RHCA timeframe

brombulec wrote: »

You can get a trial version of Satellite for 30 days (1 server + 1 client) and this is enough to pass the 401 exam.
Just ask the RH Sales representative or e-mail RH directly - I had no trouble to get the license and required certificate for Satellite entitlement.

Apparently they are slightly tougher on giving out the trial licenses now. I know people who have struggled to get them.

It would be good if there was a good alterantive that was freely available.

asummers wrote: »

Apparently they are slightly tougher on giving out the trial licenses now. I know people who have struggled to get them.

It would be good if there was a good alterantive that was freely available.

The Katello website has some good documentation on how to setup your own free Sat 6:

http://www.katello.org/docs/2.4/installation/index.html

Thanks will take a look

I would like to point out https://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/learning-subscription#?
While this is pretty expensive it's a pretty nice combo.

I guess Red Hat should offer different pricing for the learning subscription for businesses and individuals, because at $5500 it's a bit too pricey, if you ask me.

varelg

Bodanel wrote: »

I would like to point out https://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/learning-subscription#?
While this is pretty expensive it's a pretty nice combo.

If I was at the point of going for RHCA, take 5-6 exams in one year and my employer was interested, it would make sense to get the package, because it looks pretty sweet. But:
- it's a package of online courses and not all of them, if any, come with books.
- a lot of that material is about JBoss, their middleware. Which isn't my line of work, as it is now.
- pricey. They could either extend the subscription to two years or maybe tone it down a bit with the price. $5500 for an individual candidate isn't something to sneeze at.

Pricey indeed.
@Varelg

From what I understand it's the same material as in the classroom. Maybe wolf can confirm this whitout asking the sales dep ? You have all courses required to obtain RHCA and it's cheaper than going to classroom courses.

Bodanel wrote: »

Pricey indeed.
@Varelg

From what I understand it's the same material as in the classroom. Maybe wolf can confirm this whitout asking the sales dep ? You have all courses required to obtain RHCA and it's cheaper than going to classroom courses.

$5,500 for a year long sub with enough content to get RHCA: Cloud or Datacenter and assuming all 5 exams are $600, you'll spend $8,500.

$3,500 per sit down course and take the exam (included in the course) at then end of all 5 classes, you'll spend $17,500.

Bodanel wrote: »

Pricey indeed.
@Varelg

From what I understand it's the same material as in the classroom. Maybe wolf can confirm this whitout asking the sales dep ? You have all courses required to obtain RHCA and it's cheaper than going to classroom courses.

That's correct. The course books are the same (classroom/virtual). The virtual labs are close analogs to a classroom environment as well; you can blow away the machines as often/much as you'd like. Most (possibly all?) have grading scripts too, so you'll be able to test your work.

varelg

Verities wrote: »

$5,500 for a year long sub with enough content to get RHCA: Cloud or Datacenter and assuming all 5 exams are $600, you'll spend $8,500.

$3,500 per sit down course and take the exam (included in the course) at then end of all 5 classes, you'll spend $17,500.

... and if you live in a city/country that doesn't have Red Hat- authorized testing center, you'll have to factor in travel and hotel expenses, as well as time away from work. On top of what you already spent for that year- long sub. And since it expires in one year, you'll have to sit exams on bi- monthly basis. We'll all agree Red Hat exams aren't easy- breezy, right? Two months per exam, for 5 exams in a row?
On the other hand, two- three exams passed in a year with this subscription I think may cover for the expense if your employer gets onboard with covering for the sum. Which for the employer would make a lot of sense, if it's a team of employees in a Red Hat- oriented shop (it doesn't have to be Red Hat distro, could be a Fedora/CentOS, yeah some people run Fedora in production), you'd have your team's training covered. But for the individual candidate shelling out this amount, for only a year-long access...
Course material for online courses being the same as for classroom courses- I didn't exactly got the same answer on Red Hat's Community board. Though it was for a particular course (Diagnose and Troubleshooting) and not for the year-long subscription and the answers were based on experiences with other courses and not D&T in particular. I am yet to hear from Red Hat reps on this, although I emailed that same question about courseware for online D&T course over a month ago.

varelg wrote: »

... and if you live in a city/country that doesn't have Red Hat- authorized testing center, you'll have to factor in travel and hotel expenses, as well as time away from work. On top of what you already spent for that year- long sub. And since it expires in one year, you'll have to sit exams on bi- monthly basis. We'll all agree Red Hat exams aren't easy- breezy, right? Two months per exam, for 5 exams in a row?
On the other hand, two- three exams passed in a year with this subscription I think may cover for the expense if your employer gets onboard with covering for the sum. Which for the employer would make a lot of sense, if it's a team of employees in a Red Hat- oriented shop (it doesn't have to be Red Hat distro, could be a Fedora/CentOS, yeah some people run Fedora in production), you'd have your team's training covered. But for the individual candidate shelling out this amount, for only a year-long access...
Course material for online courses being the same as for classroom courses- I didn't exactly got the same answer on Red Hat's Community board. Though it was for a particular course (Diagnose and Troubleshooting) and not for the year-long subscription and the answers were based on experiences with other courses and not D&T in particular. I am yet to hear from Red Hat reps on this, although I emailed that same question about courseware for online D&T course over a month ago.

Agreed, RHL sub its not worth it unless you're a RH admin/engineer otherwise you shouldn't be worrying about the sit down courses. There is plenty of documentation available on the Red Hat website for their products and I'd wager, enough to probably pass all of their exams.

If the work wasnt paying I was not planning this. This is way to expensive to pay from your own pocket whitout exams.
I agree with verities that there is enough documentation on the website but for the exams you need all information in one place so you dont lose time scouring the internet. This is where all those courses come in handy. BTW, current RHCA's have 50% discount on this.

brombulec

I think that the price 5000USD (even with the 50% discount for RHCA) is only for PERSONAL use. If you want to buy subscription as a company you can forget about the discounts, 5000USD and you should be prepared for a really huge price.
The RedHat RHCA renew policy is also weird - I invested a lot of money to get my RHCA but if I want to keep the title I should pass the new versions of the same exams each and every 3 years and again spend a ton of money.
Cisco and Juniper requires only one written exam (not the Lab - only one test exam) to keep CCIE/JNCIE. Even Microsoft gives you a chance to keep your MCSE status with only 1 (ONE) update exam.
Maybe RedHat should create one update exam for all of the RHCAs who wants to extend validity of their credentials? Or maybe each exam will extend the validity period for one or maybe two years? IMHO 4000EUR (only for exams - you should add 13000EUR for 5 courses) every 3 years is a rip-off.

brombulec wrote: »

IMHO 4000EUR (only for exams - you should add 13000EUR for 5 courses) every 3 years is a rip-off.

I agree. This sucks, big time. THKS for the heads up, I didnt knew this.

brombulec, the issue with a single exam renewal is that any 5 CoE's makes you an RHCA. Maybe if they did a renewal per RHCA track (datacenter // cloud // devops // application dev // application platform)? Each CoE (regardless of the track) renews your RHCE at least

Imho, the RHCA is a victim of the law of diminishing returns - very expensive and not widely known, so basically there's no point for most people to move past RHCE, unless the employer covers the costs, and most of them don't.

brombulec

wolfinsheepsclothing wrote: »

brombulec, the issue with a single exam renewal is that any 5 CoE's makes you an RHCA. Maybe if they did a renewal per RHCA track (datacenter // cloud // devops // application dev // application platform)? Each CoE (regardless of the track) renews your RHCE at least

I have no problem with passing one exam every 2 years. But 5 exams in 3 years?

And what's the point in passing exams from RHCA track to renew your RHCE? the RHCA exam costs 850EUR, the RHCE exam costs 450EUR. And to be honest the time spent for RHCE preparation is shorter then time required for any of RHCA-track exams.

The RHCA is also not widely known just because is so expensive and there is no point to invest your time and money after last track changes. (Just look at this forum's engine - RHCE, CCIE, JNCIE, MCSE - you can get tooltip for each and every of these acronyms. Try RHCA

)

I'm going to change the direction from RedHat to network stuff (JNCIE or CCIE) because in my country I can get a better ROI from that expert certs and knowledge. CCIE/JNCIE lab costs 1600 USD, and for the full RHCA track (without exams) I can get almost 3 attempts in Lab in Diegem (including travel costs and hotels).

brombulec wrote: »

I'm going to change the direction from RedHat to network stuff (JNCIE or CCIE) because in my country I can get a better ROI from that expert certs and knowledge. CCIE/JNCIE lab costs 1600 USD, and for the full RHCA track (without exams) I can get almost 3 attempts in Lab in Diegem (including travel costs and hotels).

+1024 My thoughts exactly.

I am pretty sure that once you pass RHCA you become RHCA Level 1. Then when you pass amother CoE exam in the subsequent 3 years, you become a RHCA Level 2 and your expiry resets back to 3 years.

Remember, its every 3 years OR on achieving a higher certification.

asummers wrote: »

I am pretty sure that once you pass RHCA you become RHCA Level 1. Then when you pass amother CoE exam in the subsequent 3 years, you become a RHCA Level 2 and your expiry resets back to 3 years.

Remember, its every 3 years OR on achieving a higher certification.

The CoE's renew your RHCE/RHCSA, but they don't renew your CoEs. So even if you were a level 2 RHCA, you would need to maintain all (6 in the case of a level 2) CoE's.

gkca/brombulec, oh I agree with you. If my courses, exams were not free, I likely would not have attempted to complete the RHCA.

brombulec

wolfinsheepsclothing wrote: »

The CoE's renew your RHCE/RHCSA, but they don't renew your CoEs. So even if you were a level 2 RHCA, you would need to maintain all (6 in the case of a level 2) CoE's.

You're right. I'm Level 2 (and I have 2 more exams already paid - 442 and 280 - before the exam policy changes) so I'll be Level 4 and that's all. No more money for RH from me - I'll rather give my money to Juniper.

wolfinsheepsclothing wrote: »

gkca/brombulec, oh I agree with you. If my courses, exams were not free, I likely would not have attempted to complete the RHCA.

You're a RedHat employee - maybe you can talk to someone responsible for certification program and maybe they will rethink the policy

haha I will do my best

wolfinsheepsclothing wrote: »

haha I will do my best

Could you please also suggest them to include Satellite and RHEV to the developer subscription? They did a right move making it free, so it would be even better to allow us to learn all the main RH technologies the proper way.

wolfinsheepsclothing wrote: »

The CoE's renew your RHCE/RHCSA, but they don't renew your CoEs. So even if you were a level 2 RHCA, you would need to maintain all (6 in the case of a level 2) CoE's.

That's a bit rubbish then. I am not going to renewing all of my CoE's that's for sure

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but last week I deployed Satellite 6 and found it to be quite a cumbersome product overall. Scripting is a must unless you want to be copy and pasting the same lines over and over when you register a new host your to your Sat, install the katello and puppet agents. Also, I was able to get Openscap functional and run a compliancy scan which was cool. However, I don't like that the on demand scanning isn't available anymore. Sat 6 is also a pig when it comes to eating up space and I've found /var/lib/pulp grows significantly with repos and increases with amount of content views.

The only other thing I found annoying on my server hosting Sat 6..and believe may be a bug is that occasionally it will lose its default route mapped to eth0. Not sure if that's a bug leftover from removing NetworkManager (seen too many bugs with it in production), but we do that on all of our servers. I've entered the def gateway in the sysconfig network file now and previously had it in the ifcfg config file, which should have been ok. Going to monitor it for a while and see if I can find out what's causing it to drop at inconsistent times.

Passed RHCSA. 300/300

^Congrats!!

THks. Next step RHCE in august