Hi, I have completed my engineering and seriously looking at System Administration as a career option. Can you tell me about the career prospects? Also, I am thinking about taking the RHCE exam. I am not able to spot much training institutes in Mumbai, CMS Computer Institute and Gates Training being the only ones I have been able to come up with. Can you please comment on the teaching quality of these computer institutes and such stuff? Looking forward to your replies.
Regards, Amit.
On Monday 18 Aug 2008, Amit Joshi wrote:
Hi, I have completed my engineering and seriously looking at System Administration as a career option. Can you tell me about the career prospects? Also, I am thinking about taking the RHCE exam. I am not able to spot much training institutes in Mumbai, CMS Computer Institute and Gates Training being the only ones I have been able to come up with. Can you please comment on the teaching quality of these computer institutes and such stuff? Looking forward to your replies.
Over the last year, I have interviewed several candidates from the various Mumbai training institutes conducting RHCE curriculum; not a single candidate scored more than 25% in a 40 question quiz, based on the RH033 book, that I conducted.
IMO, you would be better off buying some decent hardware, install CentOS (equiv. to RHEL), experiment with virtualization (to simulate multiple systems) and learn the RHCE curriculum on your own.
Arun Khan wrote:
On Monday 18 Aug 2008, Amit Joshi wrote:
Hi, I have completed my engineering and seriously looking at System Administration as a career option. Can you tell me about the career prospects? Also, I am thinking about taking the RHCE exam. I am not able to spot much training institutes in Mumbai, CMS Computer Institute and Gates Training being the only ones I have been able to come up with. Can you please comment on the teaching quality of these computer institutes and such stuff? Looking forward to your replies.
Over the last year, I have interviewed several candidates from the various Mumbai training institutes conducting RHCE curriculum; not a single candidate scored more than 25% in a 40 question quiz, based on the RH033 book, that I conducted.
IMO, you would be better off buying some decent hardware, install CentOS (equiv. to RHEL), experiment with virtualization (to simulate multiple systems) and learn the RHCE curriculum on your own.
Doing an RHEL course provides an overall understanding of OSs, networking, storage media etc. and for someone who wants to learn all this in a limited span of time, it is very beneficial. The third semester (module 3, servers) is the important one and that is where a good institute and proper faculty will make the difference. At the institute where I did the course, the 3 months course got dragged to 9 months. We were migrating from one room to another and almost every time we had to load the OS over the last batch's other OS installation. The first 2 modules were very nicely explained with good practical time. The last module was taken in short time by another faculty and it was more of a demo where more than 15 people jostled to view a single monitor where sever setup was demonstrated. The tall ones had to stand behind all the shorter ones and that made the screen text hardly visible.
On Monday 18 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
Arun Khan wrote:
Over the last year, I have interviewed several candidates from the various Mumbai training institutes conducting RHCE curriculum; not a single candidate scored more than 25% in a 40 question quiz, based on the RH033 book, that I conducted.
IMO, you would be better off buying some decent hardware, install CentOS (equiv. to RHEL), experiment with virtualization (to simulate multiple systems) and learn the RHCE curriculum on your own.
Doing an RHEL course provides an overall understanding of OSs, networking, storage media etc. and for someone who wants to learn all this in a limited span of time, it is very beneficial. The third semester (module 3, servers) is the important one and that is where a good institute and proper faculty will make the difference. At the
Indeed, don't disagree with the concept.
The problem is finding the "good" institute and the "proper" faculty combo. I have gone through products of practically all the name brand insti's in Mumbai conducting RHCE. After probing some of them, I found out what you have listed below - little or no hands on practicals, some not even following the course material the way it is presented in the RHCE books.
institute where I did the course, the 3 months course got dragged to 9 months. We were migrating from one room to another and almost every time we had to load the OS over the last batch's other OS installation. The first 2 modules were very nicely explained with good practical time. The last module was taken in short time by another faculty and it was more of a demo where more than 15 people jostled to view a single monitor where sever setup was demonstrated.
May I ask how much did this place charge per student? The least the insti could have done is rent a projector so that all could see the demo. IIRC, one of the conditions for becoming a Redhat training partner is to provide proper training facilities and hands on practical time.
IMO, the self motivated individuals are better off spending the "tuition" money in buying hardware and learning it on their own. At least in this case they will not be jostling for lab time with others.
Arun Khan wrote:
On Monday 18 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
institute where I did the course, the 3 months course got dragged to 9 months. We were migrating from one room to another and almost every time we had to load the OS over the last batch's other OS installation. The first 2 modules were very nicely explained with good practical time. The last module was taken in short time by another faculty and it was more of a demo where more than 15 people jostled to view a single monitor where sever setup was demonstrated.
May I ask how much did this place charge per student? The least the insti could have done is rent a projector so that all could see the demo. IIRC, one of the conditions for becoming a Redhat training partner is to provide proper training facilities and hands on practical time.
15K for 3 modules.
IMO, the self motivated individuals are better off spending the "tuition" money in buying hardware and learning it on their own. At least in this case they will not be jostling for lab time with others.
Self learning helps specialize in a particular topic but for overall knowledge gain from almost ground level, a course within a fixed time works better. However even after the course, there is a lot more to learn on one's own and the individual would be in a better position to find his way around.
On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 11:44 PM, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Arun Khan wrote:
On Monday 18 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
institute where I did the course, the 3 months course got dragged to 9 months. We were migrating from one room to another and almost every time we had to load the OS over the last batch's other OS installation. The first 2 modules were very nicely explained with good practical time. The last module was taken in short time by another faculty and it was more of a demo where more than 15 people jostled to view a single monitor where sever setup was demonstrated.
May I ask how much did this place charge per student? The least the insti could have done is rent a projector so that all could see the demo. IIRC, one of the conditions for becoming a Redhat training partner is to provide proper training facilities and hands on practical time.
15K for 3 modules.
I agree that it would be a better idea to spend money on buying new hardware instead of joining an Institute. But I think there are some units in those modules where you have to learn Networking with a cluster of systems. It won't be easy to do that at home, although I am aware of various network simulation softwares available these days. Are there any suggestions regarding learning the networking part of the exam at home?
Regards, Amit.
IMO, the self motivated individuals are better off spending the "tuition" money in buying hardware and learning it on their own. At least in this case they will not be jostling for lab time with others.
Self learning helps specialize in a particular topic but for overall knowledge gain from almost ground level, a course within a fixed time works better. However even after the course, there is a lot more to learn on one's own and the individual would be in a better position to find his way around.
-- Regards,
Rony.
GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom.
On Tuesday 19 Aug 2008, Amit Joshi wrote:
I agree that it would be a better idea to spend money on buying new hardware instead of joining an Institute. But I think there are some units in those modules where you have to learn Networking with a cluster of systems. It won't be easy to do that at home, although I am aware of various network simulation softwares available these days. Are there any suggestions regarding learning the networking part of the exam at home?
Virtualization, there are several options. virtual box (open source edition) is fairly easy to setup and comes with fairly good documentation. On a system with with say 2GB RAM and a Dual Core 2.0GHz CPU, you could very well run 2 virtual machines for a total of three including the host system. It may not be possible to simulate every network scenario on such a setup.
On networking, an excellent intro book is "The Linux Network Administrator's Guide," Second Edition by Olaf Kirch and Terry Dawson available here http://www.tldp.org/guides.html
HTH, -- Arun Khan
Arun Khan wrote:
On Tuesday 19 Aug 2008, Amit Joshi wrote:
I agree that it would be a better idea to spend money on buying new hardware instead of joining an Institute. But I think there are some units in those modules where you have to learn Networking with a cluster of systems.
Learning under a skilled faculty is very helpful as the student gets to ask a lot of questions and doubts which are best explained verbally with examples and interactive dialog. A lot of off topic knowledge is also gained in the process.
It won't be easy to do that at home, although I am aware of various network simulation softwares available these days. Are there any suggestions regarding learning the networking part of the exam at home?
Virtualization, there are several options. virtual box (open source edition) is fairly easy to setup and comes with fairly good documentation.
Virtual box and its siblings can give a tough time to experienced people too. It has bugs in the vital networking part itself. A better option is to form a small group and pool hardware together and do actual networking. Group learning is very motivating and works wonders. If a faculty can be roped in, then even better.
BTW, I hope Red Hat is reading this thread and takes proper action to improve the quality of their education. The way people are narrating their experiences, it is in a very sorry state.
On Wednesday 20 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
Virtual box and its siblings can give a tough time to experienced people too. It has bugs in the vital networking part itself. A better option is to form a small group and pool hardware together and do actual networking. Group learning is very motivating and works wonders. If a faculty can be roped in, then even better.
Pooling hardware is a good idea. We can do Form area wise local LUG is a good idea I have been toying with the same in the Bandra-Andheri area and looking for space. The main drawback I perceive is lugging the heavy towers to the location.
BTW, I hope Red Hat is reading this thread and takes proper action to improve the quality of their education. The way people are narrating their experiences, it is in a very sorry state.
I hope so too. As mentioned before, I have personally not gone through the program but from the candidates that I have interviewed, I have deduced the insti's are more interested in their incoming (fees) than their outgoing (knowledge and experience).
-- Arun Khan
I hope so too. As mentioned before, I have personally not gone through the program but from the candidates that I have interviewed, I have deduced the insti's are more interested in their incoming (fees) than their outgoing (knowledge and experience).
Why blame RedHat only, take any institution, and you will find same story every where. Fresh Electronic Engineers can not identify the leads of a 3 pin transistor.
Warm Regards,
Mukund Deshmukh, Beta Computronics Pvt Ltd. 10/1 IT Park, Parsodi, Nagpur -440022 India. Web site - http://betacomp.com
Meet us at Booth I102, Taipei PLAS 2008, Sept 18-22 , Taiwan.
On Wednesday 20 Aug 2008, Mukund Deshmukh wrote:
I hope so too. As mentioned before, I have personally not gone through the program but from the candidates that I have interviewed, I have deduced the insti's are more interested in their incoming (fees) than their outgoing (knowledge and experience).
Why blame RedHat only, take any institution, and you will find same story every where. Fresh Electronic Engineers can not identify the leads of a 3 pin transistor.
It is indeed a sad status quo of the education system.
However, as far as professional certs. are concerned, I beg to differ. RHCE is a professional certification, developed and conducted by Redhat. The purpose of any professional certification is to ensure that a person knows the product and is able to handle it.
-- Arun Khan
Mukund Deshmukh wrote:
I hope so too. As mentioned before, I have personally not gone through the program but from the candidates that I have interviewed, I have deduced the insti's are more interested in their incoming (fees) than their outgoing (knowledge and experience).
Why blame RedHat only, take any institution, and you will find same story every where. Fresh Electronic Engineers can not identify the leads of a 3 pin transistor.
Red Hat recommends these institutes on its website. The potential learner chooses those institutes based on faith and the good name of Red Hat.
Arun Khan wrote:
I hope so too. As mentioned before, I have personally not gone through the program but from the candidates that I have interviewed, I have deduced the insti's are more interested in their incoming (fees) than their outgoing (knowledge and experience).
:-D
On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 05:39:11PM +0530, Amit Joshi wrote:
Hi, I have completed my engineering and seriously looking at System Administration as a career option. Can you tell me about the career
Prospects are good. Training isn't really useful. You might prefer to lurk on #lopsa on Freenode instead. Also see http://www.lopsa.org/ Slightly cheaper.
The Practice of System And Network Administration is a good book to start with for a job description.
Devdas Bhagat
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Amit Joshi -
Arun Khan -
Devdas Bhagat -
Mukund Deshmukh -
Rony