Red Hat Exam Changes

Earlier this month Red Hat released RHEL6. This release has a significant number of changes, updates, and fixes. The scalability for RHEL6, particularly in the data center, has been improved as well. One thing however that many people were not aware was coming is a complete change to the Red Hat certifications.

First up the RHCT has been immediately retired :(. It has been replaced with a new certification called the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA). For those that already hold an RHCT certification will receive this new one in its place. Red Hat claims that being certified with a title of "System Admin" vs "Technician" makes a large difference when searching for a job (as well as peoples egos). While this may be true, the new exam also includes a completely revamped set of requirements. Also as a complete surprise the RHCSA is now a pre-req to anyone going for the more advanced RHCE exam (you can take the RHCE without an RHCSA, but you won't receive the actual certificate until you have your RHCSA). The cost for this new exam is $400. You can find the new exam objectives here:

https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhcsa/objectives/

Second, the RHCE exam has changed as well. While a great deal of material stayed the same (I'd say about 60%) for the RHCE, the services that you are required to know also became more detailed in the amount of topics you need to know. Due to this exam now having a pre-req the cost for the RHCE has dropped to $400 (down from $800), making it easier to obtain each exam for the price of $800. The downfall here is that you are required to know more for each exam. You can find the new exam objectives here:

https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/objectives/

For anyone that already has version 5 of either Red Hat exam already schedule I would recommend checking with your testing provider as there are conflicting reports of which version of the exam you will actually be allowed to sit for. According to Red Hat's website about 90% of testing centers will no longer allow you to book the old exam. While I welcome a revamp to the Red Hat certification program I think there could have been a warning to those in the process of studying. You can't change an entire program over night and expect that everyone will be alright with it, not to mention that the new exams are harder and cover more material. I think that the biggest downfall here is that there is currently no books or study material on the market for these new exams and while Red Hat has also re-done all of their training courses they are each about $3000 (there are three training courses covering all the material from RCHSA to RHCE for a total of about $6000). It is still too early to tell what kind of impact these exam changes will have, but I can tell that changing the exams and certification process without warning has left a bad taste in many peoples mouth.