Going for RHCE this year

lordy

Dear all,

with my plan of becoming self-employed sometime next year I feel that I should use this year to pimp up my list of certs Although I have an LPIC-3 I still think that RHCE is way more recognized and probably a search-word unlike LPI (sad but true).

From what I have read so far I think that with 10 years of exp in Linux and managing CentOS 5 boxes by the hundreds I should probably be ready for RHCSA (EX200 exam). I will probably need to do some serious learning for RHCE though.

Do you think that real-world exp is sufficient to pass EX200? With 400 EUR on the line I definitely want a first-round pass

UnixGuy

lordy wrote: »

Dear all,

with my plan of becoming self-employed sometime next year I feel that I should use this year to pimp up my list of certs Although I have an LPIC-3 I still think that RHCE is way more recognized and probably a search-word unlike LPI (sad but true).

From what I have read so far I think that with 10 years of exp in Linux and managing CentOS 5 boxes by the hundreds I should probably be ready for RHCSA (EX200 exam). I will probably need to do some serious learning for RHCE though.

Do you think that real-world exp is sufficient to pass EX200? With 400 EUR on the line I definitely want a first-round pass

Real world experience with CentOS is definitely sufficient. Just go through all the topics once, don't do my mistake of not going through RHCSA material. With your experience and certifications, I think you'll definitely pass.

Good luck and keep us posted

NightShade03

I just took the exam on Friday and I agree with UnixGuy...make sure you print out the prep guide and go through each item. If you are comfortable with each item you should be fine. Def make sure that you spend time preparing for the RHCE and are comfortable *quickly* moving through configuring services.

lordy

I browsed through the prep guide just before posting and I feel that I have somewhere around 85 to 90% covered. Maybe you can answer a few questions for me without violating any NDAs, of course

Use ssh and VNC to access remote systems

Does RHEL come with any VNC server/client? Was this added in Version 6?
I never used VNC to connect to a Linux box.

Configure a physical machine as a RHEL-based virtualization host

I assume that is new in RHEL 6. Does it relate the XEN? I have only been dealing with VMware / VirtualBox.

Use network user and group accounts stored on an existing LDAP directory service

I assume this aims at using something like ldapsearch/ldappasswd and does not include setting up a directory from scratch.

These are pretty much the only points on the lists that are unclear to me. For the rest I think they could just throw it at me...

NightShade03

RHEL6 comes with VNC depending upon if you install the server or desktop version. It comes with the Desktop setup. To install a VNC server you can install the "tigervnc" package, which will provide you with the VNC server. As for use should be comfortable setting up and connecting to VNC servers/clients and installing Red Hat via VNC.

RHEL6 uses KVM for their virtualization. They heavily invested into this as they now have another certification after the RHCE just for virtualization. Since you know VMware/Virtualbox you probably understand how virtual systems work. Be sure that you can perform all the actions listed in the prep guide:

Client installation
Connecting to the hypervisor
Looking up virtual resources

Specifically you should look at the following commands:
virsh
virt-manager

They will help you install/manage/maintain your physical and virtual servers using KVM.

For your third question you are right on the money. If on the exam they provide an LDAP server you should be able to connect client systems to that LDAP server. You can do this via the Gnome-Authentication window, authconfig (CLI), or authconfig-tui (CLI).

It is important to understand that each of these topics may or may not come up on the exam....each Red Hat exam is different. While I can't tell you what's on the exam (obviously) I will just say again to be comfortable with all topics. Hope this helps. If you have a Safari Books account you can also check out my RHCSA/RHCE book which covers all these topics:

Hands-on Guide to the Red Hat® Exams: RHCSA? and RHCE® Cert Guide and Lab Manual: Safari Books Online