RHCE Study Group

dynamik

A few of us here are starting an RHCE study group, and anyone who is interested is welcome to join. I think we're tentatively looking at taking the exam in approximately four months. You obviously don't have take the exam at the same time we do, but that'll give you an idea of the pace we're going to work at. All skill levels are welcome to participate, but be prepared to work your ass off if you're a Linux noob (like me).

undomiel

Ooooh! I'm interested. Where do I sign up?

BeaverC32

How will this study group work? Will there be chat sessions, assignments, labs, etc?

4 months seems a bit aggressive for going from linux noob to a RedHat engineer.

dynamik

The pace was set for me, I'm not sure if I'll keep up. Undomiel and Liven are spearheading this. I wasn't even planning on doing this, but I got suckered in. This one scares me, so I figured I'd take advantage of the company.

I think I'll setup a private phpBB like this site, so we don't overwhelm this place with useless chatter (we'll post any useful information back over, of course).

Their thoughts were that we pretty much just allow each other to SSH into our machines and break stuff. Learning by doing! It would be nice to do this via scripts instead of manually because we'd amass a great resource for future students by the time we're done (and our scripting would probably improve).

We're open to suggestions though, so any type of chat sessions, assignments, labs, etc. that you would like are definitely doable.

undomiel

I'm pretty new to Linux as well but 4 months of hard hands-on break-fix-build-build-build-rebuild would do wonders I believe. Of course if I'm not ready in 4 months then I'm not ready in 4 months and will have to wait longer which is ok. I'm not going to fire off $800 until I'm ready. Nobody else being held to my personal schedule here! I just think the experience will be great and that 4 months is doable. The more the merrier!

Mishra

How new are you all to Linux?

Do you all know the basic OS CLI and are able to get around?
Are you more new to the applications?
What do you think you could setup right now without much complication?

dynamik

I'd say I'm Linux+ level. I have that one coming up pretty soon. I can get around fine and edit things, but I just need to work on a lot more advanced configurations. I think I have a better handle on the Linux+ material than Undomiel, but he's spent a lot more time playing around with it and using it on a regular basis, so he's probably more knowledgeable overall.

Liven is a seasoned veteran though.

undomiel

So far my linux experience is using it at home for a desktop machine and another machine set up as DNS and SMTP. At work I have it integrated into Active Directory using Samba and also have it set up as a DFS root and a slave DNS server. Distros used for this is OpenSUSE 10.3 & 11.0 and CentOS 5.1. I'm quite comfortable with the command line and generally use that for configuration than the GUI.

I could redo most of that with a few man page references except for the SMTP server as I only just did that the other week and haven't touched it since.

astorrs

Hmm... this could be fun...

Mishra

I've setup 50 machines with cable modem provisioning software
Worked a little with Unix with the older provisioning software we were replacing
Transparent Firewalls
Firewalls
Samba servers
Nagios servers
NFS boxes
PHPBB boxes
Apache servers
DNS
DHCP
Old Health Software
RADIUS
MRTG
OpenVPN
(Okay thats enough thinking)

Suprisingly, I've never configured pure sendmail but I have setup/tested Scalix. I want to mess with Zimbra.

I would say I'm an 2 out of 4 in Linux skills. I have NO X/GUI skills.

darkerosxx

I'm really glad you posted this!

I talked with my boss today and I have to drop my MCITP:EA work for RHCE.

BTW, I have vmware server installed on a home server. It's behind a NAT router and I can't figure out how to access it outside other than RDP. If anybody wants to help me figure that out and get proper security settings, I wouldn't mind giving people access to vmware and letting people make VM's and break them.

Is that even possible with vmware server? I haven't really had time to look up user and authentication possibilities.

Edit to add: I'm a unix system administrator, so I might be able to help out with your group while I'm working towards RHCE, myself.

dynamik

The easiest way would be to set your network settings to bridged, so your VMs are actually on your network and then just forward SSH to that IP, just like you must have done with RDP.

scheistermeister

This sounds fun! I've broken my box many a time with PITA things to find and fix. When are you guys planning on starting? I would be interested in it for the fun/experience. I am sure I could hook up a box that someone could play with 24/7 too that would be networked with Cisco gear, Win03 and Win2k so that you could work on the networking between them.

snadam

scheistermeister wrote:

This sounds fun! I've broken my box many a time with PITA things to find and fix. When are you guys planning on starting? I would be interested in it for the fun/experience. I am sure I could hook up a box that someone could play with 24/7 too that would be networked with Cisco gear, Win03 and Win2k so that you could work on the networking between them.

im very curious to try this out, but my MCSE takes precedence at the moment. SOME of us still need that one you know... :stares at undomiel and dynamik:

I cant imagine how marketable one would be with both the MCSE and RHCE?

scheistermeister

Forgot to ask, is there a certain distro you guys are all agreeing to use like CentOS or is it pick your flavor?

undomiel

CentOS is pretty much RHEL with the RedHat insignia stripped from it so that's what I'm using personally for it. I'm pretty sure dynamik is using that as well.

Nothing's stopping you from joining in as soon as you have that pesky MCSE out of the way snadam.

dynamik

CentOS.

MCSE's are overrated. Hop on the bandwagon snadam!

snadam

dynamik wrote:

CentOS.

MCSE's are overrated. Hop on the bandwagon snadam!

youre right, I should stop. After all Im only 4/7 exams away :P

marco71

what is the status of this project now? sound good to me (I have few years of experience with CentOS 4), although I'm at thousands miles far away from you

Therhino

dynamik...do we need a forum or anything i can through one up today

dynamik

I already have a private forum setup. Send me a PM if you're interested.

I didn't want to flood this site with bunch of crazy banter. I'll definitely post back any relevant notes, resources, tips, etc. later on.

We're just getting started on the Jang book this week. We're reading one chapter a week (16 total) with a one week break every four chapters. Then we'll get into lab exercises, etc.

Turgon

dynamik wrote:

I already have a private forum setup. Send me a PM if you're interested.

I didn't want to flood this site with bunch of crazy banter. I'll definitely post back any relevant notes, resources, tips, etc. later on.

We're just getting started on the Jang book this week. We're reading one chapter a week (16 total) with a one week break every four chapters. Then we'll get into lab exercises, etc.

I will be interested how you all get on. I may do the RHCE for fun next year and made a note of some resources, all my Linux/Unix studies are on the 2009 backburner for now.

Good luck with it all.

ConstantlyLearning

I'd like to join in on this.

Currently running Unbuntu on one of my boxes and going through a basic online linux tutorial.

jbaello

I would like to join I'll download CentOS this week

ciscom

Hey Dynamik! It's ciscom from the cwnp forum...

How does this RHCE forum works?

findingo74

I wan to be part of this group

jbaello

Linux future looks brighter than ever

TechJunky

I will jump on this bandwagon. I have been using Linux for years and need to test my knowledge. Can you link the new phpbb site so we all can post?

I already have a dedicated Server, so if you want access to load a phpbb site you can do that as well.

I wont be able to get hard into this until after I get back from my Apple Certification course this on the 30th, but its going to cover a lot of *nix material as well, so hopefully I can bring some of that knowledge here as well.

Can you just schedule an exam for the RHCE or do you have to pay for the actual course before you can schedule an exam?

undomiel

I know Red Hat's site is a bit unclear about these things, for me at least, but the only thing required is taking the exam itself.

dynamik

I can't imagine them letting you register for it without paying. The tests are limited in space and only occur every 1-3 months, so I doubt they're going to let you take up space without even knowing if you're going to come through with the payment.

undomiel

He was asking about the actual courses that Red Hat pushes on their site. Or at least I think he was asking about that. Maybe I'm confused. Is this colour pink or yellow?