Finally RHCSA certified!
hiddenknight821
The whole Shebang!Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
This morning I just got the official email that I passed with 283. Perfect score was definitely doable.
The LFCSA practice assessment grader on Linux Academy seriously need improvement as I was panicking after failing half way. Took the practice exam the night before the test, and it really built up anxiety as I couldn't understand what I did wrong. I'd suggest not taking any of their non-RHCSA practice exams.
Last Friday, I took the RHCSA exam in a classroom environment. I decided to do the classroom because this would be my first time taking a Red Hat exam, and I've read horror stories about how the kiosk computers went wonky. $400 is something I can't afford to waste on some possible freak accidents, and I preferred to play it safe.
I don't regret taking the classroom at all. Since I was unable to follow the proctor's verbal instruction, I was a bit lost at the beginning. Without violating the NDA, let's just say I was in for a big surprise as I did not realize the exam has started already. I truly enjoyed the fun challenging tasks Red Hat has to offer. If I hadn't fumbled in the beginning, then I believe I'd have scored higher with more time.
With that being said, I have to agree with Red Hat's decision for not disclosing the knowledge domains that the candidates need improvement on. I didn't understand the reason until I took the test. It's not realy that difficult to determine the areas you need to improve on if you study and prepare well for the exam. If you dare to skip one thing, then you're probably setting yourself up for failure. The easiest way to be sure that you pass the exam before actually completing the test is to test your configurations and double-checking your work. If you don't know how to perform what's being asked, then you can assume you lose points on that objective.
Work experience:
Never worked as a linux admin. The closest work experience is remoting in customers' computers using Windows, and that's only less than 5% of the call volumes we get daily at our call centers.
Resources I used:
- home server (8GB RAM, Core 2 Quad) running primarly CentOS hosting VMs.
- Michael Jang's 7th Edition
- Sander Van Vugt RHCSA/RHEL 7 Cert Guide
- Cert Depot
- Linux Academy
Duration:
Spent way too much time preparing for this cert. I've been meaning to pursue this since summer 2012. Had my reasons with the multiple setbacks in life including not wanting to get tested on version 6 when Red Hat announced version 7. I was preparing for RHEL 6, but wasn't confident with the idea of failing on the 6 and have to retake on the 7. In addition to this, I took a haitus, working on other relevant skills, such as programming, scripting, and reading self-help books on motivation, while waiting for good RHEL 7 resources to come out.
What's next:
My family. Really need to pay more attention to them now. Pretty soon I'll be reworking my resume and try to get into a sys admin gig next. RHCE is still my goal, but I can't shoot for it without the experience yet.
The LFCSA practice assessment grader on Linux Academy seriously need improvement as I was panicking after failing half way. Took the practice exam the night before the test, and it really built up anxiety as I couldn't understand what I did wrong. I'd suggest not taking any of their non-RHCSA practice exams.
Last Friday, I took the RHCSA exam in a classroom environment. I decided to do the classroom because this would be my first time taking a Red Hat exam, and I've read horror stories about how the kiosk computers went wonky. $400 is something I can't afford to waste on some possible freak accidents, and I preferred to play it safe.
I don't regret taking the classroom at all. Since I was unable to follow the proctor's verbal instruction, I was a bit lost at the beginning. Without violating the NDA, let's just say I was in for a big surprise as I did not realize the exam has started already. I truly enjoyed the fun challenging tasks Red Hat has to offer. If I hadn't fumbled in the beginning, then I believe I'd have scored higher with more time.
With that being said, I have to agree with Red Hat's decision for not disclosing the knowledge domains that the candidates need improvement on. I didn't understand the reason until I took the test. It's not realy that difficult to determine the areas you need to improve on if you study and prepare well for the exam. If you dare to skip one thing, then you're probably setting yourself up for failure. The easiest way to be sure that you pass the exam before actually completing the test is to test your configurations and double-checking your work. If you don't know how to perform what's being asked, then you can assume you lose points on that objective.
Work experience:
Never worked as a linux admin. The closest work experience is remoting in customers' computers using Windows, and that's only less than 5% of the call volumes we get daily at our call centers.
Resources I used:
- home server (8GB RAM, Core 2 Quad) running primarly CentOS hosting VMs.
- Michael Jang's 7th Edition
- Sander Van Vugt RHCSA/RHEL 7 Cert Guide
- Cert Depot
- Linux Academy
Duration:
Spent way too much time preparing for this cert. I've been meaning to pursue this since summer 2012. Had my reasons with the multiple setbacks in life including not wanting to get tested on version 6 when Red Hat announced version 7. I was preparing for RHEL 6, but wasn't confident with the idea of failing on the 6 and have to retake on the 7. In addition to this, I took a haitus, working on other relevant skills, such as programming, scripting, and reading self-help books on motivation, while waiting for good RHEL 7 resources to come out.
What's next:
My family. Really need to pay more attention to them now. Pretty soon I'll be reworking my resume and try to get into a sys admin gig next. RHCE is still my goal, but I can't shoot for it without the experience yet.
Comments
Certs: RHCSA, LFCS: Ubuntu, CNCF CKA, CNCF CKAD | AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, AWS Solutions Architect Pro, AWS Certified Security Specialist, GCP Professional Cloud Architect
Learn: Terraform, Kubernetes, Prometheus & Golang | Improve: Docker, Python Programming
To-do | In Progress | Completed
All the published study guides were focusing on using the GUI since it's faster to perform the tasks, but I couldn't risk using VNC at work. I'd SSH to my home lab and practice on it. I wanted to be able to do everything on the command line instead of using virt-manager. I managed to learn how to build CentOS VM guests and even clone a guest. However, when I clone, I gutted the copied configs with the new ones. Kept a 20+ note on Google Doc on virtualization alone for future reference. I plan to blog about it later when I can find the time.
I liked the write up - and it is always very interesting to hear about Linux Admin Job stories from around the world.
"Its easier to deceive the masses then to convince the masses that they have been deceived."
-unknown
Don't be. Saw your thread. You can do it too.
No door at my current employer. We're a small call center 2K miles away from the HQ anyway. I'm slowly working on the RHCE at the moment, passively reading Sander Van Vugt study guide.
Agreed. Got so much I need to learn. Need to study up on configuration management.
Not yet as I'm not ready to reveal myself on TE. Few of you may know me.
For labs did you create 3 hosts, 1 Server and 2 Clients please?
As you become more experienced and familiar with libvirt/KVM, you'd be able to customize your setup. I know others who use VirtualBox instead since it's easier to make snapshots and undo your mistakes.
Michael Jang's book - arriving tomorrow, all excited
Regards,