[SWLUG] Good Bye SWLUG!

[Bryn Reeves]

Hi all,
Just wanted to drop a brief line to say 'bye' as I'm going to be
moving back to the south east (Surrey) this weekend - I was hoping
to make it to Swansea on Wednesday, but packing etc. got the better
of me.

I'll still be subscribed to the list, of course, and as I didn't 
make it along to meetings as regularly as I'd have liked, you may 
not notice the change!

I've decided to leave my current post in Wales to take up a job with 
Red Hat's Global Learning Services, so I'll be helping teach the RHCE 
and developer courses down in Guildford. 

I did my RHCE back in Feb' - there's a review at the bottom of this 
mail which I wrote just after. I know I might be percieved as biased,
:) but the topic of certification's come up a couple of times and 
it's just my 2cents worth - personally I think it's a great course!

Thanks to everyone in SWLUG who's given me help and advice, or just 
interesting discussions - especially those who made me feel so 
welcome at the awareness day last summer when I didn't know a soul!

SWLUG's the first LUG I've had any contact with, and from the 
experience this time, I'll definately be looking to hook up with 
another group down south.

Take care everyone & hope to stay in touch with you all.

Bryn.

PS - sorry! that wasn't very brief at all! ;)


RHCE Certification Course - review
----------------------------------
 
 The Red Hat Certified Engineer course and exam have been around for a
 while now, and seem to be probably the most widely acknowledged and
 accepted GNU/Linux-specific certification scheme, certainly outside of
 the Linux / Open Source community.  The overall reputation of the
 courses had a lot to do with my decision to sign up for the one week
 RH300 Fast Track course.
  
 I took the course at Red Hat's Guildford training center, located in
 their European headquarters on Surrey Research Park. The surrounding
 area has a couple of very nice places serving food, and lunch tickets
 are provided which get you plenty to eat. Plentiful from-beans coffee
 is also available at all times :)
   
 This course gives you 4 days of pretty intensive hands-on tuition,
 with the RHCE exam taking place on the 5th. There are other options
 available, which spread the load over several courses, although of
 course these options may cost a bit more.
    
 The different routes are explained here:
     
 http://www.europe.redhat.com/training/rhce/
      
 Red Hat's lab training methods are first-class. For obvious reasons I
 can't go into too much detail about the content of the course and
 exam, or the tools used. Red Hat have a pretty strict confidentiality
 agreement, which is a sensible measure that protects the integrity and
 value of the qualification.
       
 Each student has their own machine to work on for all the sessions,
 giving you a lot of freedom to experiment with the different topics
 that are discussed. You also get a hefty, bound set of notes which
 provide a handy place for jotting and should be a useful resource back
 at home or work.
        
 Time is always short on courses like this, and it would of course have
 been nice to have more time to practise. For those wanting to put in
 extra hours, the teaching rooms were made available at lunch times and
 at the end of the day.
	 
 Throughout the course the Red Hat staff and instructors I met were
 friendly and very helpful. The course has a very interactive style and
 a lot of interesting discussion took place both in and outside the
 classroom. Meeting students on other courses also provided an
 interesting glimpse at Red Hat's other training offerings.
  
 The exam itself is a pretty daunting prospect. Easy is one thing it
 isn't, and you'll probably find the two sessions (3hrs and 2.5hrs)
 pass by pretty quickly! RHCE used to involve a multiple-choice
 component, but since Red Hat 9 this has been dropped, I feel, better
 reflecting the hands-on approach of the course.
	   
 The topics included are covered pretty well on Red Hat's site, and I
 would say the fast track course is probably best suited to people
 who've been using/administering GNU/Linux based systems for a few
 years.
    
 Details of the pre-requesites and exam contents are on Red Hat's site
 here:
	     
 http://www.europe.redhat.com/training/rhce/rh300_prereq.php3
 http://www.europe.redhat.com/training/rhce/rh302_desc.php3
	      
 I took the exam under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, and I think this
 is now standard at all Red Hat training centers. I'd not used it
 before, but it shouldn't be too unfamiliar if you're used to Red Hat 8
 or 9, or the Fedora releases.
	       
 After taking the exam, the results arrived via email very quickly;
 although we were told they could take 5-10 days, mine arrived much
 quicker than that. I'm very happy to say I managed to pass!
        
 Another nice feature of Red Hat's certification is the verification
 system. By entering a certificate no. into Red Hat's web site, the
 name, date and result of any certificate can be checked.
		 
 All in all, I'd say the RHCE is an excellent way to both prove and
 improve your abilities in Red Hat GNU/Linux administration. Although
 it's Red Hat specific, much of the knowledge you gain will apply
 readily to other distros, and for users who've learned Linux mainly by
 themselves it'll help tie a lot of loose ends together. For me I can
 definitely say it'll have an immediate impact on my productivity when
 I get back to work, and has given me lots of new ideas for the home
 systems. I would highly recommend it!
	  
 If you are interested, you can try some pre-assessment questionnaires
 on Red Hat's site here:
		   
 http://www.redhat.com/apps/training/assess/
    
 I found they gave you a good rough guide, and an idea of things to
 prepare for.

 I've not taken any other Linux certification courses, and this is 
 also the first major-vendor run course I've done, so I don't have
 a lot to compare it to, but it met and exceeded my expectations.

 24/02/2004 - Bryn Reeves <hagbard at nildram.co.uk>