Is it a good idea to start studying for the RHCSA/RHCE with v7 updates coming up?

IT69 · September 2013

Hi TE had a question I was hoping some RHCE's or anybody in the field could help me out with...Recently finished up some certs I was working on and really wanted to get started on getting the Rhcsa/RHCE, I know the 7 updates are coming up soon and wondering what your opinion would be on starting study now and completing RHCE for v6 VS. working on another cert and waiting for the v7 test/study material to be released.

A few things I was thinking about were,Will the differences between v6 and v7 be drastic enough to warrant not studying for Rh6,and will the skills learned from getting version 6 make picking up version 7 much easier? Will RHEL6 be used in production environments for a long time after 7s release, I know that Windows Server 2003 and 2008 are still used extensively and wondering if it is the same case with Redhat where releases are used long after the new versions are put out.

I do not have work experience with Linux yet but hoping the Rhce will get my foot in the door somewhere. I have some personal experience with linux and after looking at the Jang book I am sure I could finish the Rhce in 6 months , any insight is really appreciated.

Expect · September 2013

There's gonna be few critical changes between RHEL6 to RHEL7, so I doubt it's useful studying on RHEL6 for RHCE v 7.
RHEL7 is planned to be released this year, If I were you, I'd wait.

W Stewart · September 2013

I don't think those changes are going to make the RHCE 6 knowledge any less valid especially if you know linux well enough to take the exam. The biggest changes will probably be a switch from upstartd to systemd and a switch to grub2. Most of the objectives will likely still carry over such as setting up an ftp server or an encrypted drive. The only real difference is how you'll manage those services.

brownwrap · September 2013

Depends on your goals? Is it a cert, or being able to support the OS? I work in a place that still has a few RHEL4 machines, though we are moving them to RHEL 6 vms. But we still have many RHEL 5 machines and the majority of the Linux boxes are RHEL 6. Rhel 7 will change none of this.

Expect · September 2013

RHEL6 Knowledge is always Valuable, but time is $, I think studying for RHCE7 on RHEL7 is the right thing to do, instead of studying on RHEL6 and then close the gap with RHEL7

Bodanel · September 2013

I say go for RHCE 6. RHEL 7 will be released next year. Beta was estimated in december and not a single news after that.After beta at leat 3 month until a stable version is released. After that 3-6 months for the certification program to change. I also have a few RHEL 4 machines that will be migrated to RHEL 6. And my environment consist's only about 120 servers. I cannot begin to imagine those having 500 servers how many updates have to do.

UnixGuy · September 2013

IT69 wrote: »

...
I do not have work experience with Linux yet but hoping the Rhce will get my foot in the door somewhere. I have some personal experience with linux and after looking at the Jang book I am sure I could finish the Rhce in 6 months , any insight is really appreciated.

I recommend that you start studying for RHCSA. RHCE might be a bit difficult if you don't have experience with Linux, so RHCSA is a viable option, and it will open doors for you. I don't think there's a big difference between RHCSA v6 & v7 but I could be wrong. Perhaps you can pass the RHCSA before the deadline?

W Stewart · September 2013

Most companies aren't going to immediately upgrade to RHEL7. Chances are, if you do end up supporting linux, you'll be supporting RHEL 5 and 6 along with many other distros with a lot of differences so I don't think you should let the differences between a newer and older version of RedHat prevent you from studying.

If nothing else, just do the objectives from rhcsa and rhce on fedora 19 since rhel7 is going to be similar. Time is money but in this case it's also knowledge and no employer is going to hire you on the basis that you have the RHCE cert and not the knowledge or experience to back it. Go to dice.com, pick a city and state and type "linux" in they keywords section and see how many results you get. Then type "RHCE" in the keywords section and you may see some results but not nearly as many as the previous search.

IT69 · September 2013

Thanks for all the responses so far, I want the cert not only for the title but more so would like to find myself highly proficient with Linux by the time im completed,I will probably go for the Lpic certs once the updated study material is released and the RHCA is a big goal of mine in the future.....I actually think that getting the RHCE on v6 maybe be more helpful in the field when I actually do find work supporting linux as it will be a while before there is much of version 7 being used, also it would probably be a good idea to know both...alot of the responses confirm what I already had thought previously so thanks so much again.

sacredboy · May 2014

Guys, what would you say if I start with RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Linux Certification Study Guide and RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Linux Certification Practice Exams with Virtual Machines on RHEL 6 to master the fundamentals of RHEL administration and then when time comes continue preparation for RHCSA/RHCE on 7 version? I imagine that in this case I will be proficient in RHEL basics and only need to learn new features and topics.

A little off-top: Is it true that the certificate is not issued after getting successfully certified?

Is it a good idea to start studying for the RHCSA/RHCE with v7 updates coming up?

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