Comparing RHCT and RHCE Certifications

Comparing RHCT and RHCE Certifications
1. (a) The RHCE Certificate:
The RHCE certificate is designed to fit in a specific place within the computer industry spectrum of UNIX/Linux user levels.
The RHCE Certificate is granted upon passing the RHCE Exam, a performance-based test on live equipment that measures actual competencies at server system administration, setup of networking services, and network security, and diagnostics and troubleshooting. The RHCE Exam can be taken alone as RH302 RHCE Exam (1-day) or as the final day of the RH300 RHCE Rapid Track course (5-days). RH300 consists of 4 days of intensive training, emphasizing hands-on lab workshops with realistic configuration and administration tasks using Red Hat Linux, plus the Certification Lab Exam on day 5.
(b) The RHCT Certificate:
The RHCT Certificate is granted upon passing the RHCT Exam, a performance-based test on live equipment that measures actual competencies at system administration, including installation and configuration of a Red Hat Linux system and attaching it to a live network running network services. The RHCT Exam can be taken on the final day of RH133 Red Hat Linux System Administration (4.5 days), or alone as RH202 RHCT Exam. The RHCT certificate may also be granted to those who take the RHCE Exam and pass all RHCT-specific competencies which are included in the RHCE Exam.
2. Goal of RHCE and RHCT Certification
The primary goal of RHCE and RHCT certification is to meet the demand of individuals and employers for useful metrics of individual skills and competencies with Red Hat Linux, the largest-selling distribution of Linux. The RHCE Program provides performance based certification at two critical job role levels: Technician (RHCT) and Engineer (RHCE).
RHCE and/or RHCT may be required for selected personnel employed at Red Hat channel partners, IHVs, ISVs, OEMs, and other partners, to provide meaningful assurance of standards.
3. Meaning of RHCE and RHCT Certification
RHCE or RHCT certification serve as a metric (hopefully one of many) of use to both individuals and employers to assess individual preparation and competency for key job roles involving Red Hat Linux computing.
(a) RHCE certification indicates that the person has passed a realistic performance-based lab exam that tests his/her ability to: install and configure Red Hat Linux; understand limitations of hardware; configure basic networking and file systems for a network; configure the X Window System; perform essential Red Hat Linux system administration; configure basic security for a network server; set up and manage common enterprise networking (IP) services for the organization, carry out server diagnostics and troubleshooting.
The readiness objective of RHCE is to assure standard level of systems and network administration skills so that a person is "ready from a technical point of view for professional responsibilities in setting up, configuring, and managing a Red Hat Linux server running common enterprise networking services and security."
(b) RHCT certification indicates that the person has passed a realistic performance-based lab exam that tests his/her ability to: install and configure Red Hat Linux; understand limitations of hardware; configure basic networking and file systems for a single system attached to a network; configure the X Window System; perform essential Red Hat Linux system administration; configure basic host security, set up client-side networking services required to attach to a production network, and carry out basic diagnostics and troubleshooting.
The readiness objective of RHCT is to assure a minimum level of systems administration skills so that a person is "ready from a technical point of view for professional responsibilities in installing, configuring, attaching, and supporting Red Hat Linux systems on an existing production network."
4. Certification in the context of professionalism
Becoming a successful technician or engineer requires years of experience in heterogenous, networked computing environments, coping with day-to-day issues, and developing best practices. This kind of experience does not result from taking one course or exam, but it can be measured during training and in a certification exam, especially if these are administered using hands-on exercises in a lab. That's why the RHCE and RHCT exams are lab-based, performance-based practical exams.
Red Hat is benchmarking the RHCE and RHCT certificates to be useful metrics for measuring experience, skill, and competency with Red Hat Linux, and for demonstrating preparedness for professional responsibilities at two critical levels of Red Hat Linux systems administration.
5. The RHCE Certification Lab Exam
The RHCE certificate requires passing the RHCE Certification Lab Exam. The RHCE Certification Lab Exam is composed of two elements: a server install and network services configuration lab (3 hours) and a troubleshooting and maintenance lab (2 1/2 hours). The two performance based parts of the Lab Exam present realistic problems that require planning, diagnosis, and development of complete solutions.
Fair game for the Certification Lab Exam consists of: the prerequisites for RHCE, plus everything covered in the RHCE curriculum and prerequisites. The exam is closed book; no notes.
The RHCT Certification Lab Exam
The RHCT certificate requires passing the RHCT Certification Lab Exam. The RHCT Certification Lab Exam will be composed of two elements: a diagnostics and troubleshooting lab (1 hour), and system install configuration, and attachment to network (2 hours). RHCT is thus entirely performance based, with no multiple choice component. RHCT presents realistic problems that require planning, diagnosis, and development of complete solutions.
Fair game for the Certification Lab Exam consists of: RH033, prerequisites for RH133 including Networking Fundamentals and Internetworking with TCP/IP, plus everything covered in the RH133 curriculum. The exam is closed book; no notes..
6. Certificates
The RHCE and RHCT exams are pass or non-pass. Official notification of PASS or DID NOT PASS is sent via email within 3 business days of the RHCE Exam. Individuals who complete all training elements but do not pass the Exam will receive a Certificate of Achievement. Individuals who complete all training and pass the Certification Lab Exam will receive in addition a Red Hat Certified Technician or Red Hat Certified Engineer certificate. Electronic certificates suitable for printing will be sent with exam results for those who qualify. All certificates list the specific release of Red Hat Linux.
7. Verification and Validity Period
Red Hat provides complete verification of RHCE certification, including version numbers, at Certification Central, so that individuals, their employers and customers can make their own informed decisions based on what version they are actually running and how critical re-certification is for their own requirements.
The validity period for all RHCEs and RHCTs is pegged to the release of the Enterprise product commercially available at the time certification was earned. RHCE and RHCT certifications are considered current until Red Hat retires exams of the release following the version on which your certification was earned. For example, certificates earned on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 will be current until August 31, 2007, the last date on which Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 exams will be offered. Note that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 was released in March, months before the final retirement of the version 4 exams.
To provide further clarification for earlier versions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 will remain current until Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 exams are retired, several months after the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Certifications earned on Red Hat Linux 8.0 and Red Hat Linux 9 are pegged to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, and hence will nolonger be current after August 31, 2007.
Our information suggests that the RHCE is such a strong certification that RHCEs in continuous practice as professionals are likely to be able to keep their skill levels up in pace with Red Hat Linux technology. Some Red Hat partner programs mandate RHCEs maintain certification on the most recent release.
8. Courses and Certification above RHCE
Persons with RHCE certification or equivalent skills may be interested in part or all of the Enterprise Architect curriculum and the related Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) certification. These five courses provide in-depth, hands-on training for senior Linux system administrators responsible for the deployment and management of many systems in large enterprise environments. RHCA is a capstone certification to RHCE and RHCT, the most recognized, acclaimed, and mature certifications in the Linux space. The full RHCA curriculum consists of four advanced 400-level Enterprise Architect courses and an upper-level security course.
If the market need for other levels or types of certification becomes clear, Red Hat will consider ways to address these.

सिस्को tips

1. Commands take effect right away.
If you are an experienced Cisco router user, you probably just groaned. However, I find that this concept escapes new users.
As you type commands into the configuration mode, they immediately take effect. For example, if we change the router's name, we see that the very next line contains the new router name:

Router1#config terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router1(config)#hostname MyRouter
MyRouter(config)#^Z
MyRouter#
As you can see, we changed the router's name to MyRouter, which was immediately processed. This concept applies to everything in the router's configuration mode.
2. Use all the descriptions you can.
In the router's configuration, there are certain commands that let you document various portions of a configuration. For example, the interface description command, an access-list remark command, or a banner message. All of these commands stay within the router configuration, which helps greatly when you are trying to configure or troubleshoot a router.
Here's an example of a description on an interface:

! Here is an interface description.
! Document as much about the interface as possible
interface Serial0
description Connection To Irvine: Wan ID [23499]
The available banner messages are the message of the day, or MOTD, login, incoming, and exec. Here is an example of the MOTD banner, which is the first message a person sees when connecting to the device:

MyRouter(config)#banner motd #
Enter TEXT message. End with the character '#'.
Welcome to MyRouter.
Some legalese should go here about unauthorized access.
#
The remark statement in an access-list is a relatively new feature. It first appeared in version 12.0(2)T of the IOS. This handy command allows you to make an entry in your access-list that describes what you are trying to accomplish. The comment can be up to 100 characters in length.

access-list 1 remark Permit our private network through the list
access-list 1 permit 10.1.1.0 0.0.0.255
access-list 1 remark Just deny everything else
access-list 1 deny any
You might be wondering about commenting a configuration with the "!" symbol.
Yes, you can comment a configuration with a "!" as I have done in the above examples. However, these comments do not stay in the router configuration. They are great when you are working on a configuration offline in a text editor. (Where you plan to upload the configuration to a router.)
However, these "!" comments will get lost when you send the configuration to the router because the router ignores them.
3. The reload command can get you out of a jam.
4. No matter how well you plan an upgrade, you are eventually going to need to change a router configuration remotely. If you make a mistake and can no longer get to the router because of the change you made, you have to make the embarrassing call to someone to go "hit the power." The power cycle takes the router back to the original starting configuration because your change was never saved. In other words, since you lost connection, you couldn't type "copy run start" to save your changes.
5. One of the classic mistakes (I know because I have done it myself a number of times) is to incorrectly update an access-list on an interface when you are connected to the device remotely. And suddenly, the Telnet connection is dropped to the router because of a forgotten list entry that would permit your incoming connection.
6. There is another way. When you are doing something tricky, you can use the following feature of the reload command, which causes the router to reboot in a certain number of minutes. For example, let's tell the router to reboot in three minutes.
7.
8. MyRouter#reload in 3
9. Reload scheduled in 3 minutes
10. Proceed with reload? [confirm]y
11. Now, we have three minutes to do what we need to do. Let's say we are applying an access-list to serial0.
12.
13. MyRouter#config terminal
14. Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
15. MyRouter(config)#interface serial0
16. MyRouter(config-if)#ip access-group 110 in
17. MyRouter(config-if)#^Z
18. MyRouter#
19. We made the change and everything still works. (Well, at least our connection wasn't dropped.) Now all we have to do cancel the impending reload with the following command:
20.
21. MyRouter#reload cancel
22. Or, if our access-list update did destroy our connection to the router, all we need to do is wait three minutes (plus the router's reload time) before the router is back online. After the reload, the router uses the original saved configuration before our access-list change.
23. Don't forget to add either an enable password or an enable secret password.
If you are planning to telnet into your router remotely, you need to add an enable password or enable secret password, or the router will not allow you to go to enable mode. Of course, it goes without saying that adding an enable password is always a good thing.

! Enable service password-encryption if it isn't already.
service password-encryption
! Here is our enable password, which is ok
! but not too secure.
enable password 7 141B171F01012325
! Here is our enable secret, much better.
enable secret 5 $1$99Jc$dxVXUkwMM3Edvj7f0SUrL/
Don't forget that "enable secret" overrides the "enable" password. Just be safe and use the enable secret command. The enable secret uses a better encryption method to encode the password.
24. Stopping the router from trying to telnet.
This is often an annoying problem. Mistype a command and the router thinks you just typed a hostname. For example:

MyRouter#shwo
Translating "shwo"...domain server (10.1.1.2)
% Unknown command or computer name, or unable to find computer address
MyRouter#
Here, we just mistyped the word show. We didn't want to telnet to a device named "shwo." The way to handle this is to change the preferred transport method:

! Console port
line con 0
transport preferred none
! VTY Ports
line vty 0 5
transport preferred none
The output shows the lack of a failed connection based on our mistyped keyword:

MyRouter#shwo
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.