RHCSA/E - any use?

L1011

This might be more suited for an employment forum if there is one, but I imagine it'd have a lot of heads scratched...

What are peoples opinions on the RHCSA/E exams? Basically whether they actually prove any knowledge and more importantly, whether employers actually give a damn.

I've an elderly MCSE and a few MCTS certs and currently work as a Windows sysadmin / field engineer / MSSQL DBA / general dogsbody. Said certs do seem to be useful in getting your CV past the clueless HR in companies, but there seems to be a fairly solid ceiling in pay in this sector.

I've played around with Linux up to the home server level before, and my day to day OS for years was BeOS so I'm generally able to pick anything up quickly but that doesn't really seem enough to go for any Linux related jobs.

Khannie

Very good qualification. It would definitely lend weight to unix knowledge on a CV for me if I were interviewing. I have threatened to get it in the past but never got around to making the final push.

limnam

RHCE is an extremely difficult exam to pass even for seasoned Linux sys admins. You can't "wing" it. based on that alone it's worthwhile to have. The problem is it's going to be hard to get if you spend 8/9 hours a day in a windows environment.

The other part of it is you can sort of stumble into Windows admin role if you know where the start button is. It's a lot harder to do the same in Linux. Your best bet might be to try and get an entry level Linux job build up your Linux hours go for the RHCE and then move on to a more senior Linux admin position.

As even if you self study the RHCE and manage to pass there's not much point in an RHCE with a ton of windows experience and no real world Linux.

Stuxnet

aye, not type of exam you can sit and study for, you'd want years of admin experience in a production environment imo before even considering it.

You could look at LPIC-1 junior level as a starter level and work your way up.

L1011

LPIC-1 looks like I could do it in my sleep, but you can't do -2 without -1 and ditto for -3. I've also done every single thing listed in the objectives list for -2. May look in to these, bit expensive consider I don't think I can expense them like I can anything Microsoft have put their name on.

I'm not coming at this from a start-button-worrier level, I've a decade+ of daily use and development experience of a POSIX system, just not one that anyone in their right mind would use in enterprise. I just have to work on Windows due to circumstance unfortunately.

opus

A friend of mine did it there a few months back but his company paid for him to do a week's prep course beforehand & then do the exam. I've thought about doing it myself as I work with Centos/RedHat everyday but there's a snowball's chance in hell of me getting that paid for so still haven't done anything about it.

Certainly it's seen as good qualification to have, I remember VMware really liked to see it on CV's they received.

micko45

I only completed the RHCE a few weeks ago, did it with self study. The RHCSA isn't too bad but RHCE is though, you really have to know the subject so you have to give a lot of time/study to it.

Is it worth it? I am not looking for a job so not sure about that area but what I have learned about selinux/dns/iptables/http is very useful. Now if can only keep all the knowledge in my head ;-)

syklops

I am not very embarrassed to say that i failed it the first time, despite the fact I was working for Red Hat at the time. It is quite hard. I have some criticisms of it, but at the end of the day, if you are going to have the title RH certified engineer then it should be hard. We've maybe gotten a little spoiled in the IT cert world with multiple choice questions on exams which mean you can pass from simple deduction and little to no study. There are a few things you either need to know, or know the exact man page for going in, or you will waste too much time.

The source of my failure was I didn't know how to properly setup yum. As a result, when question 2 came along and it said install blah and configure it, I couldn't do that either. Same problem for questions 3-9 which started with the word Install.

I would say yes they do prove knowledge. If you are ever in a life or death situation and the only thing preventing nuclear war with china is a linux box with nothing configured, or installed and no internet access, the an RHCE would be able to save the day.

Edit: My friend who did it at the same time as me passed it with flying colours but it was his second time aswell. When a senior Sys Admin at Red Hat takes two attempts at passing it, you know it's quite hard.