Hey guys,
As the title states I am interested in your personal experience with the exam. I have some problems memories or understand all the parameters in configuration files for different scenarios like (e.g configure nova to use the block storage) is the exam similar to the labs into the course or waay different ?! Is only hands on or also questions ?
Many thanks, M
Posted Sep 10, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC
First - your $SUBJECT gives the impression you want to learn about the questions asked. Nobody can tell you - it's part of what you agree to when you take the exam and violated you can lose your certifications and the chance to retake any exam. There are lots of good information on the redhat.com/training web page about what you can expect - it also helps you prepare a bit.
Generally speaking you have a full blown RHEL system at your finger tips. Some exams have more than one but for RHCSA it's typically just one. You'll be instructed before the exam begins how to use/access it (it's very easy - don't worry) and you'll be told it's VERY important that when the system reboots, that your changes are still there (so TEST that it works after a reboot).
A full RHEL system comes with documentation - /usr/share/doc and man pages and in some cases other data that's on a standard RHEL box. What you do NOT have is internet access. Nor can you bring a book or notes with you to the exam. So learn how to use man and /usr/share/doc to your advantage. Nobody remembers all parameters and options - it's ok to look up something at the exam. It's not ok to read about a command you don't know - there isn't time for that (you can, but you'll run out of time).
I suggest you practice. Today, take a piece of paper and write up some tasks you've done before - use the exam objectives as a guide. Sleep on it - and tomorrow create a new RHEL VM and try to do the tasks without using notes, the internet or other materials and JUST by using what's on the VM - if you're having problems finding answers, study "man" and the other manuals on the system. Learn how to use them. Try to remember where the man pages around the objectives are. Hint - you'll often find examples in the man page you can copy/paste directly into your exam system - some people start from the bottom so they see the examples first for that reason (and not all solutions are that simple).
Another advice - read the whole exam before starting. Sort the tasks into "easy", "medium", "hard" and start with all the easy ones first and then move to the medium and then to the hard ones. That gives you the highest number of answers and a much better chance of passing even if you should struggle with the hard ones. Set aside at least 30 minutes of your time to verify. Reboot your system - and verify ALL your tasks are still working the way you want them to. It takes time, but it's better than to get a big fat 0 because you forgot to persist your solutions that you worked hard on. You do not have a lot of time but verification is very important.
Btw. if you do find it hard to remember commands it's going to be very hard for you to do admin stuff for real. You don't have to remember 400 commands by heart but you do have to remember a good portion. That goes for every area you can take exams in. After all, it is testing if you're able to do this work for real. In my experience, it's a lot easier to remember if you do it, and do it often. Don't just read about it.
Hey @egoalter. Thanks for you comprehensive answer. What I was looking is more applied to if there are cases where ask to edit the nova.conf file which is a huge configuration file with lots of possibilities to edit for a certain use case. Commands I know most of them by heart but configuration files comes in a wider variety. But I got your point.
Conf files are part of man pages too. You should study the man commands. It covers so much more than command line commands.
I think try to remember as much as possible
All Red Hat exams are practical hands-on tests. I have not taken this course/exam, but in my experience, Red Hat courses/labs are excellent prep for the types of questions on the exams.
Hey @devnullify thank you for your answer. From the allocated time of 4h how much is allocated for the exam? For example in Azure a 4h exam actually 3h 30minutes is actually exam rest is for formality. Many thanks, M
With Red Hat exams, you get the full time listed in the exam description to complete the exam.