RHCT/RHCE Exam CHANGES!!

Chris:/*

You will be able to be certified as long as you are not doing the the new test. You will earn both RHCT and RHCE under RHEL 5 then on January 1, 2011 you will be grandfathered to earn RHCSA. Then you will have 60 days after RHEL 7 comes out to earn RHCE again. The new rules only apply to those earning the new certs under the new test and for now on after that.

PS a lot of this information was gleaned from the emails they have sent to other RH certified professionals.

eng_ahmed

In Egypt , i called them now and they told me that i will take RHCE5 exam before 1/3/2010

darkerosxx

Sent in a request to have my RHCT converted to RHCSA. Awaiting response.

thedude666

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

That sucks man. So do you plan to rewrite the book with the expansions for RHCSA or just go with a RHCE only book?

I just reread the objectives. Man the RHCSA seems like it would be worth a book on its own.

Actually there is not alot that has changed in the objectives.

What I see that has been added is the crypto stuff, selinux(previously this was only in RHCE part), virtualization and vnc.
I don't see any mentioning of NIS so this is probably skipped. (or maybe in the new rhce?)

The positive side of this story is that the exam objectives are alot less vague.

However if you did RHCT then the new cert-way is a p in the a.
You get RHCSA for RHEL5 (notice the "for RHEL5").
If you want to become RHCE for RHEL 6, you have to redo RHCSA for RHEL6 and then RHCE for RHEL6. So again 800euro/dollar.
Which in fact is just putting a fancier/new name on the same thing.

Furthermore I wonder what these Redhat exam prove. They prove in no way how capable someone is of actually doing day to day tasks. Also it is totally unclear what your faults are. You can test alot of stuff on the exam, see they are working, and still fail the exam.

It seems like this is just a money-thing for Redhat. Your exam is checked using a script and there is no way to know that it actually works correctly (even if you did all checks possible).
You can't determine on what part you need improvement.

Anyway... I wish everybody which does this exam the best!
And I a waiting for your book... when will it be available do you think?

CiskHo

thedude666 wrote: »

Actually there is not alot that has changed in the objectives.

I would disagree. Comparing the exam blueprints side by side I see 17 subjects/tasks mentioned for the RHCSA that are not mentioned for RHCT (some items listed more than once).

thedude666 wrote: »

What I see that has been added is the crypto stuff, selinux(previously this was only in RHCE part), virtualization and vnc.

Re-read the list. Configuring an HTTP and FTP server, CIFS, ext4, and others are listed as well which were all topics not needed for the RHCT.

thedude666 wrote: »

I don't see any mentioning of NIS so this is probably skipped. (or maybe in the new rhce?)

I believe they dropped NIS in favor of LDAP only.

thedude666 wrote: »

Furthermore I wonder what these Redhat exam prove. They prove in no way how capable someone is of actually doing day to day tasks.

I disagree. Its more telling than a Cisco exam which has multiple choice, drag and drop, fill in the blank, etc. The RH exams are more realworld than any Cisco or CompTia exam I have taken. There is no guessing. You either know how to do the tasks or you don't and fail. I think their testing model is the best although VMWare may be the same or better (I haven't taken their exam just yet).

thedude666 wrote: »

Also it is totally unclear what your faults are. You can test alot of stuff on the exam, see they are working, and still fail the exam.

I agree that you don't get to see you faults... but that is the same with any exam. They aren't going to tell you which question you got wrong (who does??) but atleast they tell you which sections/topics you need to work on (just like Cisco does). As for verifying your work and still failing... Either you need to appeal the test results/grade or reverify the verify commands you are using. If you verified all your tasks were completed accurately then there is no way you should have failed (this is where appealling the grade would come into play).

thedude666 wrote: »

It seems like this is just a money-thing for Redhat. Your exam is checked using a script and there is no way to know that it actually works correctly (even if you did all checks possible).
You can't determine on what part you need improvement.

Having failed the RHCT before I feel your pain and to some extent agree with your thoughts on RH making money this way. However, they can't show anyone the exact results or the Q&As will leak out and then the cert won't be worth squat. Your test results do show which topics you need to review, just not the exact questions.


My RedHat exam experience has been dissmal thus far. I took 2 most basic official training courses followed by the RHCT exam. I failed with maybe a 50%. I tried getting signed up for another test date only to have RH cancel the exam dates twice on me. 3 weeks before my scheduled exam date of Dec 3rd I got the email stating the RHCT was no longer offered and my exam name had changed to the RHCSA. WTF?! So after many phone calls, emails, etc I finally heard from the head of training for RH. They said there were about 100 other testers in the same boat as me and they would let us take the RHCT after all. Test date is now the 1st week of January.

I do believe the RHCSA is a more accurate test for what is needed by today's IT pros but I need a RH cert NOW to fulfill my own goals. Holding off on the testing while I study for the many new topics found in the RHCSA just wasn't feasible so I stuck with the RHCT. Hopefully this next exam will go more smoothly than my last attempt! God knows I've had enough time to study due to the cancelled exam dates, cert changes, etc. Can't wait to get this over with!!!

Best of luck to the rest of you!

NightShade03

You also have to take into consideration changes that aren't a requirement of the exam, but a change to the under lying system itself. An example would be firewall rules...on v5 there were like 15 rules by default...with RHEL6 there is a single rule to allow SSH and reject everything else.

SELinux has also changed significantly on how it handles certain services and users (confined users are now used).

The exams changes (particularly without any warning) have really hurt many people, but once the dust settles and people begin starting to study the correct version of the exam things will get better for those that are certified. RH does have a point that being a certified System Admin vs a Tech does sound better to HR people (although we all know better )

darkerosxx

darkerosxx wrote: »

Sent in a request to have my RHCT converted to RHCSA. Awaiting response.

Got a response on this. They're changing all RHCT to RHCSA. You should receive information via e-mail.

tkep1008

Who knows, maybe I will fail it maybe I wont, then fact of the matter is that we have to move on. It sure as hell sucks that this happened to me, but they gave me an option.

Option 1: Free Exam Retake Plus Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Study Document

If you would like to continue your pursuit of a certification based on
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 technology, Red Hat will offer a free exam
retake if you do not pass your exam. In addition, on November 24, 2010
we will publish a custom study document to assist you in understanding
the content that was not covered in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
courses or was not covered on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 RHCT or RHCE
exam.

Option 2: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Exam in January

If you prefer to certify under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 technology,
Red Hat will offer you an opportunity to take a RHCT and/or RHCE exam in
January 2011. These exams will not be open to the public, but rather to
students who originally enrolled in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
certification exam. If you would like to pursue this option, please let
us know your location preference. On December 1, 2010 we will send you
an email with the final scheduled dates and locations.

from redhat email

I took option 1, hell i prepared for RHEL5 for a while, and work with it on a daily basis, but RHEL6 although different we need to learn these things too. Some of us may have already been working with it by using Fedora as a workstation, like LUKS encryption and iscsi. iSCSI can be used on RHEL5, so just because it wasnt part of RHEL5 exam doesnt mean you may have not used it in an environment.

In the end if I fail, they just saved me all that cash from re-taking it, and I verified and they are giving me the re-take on either the RHCSA and RHCE. what really really really sucks is that on test day it will be a VERY long day, 2 tests in one day.. That blows.

Ohh well...

CiskHo

darkerosxx wrote: »

Got a response on this. They're changing all RHCT to RHCSA. You should receive information via e-mail.

What do you mean by this? Are you saying that if I pass the RHCT exam in January that I will be an RHCSA? If so, I am digging that! However, it almost doesn't seem fair to those who study for the new technologies and take the RHCSA.

Chris:/*

Yes that is correct and it is fair because under the old expiration rules the RHCT would not have expired during version 6 of RHEL. As RH is getting rid of the RHCT it would really suck for all the admins who had earned the cert under the pretenses of when it would expire.

varelg

thedude666 wrote: »

The positive side of this story is that the exam objectives are alot less vague.

Which I agree is a good thing for future candidates, since now that exam objectives are "to-the-point" (a la LPIC objectives) candidates can do a research on their own, compile study material from very relevant resources and don't depend on attending classes that charge an arm and a leg to significantly increase their chances of passing the exam. First RHCSA blogs started popping up: system admin's kodigo: RHCSA
The biggest p... in the a... isn't the versioning but how short-lived are the new RH certs. Every 3 years you have to go through the same thing, pay obscene $$ to take the test just to keep the cert current. Smacks of taxation. 5 years would be optimal amount of time.

Kferg

Hello all,

I have some expierence with Linux/Unix but do not have any certifications. I was planning on Getting RH certified but after reading thru the thread im not sure what road to take. What do you guys suggest?

Chris:/*

Unless you have strong experience with RH I do not suggest doing the cert unless you are taking the formal class. Start out with Linux or LPIC and then move on to RH, at the same time practice using CentOS and Fedora on a Virtual Machine to become more familiar. Match what you do on the VM with what the objectives say you need to know.

Darwiner

FWIW, I just took the RH300 course/exam this week with RHEL6...

This is my first time taking a certification course at all, so I can't really compare with others, nor with previous RHCE courses for previous versions.

My advice to anyone thinking of taking it based on RHEL6: Wait just a bit...

The student workbook is filled with errors, typos, bugs, same goes with the workstations and scripts to setup and grade the criterion tests. The content of the course itself isn't that bad, but the QA that has been done on the course is really dissapointing and made both the instructor and us lose ALOT of time during the week trying to figure a few things out.

It just feels a bit crappy to spend money on this and feel like you're a beta tester at the same time.

Otherwise, I've yet to receive my results, but my personal impressions on the exams:

RHCSA: Rather easy. Anyone who remotely has a clue and experience with linux sysadmin should be fine. The 2.5 hours given for this test seemed a bit much, at least to me.

RHCE: Not hard in itself, but there's more definitely debugging to be done in this one, and I also found the 2 hours for the test a bit short.

If the time allowed for the 2 tests were inversed, 2 hours for RHCSA and 2.5 hours for RHCE, that would have worked out nicely for me.

ps. I always avoided GUIs, never cared for them, but god damn, system-config-authentication is such a time-saver. :P

Chris:/*

Darwiner wrote: »

ps. I always avoided GUIs, never cared for them, but god damn, system-config-authentication is such a time-saver. :P

Agreed!

Forsaken_GA

Hey nightshade, just wondering if you had any further news on your book

NightShade03

Should have some details to share by Jan 3...sorry for the delay.

Chris:/*

Received my RHCSA by email yesterday. I use the certification number to look it up and it shows that they applied the expiration period retroactively to my original exam not when I was issued this cert. This is fine but a little frustrating because it cuts at least one year off my re-certification time. Guess I am planning a trip back to the states to re-certify grrrr. I will probably attempt to knock out the CISSP while I am there as well.

Round trip to states: $3,000
RHCSA: $400
RHCE: $400

Guess I am taking the RHCSA for 6 and then the RHCE test. I just need to practice to improve my speed in configuring the systems.

CiskHo

darkerosxx wrote: »

Got a response on this. They're changing all RHCT to RHCSA. You should receive information via e-mail.

I took the RHCT and passed on 1/7/11. Nothing received about RHCSA yet, just an email saying congrats on being a RHCT. Either way I'm happy . I wasn't expecting to pass by much but ended up doing rather well.

brownwrap

anobomski wrote: »

i guess i will wait for NGHTS'S book before i tackle this next year.

Speaking of the book, I went to NightShade's website and it said there would be an announcement on the 3rd.

Bodanel

Next week digital release, hard copy april.

thedude666

Bodanel wrote: »

Next week digital release, hard copy april.

Still no news?

Where will it be available?

NightShade03

I'm still waiting on the publisher....

thedude666

NightShade03 wrote: »

I'm still waiting on the publisher....

so it will be available through your publishers website?

Sorry for being unpatient

thedude666

CiskHo wrote: »

I would disagree. Comparing the exam blueprints side by side I see 17 subjects/tasks mentioned for the RHCSA that are not mentioned for RHCT (some items listed more than once).


Re-read the list. Configuring an HTTP and FTP server, CIFS, ext4, and others are listed as well which were all topics not needed for the RHCT.

I actually looked at it from a standpoint for someone who want to achieve RHCE.
There are indeed some changes however there are no such vague boundaries as there were before.

CiskHo wrote: »

I disagree. Its more telling than a Cisco exam which has multiple choice, drag and drop, fill in the blank, etc. The RH exams are more realworld than any Cisco or CompTia exam I have taken. There is no guessing. You either know how to do the tasks or you don't and fail. I think their testing model is the best although VMWare may be the same or better (I haven't taken their exam just yet).

My point is that RHCSA/RHCE lets you study "tasks". These are indeed real-world scenarios. However I have seen people with almost no knowledge pass the exam while others with plenty of knowledge almost not passing. The possible scenarios are also limited in a practical exam.
So in that point of view other exams might test if a student has in depth knowledge of what he is doing.

CiskHo wrote: »

I agree that you don't get to see you faults... but that is the same with any exam. They aren't going to tell you which question you got wrong (who does??) but atleast they tell you which sections/topics you need to work on (just like Cisco does). As for verifying your work and still failing... Either you need to appeal the test results/grade or reverify the verify commands you are using. If you verified all your tasks were completed accurately then there is no way you should have failed (this is where appealling the grade would come into play).

Of course they just can't give away the answers. However having 1 section for RHCSA(RHCT) and one for RHCE is not what I call score/topic.
BTW: I actually appealed the grade. But there is not any guarantee that they actually do something with it.
If you want I'll give you my exam questions and how I solved them, and the my verification methods. (I can't say I didn't made any mistake however the score in comparison with what I was able to solve seems unreasonable).

CiskHo wrote: »

Having failed the RHCT before I feel your pain and to some extent agree with your thoughts on RH making money this way. However, they can't show anyone the exact results or the Q&As will leak out and then the cert won't be worth squat. Your test results do show which topics you need to review, just not the exact questions.

There are no topics.
Its the RHCT part that is bothering me (I did pass RHCT and RHCE seperately)

CiskHo wrote: »

My RedHat exam experience has been dissmal thus far. I took 2 most basic official training courses followed by the RHCT exam. I failed with maybe a 50%. I tried getting signed up for another test date only to have RH cancel the exam dates twice on me. 3 weeks before my scheduled exam date of Dec 3rd I got the email stating the RHCT was no longer offered and my exam name had changed to the RHCSA. WTF?! So after many phone calls, emails, etc I finally heard from the head of training for RH. They said there were about 100 other testers in the same boat as me and they would let us take the RHCT after all. Test date is now the 1st week of January.

They cancelled exams about 4 times for me. It is common.
If it doesn't bring in 10k then they just cancel it. Very annoying as for me I needed to refresh my memory over and over again(1 exam/month in theory). I didn't follow a course. How much did you paid in total (6k?)?
That first week is already passed so I hope you passed RHCT!

CiskHo wrote: »

I do believe the RHCSA is a more accurate test for what is needed by today's IT pros but I need a RH cert NOW to fulfill my own goals. Holding off on the testing while I study for the many new topics found in the RHCSA just wasn't feasible so I stuck with the RHCT. Hopefully this next exam will go more smoothly than my last attempt! God knows I've had enough time to study due to the cancelled exam dates, cert changes, etc. Can't wait to get this over with!!!

Best of luck to the rest of you!

I understand that going from RHCT to RHCSA might be a big difference if you are new to linux.

Greetings!

Forsaken_GA

NightShade03 wrote: »

I'm still waiting on the publisher....

You need to explain to your publisher that you have people waiting to give you money. Chop chop!

And to not be totally inane -

What options are you going to have for digital distribution? Straight PDF? DRM'd PDF? Kindle? epub?

As long as you've got something I can load on my iPad, you've got my money. If it's that adobe DRM crap that I have to run windows for.... that's not going to work for me.

NightShade03

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

You need to explain to your publisher that you have people waiting to give you money. Chop chop!

Yeah I've been dying to get this out!

There is no DRM....they don't believe in DRM. It will def be available in different formats and I'll find out specifically which ones for sure.

veritas_libertas

I'm interested as well. Tell them to hurry up!!!

Forsaken_GA

NightShade03 wrote: »

Yeah I've been dying to get this out!

There is no DRM....they don't believe in DRM. It will def be available in different formats and I'll find out specifically which ones for sure.

Good. It'd be kind of ironic if the digital distribution for a Linux book required a DRM'd Windows platform to read hehe

NightShade03

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Good. It'd be kind of ironic if the digital distribution for a Linux book required a DRM'd Windows platform to read hehe

Yeah one of the things I first inquired about was DRM...I'm not a fan at all and I didn't want to use a publisher that was going to lock me into their DRM system.

I believe that the book will be released through Safari Books Online. With Safari you can read the book online, download it as a PDF, and they have an app for the iPad as well.

I'm also in talks about doing a training video series for both exams as well. Those would also be available through this publisher and my training company site. Let you know how that turns out.