Beginning my LPIC-1 Journey

Concerned Water

I've been having a strong urge for a Linux certification lately. I find myself messing with and thinking about Linux alot, so I decided to start the journey. I ordered CompTIA Linux+ Complete Study Guide. I'm going to study the rest of this year and shoot for it first quarter of next year.

mapletune

I'm also super interested in this certificate!! =D

btw, are you taking the LPIC-1 or the CompTIA Linux+?

Supposedly, if you pass CompTiA Linux+, you can refer your results to LPI and get the LPIC-1 for free; which you can then refer to Novell and get the Novell CLA and Novell DCTS.

Concerned Water

I'm taking the Linux+, I want all the papers

mmen0221

erfweferf

log32

you can get the Linux in a nutshell book, that book includes material for exams 101+102 and 201+202.
that will give you the option in the future to get LPIC Level 2 certified.

Concerned Water

Thanks for the Info.

epicdean

I been feeling the same way lately. Is the Linux+ study guide good so far and what dose your lab look like ?

Concerned Water

So far it's pretty good, a little overwhelming sometimes because Linux has so many options for each command. I'm enjoying it though, learnt a lot just from the first chapter. As for my lab, I'm using VirtualBox and a mix of Fedora, CentOS and Ubuntu.

epicdean

Ya I just ordered the book so it looks like I will be starting with you soon. If anyone else is interested we should start a study group ?

Neogear

I'm studying on LPIC1 Sybex Roderick W Smith's book and I practice some example questions on relative uCertify PrepKit.
Is it enough to pass the 101 & 102 exams?
I've never worked with Linux in an Enterprise environment btw..

NightShade03

If you are working through the LPIC-1/Linux+ then a single Ubuntu and single Centos VM should be more than sufficient to learn everything you need to know. If you move on to the LPIC-2 exams you will definitely want to up your lab to include multiple copies of each VM. Personally I have two Ubuntu VMs and five Centos VMs all running on a private network using virtualbox. That has been useful when doing LPIC/Linux+/RHCE.

Fueledbycaffeine

Quick question! (sorry for leeching off of your thread Concerned I'm studying for the Linux+ as well, as it knocks off a few credit hours and hey, everyone needs to know a bit of Linux wizardy )

Everyone says to have two different kinds of Linux, usually Ubuntu and CentOS, to play with in VMW. Why is that? Is the test going to ask for different commands for different distros?

NightShade03

Fueledbycaffeine wrote: »

Everyone says to have two different kinds of Linux, usually Ubuntu and CentOS, to play with in VMW. Why is that? Is the test going to ask for different commands for different distros?

They can, yes. If you take the RHCSA/RHCE they are very specific to the Red Hat distro (obviously), but LPIC/Linux+ is vendor neutral...so they cover generic topics and some commands from each of the different distributions. It's also really good to know more than one platform as you might need to try tasks or labs out on different VMs and knowing how to switch from Ubuntu to Centos is a good skill to have.

Fueledbycaffeine

Aah, that makes too much sense. :P I was going to use at least two (the ones you mentioned), just to get familiar. Totally forgot that it's vendor neutral haha.

Another dumb question! In higher education/government Linux positions, is there a platform that's more "recommended" for IT to use or is it just up to admin that's deploying/managing it?

NightShade03

I don't think there is a recommended platform (in fact many colleges use a wide variety of platforms for different things). This is just another good reason why you should be able to switch back and forth between Ubuntu and Centos.

Fueledbycaffeine

Noted, sound advice and hasty replies.

Concerned Water

Sounds good, I'll keep it simple by using CentOS and Ubuntu. I haven't got a chance to read today because of work (long hour days).

paul78

@ConcernedWater - are you actually planning to sit for the Linux+ or the LPIC-1 exam. I realize that getting the Linux+ means that you also qualify for the LPIC-1 but I was wondering if there really is any value to writing the CompTIA Linux+ since it was being phased out.

epicdean

paul78 wrote: »

@ConcernedWater - are you actually planning to sit for the Linux+ or the LPIC-1 exam. I realize that getting the Linux+ means that you also qualify for the LPIC-1 but I was wondering if there really is any value to writing the CompTIA Linux+ since it was being phased out.

Where did hear that it was getting phased out ?

paul78

I read it on the LPI website here - http://www.lpi.org/linuxcertifications/partnership-programs/comptia

"In April 2010, CompTIA and LPI announced that CompTIA would phase out its Linux+ exam...."

paulgswanson

Im getting the page cannot be found with that link
I also tried hitting up Comptia's L+ page and they didn't mention a phaseout date or anything.

varelg

My guess is you guys read about phasing out CompTIA's own Linux+ exam format and adopting LPIC-1' format. In other words, CompTIA decided to retire its single- exam, broad- field, opaque- questions format and let LPIC prepare questions for L+ in their two- exam, straight forward questions format. So it is only a question of format, L+ is still around. If I was to go for a Linux cert again, I would go for L+ now, I already got LPIC-1 around the time of the transfer to the new format. With L+, you also get LPIC-1 and two certs from Novell. Further, with Novell cert, you satisfied a prerequisite for their Certified Linux Professional exam (which is a practical exam) and/or for Oracle Linux admin exam. This in case you don't feel like going after RHCSA...
Ubuntu and CentOS are both recommended because of the differences between their package management and different locations of network config files, since Debian- based and Red Hat-based distros differ basically in these two areas.

paul78

Sorry about the bad link. The correct one is here CompTIA Partnership | Linux Professional Institute (LPI)

Les1977

Linux+ powered by LPIC, is exactly the same as the LPIC-1. The original Linux+ exam is no longer used, and was apparently much easier.

I just sat, and passed the second part of the exams today.

I used the Sybex guide too, it is very thorough, and you should have no problems (there are a couple of typos in the book or at least in my edition, where commands are given with double quotes, where they require single quotes, but if you try out all the commands, you will find them.).
As well as the Sybex guide, do take the time to peruse the man pages for your distributions too.

I used Centos, and Fedora 14 and other older distros in virtual machines on Ubuntu for practice. Since the time the book was published some things have changed in Linux, so occasionally things won't work as expected (e.g. most Distros now use Grub2 instead of Grub, and quite a few X-config files have changed too). It is worth downloading a couple of older Linux distros, to cover these older setups.

4_lom

Good luck! This one is on my list also

Concerned Water

Alot of interesting informational posts here!

@4_lom
Thanks. I felt that my weakness was not having an OS cert. I'm hoping to work in a data center one day.

NightShade03

Concerned Water wrote: »

I'm hoping to work in a data center one day.

Buy 4 really big fans, turn them on at the same time, and put your ear right next to them....same thing

Concerned Water

I hate the noise, just going into one of our server/network rooms, I can't hear myself think. The only reason I can deal with it is because I'm enjoying the technology.

Ch@rl!3m0ng

NightShade03 wrote: »

Buy 4 really big fans, turn them on at the same time, and put your ear right next to them....same thing

lol made me chuckle as I can agree!

ramasan

Can anyone recommend good books for the cert? There doesn't seem to be too many to buy, but I always prefer a strong recommendation rather than Amazon reviews...

Concerned Water

I'm using this book.

CompTIA Linux+ Complete Study Guide Authorized Courseware: Exams LX0-101 and LX0-102: Roderick W. Smith: 9780470888452: Amazon.com: Books