A word on UNIX certifications

I find this very inspiring and helpful...

Which Unix Certification is the most needed these days? - I'm new to Unix. Which books should I read? - The UNIX and Linux Forums

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Bert McGert

"A word on UNIX certifications"

I find this very inspiring and helpful...

Sir, that is false advertising.

Claymoore

Take out some of the Unix-specific terms (C, Perl) and what he is saying is true for any attempt at learning technology. Books are useful, but there is no substitute for actually working with it. And not just I-can-click-enough-to-do-my-job working with it, but real in-depth exploration into the inner workings of your field. In other words, 'why' something is done that way and just 'how' it is done.

UnixGuy

Bert McGert wrote: »

Sir, that is false advertising.

advertising for what exactly?

UnixGuy

Claymoore wrote: »

Take out some of the Unix-specific terms (C, Perl) and what he is saying is true for any attempt at learning technology. Books are useful, but there is no substitute for actually working with it. And not just I-can-click-enough-to-do-my-job working with it, but real in-depth exploration into the inner workings of your field. In other words, 'why' something is done that way and just 'how' it is done.

yes exactly..It's about passion and hard work that makes everything possible

Jordus

wait, there are unix certs?

I think claymoore is right. Its easy to fake it or understand "how". The "why" is the hard part, but leads to true understanding.

After a few of the posts ive seen from claymoore on here, i should aspire to be more like him.

UnixGuy

Jordus wrote: »

wait, there are unix certs?

solaris certs, IBM AIX certs, HP-UX certs...many actually

RHCE for Red Hat Linux, LPI...a lot

but in *NIX world experience weigh more and certs are not popular amongst professionals...actually I find some experienced people having attitude toward "certified" UNIX admins who don't know the basics

Bert McGert

UnixGuy wrote: »

advertising for what exactly?

I was drawn into this thread expecting une word regarding UNIX certs. Instead, I'm t-boned by a handful of words and a link with more than *20* words regarding UNIX certs.

UnixGuy

Bert McGert wrote: »

I was drawn into this thread expecting une word regarding UNIX certs. Instead, I'm t-boned by a handful of words and a link with more than *20* words regarding UNIX certs.

lool

sorry for that !!!

vanquish23

Claymoore wrote: »

And not just I-can-click-enough-to-do-my-job working with it, but real in-depth exploration into the inner workings of your field.

I agree, thats what Microsoft Certs are for.

Jordus

vanquish23 wrote: »

I agree, thats what Microsoft Certs are for.

Idiot

vanquish23

Jordus wrote: »

Idiot

Don't be mad because your scared to learn Linux.

Jordus

vanquish23 wrote: »

Don't be mad because your scared to learn Linux.

I bet you have penned one of thoe "Year of the linix desktop" articles, too.

UnixGuy

I suggest a more professional way of communication.

networker050184

vanquish23 wrote: »

Don't be mad because your scared to learn Linux.

I think he is mad because you are being a jack ass, nothing to do with any operating system.

maumercado

Both Microsoft and linux certs can be gained without experience, is harder but can be done...

But in reality experience is required for BOTH LINUX and WINDOWS certs to make a pass easier! its even on the requirements!

trying to make a statement here... its dumb to start a flame war over whats a better OS or whose more capable IT pro because of theyre OS of choice...

Now to continue with the topic posted... cool post!!

UnixGeek

UnixGuy wrote: »

solaris certs, IBM AIX certs, HP-UX certs...many actually

RHCE for Red Hat Linux, LPI...a lot

but in *NIX world experience weigh more and certs are not popular amongst professionals...actually I find some experienced people having attitude toward "certified" UNIX admins who don't know the basics

That's what I've found as well. Unix and Linux sysadmin work is the biggest part of my job, and I'm almost never asked about certifications in that field. I'm more often asked if I'm certified in areas that are tertiary to my work.

That's not to say that these certs aren't worth pursuing to round out your knowledge, but the paper just isn't worth as much in the Unix and Linux fields as in others.

UnixGuy

UnixGeek wrote: »

That's what I've found as well. Unix and Linux sysadmin work is the biggest part of my job, and I'm almost never asked about certifications in that field. I'm more often asked if I'm certified in areas that are tertiary to my work.

That's not to say that these certs aren't worth pursuing to round out your knowledge, but the paper just isn't worth as much in the Unix and Linux fields as in others.

I've been to long interviews where nobody even asked what certifications I have.

But truth be told, to be a successful Solaris Admin, it's a MUST to know all the material covered in the SCSA and SCNA certifications very well.

rossonieri#1

@ unixguy

I've been to long interviews where nobody even asked what certifications I have.

is that a questions for us? or you just wondering about what you have?
seriously?

But truth be told, to be a successful Solaris Admin, it's a MUST to know all the material covered in the SCSA and SCNA certifications very well.

and, is that a self un-confidence?

well, considering your first statement above

,
so i assume that we can ask you something like :
- how long have you yourself know unix? and, how long have you been working with it?
- what type of unix, and what kind of work did you involve in unix?

hahaha, you make me sound more like a future employer

just kidding mate

no offense intended

UnixGuy

Employers asked me questions relevant to the systems they have.

for example, one question I got last week was:
A: customer have a multi-domain system running Solaris, without a cdrom, and the admin screwed up /etc/system file...how do you recover ?

things like that...they were very specific.

I think you will make a good future employer

rossonieri#1 wrote: »

@ unixguy

is that a questions for us? or you just wondering about what you have?
seriously?

and, is that a self un-confidence?

well, considering your first statement above ,
so i assume that we can ask you something like :
- how long have you yourself know unix? and, how long have you been working with it?
- what type of unix, and what kind of work did you involve in unix?

hahaha, you make me sound more like a future employer
just kidding mate no offense intended

rossonieri#1

for example, one question I got last week was:
A: customer have a multi-domain system running Solaris, without a cdrom, and the admin screwed up /etc/system file...how do you recover ?

and your answer was like?

things like that...they were very specific.

well, dont we all do the same thing? we should be, dont we?

not faraway from certification marketing campaign,
actually, what makes you feel different or what differenciate you, between you and the other certs holder nor non-certified people?

UnixGuy

rossonieri#1 wrote: »

and your answer was like?

well, dont we all do the same thing? we should be, dont we?

not faraway from certification marketing campaign,
actually, what makes you feel different or what differenciate you, between you and the other certs holder nor non-certified people?

I actually answered the question immediately, with the perfect answer

see, the system wont boot up with the /etc/system missing. With cdrom, you can boot in a single user mode and mount ur boot disk and rectify the /etc/system...but with multi-domain system such as E6900 without a cdrom, then you're gonna to ask customer if he saved the /etc/system somewhere before doing doing his intelligent editing, which he should, in another name such as /etc/system.orig (it's a best practice after you setup the system to save these files in such names). Then you're gonna have to boot in interactive mode (boot -a), and enter the location of that file you saved. Otherwise ur gonna have to restore backup.

(I got offer from that company

)

what differentiate you in UNIX interviews...is to know your stuff. If you put in your resume that you know how to backup/restore Red Hat Linux, then you should have done it a lot, and be confident enough to answer what you have to do in each situation.

What differentiate you is to put some of your actual work experience such : Implementing veritas volume manager across Solaris and AIX, and configured a clustered SAMBA file system.

Troubleshooting various NFS and NIS problems in such and such customer place. Setting up soft partitions in SVM and configuring various RAID levels in LVM.

if you take training in Solaris or Red Hat, then you have to complement it with long hours of lab testing AND get good opportunity to actually put that knowledge in practice..for years not months.

rossonieri#1

I actually answered the question immediately, with the perfect answer

interesting

doing backup copy with that *.orig filename, ok, i think that is a good point - that is a best practice - not neccessarily in unix, but other as well. but how about the openboot? like you said ctrl+s, ctrl+a etc, can it do the job to recover the system?

and what is that /etc/system file contains anyway?

UnixGuy

rossonieri#1 wrote: »

interesting

doing backup copy with that *.orig filename, ok, i think that is a good point - that is a best practice - not neccessarily in unix, but other as well. but how about the openboot? like you said ctrl+s, ctrl+a etc, can it do the job to recover the system?

and what is that /etc/system file contains anyway?

no they were asking about Solaris specifically. so in Solaris there's no ctrl+s or ctrl+a.

The system will not boot up after restart and will be asking you to enter the password for maintenance mode, and no matter what u do it won't come up because the kernel is not up. You need to boot from cdrom so that you can access the ur root disk independently and edit the text file inside.

/etc/system contains kernel parameters and tunable parameters, the system can not boot with them

UnixGuy

rossonieri#1

I Googled and found this useful link if you want:

Solaris SPARC Boot Sequence

good luck mate

rossonieri#1

no they were asking about Solaris specifically. so in Solaris there's no ctrl+s or ctrl+a.

hahaha, well i guess i've typed using x86 keyboard one too many :LOL:
i've forgot that there was only boot button (like Windows logo button) - to enter the openboot sequence.

UnixGuy

rossonieri#1 wrote: »

hahaha, well i guess i've typed using x86 keyboard one too many :LOL:
i've forgot that there was only boot button (like Windows logo button) - to enter the openboot sequence.

mmmm what boot button are you referring to ?

the question they asked me that when the system rebooted, and it doesnt come up how to rectify.

for SPARC machines u can press STOP +A but this will hang the system, and u will lose any data in memory thats not written to disk. To gracefuly go to openboot u have to type "init 0" command.