Passed LPiC-3 (117-301)

lordy · February 2010

Dear all,

after getting clearance from my boss that he would pay for the exam costs I took a shot at 117-301 (LPIC-3 Core) on Thursday and passed

It was about time as my LPIC-1 & 2 are from 2005 and they were about to expire in March. Now all three levels are certified until 2015 which should give me some time to put my focus back on the Cisco stuff.

The exam was a little easier then I thought. After reading through the information on the LPI website, which is almost everything there is, I imagined it to be pretty tough and down to the very details but some questions where quite simple. As usual the NDA prohibits me from posting question details but if you know that "sar" is for system accounting and "tar" is for tape archiving you can at least master one of the 65 to beat

The exam basically only covers two topics: OpenLDAP and Capacity Planning. Unfortunately all the OpenLDAP questions are refering to older versions which used slurpd for replication which has been retired in version 2.4. You should really know the manpages of all the OpenLDAP client (ldapserch, etc.) and the server commands (slapadd, slaptest, slapcat). Additionally you need to understand schemas, what they do and how to modify them. Compared to that the capacity planning is rather simple. You need to know ways to monitor your system (ps, vmstat, etc.) and be able to interpret it's output. Overall I would say it's 80% LDAP and 20% capacity planning.

Unfortunately there is very little study material except the half-baked "lpic-3 book" that Google can find. It seems that LPIC-3 does not appeal to "the masses" so nobody thinks it's worth writing a real book like for 1 and 2.

Anyway, if you plan on taking it make sure you know OpenLDAP !

Best regards,
Lordy

Bl8ckr0uter · February 2010

Congrats. What is next up for you?

lordy · February 2010

Thanks

Cisco CCNP track is definitely next. Have been stalling on this way too long.

If I get a chance for a discounted 117-303 (LPIC-3 Security) at some Linux Event then I might take a shot at it but other then that Linux is done for me

LinuxG33k · February 2010

"...but other then that Linux is done for me"

After busting out LPIC-3 there isn't much need for an encore.

How would you compare the study time + difficulty of all three LPIC certs to the RHCE? Do you believe the LPIC certs - as a whole - were more challenging than the RHCE would have been?

twodogs62 · February 2010

Congrats!!!!

How long have you been working with Linux?
Do you support Linux at work? Is that your prime environment?

NightShade03 · February 2010

lordy wrote: »

Unfortunately there is very little study material except the half-baked "lpic-3 book" that Google can find. It seems that LPIC-3 does not appeal to "the masses" so nobody thinks it's worth writing a real book like for 1 and 2.

I find this very disappointing as I'm trying to go down this path currently. There doesn't even seem to be any "real" books for LPIC-2!! Guess I should just write my own

dynamik · February 2010

Impressive! Congratulations!

Maybe the lack of resources is because at that level, you're just stuck reading man pages anyway

Mishra · February 2010

Congrats!

By any chance, do you have an opinion about LPIC vs RHCE. I'm curious which one teaches you the more common knowledge. Basically I would try for either one (I know about the lab for RHCE) depending which one gave me the most useful information.

sambuca69 · February 2010

Mishra wrote: »

Congrats!

By any chance, do you have an opinion about LPIC vs RHCE. I'm curious which one teaches you the more common knowledge. Basically I would try for either one (I know about the lab for RHCE) depending which one gave me the most useful information.

I'm curious what he thinks too.

I will say though, in a keyword job search for either, I get nothing for LPIC, but a lot for RHCE. No one seems to know about the LPI exams.

NightShade03 · February 2010

sambuca69 wrote: »

I'm curious what he thinks too.

I will say though, in a keyword job search for either, I get nothing for LPIC, but a lot for RHCE. No one seems to know about the LPI exams.

I think this may have something to do with the lack of support/materials available for the exam. Are you more willing to study for an exam (RHCE) where there are books, training classes, references, etc or are you willing too have to put all of that together from scratch by yourself (LPIC-2 + 3).

UnixGuy · February 2010

Congrats !! Good job

You have Sun Cluster 3.2 certification, I'm working on that one too (well, almost).

I'm wondering what's your job duties...and how did you get exposure to Sun Cluster ??

lordy · February 2010

Ok, I think it's time to post a few answers here

First off, RHCE vs. LPIC: For me, this is a no-brainer. If I would have had the chance to go for RHCE I would have definitely picked it over LPIC. Why ? The reasons are simple: RHCE has a much bigger acceptance than RHCE. Over time I've had to explain to quite a lot of people what LPIC actually is and you end up saying: It's like RHCE. But it really is not. To me it really lacks the lab ! This is essential. I actually had one interview where I was given a PC which was attached to the network but had no connectivity. It was my task to figure out why (kernel module missing), fix it (compile module, install it) and explain what I did there in front of the other tech guys. That was a real challenge and it separated the wannabe's from the experts. I think the same goes for a certification.

Since somebody asked, here is a little information on my background. I started working with RedHat 6.0 (sometime in 1999) after being frustrated with my Windows NT "workstation". Since that time I have supported a growing number of Linux boxes and used different distributions. After starting with Red Hat I made my way to Debian for servers (which I still appreciate to this day) and tried Gentoo on the workstation (to me that was more experimenting than getting stuff done). On the road I also did "Linux from Scratch" which I highly recommend to everybody who wants to gain a deep understand of Linux and it's inner workings. After working in with Solaris systems in two jobs (2005-2007 and 2009) I have now returned to managing literally hundreds of Red Hat/CentOS servers in four datacenters around the globe. So, yes, Linux has been part of my daily work for years and I think I am now at a point where I can consider myself a "Linux Expert". I'm currently working on getting my own article into Linux Magazine which, I think, would be the ultimate proof of Linux wisdom

To quickly get back to Solaris and my certs there: I started with Solaris in 2000 and have since worked with versions 2.6, 7, 8, 9 and, of course, 10. To me Solaris has always been a love-hate relationship. 10 years ago Solaris was definitely superior to Linux. It was rock stable and had a bunch of nice features. However, today, from my point of view Linux has , at least, catched up if not taken the lead. Linux has become nearly as solid and with advanced distributions like Red Hat and Debian managing systems is much easier than with Solaris. If you ever installed a Solaris Patch Cluster by hand you know what I am talking about

Aside from software specifically certified for Solaris I honestly see no reason to use it. ZFS and Zones sure are nice but to me they are not a killer feature nor are they really distinct. I did the Sun Cluster certification last year as all the systems I worked with where clustered and I noted a saw a high request for this certification in the market. Things turned out differently for me but I'm happy to be working with Linux nowadays.

Oh, before I forget, my workstation is actually Ubuntu. This is the distribution I highly recommend for Desktops. Congrats to the Ubuntu guys for turning a great server system (Debian) into a (sometimes even better) Desktop system.

Ok, I hope this answers a few of the questions which came up here. If you have any more just drop them here or PM me.

LinuxG33k · February 2010

Thank you for taking the time to respond in such detail. As someone whose goal is LPIC-1, LPIC-2, then RHCE your followup has helped to reinforce my chosen exam track.

I have come across the "Linux from scratch" project before and was intrigued. Knowing it has helped someone who knows Linux the way I wish I knew Linux definitely places it on my to do list.

Thanks for NOT being a knowledge hoarder!

UnixGuy · February 2010

+reputation for you

Thanks for the detailed reply, good luck to you ! I'm still a beginner, and my experience is with Solaris most of the time, and I'm loving it !

I had the chance to configure Lustre file system on Red Hat, and played little bit with some Red Hat clustered system (Lsf), but that's it. No deep experience yet.

avlad · March 2010

Congrats lordy for your achievement and thanks for the exam tips.

Regarding LPI vs RHCE - If you know how a technology works the choice is very easy: RHCE because is a practical exam.

Passed LPiC-3 (117-301)

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