RHCA... 1/5 done!
 

Just took the EX423 (Redhat Directory Server) exam after doing the course. Not been given my result yet - takes a fortnight for RHCA exams apparently, but pretty confident... Supposedly the easiest of the 5 RHCA qualifications by a bit though.

Will try to do the RH333 next, Network Service security... If the boss will let me.

Nice one. I have a request in to (try to) get funding for RH436: Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.

CONGRATS!

This is the exact one that I was going to go for next...(that's why I have the post about the directory server you've been helping me with ;))

What did you use to study? Did you take the Class or just the test? Did you use CentOS or did you buy RHEL?

I was thinking about just using the documentation here...

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/dir-server/

And maybe take the class...but I'm not sure that I should (since I passed the RHCE without taking the class)...that and the fact that I can't afford the class :P

ANY advice would be good...

Again, congrats!

I've been using DS in work for about 6 months, so didn't need to buy anything myself. TBH, I'd not set up a server from scratch until this week though, so wasn't actually able to be that useful in my answers... you may have noticed! If i was studying at home I'd have just used fds, or maybe cds. I did the full RH423 course this week, with the exam this morning. Got delayed because the instructor managed to build the machines wrong, so 30 mins into the exam we have to stop and nuke every machine. nice.

As I said, I've not got a result yet, but I did everything asked, and pretty sure most of it worked fine. Only needed 3 of the 4 hours, and a good 45 mins of that was trying to fix problems that didn't actually exist in the first place - READ THE ACTUAL QUESTIONS A FEW TIMES, DON'T ASSUME YOU READ IT RIGHT 30 MINS AGO!! I wasn't the first to leave this time though.

Obviously I can't say much about the exam, but I think it's OK to say that the course is mainly about a single commercial product, and if you know that product, you should be OK. That said there are other services and principles relevant as well. The prep guide is pretty much accurate... https://www.redhat.com/certification/ex423/prep_guide/ so take it from that I guess. Lots of the exam felt like a re run of the examples in the course, so I'm not sure how it felt to those how only turned up for the exam today without the course. Also fair to say that a chunk of the course is a very thinly veiled sales pitch, which was annoying.

Yeah I think I will be able to build a case for doing this course for work too. Doing RH333 though would also give me 2/3 or the RHCSS, so hedging my bet's somewhat there.

w00t!!! So much for a fortnight!

Nice! 100% Good Job!

I think that I will study from the prep guide along with the documentation I noted earlier...in the mean time I will save up for the class :)

-C

Not too shabby. :)

go read Florian's interview and the FAQ on the RHCA pages. They say 401 is a good first exam which puts in more building blocks for the later exams. I'd say that EX333 is probably pretty similar for different areas though... Because the contents seems to be an (albeit quite long) series of disperate and unrelated services, you aren't going to have a big house of cards to collapse, like you certainly can with the RHDS stuff.

As these are more base stuff, I'd be more tempted to self study and just do the exam, I couldn't face being taught NTP from scratch... but the other two... 442 does look genuinely tricky, and 436 not a bunch of puppies either.

Also you can get RHDCS with a subset of these too, so may be yet another motivation to pick a certain route.

All the exams are meant to be equivalent difficulty given the right level of initial knowledge, so I'm pretty optimistic about being able to pass the others. Whether I'll be given the option to do so is another question.

One thing I realised, that I wasn't aware of before is that you *MUST* have a valid RHCE to sit the exams. There are two other guys I work with who are meant to be doing this exam, neither of whom even have (and tbh probably can't even pass) RHCT. That would've been fun, as it wasn't until i was sitting in the exam that I was asked for my RHCE number!

You bring up a good point about which order to take for the RHCA... I've been told by one RHCA to take the RH401 after the RHCE...another told me to take the RH442...

Not sure which order to go in...as you know, I want to start off with the RH423...

I wonder if it does help to take them in a certain order...hmm...

Thoughts?

-C

As I said above, 442 looks hard compared to 333 and 401. Again though a lot of it seems like separate bits of tech to the rest, so not building things up quite so much, making home study more practical possibly. I think 423 actually isn't the best to start with, as there are bits of 401 that I didn't expect to be used in 423 but were, and I didn't know anything about before going on the course.

I guess the general consensus is that start with the 401...

Now I'm conflicted...I guess I should start downloading Spacewalk as well as play with Directory server...

All I have is time anyway since I can't afford either class right now...But I can still self study ;)

Again, thanks and Congrats!

-C

Right now I'm thinking I should push for RHCA, but when I get back to work and just get on with the job, my apathy levels may well rise back to their previous level. I certainly can't see myself retaking each RHCA exam every bunch of years.

From what I've read; all you need to do to keep your RHCA (and Certificates of Expertise) current is to keep your RHCE current...

https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhca/faq/#4

And if memory serves me correctly, that every other release....

-C