LFCE - Linux Foundation Certified Engineer
Last summer I took upon myself the goal to get a certification from the Linux Foundation.
They offer 2 certifications that were particularly interesting to me:
At that time it probably would have been better for me to take the easier of the two LFCS. I figured if I did take the LFCS and pass I would later decide I wanted to take the LFCE. Also I figured having the big goal of the more difficult LFCE would give me more motivation to study linux in depth.
In Canada there are strict laws regarding the word "Engineer", more so than in the USA. You can't call yourself an engineer without having a 4 year degree in engineering, which I don't. So there is some grandeur for me if I can pass the difficult test and be an official LFCE.
I recently got an email that my exam will expire if I don't use it soon, they give you a re-test for free too. So with the money I've paid I can take it once and fail, then take it again. The final expiration is July 20th, 2018. That means in approximately one month I should be taking my first attempt ... which in all honesty I will probably fail.
Based on this I've decided to make a new series of blog posts where I will summarize each chapter of the LFCE curriculum into a blog post. Firstly this will help me to remember the information more clearly. Secondly when I was searching for curriculum information last year I found there weren't that many blogs discussing the content of the exam in depth.
Luckily I have the official course from the Linux Foundation LFS211 Linux Networking and Administration so I will have great source material to base my notes off.
For this post I will just leave you with a list of the chapters to be covered to give you a taste of what is to come:
LFS211 Units:
- Course Introduction
- Linux Networking Concepts and Review
- Network Configuration
- Network Troubleshooting and Monitoring
- Remote Access
- Domain Name Service
- HTTP Servers
- Advanced HTTP Servers
- Email Servers
- File Sharing
- Advanced Networking
- HTTP Caching
- Networking File Systems
- Introduction to Network Security
- Firewalls
- High Availability
- Databases
- System Log
- Package Management
That sums it up, 19 chapters total. Followed by a hands on exam. All of the tasks on the exam involve actually configuring a server in your chosen OS (in my case Ubuntu 16). They don't verify how you did something but simply that the end state of the server lines up with the request for each task. There are many possible ways to the same end goal, I like that they embrace that philosophy.
Thanks for reading, I'm nervous about actually being able to get it all down in time and pass, but even if I fail I know I'm going to learn a lot and be able to share it with others who find this blog via Google search, not to mention my Steem followers! Love you guys!
The only cert that I've felt is really worth doing in the Linux admin space are the Red Hat certs and some of he more advanced CISCO certs like CCIE. In the infosec space there are two certs:"Certified Ethical Hacker" aka CEH which is as crap as it sounds, then there is OSCP - Offensive Security Certified Professional which is really difficult to get, after OSCP there is another one you can do, I can't recall the name right now. But this cert requires you to complete labs that require actual hacking so it is not your normal write an exam cert.
Regarding the CISSP cert that @netscape101 mentioned lol see this video:
I honestly hate certifications. It seems like a necessary evil to make companies meet the crappy requirements of their clients. I don't have any certifications and I plan to keep it that way. Fortunately in my country your skills,stackoverflow user and github profile is enough to get you a job. That being said I have no problem with learning new things and I try to learn new things all the time. I have unfortunately met many people with fancy certs ,but zero skills. This is certainly the case in infosec. See how many people have the CISSP certfication,but they don't know anything about security or hacking.
Yes agree, my situation was completely different when I paid for it.
Had been traveling nomad for 2 years and was having trouble finding something good.
At this point I wouldn't get it but I already paid 🤷♂️
Nice and goodluck completing it. Chat to me on discord I might have some videos for you that you can use to prepare.