Linux certification in India: A guide

Linux has always been a favorite in the data center environment. While Windows has seen a steady growth, Linux has had its share of success with organizations increasingly opting for Linux in data center environments. Of late, the need to optimize costs in the data center, especially on application licensing fronts, has seen a renewed interest from organizations for deploying Linux.

While there is already a mature base of skilled workforce to handle Windows-based server environments, the demand for personnel to handle Linux-based data center environments is increasing. Vendors like Red Hat and Novell have Linux certification courses designed to help professionals gain specific skillsets for Linux environments.

Linux certification courses from Novell

Novell has three levels of Linux certifications in India for data center professionals:

1.      Novell Certified Linux Administrator (NCLA)
This certification allows a professional to acquire basic administration skills for managing SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES) environments. Professionals taking up this Linux certification would be able to perform a SLES 11 installation, manage and configure Linux file system, set up network interfaces, manage file permissions, and ownership among others.

2.      Novell Certified Linux Professional (NCLP)
The NCLP certification is for system administrators with an experience in Linux or those with the NCLA certification. The Linux certification will allow professionals to upgrade their SLES administration skills from basic to a higher level, wherein they can configure and manage a network of SLE servers in data center.

3.      Novell Certified Linux Engineer (NCLE)
Linux administrators with an NCLP certification can further look honing their skills with the NCLE certification. The Linux certification is designed to provide administrators skill sets beyond managing a SLES-based networked environment with stronger networking, storage, and virtualization skills. For instance, the certification would enable a professional configure VLAN and implement a SAN with iSCSI. It also provides skill sets required for handling virtual environments with basics of virtualization and learning how to implement SLES 11 as a Xen Host Server.

Course delivery modes
Each certification course is followed by an online examination. The Linux certification courses can be taken up at a Novell location or at any of its training partner locations. Each training batch consists of 12 students. While the overall course duration varies from certification to certification, each course includes six hours of instructor-led training per day.
Novell also offers Linux certifications in India at a corporate level. For an organization operating its information technology (IT) systems on Novell’s Linux environments, the training content can be customized to suit its requirements. An assessment is done for all the corporate students to determine their level of understanding of Linux and the training content is customized accordingly. However, the training processes and testing methodologies remain identical to that for individual students.

Linux certification program for the corporate lasts between 9 and 13 days, based on customization. Corporate bodies can set up a training lab environment according to specifications provided by Novell, or choose to take students to either Novell’s Bangalore office or its nearest training partner location.

Details of Novell’s Linux certification courses

Novell training partner details:

Red Hat’s Linux certification courses

Red Hat also provides its own set of Linux certification courses in India for data center professionals. These include:

1. Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)
   The RHCSA is a basic level of Linux certification that Red Hat offers. An RHCSA is designed to empower an IT professional with the core skill sets required to manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) environments. With an RHCSA, a professional will be able to perform basic administrative functions such as configure and manage RHEL systems, local storage, file systems, users and groups, and others.
2. Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
   RHCE takes RHCSA skill sets to the next level and provides a data center professional the ability to demonstrate senior system administrator skill sets. System administrators with RHCE can go beyond configuring and look at managing RHEL systems in a networked environment. He can use shell scripting to automate system maintenance tasks, configure system to authenticate using Kerberos, install packages required to run network services, and configure network services such as HTTP/HTTPS, DNS, FTP, SMTP, and NTP.
3. Red Hat Certified Virtualization Administrator (RHCVA)
   The RHCVA is an independent certification course designed for system administrators and IT professionals keen to acquire the skill sets to manage a virtualized environment based on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV). The Linux certification will allow a professional to create and manage virtual servers and virtual desktops, export and import virtual machines, and create and configure virtual data centers, host clusters, and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager.
4. Red Hat Certified Security Specialist (RHCSS)
   The RHCSS can be taken up by IT professionals with the RHCE certification. The Linux certification would enable a data center professional configure and manage security across systems and the network with a higher degree of expertise. An RHCSS would learn to configure an NIS server to provide directory services, install Red Hat Directory Server, configure systems to authenticate using LDAP, and exercise administration skills such as creating, modifying, and implementing security-enhanced Linux (SELinux) policies.
5. Red Hat Certified Data Center Specialist (RHCDCS)
   The RHCDCS can be taken up by RHCEs looking to further enhance their data center administration skills. The Linux certification would provide a professional senior system administrator skill sets to install, manage and configure servers, manage virtual server environments, configure and manage storage, and enforce security and authentication mechanisms in a Red Hat enterprise environment.
6. Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
   An RHCA is a master-of-all Linux certification course that includes content that would provide a professional all the skill sets of an RHCDCS along with some of the skill sets of an RHCSS. A professional with the certification can qualify as one of the senior most system administrators in an enterprise environment based on Red Hat.

Mode of delivery for the courses

Each Linux certification by Red Hat consists of several course modules. A professional taking up a certification course has to complete each module and pass an examination associated with it.

The Linux certification courses are also available as customized programs for corporate organizations. The level of Linux expertise in a particular batch of corporate students determines the number of days of the course and the customization of the training content. Courses for corporate organizations are provided at a cost of USD 1000 per day. The organization can choose to have the certification training provided to its employees at a Red Hat or a Red Hat partner or a neutral location, as long as the lab setup meets the training environment specifications.

Training partner details

IPSR Ltd.
Dr. Mendus Jacob, CEO & Managing Director
Contact no: +91 94470 53716

Pricing details for IPRS

Linux Learning Center Pvt. Ltd.,
Mr. Ramesh Kumar,
Director
email - [email protected]
Contact no: +91 98450 57731

Useful Links:

http://www.apac.redhat.com/training/certification/

http://www.novell.com/training/certinfo/