[lug] LPI 2

[Nate Duehr]

Well, I took a shot at the LPI 2 (201 and 202) this morning without
really studying much, (at all?) and passed the 201, missed the 202 by a
couple of questions.

I was surprised to see (or just got unlucky in the question draw) so
many questions about Samba.  Do people REALLY integrate Linux servers
into Windows Domains that often as servers?  Yuck.  NFS I get, but
Samba?  (I can't decide which Internet/pop culture meme to use to
describe this one... "I think I threw up my mouth a little bit." ... or
... "I'ma let you finish, LPI... but Windows Domains and Linux really
shouldn't mix.")

Postfix was also a sticking point... I'm an exim guy. LOL! That wasn't
too bad, but I'm sure I missed one of those.  Ahh, the joys of NOT being
a mail admin anymore and not caring. :-)

And... Squid...? Really? Anyone actually run Squid in a production/work
environment for anything other than saving bandwidth on a small pipe at
a small office location?  Squid doesn't make anyone money in the real
world of Linux admin.  Bandwidth is cheap.  About all I've ever seen it
used for is to annoy users to block "inappropriate" websites (instead of
just firing the moron, easily fixed via policy vs. technology)...

Oh well... Not "sour grapes", just found some of the questions to be
really silly.  

Missing stuff: 

I guess there's only so much one can put in a Linux test, but not a
single question on NTP?  

Nothing on how to set up serial consoles (seriously?!)?

Only one question on SSH and none at all on ssh-agent?!  (And the SSH
question was ridiculously easy, hinting that you you were "a security
conscientious system administrator" if you turned off root logins. LOL! 
Duh. Who the hell uses password-based authentication anymore on a real
server anyway? Ha.  And then they asked how to turn X11 forwarding on.)

Not sure this thing is very centered on what real Linux admins do every
day, but ya know... it is what it is.

At least it wasn't RHCE where RedHat would get a shot at indoctrinating
me into their wacky stuff that only they do!  Haha... maybe I'll take
those next year.

In all it was a "fun" way to spend the day before Thanksgiving, I guess?
 ;-)  I'll go memorize a bit more trivial crap about the applications
they seem to favor (like complete commands with switch options) and fire
another shot across the LPI 202's bow here in a few weeks, or whenever
you're allowed to sit for it again.

(My employer pays if you pass.  And my boss wanted another "new
certification" checked off on some training checkbox somewhere that has
little to do with my real job at the moment.  This means I just blew
$160 to fail that puppy.  Oops!  Won't do that again!  Anyone know a
really hard-core H.323 analysis class/certification test?  That'd be far
more useful to me, and I'm talking packet-level analysis here... not
memorization of the protocol stack, which I've already done for the
Polycom Certified Video Engineer II certification.  Perhaps an advanced
level video/Cisco thing, if they kept the Cisco'isms out of it? 
GRIN...)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone... 

--
  Nate Duehr
  nate at natetech.com