Red Hat RHCE Study Group

[Dennis Kibbe]

The RHCE[1] is the leading computer certification today.[2] This
performance-based test measures what you can do on a real machine not
what you can guess on paper. This is _not_ a multiple choice exam. The
test has been described as "grueling".[3]

The good news is that passing the test will put you among the Linux
elite and something that you can point proudly to on your resume.

Study for the RHCE alone can be daunting so believing that misery loves
company (that's a joke) I'm starting a study group for anyone else
interested in studying for the exam.

Here's the tentative plan:

We'll met once a week at the Tempe Public Library[4] on Saturday morning
10:00 to 11:30. The Tempe Library is at the corner of Southern & Rural
just north of the 60, plenty of parking.

The library has study rooms available to reserve. Most seat six but one
will seat twelve. Wifi and a white board are provided. Water is
permitted but no other drink or food. If we have more than six in the
group we may have to be flexible in our schedule (some weeks the room
may be already reserved in the morning) or find a larger venue.

Saturday morning seems like the best time since there is no conflict
with week night meetings and it is easier to get a study room since we
won't be competing with students. Personally, I learn better in the
morning than at night, but I'm flexible so let's talk.

Our study guides will be Michael Jang's "RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer
Linux Study Guide"[5] and "A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux: Fedora
Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux"[6] by Mark Sobell plus the
documentation on the Red Hat site.[7] We'll use a wiki to help us stay
on course. There is a lot to cover so it will be important to stick
close to the exam topics.[8]

You'll also need a computer you can dedicate to Red Hat or CentOS. A
virtual installation on a laptop that you can bring each week would be
ideal or a 20-40GB 2.5" external USB drive if your laptop can boot from
it. The chapters on RAID and LVM will require creating, resizing and
remove several partitions. You'll not want to risk a production machine
doing that.

I don't know yet how long the group will need to meet to be ready for
the test. The Jang book consists of 16 chapters plus two sample exams,
but some chapters cover two or more major topics. From what I've read
you need to know the material cold to make it through the test in the
time allowed. Expect to spend several hours a week reading the material
and doing the lab exercises. for example, you'll need to actually
compile a Linux kernel and setup a RAID array several times to be
prepared for the test. 

Oh, and the test isn't free, it costs about $800 to take and, I believe,
is given several times a year at the Red Hat Academy at Estrella
Mountain College. There may be other options as well, but I haven't
researched details yet.

Did I scare you off yet? :-)

If not, you can email me off list with the subject line RHCE Study Group
and I'll put you on the mailing list or I'll be at the InstallFest[9]
this Saturday. The following weekend (Nov 2-3) I'll be in LA for Steve
Conners' and Molly Bingham's film "Meeting Resistance"[10] so things
won't start rockin' 'n' rollin' before Nov. 10th.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/training/rhce/rhce_faq.html
[2] http://certcities.com/editorial/features/story.asp?EditorialsID=95
[3] http://www.linux.com/articles/35283?tid=94
[4] http://www.tempe.gov/library/
[5] http://tinyurl.com/2ry8kn
[6] http://tinyurl.com/2xawlg
[7] https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/
[8] https://www.redhat.com/training/rhce/examprep.html
[9] http://plug.phoenix.az.us/node/26
[10] http://meetingresistance.org/

Dennisk
-- 
Member Free Software Foundation
"Free as in Freedom"