Help Us Refresh the LPIC-2 Certification Objectives

We have recently started the ball rolling on our regular refresh of the objectives for LPIC-2. We're always looking for opinions and other input from our community, too. If you are interested in helping out or just observing some of the discussions, subscribe to our public mailing list here: https://list.lpi.org/mailman/listinfo/lpi-examdev

Once you have subscribed, you can read the initial thoughts from Fabian Thorns, our Director of Product Development, in the list archives here: https://list.lpi.org/mailman/private/lpi-examdev/2022-February/004137.html

Everyone is welcome and we appreciate any and all contributions (trolling excepted).

LPIC-2 is the second certification in the multi-level professional certification program of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI). The LPIC-2 will validate the candidate's ability to administer small to medium–sized mixed networks. 

Current version: 4.5 (Exam codes 201-450 and 202-450)

Objectives: 201-450, 202-450

Prerequisites: The candidate must have an active LPIC-1 certification to receive the LPIC-2 certification.

Requirements: Passing exams 201 and 202. Each 90-minute exam is 60 multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions.

Validity period: 5​ years unless retaken or higher level is achieved.

Cost: Click here for exam pricing in your country.

Languages for exams available in VUE test centers: English, German, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian)

Languages for exams available online via OnVUE: English

To become LPIC-2 certified the candidate must be able to:

◉ perform advanced system administration, including common tasks regarding the Linux kernel, system startup and maintenance;

◉ perform advanced Management of block storage and file systems as well as advanced networking and authentication and system security, including firewall and VPN;

◉ install and configure fundamental network services, including DHCP, DNS,  SSH, Web servers, file servers using FTP, NFS and Samba, email delivery; and

◉ supervise assistants and advise management on automation and purchases.

Source: lpi.org

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Advantages of Linux

Linux is an open-source operating system like Windows and MacOS. It is not just limited to the operating system, but nowadays, it is also used as a platform to run desktops, servers, and embedded systems. It provides various distributions and variations as it is open source and has a modular design. The kernel is a core part of the Linux system.

Linux system is used to manage various services such as process scheduling, application scheduling, basic peripheral devices, file system, and more. Linux provides various advantages over other operating systems such as Windows and macOS. So, it is used in almost every field, from cars to home appliances and smartphones to servers (supercomputers).

In this section, we will see some major advantages of the Linux system. Further, we will see the advantages of Linux over other operating systems and will determine why it is better than other operating systems.

Why is Linux better than other operating systems?

There are many features of the Linux operating system that demonstrate that it is better than other operating systems. However, in some prospective other operating systems can be more useful than Linux. Let's see the top 20 advantages of Linux OS.

Top 20 Advantages of Linux

Following are top 20 advantages of the Linux operating system:

1. pen Source

As it is open-source, its source code is easily available. Anyone having programming knowledge can customize the operating system. One can contribute, modify, distribute, and enhance the code for any purpose.

2. Security

The Linux security feature is the main reason that it is the most favorable option for developers. It is not completely safe, but it is less vulnerable than others. Each application needs to authorize by the admin user. The virus is not executed until the administrator provides the access password. Linux systems do not require any antivirus program.

3. Free

Certainly, the biggest advantage of the Linux system is that it is free to use. We can easily download it, and there is no need to buy the license for it. It is distributed under GNU GPL (General Public License). Comparatively, we have to pay a huge amount for the license of the other operating systems.

4. Lightweight

Linux is lightweight. The requirements for running Linux are much less than other operating systems. In Linux, the memory footprint and disk space are also lower. Generally, most of the Linux distributions required as little as 128MB of RAM around the same amount for disk space.

5. Stability

Linux is more stable than other operating systems. Linux does not require to reboot the system to maintain performance levels. It rarely hangs up or slow down. It has big up-times.

6. Performance

Linux system provides high performance over different networks. It is capable of handling a large number of users simultaneously.

7. Flexibility

Linux operating system is very flexible. It can be used for desktop applications, embedded systems, and server applications too. It also provides various restriction options for specific computers. We can install only necessary components for a system.

8. Software Updates

In Linux, the software updates are in user control. We can select the required updates. There a large number of system updates are available. These updates are much faster than other operating systems. So, the system updates can be installed easily without facing any issue.

9. Distributions/ Distros

There are many Linux distributions available in the market. It provides various options and flavors of Linux to the users. We can choose any distros according to our needs. Some popular distros are Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, and many more.

For the beginners, Ubuntu and Linux Mint would be useful and, Debian and Fedora would be good choices for proficient programmers.

10. Live CD/USB

Almost all Linux distributions have a Live CD/USB option. It allows us to try or run the Linux operating system without installing it.

11. Graphical User Interface

Linux is a command-line based OS but, it provides an interactive user interface like Windows

12. Suitable for programmers

It supports almost all of the most used programming languages such as C/C++, Java, Python, Ruby, and more. Further, it offers a vast range of useful applications for development.

The programmers prefer the Linux terminal over the Windows command line. The package manager on Linux system helps programmers to understand how things are done. Bash scripting

is also a functional feature for the programmers. It also provides support for SSH, which helps in managing the servers quickly.

13. Community Support

Linux provides large community support. We can find support from various sources. There are many forums available on the web to assist users. Further, developers from the various opensource communities are ready to help us.

14. Privacy

Linux always takes care of user privacy as it never takes much private data from the user. Comparatively, other operating systems ask for the user's private data.

15. Networking

Linux facilitates with powerful support for networking. The client-server systems can be easily set to a Linux system. It provides various command-line tools such as ssh, ip, mail, telnet, and more for connectivity with the other systems and servers. Tasks such as network backup are much faster than others.

16. Compatibility

Linux is compatible with a large number of file formats as it supports almost all file formats.

17. Installation

Linux installation process takes less time than other operating systems such as Windows. Further, its installation process is much easy as it requires less user input. It does not require much more system configuration even it can be easily installed on old machines having less configuration.

18. Multiple Desktop Support

Linux system provides multiple desktop environment support for its enhanced use. The desktop environment option can be selected during installation. We can select any desktop environment such as GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment) or KDE (K Desktop Environment) as both have their specific environment.

19. Multitasking

It is a multitasking operating system as it can run multiple tasks simultaneously without affecting the system speed.

20. Heavily Documented for beginners

There are many command-line options that provide documentation on commands, libraries, standards such as manual pages and info pages. Also, there are plenty of documents available on the internet in different formats, such as Linux tutorials, Linux documentation project, Serverfault, and more. To help the beginners, several communities are available such as Ask Ubuntu, Reddit, and StackOverflow.

Source: javatpoint.com

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What is the Difference Between GNU and Linux

The main difference between GNU and Linux is that GNU is an operating system designed as a replacement for UNIX with many software programs while Linux is an operating system with a combination of GNU software and Linux kernel.

An operating system works as the interface between the user and hardware. It is a major component that ensures the proper functioning of the entire computer system. UNIX is an operating system, but it was expensive. Therefore, the Free Software Foundation developed GNU operating system with a lot of free software. It allows users to copy, develop, change, and distribute software as required. Linux is the combination of GNU software and Linux kernel.

Key Terms

GNU, Linux, Linux Kernel, Unix

What is GNU

GNU is an acronym for GNU’s Not UNIX. It is a replacement for UNIX and does not contain any UNIX based code. Also, this operating system consists of a wide range of software. The founder of the GNU project is Richard Stallman. The project consists of the operating system kernel and GNU HURD, which is a multi-server microkernel written as part of GNU.

GNU operating systems, software programs and development tools (GNU Compiler Collection etc.) are distributed free under GNU General Public License (GPL). This provides users with the ability to copy, develop, distribute and modify the software. Therefore, all GNU software is freely available to the users without a commercial license.

What is Linux

Linux is a combination of GNU software and Linux kernel. Linux operating system was released under the GNU General Public License in the year 1992. There are various versions of Linux. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Debian, Ubuntu are some of them. Linux has common use in computers desktops, embedded systems, smartphones, etc. It has a large community around the globe.

There are many advantages in using Linux. Since it is a secure operating system, it is free from various malicious software. As multiple users can work simultaneously in it, it is a multi-user system. Furthermore, Linux supports multitasking. Therefore, it is possible to execute multiple processes at the same time. Overall, Linux is a powerful and stable operating system.

Difference Between GNU and Linux

Definition

GNU is an operating system with an extensive collection of computer software whereas Linux is a family of free and open source software that is built around the Linux Kernel. Thus, this is the main difference between GNU software and Linux.

Basis

Another difference between GNU software and Linux is that GNU is an operating system with a collection of software developed under the GNU project while Linux is an operating system based on GNU.

Source: pediaa.com

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History of Women in Computing: GNU Girls

The computer field—and especially free and open source software—has to work harder to be friendly to women and non-binary participants. We could do well to look at a little-known group called GNU Girls that helped to change the field between 2001 and 2008.

Women's actual participation in computing has varied a lot over time and varies between regions. One source of research finds that only 18% of computer professionals are currently women, while another is more optimistic at 30%. Informally, from reading documents, gazing around conferences, and (pre-pandemic) visiting offices, it seems that men unduly predominate.

But the free and open source communities do even worse in under-representation: women's participation has been estimated at less than 10%.

The start of GNUrias

In 1999 I started working as a consultant for Univates, a superior educational institution that had not yet become the university it is today. My mission was to form a development team who would build an academic administration system. This system would later become the main product of a free and open source software development and solutions integration co-operative, founded in 2003. All of the ICT people in the institution were men, and because we would need more people to join our team as we grew it, we understood we needed to be more inclusive. So besides hiring more women, we created incentives for them to reach out to our working group. Soon we welcomed more women into a very receptive Linux Users Group named GNUrias.

Left to right: Josi Petter, Viviane Berner, Joice Käfer-Marrero, Cesar Brod (GNURias Godfather) and Ana Paula Fiegenbaum,

circa 2003.

Participants the free and open source community know that GNU comes from the recursive acronym "GNU is Not Unix"—the free operating system envisioned by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation, long praised as a stand-in for the entire free and open source software trend.. If you are not from the south of Brazil, however, you probably don't know what GURIA is. Guri and Guria are the terms used in this region to refer to boys and girls. So, GNURias actually stands for the “GNU Girls.”

The GNURias Linux User Group was created in 2001 and soon became quite popular, especially due to the educational programs aimed toward children and senior citizens. 

Kids from nearby schools would come to the Univates's IT labs and learn how they could use computers and the internet as a way of learning better the things they were studying at their schools, guided by the GNURias. At the time, computers were not that common in these kids’s households, and for many their first contact with computers was with the Linux operating systems running Firefox, GCompris, Little Wizard, and other applications that would make sense for them. When the schools were able to get their own labs, the GNURias were invited to help install Linux in them. The few kids that had computers at home would say that the "Windows" they used at school was better than the one they had at home.

The region where Univates is located was settled by original German and Italian colonies in the nineteenth century. So in the classes for senior citizens, the GNURias told them how to use the internet and email to know more about the origin of their families, and this allowed them to reconnect with their people still living and Europe. This educational measure also fostered tourism in the region as people from Italy and Germany started visiting their relatives in the south of Brazil and vice versa. Some works of genealogy and books were published later thanks to this initiative, tracking the whole family trees of several families.

In the first World Social Forum in 2001, Timothy Ney, the CFO of the Free Software Foundation at the time, participated as a speaker and was hosted by our team at Univates. He was quite impressed by the things we were doing at the time and, in the following year, Richard Stallman, president of the FSF, came to Brazil for the same forum. At the time, the GNUrias were hosting an IT nursery for the children of the landless, homeless workers, and other movements, when their parents were attending meetings in the forums. The children would stay in tents filled with computers lent by the Debian community. There, the GNURias and other volunteers would guide the children in representing paper paintings and other works as computer art, mostly using Tux Paint. CDs were given to their parents along with contact info so they could get help installing Linux and related educational software.

The GNURias then started to give presentations and workshops all over the country, as well as several places around Latin America, and even participated in the Linux Conf Australia. From 2003 onword, a lot of their work ended up being covered in the Brazilian national press. There is still a lot of information available if you search for GNURIAS on Google.

The group disbanded in 2008, mostly because their original members graduated from the University and started to get jobs in several different organizations. Their work, however, has been taken over by several gender-specific groups both in Brazil and all over the world, such as Rails Girls, educaTRANSforma, Mulheres na TI (Woman in IT), KDE Women, and others.

Do you know a Free and Open Source related women's organization you would like to have showcased by the Linux Professional Institute? Let us know in the comments.

Source: lpi.org

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LPIC-3 Exam 306-300: LPIC-3 High Availability Systems and Storage

The LPIC-3 certification is the culmination of the multi-level professional certification program of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI). LPIC-3 is designed for the enterprise-level Linux professional and represents the highest level of professional, distribution-neutral Linux certification within the industry. Four separate LPIC-3 specialty certifications are available. Passing any one of the fourexams will grant the LPIC-3 certification for that specialty.

The LPIC-3 High Availability Systems and Storage certification covers the administration of Linux systems enterprise-wide with an emphasis on high availability systems and storage.

Current version: 3.0 (Exam code: 306-300)

Previous version: 2.0 (Exam code 304-200) Available until June 20th, 2022

Objectives: 306-300

Prerequisites: The candidate must have an active LPIC-2 certification to receive the LPIC-3 certification.

Requirements: Passing the 306 exam. The 90-minute exam is 60 multiple-choice and fill in the blank questions.

Validity period: 5 years

Cost: Click here for exam pricing in your country.

Languages for exam available in VUE test centers​: English (Japanese coming soon)

Languages for exam available online via OnVUE: English

Exam Objectives Version: Version 3.0

About Objective Weights: Each objective is assigned a weighting value. The weights indicate the relative importance of each objective on the exam. Objectives with higher weights will be covered in the exam with more questions.

Exam Objectives

1. High Availability Cluster Management

2. High Availability Cluster Storage

3. High Availability Distributed Storage

4. Single Node High Availability

Source: lpi.org

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LPIC-3 Exam 305-300: LPIC-3 Virtualization and Containerization

The LPIC-3 certification is the culmination of the multi-level professional certification program of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI). LPIC-3 is designed for the enterprise-level Linux professional and represents the highest level of professional, distribution-neutral Linux certification within the industry. Four separate LPIC-3 specialty certifications are available. Passing any one of the four exams will grant the LPIC-3 certification for that specialty.

The LPIC-3 Virtualization and Containerization certification covers the administration of Linux systems enterprise-wide with an emphasis on virtualization & containerization.

Current version: 3.0 (Exam code 305-300)

Previous version: 2.0 (Exam code 304-200) Available until June 20th, 2022

Objectives: 305-300

Prerequisites: The candidate must have an active LPIC-2 certification to receive the LPIC-3 certification.

Requirements: Passing the 305 exam. The 90-minute exam is 60 multiple-choice and fill in the blank questions.

Validity period: 5 years

Cost: Click here for exam pricing in your country.

Languages for exam available in VUE test centers​: English (Japanese coming soon)

About Objective Weights: Each objective is assigned a weighting value. The weights indicate the relative importance of each objective on the exam. Objectives with higher weights will be covered in the exam with more questions.

Exam Objectives Version: Version 3.0

Exam Objectives

1. Full Virtualization

2. Container Virtualization

3. VM Deployment and Provisioning

Source: lpi.org

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Simone “Simo” Bertull: LPI’s Certifications - What Is Your Path?

In this post I will do something different from the previous ones: I will be matching the LPI’s certifications panel with specific job descriptions and career paths.

LPI offers technical certifications for every level of training and on different subjects. Each certification aims at a specific objective and groups together topics that best prepare people with the skills they need to apply the technology at work.

The LPI certification program is a smooth, well-run framework. OK: I am slightly biased, here… 

But I do believe that, to exploit each of these certifications entirely, it is helpful to think about them, to approach them, in terms of professional paths, paths that are not necessarily linked to aiming for the highest step of specialization, but to consolidate your knowledge in a specific area of interest or application.

Your career’s colors

In other words: the certifications, as a whole, are a palette: it’s you who is going to choose the best colors for your painting, your career.

Hence, I would not say that there is only "the one" path that is necessarily the best, but that there are many, the best fit being the one with the specific skills required by the work market for one particular role.

Another good reason this approach can be helpful is that there is never just "the one" technology in the open-source world to which we have to refer, to deal with, to work on.

With a set of technologies and tasks in mind, having a path as defined or structured as possible allows you to create very well consolidated and, therefore, more “vertical” skill sets, focusing on the quality of training on them.

Begin from the beginning

Generally speaking, the starting point is the Linux Essentials https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/linux-essentials-overview certification and the first step of the professional path, the LPIC-1 certification https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/lpic-1-overview, to get the basics of system and network administration.

I also strongly recommend the BSD Specialist https://www.lpi.org/it/our-certifications/bsd-overview certification, as it is very similar to the LPIC-1 one in terms of competence and knowledge covered, but with a few important differences.

Differences because, after all, we are talking about diverse ecosystems from a technical point of view. In my opinion the LPIC-1 and the BSD Specialist certifications aren’t interchangeable (given the “verticality” of the different operating systems ). This is why they must be evaluated in a global view of their complementarity, within the broad Open Source universe.

I wanted to consider Linux Essentials as the starting point just to remind everybody how important small steps are at the beginning of a long journey ;-).

Below, we see the roadmap of certifications as proposed by LPI itself:

LPI roadmap - the future's hiring.

Following what we can see above, I will share with you my personal opinion about how an IT professional can “play”, with the roadmap, as from my own experiences at work and analyzing how certifications play their role in multiple environments.

Path #1: Linux Essentials + LPIC-1 + BSD Specialist

Position: Junior Sysadmin.

The Junior Sysadmin title can be associated with several job titles, such as "Unix Administrator", "Server Administrator", or "IT Administrator". Sometimes, with technical support or help desk too.

This first path aims to give solid knowledge to start working in the Linux / Open Source world, thus allowing certified people to be able to cover the following roles in various operating environments:

◉ Technical Support / Help Desk

◉ Unix Administrator

◉ Server Administrator

◉ IT Administrator

Path #1: Linux Essentials + LPIC-1 + BSD Specialist

Path #2: Linux Essentials + BSD Specialist + LPIC-1 + LPIC-2

Position: Advanced level help desk - Senior Sysadmin.

“Senior” level system administrator with more in-depth skills, such as being able also to be a network engineer of a Network Operation Center (NOC). This level also corresponds to an advanced level help desk qualification.

Compared to the #1path, the LPIC-2 step is added, to consolidate system knowledge previously acquired with other skills such as the management of e-mail servers, DNS, file sharing, insights on some security elements and much more; in the networking field, management of switches, routers and other network devices that use hardened versions of Linux or BSD as operating systems.

Path #2: Linux Essentials + BSD Specialist + LPIC-1 + LPIC-2

Path #3: Linux Essentials + BSD Specialist + LPIC-1 + LPIC-2 + LPIC-3 Mixed

Position: Sysadmin specialist.

A professional who has the skills to be able to work both as a systems engineer and as an advanced level network engineer; in short, this is the training path for the "definitive system engineer" :-)

The LPIC-3 Mixed Environment https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/lpic-3-300-overview, in this case, consolidates the high-end Linux systems skills taking into consideration the integration between a number of operating systems with all the relative features, such as LDAP configuration issues, SAMBA, Active management Directory, management of Windows clients and related file systems in mixed, complex and structured environments.

Path #3: Linux Essentials + BSD Specialist + LPIC-1 + LPIC-2 + LPIC-3 Mixed

Path #4: Linux Essentials + BSD Specialist + LPIC-1 + LPIC-2 + LPIC-3 Security

Position: Security specialist.

This is a very crucial role, in high demand because it is difficult to get security right, and security resources are generally limited.

The path inherent in IT security notoriously has to cover large macro-areas: I strongly recommend here both the specialist certifications, including LPIC-3 Mixed Environment https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/lpic-3-300-overview as it deals with the interaction with other operating systems.

LPIC-3 Security https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/lpic-3-303-overview, of course, will cover all the aspects of the complex IT security world, leaving the certified professional with a good understanding of the right modus operandi.

Path #4: Linux Essentials + BSD Specialist + LPIC-1 + LPIC-2 + LPIC-3 Security

Path #5: Linux Essentials + BSD Specialist + LPIC-1 + LPIC-2 + LPIC-3 Virtualization + DevOps

Position: Cloud specialist.

This position is required as an internal resource in many companies, and to manage third-party cloud providers as well. In such working environments, skills in DevOps and CI / CD are in play too.

The demand for experienced and suitably trained personnel on cloud technologies is always very high, given the great benefits that this method of providing services brings with itself.

In this case, the LPIC-3 Virtualization and Containerization certification https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/lpic-3-305-overview is a "must-have" to begin to understand this world which is as complex as it is fascinating; the DevOps Tools Engineer https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/devops-overview certification covers very useful and interesting topics such as the various Cloud techniques, Machine Deployment & Orchestration, the phases of Service Operations, Container Deployment and much more.

Path #5: Linux Essentials + BSD Specialist + LPIC-1 + LPIC-2 + LPIC-3 Virtualization + DevOps

Path #5 plus: how to go even further

In this case, however, we can open up two even more specialized routes, since as we now know, the 304 virtualization and high-reliability exam has been split into two exams:

◉ LPIC-3 Virtualization and Containerization 3.0 (exam 305) https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/lpic-3-305-overview 

◉ LPIC-3 High Availability Systems and Storage 3.0 (exam 306) https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/lpic-3-306-overview 

Exam 305 covers the whole area of virtual machines, containers, and the relative orchestration tools, with all the existing technologies being addressed.

Exam 306, on the other hand, deals with the topics of high reliability, management of clusters, and resources distributed over several computing nodes, passing through topics such as storage and file systems in distributed environments.

It totally makes sense to have two separate exams, as just one exam cannot cover in a detailed and exhaustive manner all the technical matters related to virtualization and high reliability.

To become a specialist of the field you have to segment and investigate clusters of closely related topics. I have taken the 304 exam in 2019, I can say in no uncertain terms how much the certified skills and knowledge match the actual work in the field.

An example? The virtualization and high reliability topics are intended for an audience of systems engineers, but it is related to containers too, and everything about this cluster of topics is of interest for the DevOps universe, building a sort of virtual bridge between certifications.

This ultimate path, as, of course, the previous ones for different positions and careers, stresses exactly what I try to achieve for my professional development: grasping the possibility of “verticalization” of skills and competence, enriching your curriculum with an extra qualification. Something that people looking for continuous improvement definitely love :)

Read More: Simone “Simo” Bertulli: Lpic-3 Security - How to Approach the Certification

Source: lpi.org

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