My Current Certifications - Part 2

I am still working on my desktop to get it setup, so today's posts will a follow up from last Thursday's post on my own certifications. I left off in the last time stating that I would cover my Linux Professional Institute certification - Level 1 (LPIC-1) and VCP certifications.

I  was not really keen on the idea of the Linux Professional Institute certification - Level 2 (LPIC-2), for which the first step is to get the LPIC-1 certification, due to the nature of the tests. As I mentioned in my previous post, the LPIC is yet another certification that really tests book knowledge versus real world skills. Both the LPIC-1 and the LPIC-2 certifications are made up of 2 different tests. Really for how difficult I found the tests, I could have easily done both tests as one for each certification level.

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) rates the LPIC-1 as "Junior Level Linux Certification" and the LPIC-2 as "Advanced Level Linux Certification". Both the LPIC-1 and the LPIC-2 certifications are made up of 2 different tests. Really for how difficult I found the tests, I could have easily done both tests as one for each certification level but then I have been using Linux on and off since the mid-nineties.

The LPIC-1 tests are called Level 1 - 101 and Level 1 - 102. For the first test, 101, the LPI says that you should be looking at 4 major objectives:

1. System Architecture
2. Linux Installation and Package Management
3. GNU and Unix Commands
4. Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

I am not going to cover these objectives here as they are well documented in the links about. All the objectives really cover the basics of getting a base Linux operating system (OS) installed and hardware configured. The rest is pretty much installing additional software and basic systems management (e. g. user management, file management, etc.)

One good think about this certification is they do not just cover one distribution with the package management (software installation method) but cover the two major package management - RPM/YUM and DEB/APT. At least this is good in making an candidate's skill set is not too narrow when it comes to Linux.

The second test, 102, covers more in depth administrative task and basic automation of tasks. It also cover some basic security concepts. It has the following objectives:

• Shells, Scripting and Data Management
• User Interfaces and Desktops
• Administrative Tasks
• Essential System Services
• Networking Fundamentals
• Security

I will say that it seemed that the tests get progressively more detailed and as a consequence seem to be a bit harder. As I had been using Linux for a long time before I even consider taking these tests it was a great way for me to measure my knowledge based on my skill set. However, it was kind of like learning to drive after already knowing how to drive - you have to learn to drive for the test before getting on the road and learning to drive in the real world.

I was going to cover my VCP too but as it is taking me awhile longer to get my desktop running so I am further breaking up the posts.

Graham Burgess

P. S. Do you have your LPIC-1? How did you find it?