A little more about the Certified Linux Administrator certification

In reading Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols’ recent article based on my last posting, it occurred to me that I had left one fairly important thing out regarding the Certified Linux Administrator: The Novell CLA is a stepping-stone to the Novell Certified Linux Professional 10 (CLP10) certification.

The Novell CLA is based on the content from two of the courses in the CLP10 track; courses 3071 and 3072 (SLES 10 Fundamentals and SLES 10 Administration); the third course (course 3073, SLES 10 Advanced Administration) is not part of the CLA certification. Think of the CLA as a “checkpoint” on your way to the CLP10. The CLP10 exam (as well as the more advanced Certified Linux Engineer 10) is a practical examination, and as such, it focuses on proving your skills.

Many candidates have a degree of apprehension when being asked to prove that they can do something; being able to do is dependent on knowledge, so if a candidate is uncertain about their knowledge, there is an increased fear of failing at the practical examination. The creation of the CLA was done in part to help remove some of that fear. As I said in my previous post, Linux isn’t hard, just different. I would add to that statement that because it’s different, candidates need to have some comfort in their knowledge. A knowledge-based examination and certification gives candidates increased confidence when going in to take the CLP10 practical examination.

My thanks to Mr. Vaughan-Nichols for the article and the chance to clarify my thinking on this certification.

Lost Art: Root Cause Analysis

One of the things I see as a lost art is identifying the root cause of a problem in an IT infrastructure. In fact, this is becoming a lost art in more than just IT – the medical field (in my limited experience) also suffers from this.

A few years back, I decided I needed to do something about what appeared to me to be an allergy problem. So, we went to our local medical center, and the answer I was given by the doctor was “here, try these pills, if they don’t work, try these pills, and if they don’t work, try these pills and this nasal spray together. Good luck!” I didn’t even get a referral to someone more qualified to perform a root cause analysis to determine why I felt so miserable.

An Interesting Observation

Last October, when I was preparing to drive back to Minneapolis for my younger brother’s wedding, Dan Veitkus (VP of Training Services at Novell) asked me if I had anything to listen to in the car on the drive. While I had a fair selection of music on my iPod for the trip, I said I always liked having something new to listen to. He suggested I have a listen to the book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, and loaned me the audiobook version he had purchased to listen to himself.