syslevel in redhat
 

Hi There.

I have been searching google and yahoo but no luck...can you help me?
Well the question is, questions are rather....
What is syslevel in redhat 5?



thank you....

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by syslevel.

RHEL5 has different releases (RHEL5, RHEL5.1, RHEL5.2, RHEL5.3 etc...). Previously (RHEL3 & RHEL4) they were called "update" (e.g. RHEL4 Update 1, RHEL4 Update 2 etc...).

You can see the release in /etc/redhat-release and also in /etc/issue.

Some software installers try to do the install based on the release you're using. They can be faked out sometimes by modifying the /etc/redhat-release to have on of the versions they allow. (e.g. Oracle applications sometimes are authorized for RHEL5 but their installer hasn't been updated beyond RHEL4 so modifying /etc/redhat-release to have "redhat-4" might make it work. It depends a lot on what software you're trying to install. (Alternatively in the Oracle case one could update the script that checks this so it allows for the RHEL5 stuff but that requires a bit more editing.)

P.S. Even if not certified for RHEL5 this might make the software you're trying to install work - but you should be aware that might make the software vendor decide not to support your product after the fact. For my Oracle example that wasn't the case as the software was certified for RHEL5 - it just had an installer that didn't know about RHEL5 when it was created.

Thanks for the reply...
Actualy I took RHCE exam Yesterday, and there was a question about syslevel...
RHCE= REDHAT CERTIFIED ENGINEER.
and I am using RHEL5.....
thank you..

Are you sure it wasn't about "runlevel". Was it related to chkconfig/init scripts?

I've been using RHEL5 for a few years now. I also took the RHCE and don't remember this question.

@aahiqmir: a question about "syslevel" certainly was not on the official RHCE exam.

If you're referring to runlevel, as suggested, then please see the manpages for:

• init(8)
• runlevel(7)

Also, I'm sure I don't have to remind you that you signed an NDA before taking the exam.

Yes I am sure. It was syslevel, I haven't heard of it before...
So I was little bit surprised...

Yes I did sign NDA. I am Not Giving any questions out. I am just asking about a topic "SYSLEVEL"

Really?? Not giving questions out??
What, exactly, were those in your first post? And as others have said, there is no "syslevel".

Hi - I'll back up the OP on this question. I too have searched everywhere for something on this mysterious "syslevel" - and yes, it's "syslevel" that's required, not "runlevel".

I'm an extremely experienced Unix engineer of many years, and I have absolutely no clue on this one either. I am very proficient in judicious use of Google too, and yet still cannot find the answer.

Without actually discussing questions in the exam (I took it just last week), as I know we are not allowed to do this due to the NDA, how on earth can we find answers to something that we got stuck on that do not appear to be in any of the coursework, RH documentation, or any other information source? I passed my exam, but I don't like having an unanswered puzzle!

Feel free to ask questions on Linux related topics, but don´t say you are asking them because you took a Red Hat exam.

Remember you have signed an NDA, which Red Hat takes VERY seriously.

I just wanted to chime in here to agree with you, and also back up the OP.

I have been doing Linux administration (primarily on Red Hat systems) for 10 years now, and this is the first time I have ever heard of a scenario like this.

In my opinion, this is an unfair trick question.

Maybe sending an email to the instructor of your class and/or RedHat Training would help to get this addressed? In the classes I've gone to the instructors typically have given the classes their email addresses so we could ask questions later.

Anyway I think I'll back the OP here as well - NDA be damned if RedHat is doing trick questions it should be put in the wild to shame them into fixing it.

It reminds me a bit of the old SPARC chips that were failing in high end systems a few years back - initially Sun was reportedly requiring customers to sign NDAs before they'd admit there was a problem. If that hadn't gotten into the wild and become a major story who knows how many customers would have beat their heads against the "There's no problem-->There is a problem but it is cosmic rays-->You have to pay for the replacement chips" BS that was going on. Sun finally ended up doing the replacements for free as they should have done in the first place but even then they tried to limit how many of the chips you could get. (Luckily at the time I worked for an organization big enough to threaten legal action to get past that limit.)

It also reminds me of the NDAs that the tobacco companies used to try to keep their own research about the dangers of cigarette smoking secret.

In my view (IANAL) if you're doing something commercial and trying to hide secrets that are damaging to your customers then it is fraud and an NDA is irrelevant because in law contracts for illegal activities aren't enforceable. However, as noted above I think the first contact should be to Redhat training and/or the instructor as it more likely this is simply a mistake than an intended trick.

Why are are you posting on an 18 month old thread ? The OP was asking about RHEL5. Version 6 has been out a long time now.

Remember you have signed an NDA, which Red Hat takes VERY seriously. It can cancel all your certificates if it believes you are discussing RHCE questions.

Red Hat DO NOT put trick questions into the exam - it tries to make the exam as real-life a possible. There may be difficult questions, difficult problems, but no trick ones. If there is a genuine mistake (and EVERYONE makes mistakes occasionally), Red Hat will take this into account. It is now possible to give feedback on a question in the exam itself. Whether you have time to do this is another matter, but the facility is there. That is the place to question a question, not a forum.

Remember, the NDA is NOT there to protect Red Hat. It is there for YOUR benefit - to stop others gaining an unfair advantage by gaining prior knowledge of the exam questions. No one helped me when I did my RHCE. I worked hard and studied hard for the exam, as I am sure 99.9% of RHCEs did. Please do not give others an easy shortcut by discussing questions on these forums.

Mike

Right - RedHat has absolutely no commercial interest in insuring users have to pay more than once to pass their tests. :rolleyes: