RHCSA with RHEL6 Or RHEL7

Hi there,

I plan to study for the RHCSA exam and need some good advise.

My Question:
" Since Red Hat is phasing out the RHCSA exam with RHEL6 soon, would it be advisable to study RHEL6 or start off with RHEL7 ?"

I know for a fact that some folks out there in the IT industry has already started using RHEL7 in production.

I want to get started with with my prep work ASAP and have a few concerns/questions:
1. How different is RHEL7 from RHEL6
2. I have read a lot about Michael Jang, and his book for RHEL7 is not out yet ...are there any formidable options ?
3. Would getting started with Michael Jang's book for RHEL6 help, I have it.

Any advise/ideas/thoughts are welcome!

Cheers

Al

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Comments

Kinet1c

Unless you purchased a RHEL6 exam voucher prior to 28th February 2015, you only have the option of RHEL7 for RHCSA.

simplyal

Thanks Kinect1c , yes I had purchased a RHEL6 exam voucher in Jan 2015 , BUT I could not start preparing due to a plethora of travel and personal issues. I have some time now and I want to get started. I am planning to cancel my RHEL6 voucher and buy a new one for RHEL7.

Verities

simplyal wrote: »

Hi there,

I plan to study for the RHCSA exam and need some good advise.

My Question:
" Since Red Hat is phasing out the RHCSA exam with RHEL6 soon, would it be advisable to study RHEL6 or start off with RHEL7 ?"

I know for a fact that some folks out there in the IT industry has already started using RHEL7 in production.

I want to get started with with my prep work ASAP and have a few concerns/questions:
1. How different is RHEL7 from RHEL6
2. I have read a lot about Michael Jang, and his book for RHEL7 is not out yet ...are there any formidable options ?
3. Would getting started with Michael Jang's book for RHEL6 help, I have it.

Any advise/ideas/thoughts are welcome!

Cheers

Al

1. I don't know what kind of RHEL experience you have but there are quite a few differences between RHEL 6 and 7. RHEL 7 uses XFS as a default filesystem instead of EXT 4 (I don't like the fact you can't reduce an XFS volume). Systemd has replaced Sysvinit, so you now use run level targets and many commands are integrated to use Systemd, making systems administration more efficient. Max file sizes have increased from 16TB to 500TB, Grub2 is now in use (supports GPT, EFI), MariaDB is now default SQL (its an offshoot of MySQL anyways which was previously the default SQL), and you no longer have to deal with IP tables for netfilter because firewalld (integration of systemd) is extremely easy to use. I highly recommend reading up on what all these terms mean if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

2. As much praise as Jang's RHCA/RHCE v6 book received on these forums, I found it to be a terrible reference for someone looking to get into RHEL. He doesn't do a good job explaining how to get things going. Alternatives are Ashgar Ghori's book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1495148203/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1467549401&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=10RT01FXG3VBWYDEVBGK and Sander Van Gut's book: http://www.amazon.com/RHCSA-RHCE-Cert-Guide-Certification/dp/0789754053/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1QPVQ5HC61EYD1ZZKHE7&dpID=516QumNZLnL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR130%2C160_

I used Sander's book, which was available pre-release on Safari Books along with his video series and was very impressed with the RHCSA version.

3. The most important thing when going for any certification is getting familiar with the technology. If you're new to RHEL, I would caution against using Michael Jang's book if you're going for the RHCSA on RHEL 7 because you run the risk of confusing yourself with a different version of RHEL.

The most important thing is to lab the objectives and once you can go through the list, knowing how to do each one...that's when you're ready for the exam.

brombulec

Do not cancel your voucher - just ask the training center if there is a possibility to "convert" it to RHEL7. The price for the exam is the same - you shouldn't have any problems with version change. You can also e-mail RedHat if there will be any problems.

JockVSJock

Verities wrote: »

As much praise as Jang's RHCA/RHCE v6 book received on these forums, I found it to be a terrible reference for someone looking to get into RHEL.

Im starting to agree with this.

I had to do Linux CBT training for the month of late Aug/Sept and I'm coming back to the RHCSA training and I'm realizing his book for RHEL 6 is a mess. The labs are hard to setup and follow.

I'm thinking of just hitting websites with RHEL 6 notes and skim the highlights and use that to study and create labs.

kenrin

Any book that you need a "Primer" to even understand what you need to do in the first few chapters is a mess. I got Ghori's book for V6 and found it to be a lot easier to read but also a LOT more dry. I honestly can not recommend either.

Sander van for V7 recommended though

Have not gone through the RHCE part yet, but as Verities said, the RHCSA half is great so far.