Brief Overview of Industry Unix Certifications

• Red Hat Certification. Red Hat has the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) courses. RHCE Overview. It includes three "skills" courses
• RH033: Intro to Red Hat Linux,
• RH133: Red Hat Linux System Administration,
• RH253: Red Hat Linux Network and Security Administration,
that lead up to the Red Hat Certified Engineer course ( RH300). The three skills courses roughly correspond to our core courses for the Unix/Linux Administration certificate: CS 160A/B, CS260, and CNIT 270.
• SUN's Solaris Certifications. Sun has several certifications at their education center, including Solaris certification as a two levels of Solaris System Administrator and one level of Network Administrator. Here are the Exam Objectives for each:
• Sun Certified System Admistrator, Part I
• Sun Certified System Admistrator, Part II
• Sun Certified Network Admistrator
Again, these certifications correspond closely to the concepts and skills taught in our CIS 167, CIS 169, and CIS 132T, although we have not yet officially incorporated the new, mostly GUI-related, features, and don't cover Solaris-specific versions of commands.
• SAGE. SAGE's certification is undergoing systematic development. It is in-progress with a release scheduled for the end of 2001. The website contains very good documentation of their process. See the SAGE Certification Page for details.  They also have a Job Center and do yearly Salary Surveys. Since SAGE is closely associated with USENIX, it may eventually become the most respected neutral (both vendor and unix flavor) certification provider.
• Linux Professional Institute. This is a non-profit with three "levels" of certification for Linux. Very interesting list of objectives. Summary of LPI Certification Levels.
• SAIR Linux & GNU Certification. This is a for-profit Linux certification company, and has the most detailed specification for certification I have seen. Developed for and by the Open Source community, it too has three levels of certification: Certified Administrator (LCA), Certified Engineer (LCE), Master Certified Engineer (MLCE). It involves a complex, layered approach to certification. They have developed  Structure and Roadmap documents. Only the first of the three levels has been fully developed. It is designed for what a Power User or System Administrator should know. There are four exams at Level I.  At their website  http://linuxcertification.com you can view the list of Exam Objectives, or alternatively view them in a complex table as the Level I Knowledge Matrix.

 

Last Updated: April, 2002