RHCSA volume encyrption

jmritenour

Not sure if this is covered by the NDA or not, but on the exam, when encrypting a volume, are you expected to write random data to it with dd prior to luks formatting it? Mainly asking because I know time is of the essence, and doing this on even a small volume takes quite a while.

Slowhand

I think that might fall under the umbrella of the NDA, unfortunately, since it's a question directly pertaining to what you'd be doing during the exam.

the_Grinch

Personally, having no actual knowledge of the exam, I'd figure they aren't going to have you do something that will take a ton of time through no fault of your own. Everyone knows it takes forever to encrypt a volume so I doubt RedHat is going to say sorry you fail because you had to wait for a drive to encrypt.

jmritenour

My inclination is to not write random data unless the instructions explicitly say to do so. However, in both of Michael Jang's books, he does not state to do so in his practice exams, but includes that step as part of correct sequence to follow for creating an encrypted volume in his answers.

Here's hoping that if there are an encryption related tasks, it will state whether or not to write random data, because I'm not going to otherwise.

Bodanel

I think you should be prepared for both options. They could ask you to create a small volume and that's not such a big problem if they request to fill it with random data or they could ask you to create a larger volume and not ask that which is not a problem again. I suggest you learn all you can because it can make the difference between a pass or fail.

jmritenour

Oh, I know how to do it, that's not the problem, I was just more concerned with whether I'd lose points for not doing it if it's not explicitly stated to do so.

I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning.