Linux Lab Exam Certificate

Turgon

http://www.novell.com/training/certinfo/clp/roadmap_10.html

The Novell Certified Linux Professional 10 (Novell CLP 10) is for people interested in being Linux administrators.

It includes what is reckoned to be a difficult hands on lab exam known as the practicum which must be passed to achieve the certifcate.

Has anyone taken this cert?

sprkymrk

I never heard of it, but it sounds like something that RHCE/A has done for a long time. I think these types of exams are a great idea.

Hey, BTW Turgon, have I noticed you getting slightly distracted from your CCIE studies lately? Posting in the CISSP and linux forums? What gives?

dynamik

How worthwhile is it for a potential linux administrator to get all these vendor-specific certifications?

It just seems like it would make more sense for all the distributions to create a standard certification. Is that what the LPI is supposed to be?

I was under the impression that all these distributions are fairly similar. Are there any significant differences that would really make one of these vendor-specific certifications stand out from the others?

sprkymrk

dynamik wrote:

How worthwhile is it for a potential linux administrator to get all these vendor-specific certifications?

Some are very worthwhile to some employers. It's still a mystery to me though why linux certification has not taken hold on the IT world like MS and Cisco has. Most Windows admin positions will almost always state "MCSE or MCSA required", most network positions state "CCNA or CCNP required", but when it comes to Unix/Linux admins, they usually just state certain levels or years of experience - "must have 5 years linux admin experience" or "must have extensive knowledge of sendmail and apache administration".

However, the RHCE has been a popular cert as far as linux certs go, and the LPI is sometimes mentioned too. There are others, but none of them have the popularity like MS or Cisco. I think the linux community has always been big on "can you do it" rather than "do you know it".

dynamik wrote:

It just seems like it would make more sense for all the distributions to create a standard certification. Is that what the LPI is supposed to be?

Yes, and Linux+.

dynamik wrote:

I was under the impression that all these distributions are fairly similar. Are there any significant differences that would really make one of these vendor-specific certifications stand out from the others?

Every distro has it's differences, but if you know at least one of the "popular" distros well, you are probably going to be 80% up on the others. The major distros are probably Red Hat/Fedora, Debian, and Novell/Suse. Most of the other major distros are variants of one of these. The differences will come more into play between linux vs. Unix distros like Solaris and the BSDs. They are also similar to linux, but are different enough that the learning curve would not be as easy.

mistervince

I have my CLP 10.

I just got it infact. All I can say, is it is the hardest of the Linux exams. The RHCE comes no where close to the CLP.

The CLP is a very well made exam. You are given 4 hours and 4 tasks to complete between two virtual servers. They pull the questions from a pool of objectives. It is COMPLETELY hands on.

If you take this test, make sure you actually know what you are doing.

BTW, its a great cert. I just went to an interview in Sept and when they saw that cert the interviewer, "O well I see you obviously will work well for this position, thats a difficult exam."

I now work for Nationwide and its a great job. Novell SLES is an amazing product.

I highly encourage you to go for this certification. )

Turgon

sprkymrk wrote:

I never heard of it, but it sounds like something that RHCE/A has done for a long time. I think these types of exams are a great idea.

Hey, BTW Turgon, have I noticed you getting slightly distracted from your CCIE studies lately? Posting in the CISSP and linux forums? What gives?

Not exactly, I come up for air sometimes and shoot at other things of interest before hastily returning to the CCIE fold. Technical experience wide Im pretty well rounded. CISSP and SCSA/SCNA are on the radar for next year post CCIE, and for that matter so will be a linux cert to add to the Solaris UNIX certs I intend to do. To that end, the Novell cert is the one of interest to me to continue where I left off this year when I passed CNE 6. I also like the fact it's hands on and by many accounts pretty well regarded.

Turgon

mistervince wrote:

I have my CLP 10.

I just got it infact. All I can say, is it is the hardest of the Linux exams. The RHCE comes no where close to the CLP.

The CLP is a very well made exam. You are given 4 hours and 4 tasks to complete between two virtual servers. They pull the questions from a pool of objectives. It is COMPLETELY hands on.

If you take this test, make sure you actually know what you are doing.

BTW, its a great cert. I just went to an interview in Sept and when they saw that cert the interviewer, "O well I see you obviously will work well for this position, thats a difficult exam."

I now work for Nationwide and its a great job. Novell SLES is an amazing product.

I highly encourage you to go for this certification. )

That's good news. I completed my CNE in Netware 6 this year and next year I see me cementing my UNIX background with Solaris 10 SCSA and SCNA. I also want Linux so I can see the CLP being just the ticket adding extra value to the CNE I hold. Virtualisation and SuSE are good directions for Novell. I like the fact these are hands on tests.