RHCSA Study Materials

Greetings,

I'm hoping to get some good advice from those of you that know, the best self-study materials for preparing for the RHCSA exam.

I have read elsewhere that some found the book and live lessons videos by Sander van Vugt to be very good (links below).

Red Hat RHCSA ®/ RHCE® 7 Cert Guide - Sander van Vugt

Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) Complete Video Course: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Pearson IT Certification

Would reading his book and going through all the videos, building my own lab and practicing along the way, be a good approach to learning, or would you recommend something else either, in addition to, or instead?

Thanks very much.

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hiddenknight821

Those resources are good, but I can't recommend enough the following resources to complement with your study resources: Linux Academy and CertDepot. I used those in addition to Jang's and Van Vugt's books to pass the exam the first time. Disclaimer: I never watched any of the training videos due to lack of subtitles.

Verities

Use Safari Books Online for cheaper fees ($39/a month or free if you're former military) and you get all Sander's training videos/books included. Hiddenknight has a good point as well, Sander is from the Netherlands so he has a very thick accent, but IMO he explains things the best out of the video series I've used for RHCSA.

LinuxAcademy is a great lab environment since you can spin up servers super quick for tasks and they have a good amount of material for RHCSA/RHCE.

The person who runs CertDepot is very knowledgeable and he was a technical reviewer for Sander Van Vugt's cert book, so you'll notice a lot of his tasks are similar to Sander's.

Jacktivated

Verities wrote: »

Use Safari Books Online for cheaper fees ($39/a month or free if you're former military) and you get all Sander's training videos/books included. Hiddenknight has a good point as well, Sander is from the Netherlands so he has a very thick accent, but IMO he explains things the best out of the video series I've used for RHCSA.

LinuxAcademy is a great lab environment since you can spin up servers super quick for tasks and they have a good amount of material for RHCSA/RHCE.

The person who runs CertDepot is very knowledgeable and he was a technical reviewer for Sander Van Vugt's cert book, so you'll notice a lot of his tasks are similar to Sander's.

Thanks. I just started the 10 day trial with Safari.

I'm hoping you, or someone else, can give me your opinion between the following two books. I initially planned to read the one by Sander van Vugt, along with his videos, but I've been reading a lot of good things about the one from Michael Jang. It seems many people were anticipating the arrival of the latest edition, which was just released this summer.

Please let me know which book you feel is best and if you'd advise reading the book prior to going through the whole video series, or watch the videos, or after.

Thanks a lot for answering all of my questions

https://www.amazon.com/RHCSA-Linux-Certification-Study-Seventh/dp/0071841962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474918258&sr=8-1&keywords=rhcsa

https://www.amazon.com/RHCSA-RHCE-Cert-Guide-Certification/dp/0789754053/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1474918258&sr=8-3&keywords=rhcsa

Verities

I used Sander's book since it came out about 6 months before Jang's and because he already had his video series completed. However, both books are available on Safari Books, so you can peruse them and see which one you like more.

Jacktivated

Verities wrote: »

I used Sander's book since it came out about 6 months before Jang's and because he already had his video series completed. However, both books are available on Safari Books, so you can peruse them and see which one you like more.

I began reading the Michael Jang book and in the first part of chapter one, it reads:

"Red Hat suggests that candidates for the RHCSA have one to three years of experience with the bash shell, user administration, system monitoring, basic networking, software updates, and more. Details are described in the introduction to this book.If you’re new to Linux or Unix, this book may not be enough for you. It’s not possible to provide sufficient detail, at least in a way that can be understood by newcomers to Linux and other Unix-based operating systems. If after reading this book, you find gaps in your knowledge, please refer to one of the following guides:

Linux Administration: A Beginner’s Guide, Seventh Edition, by Wale Soyinka (McGraw-Hill, 2016), provides a detailed step-by-step guide to this operating system.
Security Strategies in Linux Platforms and Applications, by Michael Jang (Jones & Bartlett, 2010), gives you a detailed look at how you can secure your Linux system and networks in every possible way.
LPIC-1 in Depth, by Michael Jang (Course Technology PTR, 2009), covers the certification many Linux professionals qualify for prior to working on the RHCSA and RHCE."

Here is the first book mentioned above:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071845364/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

So, after reading that, I began wondering if, before I can go for the RHCSA, I will now first need to go read some other 1,000 page book to learn the basics before I can even start reading the RHCSA books. That left me feeling a bit discouraged, which is why I started second guessing myself and wondering if I should just stick with networking and go for the CCNP, etc.

BUT...then your last post on my other thread, where you said there is a huge gap in Linux talent in the IT industry and the networking field is flooded with people got me really wanting to go down the RHCSA path. So now I'm more confused than before, lol.

Don't get me wrong...I'm willing to do what it takes, but knowing how long a path is, can help to make a determination on which path should actually be taken first.

I'm somewhat new to Linux, though I can install, partition, navigate around in the CLI, make/delete directories and files, and I feel pretty comfortable in Vi/Vim. With most things I've done, though, I needed to Google for and/or follow an article or how-to, including when I set up Nagios Core in our environment.

Having said all that, do you think I need to go back to the basics? And, if so...could you please make a recommendation on where to begin, such as what book(s) to read if not the one I included a link to? I feel like I'm finally ready to begin after all this research into what path to take and now I just need the right materials to get going.

As always, thank you so much for all your time and advice.

Verities

In my opinion its a shameless plug for his own literature ($$$$). Based off of your experience with Linux thus far, I'm going to continue telling you to pursue the RHCSA. It is the basics for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so you'll cover all that studying the exam objectives.

hiddenknight821

Jacktivated wrote: »

So, after reading that, I began wondering if, before I can go for the RHCSA, I will now first need to go read some other 1,000 page book to learn the basics before I can even start reading the RHCSA books. That left me feeling a bit discouraged, which is why I started second guessing myself and wondering if I should just stick with networking and go for the CCNP, etc.

Let me tell you a little secret. Anything is possible if you put your mind to as long as you have a burning desire for it. I'm a walking testimony. I made a thread about my learning and testing experience after passing the RHCSA last month. As of today, I still lack real-world working experience with Linux and Windows, and that doesn't stop me from working on my next cert, RHCE. Although, it took me 4 years to get where I am today, but if it weren't for life throwing a curveball at me, I'd have gotten the cert 2-3 years sooner. I was prepping for version 6, then the switch to 7 happened. So I was studying up on 7 since there are some differences. I read a bunch of Linux administration books before starting on Van Vugt's and Jang's books on version 7. Here are the old books I read in order since 2012. I'd follow examples and try the commands to observe what they do.

Your UNIX : Ultimate Guide 2ND EDITION
Fedora 9 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Bible
Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide, Fifth Edition
RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Linux Certification Study Guide (Exams EX200 & EX300), 6th Edition (Certification Press)
CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide: Exams LX0-101 and LX0-102

I believe you're ready for RHCSA if you have Linux+ knowledge, but I can't stress enough the importance of documenting everything you don't understand well or can't remember from heart. Create step-to-step guides in your own words so that you can perform the same thing months later without any difficulty. I'm actually in the process of automating my entire RHCSA lab based on Jang's book. I've taken notes while studying for my RHCSA, and now I'm writing bash scripts based off the notes I made. You CAN get the RHCSA without experience. You would need to be very patient with yourself.

shochan

Jacktivated wrote: »

Greetings,

I'm hoping to get some good advice from those of you that know, the best self-study materials for preparing for the RHCSA exam.

I have read elsewhere that some found the book and live lessons videos by Sander van Vugt to be very good (links below).

Red Hat RHCSA ®/ RHCE® 7 Cert Guide - Sander van Vugt

Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) Complete Video Course: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Pearson IT Certification

Would reading his book and going through all the videos, building my own lab and practicing along the way, be a good approach to learning, or would you recommend something else either, in addition to, or instead?

Thanks very much.

I found a decent RedHat study guide on TecMint.com - only $35

Kinet1c

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

Let me tell you a little secret. Anything is possible if you put your mind to as long as you have a burning desire for it.

This. Every single god damn time, this. People don't just wake up and are suddenly able to work as a *nix sysadmin/engineer. While it comes easier to some than others, most of the time it's come from reading books/blogs and playing around with the operating system. If you want to do it, you have to apply yourself. Just start reading. Consider that every book you read to be an investment in yourself and that the extra knowledge gained will add 000s to your salary each year. Do the same with certifications, more 000s. On top of the money, you'll get to do interesting work due to the knowledge gained.

alias454

Adding 000's is good just watch out where they put the decimal point

raghul725

Hello there,

What are you using for Labs please?
Centos OS 7.2?

I am sure you would need some exposure to Red Hat before you take the exam, so what would you recommend Red Hat Linux Enterprise 7?

Regards,

Verities

raghul725 wrote: »

Hello there,

What are you using for Labs please?
Centos OS 7.2?

I am sure you would need some exposure to Red Hat before you take the exam, so what would you recommend Red Hat Linux Enterprise 7?

Regards,

Use RHEL 7.0 for labs - you want to have the exact same lab environment as the exam. I recommend labbing all of the RHCSA objectives until you feel confident you can complete on a workstation that has no access to the Internet to look up solutions.

raghul725

Verities wrote: »

Use RHEL 7.0 for labs - you want to have the exact same lab environment as the exam. I recommend labbing all of the RHCSA objectives until you feel confident you can complete on a workstation that has no access to the Internet to look up solutions.

Thanks
What about my other question regarding Centos please
At the mo' I don't have access to RHEL7

hiddenknight821

CentOS is also an ideal alternative if you can't get the RHEL version. Personally, I prefer CentOS, but you can get this version of RHEL for free. Since you'll be tested on RHEL 7, I think it'd be a good idea to test every minor (7.0, 7.1, 7.2 and etc) to see the differences. The objective never said which minor release you'll be tested on. CertDepot.net mentioned that there are some differences between the minor releases.

asummers

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

CentOS is also an ideal alternative if you can't get the RHEL version. Personally, I prefer CentOS, but you can get this version of RHEL for free. Since you'll be tested on RHEL 7, I think it'd be a good idea to test every minor (7.0, 7.1, 7.2 and etc) to see the differences. The objective never said which minor release you'll be tested on. CertDepot.net mentioned that there are some differences between the minor releases.

You can ask RedHat Training which version of RHEL is used in an exam. They will provide that information.

scottctaylor12

I definitely agree with hiddenknight821 with visiting certdepot.net! The site is very well put together and contains reliable information for completing every objective.