Scheduled RHCSA / EX200 for April 15th

lordy

Dear all,

to put some pressure on myself and get things going I scheduled my first shot at the RHCSA/EX200 for April 15th.

These are the things I need to look at:
- SELinux (hate it)
- LUKS (Used to work with it when I had a Linux Desktop)
- Regular Expressions (figure out the difference between grep and perl)
- RHEL Virtualization (Haven't used it yet)
- ACLs (Never used them anywhere)
- VNC-Server (Check out how it's installed/managed)

I think I got all other bases covered so I see a good chance of passing.

varelg

Oh man, no love for SELinux? But you aren't alone, infact I think it's the feeling of majority about it...
What made you going for RH after so many other *nix certs lordy?

AceRimmer

1). - SELinux (hate it)
-> agree, it is required by almost every service. But it could also be fun
-> there are 2 documents from Fedora documentation covering it very well:
"Security Enhanced Linux" and "Managing Confined Services"
-> there's also good LinuxCBT covering the basics of SE Linux

2). - LUKS (Used to work with it when I had a Linux Desktop)
-> that one seems easy:
Implementing LUKS Disk Encryption - FedoraProject

3).- Regular Expressions (figure out the difference between grep and perl)
-> also easy

4).- RHEL Virtualization (Haven't used it yet)
-> actually fun, there are lots of good KVM tutorials on HowtoForge, it's also covered in Fedora and RHEL documentation. Best way to learn it is to make RHCSA/RHCE lab in KVM. Actually, it's the only way since it requires access to VMX/SVM CPU extensions, so you cannot use it on top of VMWare/VBOX. You have to use Linux on real hardware.

5).- ACLs (Never used them anywhere)
-> easy

6). - VNC-Server (Check out how it's installed/managed)
-> super easy

So, the major ones are SE Linux and KVM.

lordy

varelg wrote: »

Oh man, no love for SELinux? But you aren't alone, infact I think it's the feeling of majority about it...
What made you going for RH after so many other *nix certs lordy?

Don't get me wrong. SELinux is a really good idea. It's just too complex for widespread adoption.

I have always been working with RedHat over the last ~10 years but now that I am planning to go self-employed I wanted to get their official paper so that I get listed when people search for RHCSA or RHCE.

NightShade03

lordy wrote: »

Don't get me wrong. SELinux is a really good idea. It's just too complex for widespread adoption.

I wouldn't be too concerned about this. If you haven't noticed yet many of the services that were disabled because SELinux protection in RHEL5 no longer have that same issue in RHEL6. All of the disable_trans_<service> booleans are gone and the number of SELinux boolean options as a whole has decreased from like 243 down to 140 something (I don't recall the exact numbers).

Good Luck on exam, although with that much experience I can't imagine that you will have any trouble. Just make sure to not let nerves get the best of you!

lordy

OK, today I finally fired up my Dell 2850 that I had laying around for quite a while. I installed RHEL 6 Server x86_64 from DVD and I am now ready to roll. The exam is in exactly 2 weeks so I better get going

VNC Server Installation

I installed the tigervnc-server package and all it's depencies (which are resolved automatically). Then I created two unprivileged users and execute "vncserver" as each. This will ask you for a password which you could also set with "vncpasswd". The password is stored in the users home directory unter .vnc/passwd.

To have the vncservers start automatically I put VNCSERVERS="2:user1 3:user2" in /etc/sysconfig/vncservers. I then started them with "service vncservers start". I am now able to connect to screens 2 and 3 with the respective passwords for their users.

Once a connection is established and authenticated the script in .vnc/xstartup is run. This will start the twm windows manager and an xterm which are both not installed in the minimal installation. To fix this I did a "yum install twm xterm". I think this should be pretty much it.

lordy

Dear all,

less than 24 hours after taking the exam I have received the results:

The results of your EX200 Exam are reported below.

Passing score for the exam: 210.0
Your score: 282

Result: PASS

Congratulations -- you have earned the EX200 Certificate.

The exam experience was pretty good as I was the only person taking it that Friday. The tutor was quite helpful although he wasn't allowed to and didn't give any hints. I only had trouble with one of the tasks because I was thinking too complex. Another task hit a blank spot (something I did not consider worth learning) but I had over one hour left after finishing all the other tasks so I took the time to read all the related man pages and got it working through trial and error. I had enough time to double and triple check and still finished roughly 20 minutes early.

For the most part, the exam was a little easier than I expected. But doing a lab instead of multiple choice really makes a difference!

My recommendations if you want to take it:
- Be calm, you have enough time
- Keep it simple. None of the solutions is complex.
- Read the tasks properly. Ask the tutor if unclear.
- Take a look at the system-config-* commands (time savers!)
- Remember to test not only inside the VM but from your Host too (important!)

Should you fail, ask for a re-takers rebate. The tutor told me that this is available (at least in Germany) if you ask for it. They don't seem to advertise it though.

NightShade03

Awesome job! Congrats on the pass!

I think you had a very similar experience to what I had. I will say the only thing on your list there that isn't true for the RHCE is the time thing. You have zero time when doing the RHCE because the task requirements are more complex and the time is less.

bin00010111

Where are you scheduling your exam? I am confused on this one. I have looked everywhere online and cannot find out WHERE to takie the exam. Is there a list somewhere to know where to take it?

Or do you just register pay the money and THEN it shows you a list of where to take it? I need to plan because if they do not have it in Oklahoma I need to figure out how to get where I need to go and how much that cost and all. Thanks for the help!!

onesaint

Erm. Have you looked over the exam page? It leads to this -> https://www.redhat.com/courses/ex200_rhcsa_exam/enroll/

bin00010111

Thanks for the reply.

That shows the training schedule. Where would I take the exam f I self study?

At least they show a place in Dallas on here. That makes me feel a little better. No flying!!

So these places that do the training at their site can also provide the test for a self study person?

Thanks for your help!

bin00010111

I found the answer from the link you gave me onesaint. I tracked down a training provider in Dallas and then called them and found out that the days they give the test to the people in their training class is the same day ANYONE can come and take the exam.

He recommended:

RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Linux Certification Study Guide (Exams EX200 & EX300), 6th Edition (Certification Press)
by Michael H. Jang

I like this book.

I also am using vtc.com training. I do not know really how wide spread the opinion is, but so far out of the 99 videos on RHCSA, I feel like I am taking the linux+ training. But I am not even 25% through it. So maybe it will get harder. I will go through all the videos and then the Jang book.

I printed out the exam objectives and as of right not about 75% of them I can do just with the Linux+ knowledge I have and work/vm knowledge.
I am thinking of taking the test in in mid september to end of september.

Thanks for your help!!

onesaint

Sure thing. Have a look at this too. I think it's still current with the objectives.
Control Protocol: RHCSA "**** Sheet"