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Is SAIR Certification Worthwhile?
cheezus asks: "My company is sending me and the other two members of our tech department (we're all university students) to the upcoming LinuxWorld Expo in New York, and we are planning on taking the Sair Linux and GNU Certification Level I tests that are being offered for free while we're there. We ordered the study materials (very cool, even came with 9 distros on CD) and have started reading up. Two of us are intermediate Linux users and have successfully set up Linux boxes that run our Web, Mail and DNS, the other is a relative Linux newbie. I'm wondering how hard the tests are going to be, and what the real benefits of having LCP or LCA certification are." Are CTOs and managers in Linux shops actually looking for such certifications right now? And has anyone taken these certification tests before and can comment on how well they match-up to real world expectations of a Linux Administrator?
I picked up one of the LPI books yesterday. It appears to be one of the most thorough books covering all the basic stuff you need to know to work with a Linux box. It does cover everything you said, and in a fair bit of depth. Things I've done and I can barely recall how to do, like configuring ppp to answer dial up lines. It also goes into depth on the protocols to do things like routing. User management goes into password strength, shadowing etc. The book delves into IP chains, SocksV5, etc. And this is for the the 101 exam. The last of 13 chapters is about configuring X.
Other topics include package managemnet, recompiling the kernel, shell scripting, regular expressions, bind, apache, wuftpd, sendmail, printing and managment of network print queues, disabling unused network services, quotas, logfiles, tracking security updates online, hardware configuration and modules.
Honestly the book is a course outline for all the stuff I've been meaning to solidify my knowledge on. I won't really know how thorough it is until I give it a read, but skimming over it, it looks impressive.
I've been a linux sysadmin before, and I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't know half this stuff, but that was some time ago. I have known other admins who wouldn't know a fraction of this stuff either. Most can figure it out on the job, and yes, that is a valuable skill, but if the certification holds up, it is a piece of paper saying that you've done just about everything on a linux box at least once before... and committed it to memory.
The moral of the story is that Linuxgruven takes a bunch of knuckleheads (my buddy was at the top of his training class) and gives them a month long introduction to Linux. Some of these guys truly are knuckleheads and have NO chance of passing, but my buddy with a bit of hard work is going to pass all the SAIR tests just two months after he first logged in to a Linux box.
You have to know some details, and they have questions about netstat, arp, route, ifconfig, ipchains, kernel modules, samba, apache, anon ftp, sendmail, etc... but if you've been working with Linux for 3 years and you review the material covered by the tests, you shouldn't have a problem.
moe
Of course everybody has a different experience of things... but... I tried it out at the San Jose LinuxWorld in August and to be quite honest it's not worth missing all the keynotes and cool talks. The training is not *before* and not *after* the conference, it's during! I was really pissed off about afterwards and when I go next August to SF I'll just stick to the conference.
It *is* a great way get your boss to send you to a cool conference, but I'd actually go for the standard paid-for course and come up with a different reason for your company to send you (cos there are plenty)...
I've been geeking with Linux since about mid '97 ish and am totally self taught. It was quite hard to get into the SAIR style and every training comapany definitely has their very own style of questions. Occasionally they trick you into thinking you don't know the answer by phrasing it in a completely nonsensical way, when if they'd asked you straight you'd've got it no problem.
In short... my advice is go to LinuxWorld and enjoy it but do the training seperately.
My two rubels.
IF WE REALLY WANT to become "professionals" in the sense of lawyers and doctors, (not neccessarily a good idea imo) then there needs to be some kind of centralized authority with fixed types of knowlege tests. That kind of certification might mean something. But all of these certifications promelgated by manufactures are simply another source of income and advertising.
We are always looking for "Certified" Linux guys... In a sea of Kernal hackers, some sort of "Cert" will definitely put your resume at the top of the pile. A lot of hops (here in Calgary) are reluctant to deploy Linux, simply because they feel that it is easier to find M$ Network Disintegrator. If there were more certified Linux Admins, Deployments would go up, and that would make Cmdr. Taco a very happy guy.
um.. I done, you can stop reading...
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
Ok, so I can't spell... I concede that.
However, an applicant with some sort of cert is always going to get my attention. People can, and will, exaggerate their experience level, and the level of responsibility they had at previous places of employment. Certification does not solve this completely, but it is an excellent reference point.
As for your comments about the environment at our office? I am not going to get into a flame war with you, but perhaps you should save those comments for Kuro5hin. We run a professional and challenging environment for all of our employees, and their loyalty proves that.
um.. I done, you can stop reading...
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
Search dice, monster, net-temps, etc for the different cert acronyms and it will quickly become apparent which are valuable and which are not.... IMO Solaris is the sought after *NIX cert... may vary by location..
First off, my wife and I are currently working on a study guide for the LPI level 1 exams, which should be out soon. I wouldn't say I'm biased by it, though.
We took the Sair tests and "training" at Linux World in San Jose. Skip the "training". It's a waste. You miss a lot of the conference, and you get no real information. The "instructors" were not that good. We were really disappointed. If you want to pass the Sair exams just go buy the Sair books. The answers are spelled out word for word in them. The questions on the exams were not that good. They really didn't test your knowledge.
I much prefer the LPI exams, which is why we're doing an LPI book. The questions are MUCH better, and do require knowledge of how to work with Linux. The LPI exams don't get as much press, though...which is a shame. They have backing by major players in the Linux world. The level 1 exams are out of beta now, so check them out at http://www.lpi.org.
But, since the exams are free at Linux World, go for it. Just don't waste time in the "classes". Whoever came up with the line saying "$5500 worth of training!" is on crack.
One final note...for the security exam go learn the different informatino laws and how they apply to work. They ask a lot about that and proper chain of command....or what they consider proper. Go take the practice exams they have.
Of course, once hired, if that employee proves to be uttlerly clueless, that will reflect back on the SAIR coursework and likely not be as meaningful for the next candidate. The abilities of the early graduates will ultimately determine the value of the program.
I passed the first two exams (Installation & System Administration) last week, just before Christmas (here in Europe). My score was really close to the required minimum (74% = 37/50 questions) though. I suggest you to solve the test exams here: http://www.linuxcertification.com/resources/quizze s/
and read the exam objectives here carefully:
http://www.linuxcertification.com/exams
I am fairly Linux newbieish, but I have set up various distros, including Debian with various configs, and I also studied the book and knew it cold. However I failed the test. I am an MCSE plus a few othter certs, been in the IT field for 15 years and never failed a test before this one. They had a lot of questions that you would never know from reading the books, but would only know from really playing with the OS for quite some time. I figure I just got used to the M$ tests where you can generally read the book one day and take the test the next without booting a PC. I guess it better this way as it will keep people from becoming "paper LCP/LCA's".
At the companies I've worked or consulted for, certification is something the companies will consider if you don't have a well-established track record. The applicability of certs is generally limited to entry- and mid-level positions. You will almost never get a senior position on the strength of a few certs.
If you don't have the experience, and a good work history to prove it, a certfication may get you in the door. But, for higher-level positions, like the senior designer for a large system's middleware or the engineer in charge of scalability/performance tuning on a large-scale distributed sytem (which a lot of e-commerce back ends are), certifications aren't given much credibility.
In general, a known track record (good or bad) trumps certifications: If you're a known lamer, a cert won't save you. And if you're a known project-saver, nobody is even going to ask for your certs (or a resume in many cases) -- they want you on the team.
So, if you have a good track record, make sure that you can demonstrate it to potential employers. Otherwise, a certification may be your best bet.
Easy, automatic testing for Perl.