15 days full time RHCSA

vteche

Hello people,

So i have 15 days full time dedicated for RHCSA exam. Starting from today, Hopefully that is enough with the materials i have. which is

1: Asghar Ghori book
2: LinuxAcademy
3: Official Red Hat workbooks (I, II, III), i believe only "I, II" is for RHCSA and "III" is for RHCE.
And i have subiscription with Red Hat to use RHEL7 to be as close as the exam.

I will be following the exam objective directly from Red Hat website for RHCSA, watching linuxacademy, reading the book, and practicing.
The onething i have to figure out is to make my own Scenarios and practice them accordingly. Would be great to get you guys help on this.

So todays plan is,

• Access a shell prompt and issue commands with correct syntax
• Use input-output redirection (>, >>, |, 2>, etc.)
• Use grep and regular expressions to analyze text
• Access remote systems using ssh
• Log in and switch users in multiuser targets
• Archive, compress, unpack, and uncompress files using tar, star, gzip, and bzip2
• Create and edit text files
• Create, delete, copy, and move files and directories
• Create hard and soft links
• List, set, and change standard ugo/rwx permissions
• Locate, read, and use system documentation including man, info, and files in /usr/share/doc

Lets start digging!

If anyone of you are also having the same plan for the exam, lets dig together then

Happy Studies guys!

beantownmp

If you're doing this 8 hours a day for 15 days you should be in a good situation. Just make sure you're getting plenty of hands on time. Make sure you can do every bit of the objectives. LinuxAcademy scenarios are really good but don't cover everything.

varelg

Wow, you built quite a collection of prep material.
What you need is put together few scenarios of more time consuming and involved tasks and see how you fare in terms of time that you take to complete them.
I don't know if two weeks non stop study is realistic. You will at some point stop learning. Saturation. But a month sounds much more realistic. Unless you already completed at least one of those courses you listed.

vteche

Thanks guys,

That is the most important, to make your own complex scenario and work through it, like giving few minutes for each task. Until now i have not been able to do that. My plan is to go through the blueprint once by watching the videos and reading the book, once i finish the blueprint, i will start again from the beggining and this time, work on my own scenarios. Basically the plan is, the first week i go through the blueprint once, second week my own scenarios and some practice test.

So Today is plan,

• List, create, delete partitions on MBR and GPT disks
• Create and remove physical volumes, assign physical volumes to volume groups, and create and delete logical volumes
• Configure systems to mount file systems at boot by Universally Unique ID (UUID) or label
• Add new partitions and logical volumes, and swap to a system non-destructively

Happy Studies!

vteche

Ok people, today i did Storage stuff along with Networking...

Everything went smoothly except...... I have 3 servers, server1, server2, server3. i have setup FQDN between them, all works good except.. Server 2 can't resolve server 1 by name, but can ping by IP.....

My Question is,

Where is the host cache is keep in linux? how do we flush out the dns cache....?

thanks guys...

varelg

OK vteche,
Setting up name resolution server: not only should syntax of DNS's config files be absolutely correct, you'll have to watch out on how client is set up to resolve host names. Clearly, in your scenario, server 2 isn't getting the resolution right and I don't think it is a cache thing.
Partitions via fdisk/gdisk: detect whether a disk was partitioned via fdisk or gdisk. Set up extended partitions and set up LVM on them with size of extents of (arbitrary number). Create swap on your disk and activate it so that system can use it. List devices by their UUID, copy/paste the UUID of the device you'd want to mount on boot on the command-line only. No copy/paste via mouse clicks.

vteche

Hello,

You are right varelg, it wasn't cache problem, it was wrong hosts setup. it is resolved thanks.

I went through very well on fdisk and gdisk as well as LVM stuff..... at first i was little confused about LVM but i could wrapped up my head around quickly and figured it out that it is not very complicated, you just have to know some stuff like PV, LV etc....how they work....


Well, Todays plan.... I don't know how much of it i can go through, but i feel little exhausted and i think i will grab a drink with some friends and resume back incase I'm unable to concentrate properly..... after all I'm just another normal human )))

• Schedule tasks using at and cron
• Start and stop services and configure services to start automatically at boot
• Configure systems to boot into a specific target automatically
• Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux automatically using Kickstart
• Configure a physical machine to host virtual guests
• Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems as virtual guests
• Configure systems to launch virtual machines at boot
• Configure network services to start automatically at boot
• Configure a system to use time services
• Install and update software packages from Red Hat Network, a remote repository, or from the local file system
• Update the kernel package appropriately to ensure a bootable system
• Modify the system bootloader

Happy studies guys!

varelg

Red Hat workbooks, did you attend official Red Hat course?
P.S. Of course you are a just a human being and need to decompress, that's how I earned my Margarita+...

vteche

i signed up for RHCSA course online but due to some problems i could not attend the class, but instead could have the workbooks atleast.

hahahaha coool.....

Well today I'm in a better mood, i think i will go through those remained from yesterday and hopefully finish "Manage Users and Groups" part too. which remains for tomorrow only SELinux (AKA. Security part).

What about you varelg..... i suppose you already have RHCA....

varelg

No, I don't have RHCSA... yet. I didn't pass on my first attempt (notice I am not saying "failed", I am saying "did not pass"). I really had a wrong idea of what will be asked of me as a candidate, but now that I actually saw and felt how it all goes, I think I can pass it with ease.
Once you are done with the course (any of those you listed above, or all of them), you'd have to work on your approach of how you take the exam and what is to happen at exam day. There will be plenty of distractions to take you out of that exam- taking mental zone. Travel for example. Taking time off of work can also be challenging.

vteche

Oh ok. I can totally understand you. i had the same experience with CCIE lab exam. The important thing is you never give up and you keep going for it until you get it! did you attempt v6 or v7?

That is true, i must work on my own scenarios and go through them without any help "google, techexams...etc..."

asummers

varelg wrote: »

No, I don't have RHCSA... yet. I didn't pass on my first attempt (notice I am not saying "failed", I am saying "did not pass"). I really had a wrong idea of what will be asked of me as a candidate, but now that I actually saw and felt how it all goes, I think I can pass it with ease.

I am confused. If you did not pass you failed.

hiddenknight821

I believe he's saying that to be positive kind of like saying glass is half full. Not half empty. At least he was able to admit his shortcoming here which I appreciate. You don't see many exam takers coming back here after a fail.

Verities

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

I believe he's saying that to be positive kind of like saying glass is half full. Not half empty. At least he was able to admit his shortcoming here which I appreciate. You don't see many exam takers coming back here after a fail.

Go check out the Windows certification forum, you'll see plenty of people coming back to post about their failures.

vteche

Ok people,

I have been going through something, so i couldn't touch RHCSA since Friday morning until now. so i will resume from tomorrow morning with the last section "Manage Security". That kind of break in my studies clearly states that i can't go according to that 15 days plan, but i will do it within this month. cause I have no time budget for longer than that.

Happy Studies!

vteche

Well, today i finished the first round that i wanted to go through RHCSA blueprint...... The security section was little harder for me, Specially SELinux... but i could watch a video on youtube that really explained the details behind SELinux...... so after all wasn't that bad ))

I studied this round quite well, i watched the videos and read the book and practiced alot. Now this time i will go little faster and practice even more, but I want to watch Sandar van videos on RHCSA on Safari...... also planing to book my exam this week, so lets see.

Happy Studies guys!

techfiend

SElinux is like the new iptables. It's very useful but overly complicated and many disable it.

vteche

Indeed, but for RHCSA, one must know Have you passed your RHCSA yet? it is writting RHCSA(Mar)...

vteche

VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!

Don't just rely on LinuxAcademy.com......

First of all,

They are not strategic, their method is to follow exactly the blueprint from Red Hat, and not very in detail, they skip alot of important stuff......
Specially LDAP part.... Be very cautious.

thanks

vteche

LDAP part is quite confusing and no one covers it better than Certdepot, so if you want to have the LDAP, NFS, samba part covered well, get yourself two RedHat VMs, configure one exactly as stated on Certdepot as LDAP, NFS, Samba server and another as client,

varelg

Linux Academy's explanation on how to configure LDAP client isn't completely useless, just the environment itself (server to which you attach your LDAP client) is worth considering as a valuable prep resource, although there's definitely room for improvement on their part. Like for example, they could have considered configuring LDAP authentication via secure certificates, which is very realistic scenario.
Many who come to RHCSA exam or preparing for it are exposing themselves to some subjects for the first time, LDAP is one example, another is LVM, to a certain extent partitioning and automounting at startup or autofs, subjects that common users rarely if ever get to deal with unless they intentionally set out to study those subjects.
I like how Sander in his book teaches how to set up the server and how to set up client to authenticate, immediately assumes certificates will be required and proceeds.
I don't have official RH training material vteche, I wonder how do you like their explanation and howto's on LDAP client setup?

vteche

To be honest, non of those training materials i listed helps alone, you have to use many of them, google, certdepot, and all those above listed. You have to practice every topic enough and know enough details about it which again those materials does not cover at all.

RH training material are just like those linuxacademy etc.... but of course little better, but still makes you very confuse if you just rely on that.

I never thought just the LDAP and NFS automounting part would take me two full days, but guess what, i know the ins and outs of the client and server side configuration.

vteche

Alright, I'm to the point to start Hating Red Hat!

I was just ready to book the test and saw that they increased the price from 450 to 500 euro. I honestly have no idea if a simple certificate like RHCSA even worth to that price. I feel sorry for myself that i invested so much time to study for this.

jamesleecoleman

It still says 400 USD on the website. Thats a little strange that they raised the price in Euros and not for USD.

gkca

vteche wrote: »

Alright, I'm to the point to start Hating Red Hat!

I was just ready to book the test and saw that they increased the price from 450 to 500 euro. I honestly have no idea if a simple certificate like RHCSA even worth to that price. I feel sorry for myself that i invested so much time to study for this.

50 euro more? certainly not worth the trouble, move on.

vteche

Alright, the exam is booked finally! that is in one month, which is very late! I'm already more than prepared for the test. I know everything that is covered in the blueprint like the back of my hand.

Maybe in the mean time i start preparing for RHCE.... what do you think guys? Kinda confuse here.

Enim

Hello vtech,
i've just came across thisforum, and found your thread quite interesting,i'm willing to prepare for the RHCSA exam too,

honestly, i already began preparing a whiiiile ago, but just gave up, (i was not motivated enough)
boring, saturation, begin to hate RedHat lol ...

anyway,, IMHO it a good idea to prepare for RHCE if you think you will really need it,

as you probably know, the certification validity lasts about 3 years,
and it costs almost the same as RHCSA,
but the objectives are obviously different,

so just don't rush yourself right now, take time to pass the RHCSA first, then start preparing for the RHCE, so you DO NOT confuse yourself.

Enim

in the other hand,
if anyone wants to join me, start preparing for the RHCSA as a group of two or more, (the less it is the more effective it will be)
why not, we could put up a daily schedule or else, depending on the availability of each one, and start from beginning.

and if vtech would like to play the teacher , it would be more constructive, you are welcome buddy,

anyway, doing it in group would be much better and more fun.

Waiting for replies...

vteche

Hi there

Well you are right, i take it little slower, didn't start RHCE, but i will once im done with RHCSA, maybe another 15 days for RHCE...

Right now, i practice 2-3 hours RHCSA and have started to Puppet and Chef..

vteche

Hahahah.... teacher no way

But if you have a group surely will join and share our experiences

Enim

post testing ...