Passed LPIC-3 Core level, my 2 cents...
log32
Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 217
hi everyone
I'll start by saying sorry for any English spelling mistakes or grammar, it isn't my native language, so don't judge me
I passed the exam Friday morning, had to wake up at 6:30am since the exam was scheduled for 8:00AM and I went out the night before... what a stupid rookies mistake
Quick brief, obtaining the certs LPIC-1,LPIC-2,LPIC-3 Core in total took me around half a year, with an average
of 3-4 hours per day reading books, web material, and practicing with virtual machines. (used Debian and SUSE VMs for all of the objectives most of the time for all of the certs)
I for one don't have years of experience with Linux, I started self learning about a year ago, but I would say my year of studying equals to a lot more than a year because of my dedication and passion to it. it's my main home OS, and at work I maintain about 3-4 Linux servers for different purposes.
LPI's uniqueness is of course being vendor neutral in the exams, and that is the advantage (and in my opinion the only one) over Red hat certs.
but on top of that I can safely say that (imho) the more you climb up the ladder towards LPIC-3, the less available material you can find. it's a shame really.
I ordered Linux in a nutshell (OReilly) books for LPIC-1,2 while making sure the objectives are according to LPI's wiki site.
index,read it cover to cover (around 900 pages), since I actually do it to learn Linux better, the certification is just a bonus for me at the end. and some kind of a brain challenger.
the book felt a little outdated to me, so I had to compare it every time to LPI's objective highlights, and unlike red hat's rhcsa/rhce book, the selection of books isn't too great, it's only OReilly's and Sybex I think, and that goes for both LPIC 1+2.
I think that the more hard it is to pass an exam, the more it is valuable for the person who passes it, like most things in life.
On to LPIC-3 core (kind of got carried away lol) , there aren't any books for it, I had to explore the web looking for people who blogged a thing or two about LPIC-3, I mailed one of them to get his opinion about how to prepare, and looked for studying tips, He mailed back saying that he used LDAP System Administration book to get the OpenLDAP topic covered, and I did the same.
I contacted the people over at LPI ( who responded me very quickly with satisfying answers and support right away so thumbs up on that matter) and even they referred me to 3rd party websites due to the lack of information.
the exam is basically OpenLDAP (about 75% of the exam) & Capacity planning, I cannot detail much more about the questions, but they were at the level I expected them to be.
This is what I have used for the test prep:
- IBM's LPIC-3 tutorials
- Rootkit.nl LPIC-3 page
- LDAP System Administration book
- Took side notes for things I couldn't remember by heart.
During the test there was a network failure at some point and 90% of the examinees (Cisco & Microsoft) got disconnected during the exam, we were 10 in the room, so that leaves the other 10% being only me
felt like the luckiest person ever, haha! open source for teh win ;D
I'll start by saying sorry for any English spelling mistakes or grammar, it isn't my native language, so don't judge me
I passed the exam Friday morning, had to wake up at 6:30am since the exam was scheduled for 8:00AM and I went out the night before... what a stupid rookies mistake
Quick brief, obtaining the certs LPIC-1,LPIC-2,LPIC-3 Core in total took me around half a year, with an average
of 3-4 hours per day reading books, web material, and practicing with virtual machines. (used Debian and SUSE VMs for all of the objectives most of the time for all of the certs)
I for one don't have years of experience with Linux, I started self learning about a year ago, but I would say my year of studying equals to a lot more than a year because of my dedication and passion to it. it's my main home OS, and at work I maintain about 3-4 Linux servers for different purposes.
LPI's uniqueness is of course being vendor neutral in the exams, and that is the advantage (and in my opinion the only one) over Red hat certs.
but on top of that I can safely say that (imho) the more you climb up the ladder towards LPIC-3, the less available material you can find. it's a shame really.
I ordered Linux in a nutshell (OReilly) books for LPIC-1,2 while making sure the objectives are according to LPI's wiki site.
index,read it cover to cover (around 900 pages), since I actually do it to learn Linux better, the certification is just a bonus for me at the end. and some kind of a brain challenger.
the book felt a little outdated to me, so I had to compare it every time to LPI's objective highlights, and unlike red hat's rhcsa/rhce book, the selection of books isn't too great, it's only OReilly's and Sybex I think, and that goes for both LPIC 1+2.
I think that the more hard it is to pass an exam, the more it is valuable for the person who passes it, like most things in life.
On to LPIC-3 core (kind of got carried away lol) , there aren't any books for it, I had to explore the web looking for people who blogged a thing or two about LPIC-3, I mailed one of them to get his opinion about how to prepare, and looked for studying tips, He mailed back saying that he used LDAP System Administration book to get the OpenLDAP topic covered, and I did the same.
I contacted the people over at LPI ( who responded me very quickly with satisfying answers and support right away so thumbs up on that matter) and even they referred me to 3rd party websites due to the lack of information.
the exam is basically OpenLDAP (about 75% of the exam) & Capacity planning, I cannot detail much more about the questions, but they were at the level I expected them to be.
This is what I have used for the test prep:
- IBM's LPIC-3 tutorials
- Rootkit.nl LPIC-3 page
- LDAP System Administration book
- Took side notes for things I couldn't remember by heart.
During the test there was a network failure at some point and 90% of the examinees (Cisco & Microsoft) got disconnected during the exam, we were 10 in the room, so that leaves the other 10% being only me
felt like the luckiest person ever, haha! open source for teh win ;D Comments
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varelg
Banned Posts: 790
Congrats Dolev, well done and thanks for the great review.
Ever thought about taking on rh exam? I have lpic-1 and am looking into taking on rhcsa, would take lpic-2 only for the sake of the effort I put into prep for lpic-1.
I completely agree with you on your point about lack of material for lpic exams. Even for level 1 when I was taking the first exam there was serious lack of prep material relevant to the exam, sort of having to compile it by myself (there were 2 guides on the market at that time, out of which one was outdated already). That and employers' recognition of RH will drive me towards a rh exam... -
log32
Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 217
Congrats Dolev, well done and thanks for the great review.
Ever thought about taking on rh exam? I have lpic-1 and am looking into taking on rhcsa, would take lpic-2 only for the sake of the effort I put into prep for lpic-1.
I completely agree with you on your point about lack of material for lpic exams. Even for level 1 when I was taking the first exam there was serious lack of prep material relevant to the exam, sort of having to compile it by myself (there were 2 guides on the market at that time, out of which one was outdated already). That and employers' recognition of RH will drive me towards a rh exam...
hey, thanks a lot.
Regarding your Red Hat's cert question - yes, I received Michael Jang's RHCSA/RHCE book 3 days ago, gonna study for RHCSA now.
Red Hat is definitely more recognizable than LPI on the market in my opinion as well.. -
shred805
Member Posts: 12 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thanks for this info, Still wondering if its worth it to go after level 3, since it isnt as recognized. -
antielvis
Member Posts: 285 ■■■□□□□□□□
@Shred805
I'm a former Linux technie and I'd say Red Hat is probably more recognized than LPI. Regardless, understand that anyone working in *nix with any experience will recognize those exams. Further to that, some of the finest UNIX admins on this planet have no certifications. It won't take a long time for a professional to ascertain your level of Linux/UNIX.
