, tcp wrappers or though options in the config file. you can distill the info you need to 3 or 4 pages in a cheat sheet and still pass. and finally don't forget to break your stuff or you will be humiliated in the first hour. I know there were some desperate looks in the room as people tried to get their networkig or x configs working...desperate looks from people who I assume have quite a bit more experience in linux/unix then I do. let me put it this way. instead of neverending study for the test...think you have been tasked with creating a cheat that you will be using for your own study. it takes a lot of work but once you have it and you start running through it, knocking down the computer and running through it again you will start to feel a lot more confident.

oh did I mention don't forget to break you machine in as many ways as possible or you will be toast in the morning?

yes much closer. you could just setup your fedora as an nis server, ldap server (in other words the server you will use to test your stuff from and that will run the few services you will need to know how to connect to as per the requirements) and then use centos as the main station you will knock down and keep rebuilding.

Hey...wasn't there a script out there that will "break" your system; then you'd have to figure it out?

From what I remember this script breaks random stuff each time you run it....

Wasn't there something out there like that?

-C

I've been studying the latest Michael Jang RHCE book in prep. for the test next month. I'm about 2/3 through the book, and it seems pretty thorough, although I think it could use better organization. I've done all of the exercises and labs so far. I have two systems: one is my main server and one is my "scratch" server. Having the main server is important for testing network services (NFS, NIS, LDAP, squid, etc.) as well as for doing network kickstart installations. I gave myself two months to prepare, and I wish I had doubled that time. There are 16 chapters in the book and I wish I could spend about one week on each chapter, because I don't just want to know the material, I want to understand it. Doing all of the exercises and the labs helps that. I've been working with Unix for 20 years, and Linux off and on for at least 10 years, but there's so much new stuff in the latest Redhat releases that having experience with other Unixes is only enough to give you false confidence, imo. So that's my advice: give yourself plenty of time, and practice, practice, practice. This is a hands-on exam, so the more hands-on experience you have with all of the subject areas, the better.

As for my comment about the book's organization. He covers different subjects that aren't really related in the same chapter, but other subjects that are related get covered in different chapters (I don't have specifics, not having the book at hand, but I would have discussed RAID and LVM in the same chapter, for one). Also, he saves discussion of iptables and selinux for last. I know those are fairly advanced topics, but you really need to understand them both before you work on any of the network services. He does tell you how to open up firewall rules and selinux for each service -- but again, knowing it and understanding it are two different things. The more you understand the better off you'll be.

About the videos. I saw that he has RHCE tutorial videos at vtc.com. The price is $99 for the set. Has anyone tried these? They have a few free sample videos which I intend to check out.

Good luck to all (and me),

Rich

I thought the book was ok but I really feel like you need to condense the info in there. the best was is to go off the redhat guidline sheet I posted the link to. that way you can ignore stuff that may be very helpful in really knowing linux but that will not be on the test. again...I have no linux or unix experience outside of putting centos on my computer to study for the exam and I made it through...and I am not that special. its because I got a partner (he passed too) and we made a cheat sheet that we used again and again. if my cheat sheet had been the rhce book I would have been lost. so go through the book and when keep the sheet with you and when you come across stuff that you think will be relevant put it on your sheet. for instance if the book says "well here is where you would make your samba server a pdc but I don't think it will be on the test"...just quickly ignore and move on. I had my sheet down to 3 pages by the time I went in. remember as the book points out the test is to make basic services run and secure them. really if you setup every network service for basic usability is is not that tough once you do it 2 or 3 times. I mean several services only require a line or 2 in their config files to get going.

condense condense condense.

I took the test last year and did not pass the rhce portion. I was going to re-test a few weeks later. However, I let to much time pass. I do not remember anything on the test. I am now starting from scratch. I was also wondering about the Jang book.

Hello again everyone
I have started to read my RHCE book and work with my two CentOS 5.1 servers as it was recomended above (thank you all for the tips)
I got to the section on networking. I have a question about IPv6 on the exam. IPv4 is a comfortable place for me. I have never used IPv6 in any way or even given it more that a passing glance.
How much will i need to know for the exam?
Will i be required to subnet IPv6?
Setup routes with it?
or will i need to understand how to modify the IP6tables?

let me know...

Thanks

This from the RHCE prep guide:

• understand basic principles of TCP/IP networking, including IP addresses, netmasks, and gateways for IPv4 and IPv6

So, I would at least understand how to assign an IPv6 address to an interface, how to set the subnet mask and how to set the default route. I would also take a look at ip6tables, although I would be surprised to see that on the exam. Also, vsftpd has a config directive that applies to IPv6 but, again, I would be surprised to see that on the exam.

Good luck.

I just took the RHCE test today, and wanted to give a piece of advice: use Red Hat, not CentOS for learning the install process. They are mostly the same, but there are some differences, and during the exam is not the best time to realize that.

...but did you pass....