I'm scared how long RHCSA will take me to learn. Will learning the exam(not for certificate) be worth it?

[balenshah]

I just bought ghada atef's rhcsa practice questions which contains 257 questions. It'd take me 1 day to learn 1 question. I already know basics of Linux but don't know advanced Linux.

So, basically it'll take me ~1 year to read for RHCSA.

Would it be worth it at the end? I'd miss so many stuffs in life because of this. I also want to learn other technologies. But the fact is that my job doesn't require any advanced Linux at all. So, would it be even worth it?

 

[MattWinter]

No one can answer whether it will be worth it for you. What are your goals? What prompted you to want to do this in the first place?

Why is going to take you a day to answer one question? And what are you really going to miss out on in life if you're studying for less than 9 months?

Personally, I would be more scared if never learning or trying anything new.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I just bought ghada atef's rhcsa practice questions which contains 257 questions. It'd take me 1 day to learn 1 question.

Are you asking that you want to learn the content of RHCSA and not do the exam or something else and what you is your reason for wanting to do this? Learning the answers to questions isn't going to help you learn anything and RHEL courses are setup is you get a bit theoretical material and than you have some practices during a chapter and at the end of a chapter you have lab review which is basically a practice without answer to make you do it on your own what the whole chapter covered.

 

[balenshah]

Yes I want to learn the contents of RHCSA but not do the exam. I mean not memorizing the answers. But understanding them. It's like practicing math.

 

[f33dm3bits]

The thing about learning anything is that you just have to practice it until you know without even thinking about it, it takes longer than a day to actually know, understand and remember how something works. You can do it in a day but then if after that you do nothing with it you will forget it again because anything with computers that you don't use regurarly you will forget eventually.

 

[balenshah]

I've already done couple of linux courses and I can do my job easily atm. I want advanced troubleshooting skills so iwtl this rhcsa.

 

[f33dm3bits]

A training can help you get a better understanding of something and give you some new tools but advanced troubleshooting skill you will get from actual experience not by doing practice labs in a training.

 

[balenshah]

I've OTJT as well. I think doing this won't hurt? Will it?

 

[f33dm3bits]

Learning anything new will only do you good.

 

[sphen]

If you want to work in technology fields, you must be a lifelong learner, and behind the learning must be true passion for the work.

The technologies that existed when I was young are obsolete today. They have been supplanted with replacements that have no resemblance to what we used back then.

Look around the room. Any room. Nearly anything you see that uses electricity did not exist when we were young. That "we" covers many members here, too.

If learning new technologies is not your thing, that's okay. If you are truly passionate about learning new technologies, then you are well-suited to the task at hand.

Right now, I am sitting next to my partner. We are watching an old re-run on TV, which I am ignoring. My laptop is on my lap, and on the ottoman is the book, "How Linux Works" by Brian Ward. I checked it out from the public library. You get the idea.

(Added later, before posting):
I cannot answer the question about whether studying and passing the RHCSA adds value to your career. Speaking for myself, if a subject interests me, I learn it. If the material helps you be a better sysadmin and you find it fun and enjoyable, then go for it. If it is an unpleasant chore, then you must ask yourself: Is it worth the effort?

I will add one more comment. Considering RedHat's recent position regarding open source, do you want to invest your precious life into their proprietary ecosystem? Is there something better, more general, more suitable to the kinds of technology that interest you?

P.S. I started a separate thread about old obsolete technologies here:
https://www.linux.org/threads/technologies-we-grew-up-with-that-are-now-obsolete.45948/

 

[balenshah]

I will add one more comment. Considering RedHat's recent position regarding open source, do you want to invest your precious life into their proprietary ecosystem? Is there something better, more general, more suitable to the kinds of technology that interest you?

I'm learning rhcsa on centos 7 as that's what we use in our company(which will probably be migrated to ubuntu).

 

[f33dm3bits]

You should switch to Rocky Linux 8/9 or Alma Linux 8/9 because CentOS7 won't bet getting a lot more updates and will be End of Life within a year.

 

[balenshah]

You should switch to Rocky Linux 8/9 or Alma Linux 8/9 because CentOS7 won't bet getting a lot more updates and will be End of Life within a year.

No. Company uses centos 7. I need to learn what's used in the job. I'll switch to whatever distro the company switches or if I get fired lol.

 

[f33dm3bits]

No. Company uses centos 7. I need to learn what's used in the job. I'll switch to whatever distro the company switches or if I get fired lol.

Basically the only difference between 7 and and 8/9 is that you have newer packages available and there are appstreams available for dnf, for the rest it works the same as Centos7 did.

 

[sphen]

I'm learning rhcsa on centos 7 as that's what we use in our company(which will probably be migrated to ubuntu).

You should switch to Rocky Linux 8/9 or Alma Linux 8/9 because CentOS7 won't bet getting a lot more updates and will be End of Life within a year.

No. Company uses centos 7. I need to learn what's used in the job. I'll switch to whatever distro the company switches or if I get fired lol.

You may want to remind the decision makers at your company that CentOS support is end-of-life (EOL) soon. You could suggest alternatives like Alma Linux or Rocky Linux as a migration path forward, if appropriate. Be proactive, not reactive. Show your employer that you have interests in growing and contributing beyond a mere "job". Don't be a pest, but one friendly reminder note may be helpful. You know your situation best.

If your company is migrating to Ubuntu as you say, then why the interest in RHCSA? Ubuntu is based on Debian, not RHEL.

 

[f33dm3bits]

You may want to remind the decision makers at your company that CentOS support is end-of-life (EOL) soon. You could suggest alternatives like Alma Linux or Rocky Linux as a migration path forward, if appropriate.

Most logical choice for a company would actually be RHEL8/9, if you ever need support for critical systems and you run into a dead end for example a critical big or vulnaribility you can dump to Red Hat to fix, managers love that.

 

[balenshah]

Most logical choice for a company would actually be RHEL8/9, if you ever need support for critical systems and you run into a dead end for example a critical big or vulnaribility you can dump to Red Hat to fix, managers love that.

LOL I work in pretty big local Company but they will never buy rhel subscription. Our whole work is based on anydesk yet they've not purchased a professional license for anydesk. We use pirated software or community editions in our machines.

 

[f33dm3bits]

We use pirated software or community editions in our machines.

You better stick community versions then because pirated software come with risks of malware and viruses, as for using community editions in a professional settings is against the terms of the software in most cases.