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Red Hat Announces Certified Architect Curriculum
Anonymous Coward writes "Red Hat announced a new advanced certification today, Red Hat Certified Architect. One training expert, however, cautions that Red Hat certifications can lock administrators in to Red Hat-specific skills."
as long as were are locking people in to Linux, this will be a better place. Distro nuts need not apply.
Sounds almost as credible as "Subway Sandwich Artist".
Even though they aren't always terribly useful, at least MSCE sounds more official. Normally this should be a non-issue but management likes titles that sound "official" or like they should carry some weight.
You've installed Fedora and it erased your Windows partition. What do you do?
It would be nice if Red Hat offered a certification course for software developers.
Well, DUH...it is Red Hat certification. I can't imagine Red Hat would focus too much on teaching people how to use OTHER distros.
well, yes. when you get certified for a particular distro, you're going to get informed about *that* distro and no other. fortunately, for most human beings, learning one thing does not outright prevent them from learning other things.
-ninjaneer
...into red-hat specific linux administration. Been using it for 2 years now...all the way from 7.2 to FC 2. Tried to install Debian Woody a few weeks ago, no success. Couldn't even figure out what's going on. So guys, forget RedHat. You won't be needing any certification to work with it.
And the MSCE and other qualifications don't?
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Is this any better than Microsoft Certification? I wonder if it will lock more into Redhat and paying for that. Linux may be "better" in some ways to windows but this is still locking in.
Evolution or ID?
What a crock. I've passed the RHCE (with a 100% score in all sections). At no point did I feel that I was forced to use any Red Hat specific utilities or conventions. The exam is purely performance-based - Red Hat doesn't care if you want to use postfix or sendmail, vi or emacs,, or how the services start up at boot, as long as the specifications are met. You have to know how to use anaconda, but that's about it for RH-specific things that I can recall.
If you take certification classes, and that locks you into a particular distro, then it's your own fault. There's really no excuse for not doing your homework, be it in RH certification classes or at home reading the Gentoo manuals.
The perfect sig is a lot like silence, only louder
Why is the word "Architect" used to describe someone with an advanced proficiency with RedHat?
Do you build structures out of RedHat?
Is your certification revoked if any of your projects crash ever?
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
No they can't. Knowing a Red Hat-specific technique does not prevent you from learning other ways of doing things.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
But is this going to turn into a mockable thing, like A+ is now?
Get real!
If someone is worth their salt then skills learnt with one distribution will be transferrable to another. The days of rote memorisation being sufficient for passing are pretty much gone - it'd even be a challenge to pass a MS exam with zero understanding of what you had memorised. The days of any employer (or even client) being impressed solely by a certificate are also (thankfully) passed. Any cert is just another fibre in a CV bow that indicates a minimum achievment, which should be strenthened by experience in the field
Besides - last I heard Redhat pretty much followed the few standards that exist such as the FHS.
It's not as if redhat is the only distribution to have tools that it developed for itself
Karma be damned, I can't resist.
1. Never do another headless install.
2. Never use the command line to change settings again, use X!
3. Don't pick specific software you want installed, pick broad categories so that lots of crap you don't want gets installed too.
4. up2date -u
As long as it is about LINUX then you can apply same skils on any distribution, GUI may be different. Most of the time it is CLI that is used and it is almost same on all distributions.
Look at the course outline: NTP, BIND, Kerberos, OpenSSH, Sendmail, Postfix, FTP, Apache, CVS, LDAP, PAM, . How is knowing how to configure and secure those apps going to lock you into RedHat. Do you really think admins are too dumb to find the config files when they're in another directory (shudder). I mean, sure, there's going to be some vendor-specific lessons, but a server app is almost identicle across distros, especially since most admins will package up their own preconfigured packages.
Add this one to the long, long list of tired jokes that where lame to begain with:
And now...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I don't like Red Hat. I don't really like Fedora, either. I think SuSE, Mandrake, Gentoo, and Debian fill all the niches that pretty much any Linux user could ever need.
That said, distro "lock-in" is necessary to some extent. Having tried nearly every distro available, I know there is no Linux 'standard' especially when it comes to common administrative tasks like package management, updates, and system configuration. So I doubt that Red Hat is teaching specific skills any more than is necessary.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
You have no idea what you are talking about. I passed the RHCE with a 100% without using a single Red Hat tool. They don't care HOW you do it, as long as it works when you are done.
This nonsense about being locked in to "Red Hat's way of doing things" is silly.
The RHCE is a GREAT certification test. I've done others (in particular Oracle). There is no comparison. In the RHCE test I took only 2 of 10 people passed. Five failed before the end of the first section. One guy left 10 minutes into the test. He was certified on all the other major Unix flavors. He thought he could pass the test by studying the course guide for the RH300 course. Two guys, who both failed, worked for IBM in their Linux development for Notes.
The LPI tests you on memorizing a bunch of command-line switches. RHCE tests you on doing real work. I'll take the hands-on test any day.
And Microsorft skills are more general???? Unless you are running scripts that you don't even understand I don't see how the skills a unix sysadmin on any platform and a linux sysadmin on any distro could learn would be unportable to others. There are things that surprise me on one system or another, but isn't that what man and apropos are for.
Unlike MS certs, which try to let you do things any way you want, making your skillset instantly transferable to any OS.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
THOSE BASTARDS! How dare they! Why when I got my Sun Certified System Adminisrator, I learned everything there was to know about managing HP-UX. My Oracle cert made me an expert in DB2. What cert should I get next? I bet an MCSE cert would help me master QNX? Maybe I'll get a CCNA to prove my mastery of Nortel switches.
One training expert, however, cautions that Red Hat certifications can lock administrators in to Red Hat-specific skills.
Oh, because once you learn how to do something the "Red Hat" way you wont be capable of learning how to manage other operating systems.
Med Student 1: Have you done your Cardiology internship yet?
Med Student 2: No, I was afraid it would prevent me from learning Orthopaedics.
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
This is definitely flamebait (or offtopic, but enough of your are making this mistake, so....), I will be modded accordingly.....BUT:
For crissakes, there is no MSCE. It's the MCSE - Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Most of you zealots have no idea what it takes to make an MCSE, for that matter.
Yes, the NT4 track brought about a lot of 'paper MCSEs', systems administrators who didn't know their ass from the hole in their PCI slots. I was one of them.
The MCSE 2000 course was much more difficult, and although you can still 'bootcamp' it within 2 weeks, it's not a cakewalk. You will learn common sense administration. You will learn enough about TCP/IP to set up a network that should scale to 300 users. Basic stuff. All that can be reasonable expected from someone still trying to cut their teeth as a network administrator.
It's not an expert, end-all, be-all certification, but it's sufficient for people who need to administer Windows networks (though I certainly wouldn't have them designing them, necessarily). It also requires the commitment to sit through (at last check) 7 tests.
I am an MCSE. I spent a few months of studying and a couple years of real world experience getting there. I've considered Red Hat's offerings, as well as the more independent LPI offering, for Linux certification.
The fact that a product is unfavorable to yourself, whether Red Hat's distribution of Linux, or Microsoft's Windows, is not a valid reason to put down those who picked up the necessary skills to validate themselves with these certifications.
But for organizations which are already depending on RH, this can be a way of telling them that a person has some qualifications.
Frankly I don't like it. I'd rather have someone that can use any distro out there and understands the basic concepts of linux that basically stay true with all distros.
I've passed both the RHCE and the LPI certifications, and I have to say the RHCE was by _far_ a much more robust and difficult test of my Linux knowledge than the LPI exam.
As has been stated, the RHCE is given by Red Hat for individuals to use Red Hat products, so it's not surprising that they teach the "Red Hat" way. But there's two things to consider there:
On the whole, I think that any certification is a good thing to have -- it gives you a test of your knowledge, it looks good on your resume, and who said that you can't do more than one? (and who said you have to stop learning?)
You attempt to install an rpm package only to discover that at least 8 other rpms have to be installed beforehand (only 3 of which are available at Red Hat's site) then you discover the 8th package requires you to install an obscure dev rpm of glibc which is only available from an unreliable ftp server in Poland and by now you have invested the last 3 hours of your life into installing this one application, at this moment which of the following phrases should you shout in order to help this process along:
A: "Un-fucking-believable!"
B: "This fucking rpm shit motherfucker!"
C: "apt-get works so much better than this bullshit!"
D: "Why the fuck are we using Red Hat?!"
> Never do another headless install
Umm, what are you talking about specifically? Heard of kickstart? Red Hat still has a graphical and a text based install. The graphical can even be done over VNC. Remote kickstarts are also possible by passing some install parameters (kickstart filename, network location, etc) via DHCP.
> Never use the command line to change settings again, use X!
Again what specifically are you talking about? Most tools still have text-gui interfaces, in addition to the X-gui ones. Editing config files with one's preferred text editor is also an option... unless you are claiming that Red Hat has somehow altered network server apps to use binary config files. Ok, you could be referring to Gnome and GConf... and their registry like system... but I'm not familiar with Gnome enough to comment... but again, Gnome isn't specific to Red Hat.
> Don't pick specific software you want installed, pick broad categories [etc]
Ok, that is somewhat of a valid complaint. I think they removed the individual package selection from the install for reasons other than an attempt to limit users. Of course you can always install or remove any software after the initial install... so the validity of the point is weakened greatly.
> up2date -u
Yeah, Red Hat does sell a service. up2date does still use rpm and all of the source for both apps has been released under the GPL. Of course the source for their RHN has not be released... but alternative systems are available... yum and apt-get.
Even in RHEL, source code to all distro packages is freely available, but not the binary packages... which still follows the rules of the GPL to the best of my knowledge. Red Hat has not taken any negative action against those taking the RHEL source packages and building a binary install path for them.
Red Hat also employs many top level kernel, gcc, glibc, and filesystem developers and are directly responsible for much of the aggressive development we see in all distros... because everything is given back to the community. To have a sustainable business model, Red Hat had to find some way to "take" and I think they have a good blance... especially since Fedora is still a viable option... rather than being the myth some folks make it out to be... as a substandard beta-test for RHEL.
My attitude has been that Linux is about preferences and choice and I don't fault anyone for using other distros... so why fault me for using Red Hat? I'm not trying to spread FUD here, but at least with Red Hat you have an idea of where they are going in the future. With SuSE, who knows what Novell will eventually do to grab onto a sustainable business plan? Where will Gentoo go? Mandrake? It is hard to say... but at least they are all working together to make Linux better. I see other commercial distros following in Red Hat's footsteps and ain't it grand we have literally hundreds of distros to pick from?!
Scott Dowdle
www.MontanaLinux.Org
BOGUS, I use Debian on my workstation and have tried Gentoo on my laptop. I have a half dozen HP systems and a score of solaris systems in the corporate data center. I even have a few XP boxes. The only UNIX related Cert I have is RHCE. I loved the RedHat certification test because the exams are not multiple choice or even excersise based. They are performance based. The exam didn't ask you "which redhat tool" to use to solve a particular problem, they just presented you with goals (like "set up a mail server with user accounts and firewalling") how you setup the firewalling and mail server is up to you... If you use the redhat config tools or even the redhat specified configuration practices was beside the point. They just examined your system to see that it worked as specified to see if you "passed". There was no "lock in" related to it.
Maybe slightly off-topic, but after I RTFA'd, I was astounded by the position Brunson has taken with the Novell CLE. Having studied the material and scheduled a test in about two weeks, I can honestly say that:
1) You don't need to have the LPIC 1 to sign up for the test. They recommend that you have the level of skills equivalent to the LPIC 1 because they might ask you to write a cron job that backs up critical files for eDirectory. You can go in cold with no LPI experience, but don't complain if something in there wasn't on a study sheet.
2) You don't have to go to any classes to sign up for the test. Sure, Novell offers 5-day boot camps, but then again, so do Microsoft, Cisco, and (gasp!) RedHat. You can purchase a self-study kit and take as long as you want to get comfortable with the CLE content. Novell just makes it easy to block out all the distractions and spend a week with a bunch of geeks. I'd take one if I had the time.
3) Cost isn't prohibive for the CLE. You can take the test for as little as $200. Sure, you can spend upwards of $2,000 if you want to buy every piece of literature that Novell has on the subject and go to every boot camp, but it is possible to pass the test on just the guidelines alone. Just don't think it'll be a pushover.
I get the feeling the Mr. Brunson is all for Linux training, just as long as the money is flowing his way. I like the idea of practical tests like the RHCE and the Novell CLE because people that really know the field understand what it took to get through them. The know that you didn't spend a month a technical store learning exactly what questions might be on the MCSA/MCSE. You should appreciate all Linux vendors for what they are trying to accomplish, not try and break everybody down to make you look good.
"Luck is what others call skill when they have none." --Phelan Kell
I think the Red Hat certs are very useful, and even portable. The test is surprisingly hard; you can know your stuff and still fail, but you can't possibly pass if you're not very familiar with Linux. I took the RHCE exam this past Friday. And passed. Which was a relief, because I failed it the first time.
RHCE is definitely a test about doing things. You can't read the guides they give you and be done with it. Studying involves setting up every service and configuration they discuss in class, and remembering how to do it in the absence of your notes. Because there is no multiple choice. It's all "Fix your system," and "Configure your system to do the following."
There is some stuff in the RHCE curriculum that is RH-specific, but I think that would be true regardless of what sort of test you take. And it doesn't amount to much: most of the skills are VERY portable. OK, maybe RPM is not used by every distro, and maybe the installer is RH-specific. And I know, KDE is in the wrong directory. But where things differ, it's never too hard to figure it out. I've done plenty of things I learned in these classes on other distros. Of course there are also a lot of Red Hat utilities you can use to configure services, but they're not really taught in class, believe it or not. Red Hat recommends that students learn the command line way of doing things first. Most admins don't use the GUI config tools, so RH pretty much skips them.
I'd imagine the Architect curriculum must be pretty good, based upon my RHCE experience. Particularly the "Directory Services and Authentication" class, which would be useful if you wanted to do clever things with Samba/LDAP/Kerberos.