I have previously mentioned that the RHCE exam (RH302) is quite expensive, but I managed to get a rather nice discount, bringing the total cost down to £400 (instead of £598).

Sorry, but I am not going to tell you how I managed this, but suffice it to say there were a number of emails between me and the nice people at RedHat, and much discussion with my wife, who paid for the exam as a joint birthday/xmas present. Yes, I know I am a geek!

So with 54 days remaining I am using the excellent RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide (Exam RH302) (Certification Press)Michael Jang book (soon to switch to the Red Hat® Certified Technician & Engineer (RHCT and RHCE) Training Guide and Administrator’s ReferenceAsher Ghori book when I unwrap it at the weekend), several VMWare Server guest RedHat builds (one server for the NFS install, and several to break and build). The only shame about the Ghori book is that there is no pdf to download anywhere (good for him though, and it’s nice to have the physical book to read, instead of staring at a computer screen).

I would also recommend the Foundations of CentOS Linux: Enterprise Linux On the Cheap (Books for Professionals by Professionals)CentOS book (and getting the discs if you cant get hold of the RedHat ones), its a very well written book, and considering it covers such a wide number of topics, it’s surprisingly indepth!

Another invaluable resource is the Deployment guide freely available on the RedHat site.

But it’s proper practice that’s the key with this exam. It’s a true test of ability, so practice is imperitive.

So apart from living and breathing RedHat, I have had more articles published, one for the ITJobBoard on Cross Examination, and another for RedmondMag on ActiveBatch 7. I am quite liking this writing lark.

Merry xmas all.

Today is shaping up pretty well so far, it’ll be even better if I can get wireless working on my iPhone again.

I passed my JN0-400 (Juniper Networks Certified Internet Associate, Enterprise Switching) with a nice high score, and also my first review for Redmnd Magazine has been published: http://redmondmag.com/articles/2009/10/01/kaseya-virtual-system-administrator.aspx

The exam was not really that difficult, especially after passing the Network+ and CCNA. A couple of questions are very basic networking ones such as bridging, but most of the other questions seem to be aimed at those who already have the CCNA, and are looking to move to Juniper.

Best of all, it was free!

I have now booked all five of the exams that are currently being offered as part of the 100% discount program via Juniper.

It’s going to be a fun two months! The last exam takes place the day after my 32nd birthday as well…

Speaking of Juniper, check out this article by Praetorian Prefect on VRF. It’s an excellent example of why Juniper is pretty awesome!

http://praetorianprefect.com/archives/2009/09/vrf-is-the-new-black-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-complexity/

Juniper are offering free exams (a saving of £76 in the UK).

The exams offered are:
Enterprise Routing:

1. Associate (JNCIA-ER)
2. Specialist (JNCIS-ER)

Enterprise Switching Certification Track

1. Associate (JNCIA-EX) Learn More

JUNOS Security Track

1. Associate (JNCIA-JUNOS)
2. Specialist (JNCIS-SEC)

The Certification Steps are:
1. Take the eLearning course
2. Review Study Resources
3. Take the pre-assessment exam
4. Take the live exam at a Prometric testing center

http://junos.juniper.net/fast-track/

The offer is only open until the 9th October, after that its only a 50% saving on the exam price (which is still very good!)

You may recall I purchased some CCNA training software called SemSim.

SemSim offer a money back guarantee. But they ignore you when you try and claim your money back.

From their site:
The Cisco CCNA Test Pass Guarantee states that if due to ANY reason you receive a failing score within 60 days of purchasing any SemSim product, we will refund 100% of your money (no questions asked!).

Well, I failed my first attempt, I sent them my score report, got an automated email back that they had received my email, and then they have ignored me. This was within 60 days of purchasing their product

A week later I resent my email to them, got another automated email back, and still no response.

I think I might email them from another account and see what they say about their money back guarantee.

I still think that the RHCE exam is more expensive than it should be.

In terms of OS certifications, with the major OS’s being Microsoft and Linux, the RHCE exam (seen by many to be the best), is far more costly than other exams.

The LPI exams only cost $580 for all three exams, and you can do the entire MCSE track for $875, which is 7 exams).

Even with the reduction in the length of the exam for the RHCE (see the earlier post), the price remains at a whopping $799.

Compare this with the Cisco exams, and you can complete the CCNP and only shell out $750, and that’s only if you need to pass the CCNA first. If you have your CCNA, then its only $500 for the four exams.

Here’s a nice chart showing the costings:

The CCIE will always remain the most expensive, it comprises a written exam, and then a grueling 8 hour lab exam.

So my request to RedHat is that they reduce the price of the RHCE exam to bring it inline with other exams. $799 for one exam sucks.

Second time attempt, and I passed.

Scored 916 (passmark is 825).

Now onto the MCSE 2003 upgraded to 2008!

Then a rest for a while.

I just found this excellent site with some cheat sheets for the CCNA (and other exams).

They are very well made, and should be downloaded and memorised.

They cover:

BGP
EIGRP
IPV6
OSPF
STP
Access Lists
Subnetting
VLANs

As well as a number of other topics.

Visit PacketLife.net, for more information.

CCNA Study Guide

Win this excellent CCNA study guide for the Cisco 640-802 exam.

·100% complete in-depth coverage of the objectives for the CCNA certification exam
·An integrated study system based on proven pedagogy’special elements reinforce and teach practical skills: step-by-step exercises, special exam watch and on the job elements, and chapter Self Tests.
·More than 150 practice exam questions that match the actual exam questions in content and feel.
·All answer options, correct and incorrect, receive detailed explanations as to why the answer is or is not the correct answer.
·CD-ROM’MasterExam practice exam software with hundreds of original questions, CertCams: playable animations of key exercises from the book, 1 Free session of online training from LearnKey and a searchable, Electronic Book.
·New! Includes Router and Terminal Simulator with hands on labs and exercises

All you need to do is leave a comment on this page, and click on two of the Google Ads on the site.

Its really that simple. It does not cost you anything, and you could win this brilliant study guide and be on your way to achieving your CCNA!

The book is brand new.

So click on a couple of the ads, and leave a comment. Make the comment interesting, funny, relevant or not. Its up to you. Remember to leave your email address so I can email the winner.

The draw will take place at the end of the month.

I think I knew by the fourth question that I was not going to pass the CCNA first time around.

Following a really bad night sleep, and not being 100% sure on a couple of topics, I got to the centre, signed in and sat down. The first three questions were fine. The next was a question on NAT. I won’t go into details because of the NDA. After about 15 minutes the host PC still could not ping the ISP router, so I knew that it was not working. Fuck it, I thought. Lets move on. So I did, and I have a feeling that I forgot to save the running config, which probably got me a big fat zero for that sim.

There are a couple of bugbears with the CCNA exam:
(continue reading…)