Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)
With the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, yesterday, Red Hat introduced a new certification that will replace the “old” Red Hat Certified Technician Certification with the new name of Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA).
This new certification will replace the RHCT certification and is retroactive for all current RHCT on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, in accordance with RH certification policy your cert is current from the release of the cert 1, but will bring some changes to the RHCE exam as well.
RHCE exams will still include RHCT, well RHCSA, items but the two exams will not be bundled any more, you will need to pass two different tests to achieve the Red Hat Certified Engineer qualification. In this sense Red Hat has gone back to the old Exam Style for RHCT/RHCE. Quoting Red Hat words on this this change has the following benefits :
- It makes the program simpler for those entering it and programs adopting it. Everyone must earn RHCSA first.
- Under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and earlier, RHCTs are required to re-test on RHCT elements when they take the RHCE exam. Under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, those who earn RHCSA will not be tested again on those same skills. They need to only take the RHCE exam. Both exams will typically be available the same day and will be offered frequently, thus giving candidates considerable flexibility in scheduling
I personally have another opinion about this, but I think it is too early to argue and I’m going to write them to have some clarification on this (do I need to pay 2 exams to earn my RHCE?).
Another big change to the Certification program is a change in the Re-certification policy, as you probably know your certification is current for two major releases (in my case RHCE will current until RHEL 7 for example) but with the new program RH introduced a renew policy similar to Cisco and Juniper’s programs for which you need to renew your certs every three years. More information about this can be found on Red Hat’s website.
I really appreciate Red Hat effort to renew their certification program even if I would have preferred a win win situation. Don’t misunderstand me, I love Red Hat as a company and I’m simply enthusiast about their certification curriculum but forcing me to renew my certs every three years like this can be a pain for my pocket as I’m paying for all my exams.
You know the difference between paying 200CHF for a Cisco exam VS paying around 1k CHF for a Red Hat one is pretty obvious without taking into consideration the costs of the courses themselves as there is little (or should I say no material at all) material for, just as example, the RHCA path.
As you know I’m preparing for my RHCA exams and this new, even if welcomed and somehow necessary, will force me to rethink my next steps.
I very well know the need to keep people’s certification up to date with the industry but maybe Red Hat should realize that a cut on exam’s price would be very well accepted and would encourage more people to subscribe to their certification programs.
What are your thoughts on this? I would love to hear them!
Well I go back to my Directory Services studies while I wait for the new RHCSA syllabus to be published so I can publish some test labs for this new path 
Lethe.
*EDIT* I should have linked (and read) this before publishing the post anyhow here you can find the complete FAQs about the new program. While they answered some of my questions I have to admit I still have some doubts about the move. I hope to be totally wrong, which most probably is the case, in any case I don’t think this is going to make any real difference.
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