Proving Actual Competency: Inside Red Hat’s RHCE Program
By Peter Childers
The Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) program is the flagship of Red Hat Global Learning Services. RHCE has already become the Linux certification of choice for IT professionals and employers managing mission-critical and business-critical Linux systems. This fact is borne out by the incredible testimonials received from RHCEs and training customers. To find out what the excitement is all about, let’s take a look inside the RHCE program.
RHCE: Performance-Based Certification
The RHCE exam stands apart from many other IT certifications because of its emphasis on performance-based testing of actual competency in Red Hat Linux installation, configuration, debugging, systems administration and setup of key networking services and security.
RHCE measures your ability to make a Linux server perform in objectively verifiable ways. Prove this, and you become a person with valuable, proven technical abilities—almost a guarantee of competency. And in the training and certification world, guarantees are hard to find!
Red Hat uses a strict definition for performance-based testing: It means actual use of the technology or product to carry out actual tasks of the job role. To pass RHCE, you must configure the server OS and key network services to perform certain tasks. To do that, you must actually have the competencies. It’s a very direct, simple and fair method of testing.
Many other things make the RHCE program and Red Hat’s approach distinctive. Some milestones and statistics include:
- Origins: The RHCE program debuted in November 1998, with the first RH300 courses and first RHCE certificates granted in January 1999.
- Track record: The RHCE exam and entire curriculum have been updated within three weeks of retail release across six versions of Red Hat Linux: 5.2, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 7.0 and 7.1.
- Stats: There are more than 3,600 RHCEs worldwide. More than 6,000 people have taken the RHCE exam. More than 14,000 people have taken an official Red Hat course at one of Red Hat’s 40 facilities worldwide or at a Red Hat Certified Training Partner. The failure rate–a quarterly calculation of all those who fail the RHCE exam divided into the total number of persons who attempt the exam–has oscillated between 38 percent and 42 percent. RHCE has become the de facto world-standard Linux certification.
- Comparative profile: Other true performance-based certifications in IT today include, first and foremost, Cisco’s CCIE certification, with more than 5,700 CCIEs worldwide after more than eight years. Novell’s Certified Directory Engineer (CDE) certification, launched more than a year ago, has 300 CDEs. Hewlett Packard, Juniper Networks and a few other IT OEMs have recently launched performance-based certifications.
The Value of RHCE
People rightly ask, what will certification get me? In the case of RHCE, the answers are easy, since performance-based certifications are accorded higher status than other types of certification.
- Confidence and competence: RHCEs report greater confidence in their skills and better success at building and managing Linux servers. The actual quality of their work and professionalism improves. They are better at performing their jobs, can take on more challenging assignments, and they receive recognition for this.
- Career results: RHCEs also report one or more of the following within 60 days of earning the certificate: a new job with higher salary, a raise, a promotion, increased responsibility, assignment to leadership or supervisory role, increased recognition and/or prestige among colleagues.
- Higher value: RHCE is the fastest-growing performance-based certification in IT and the only performance-based certification for OS server system and network administration. Performance-based certifications are more exclusive, rare and valuable because they are not mass-market certifications. Although some multiple-choice certifications have 100,000 or more certified individuals, this does not mean the value of these certifications is going up. Value is created by the exclusivity of the market of IT pros with proven competencies, not by issuing “paper certs” on a mass scale! A performance-based certification is less likely to be watered down or deflated by flooding the market.
- Price: The RHCE exam alone costs $749. It is included as the last day of the five-day rapid-track course, RH300, which has a bundle price of $2,498. RHCE is thus comparable in cost to other IT certifications, which can require as many as six or eight multiple-choice tests at $99 each.
- Value-adds from the vendor: Red Hat offers verification services for all RHCEs at Certification Central, a special site at www.redhat.com. RHCEs or their employers or customers can type in the 12-digit RHCE number and verify that professionals are really certified, as well as the precise version number of the RHCE exam they passed. Red Hat also offers a special site for RHCEs to receive special offers, discounts and benefits, as well as technical updates and access to resources.
Components of the RHCE Exam
If you’re thinking of preparing to take the RHCE exam, it is important to know about the structure of the exam and have an idea of what is expected so that you can use your training and flight time to maximum effect. The RHCE exam consists of three components:
- The Debug Exam: Four challenges, two hours and 30 minutes, performance-based (100 pts). This involves correcting problems on a Red Hat Linux system. These problems range from boot failure to problematic network services. Examinees may use any documentation installed on the system in order to assess and correct problems, but they may not bring in any books or notes, and “reinstall” is not a valid corrective measure!
- The Multiple-Choice Exam: 50 technical questions, one hour, multiple-choice (100 pts). This tests for technical knowledge about Red Hat Linux. It also includes questions that assess knowledge of common Linux commands, command redirection and other system administration skills. No notes, books or documentation may be used.
- The Server Install/Network Services Exam: Two hours and 30 minutes, performance-based (100 points). This requires examinees to install and configure a Red Hat Linux server on an x86 system. Configuration may include various network services, user environment, account management and other elements that fall under the “system administration” heading. Precision and completeness are important for all tasks in this exam. Any documentation installed on the system may be used.
In order to pass, you need an average total score of 80 or more, with no score lower than 50 points on any one component. Partial credit is not given. You can retake the exam as often as you like, but you must retake the entire exam.
Preparing for the RHCE Exam
Of the six hours allotted for the RHCE exam, only one involves answering multiple-choice questions. This is in contrast to the rest of the certification industry in which multiple-choice questions are the norm. Consequently, the first, last and most important element of preparation for the RHCE exam is actual competency and experience administering a Red Hat Linux server.
Training alone is not sufficient to develop professional-level competency of the kind tested by RHCE. All of Red Hat’s training offerings are designed to produce best results when the individual also gets flight time and experience on live systems. Red Hat’s programs make it very clear that there is no substitute for actual experience! Focus on building actual skills in a hands-on lab environment, rather than test-taking strategies, cramming, taking practice tests, etc. The best practice test for a practical exam such as RHCE is practice!
Does Red Hat publish cram guides for RHCE? Surprisingly, no. Red Hat has not published and, so far, has not endorsed any particular RHCE exam guide or handbook. Many such guides have been written by RHCEs and published by various houses, but none of these have been reviewed by Red Hat. Some are better than others, but in general, the approach of cramming for an exam doesn’t work quite the same way with a performance-based certification such as RHCE.
Experienced Linux system administrators seeking to take the RHCE exam without preparing first through Red Hat’s courses may find some useful information in the RHCE Prep Guide available at www.redhat.com. This guide will be useful for people once they build up significant flight time and experience. Of course, Red Hat does not represent this guide as complete or comprehensive and does not guarantee individual performance or results on the RHCE exam.
Security
It is pretty hard to cheat on a performance-based exam. RHCEs tend to be judicious about what they reveal for ethical and professional reasons. Persons who take the RHCE exam sign a confidentiality agreement not to share details about the exam. The integrity of the exam depends on the integrity of the community of people who take it. And by and large, they have proven to have enormous integrity. RHCE test scenarios change frequently, so even if a person were to violate the confidentiality agreement and share test scenarios from memory with another, that person must still master the tasks and pray that the same scenario turns up on his or her exam. Again, by measuring actual competency, the only way to pass is … actual competency!
Red Hat e-Learning
A complete suite of e-learning offerings for the RHCE standard track (RH033, RH133, RH253) was launched in July 2000, providing the ultimate in learning options: the ability to prepare the skills and knowledge for RHCE via any combination of classroom and/or e-learning courses. Again, those who prepare via e-learning need to get their hands on a real Linux system to practice skills and build competency.
What If I Don’t Pass?
Well, you might not pass on your first try. That’s a real possibility with any valuable test. You might bomb on the first section of the RHCE exam. But don’t give up! If you are in a Red Hat course or series and feel you are getting cold feet about your readiness to take the exam, your best bet is still to suck in your gut and attempt it. You will learn a great deal!
The RHCE Exam is a
Learning Experience
The exam itself is a learning experience and an amazing assessment tool. Not many certification tests can make this claim. Those who fail usually feel their experience has helped them identify the competencies and specific skill areas they need to work on to become confident, capable administrators. They build those areas, try the RHCE exam again and usually pass. By bowing out or leaving the exam early–for example, if you know you have bombed the first section–you miss out on this learning experience!
Giving Back to the Community
Red Hat recently joined with Cisco and Novell to form the steering committee of a new organization: the Field Certified Professional Association (FCPA). FCPA’s mission is to promote the use and adoption of performance-based testing by IT vendors, IT consulting firms, enterprises, universities and governments.
Moral of the Story:
Ask for the Best
Certification and training are about what is between your ears. And when it comes to enhancing your gray matter, this means an investment of time and energy, as well as money. When investing your time, energy and, of course, dollars in training and certification, you should seek out the best value and the highest quality.
Peter Childers is vice president of global learning services at Red Hat Inc. You can e-mail Pete at pchilders[at]redhat.com.
