RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide (Exam RH302)

Michael Jang has consistently produced high quality books and this is one of his best. The book is strongly slanted toward passing the exam, which is okay since that is exactly what it purports to be. Throughout the book there are short comments marked off from the rest of the test which points to tips for real world items (called "on the job") and tips for the exam (called "exam watch"). Each chapter ends with a short summary, a "two-minute drill", self-test questions, and lab questions. The "two-minute drill" is great for exam preparation the day of the exam since it is pretty much the type of thing that you would put on note cards for a quick review anyway.

This is real-life advice and is full or tips and troubleshooting problems. In the installation section it covers disk partitioning, swap space, bios limits, multiple controllers, and RAID. Some good solid advice and information about things like problems with a computer with both a SCSI drive controller and IDE drive controller in the same system. The installation troubleshooting section includes boot loaders, RAID, logical volumes, kickstart automated installation and pretty much everything you might run across. It even includes how to boot up into single user mode, a very important ability for some administrative tasks and gaining root level access (full access to everything) to the system. For some reason, although this is used in real-life for a lot of reasons, it seems to be left out of most books. They will tell you to switch to single user mode to fix a problem or gain root access, but don't tell you how to do it. This book tells you everything you need to know. It includes not only the graphical and utility methods to do things but also includes the information for how it changes the configuration. The information is so detailed that you can hand add the lines and/or configuration files and do it all by hand if you would prefer. This way you understand exactly what each item does and it is much easier to troubleshoot problems.

The authors have included everything you need to know to install, troubleshoot, and administer a real-world server - shell configuration, kernel information, automation, X Windows installation and configuration, GNOME and KDE desktops, Apache server including security and virtual hosts, Squid proxy server configuration, secure FTP server, mail services including SMTP, sendmail, postfix, POP, and IMAP, Samba installation and configuration, printing services, DNS, BIND, DHCP, LDAP client configuration, firewall policies, network address translation, and the Linux rescue environment are examples of the breadth of coverage.

It even includes how to work with the automounter, another item that is left out of most other books. The only error I found was on page 11, Table 1-2, where it has "First IDE drive = /dev/had" when it should be "/dev/hda". For that to be the only problem I found in a book of this size shows the care with which it was edited.

This is simply the best book I have seen if you want to become a general Linux "guru". Not only does it have everything you need to pass the exam, it has everything you need to install and administer a Linux network. There are better books available on specific areas of Linux, for example a single chapter on Apache obviously cannot compete with a 600 page book on Apache server. Then again, this the best book around if you want an understanding of Linux that is general enough to provide a complete overview of how Linux works in the real world and is also detailed enough to provide everything you need to get everything you want up and running. "Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide, 4th Edition" gets the highest recommendation I can give.


Great book for review...   October 3, 2005
Alex Kah (Louisville, KY United States)
30 out of 32 found this review helpful

This is a great book to get you started or to finish review for this exam however I think more experience than just reading this book is needed to pass the exam. I have been using Linux since 2000 and have been wanting to get this certification for some time. Rcently I was working with a company that provided a training budget and sent me to a RHCE boot camp so before I went to the class I purchased this book. I read the book, took the class, and easily passed the exam on the last day of class.

If you have enough Linux experience to resolve most OS server issues then purchasing this book for review and other items you may not do on a regular basis should enable you to pass the exam. There are more than likely items on the exam such as LVCM, NIS, and quotas that a lot of people do not use on a regular basis so this book provides good information in regards to those types of subjects.

The great thing about the exam is that a lot of it is hands on so your not required to resolve problems in a certain manner but only required to come to the correct solution.

I think the RHCE is a valuable certification to obtain for sys admins even though it has not necesarrily benefited me monetarily it has definitely expanded my knowledge base. I do know others who have gained this certification and either recieved raises at their current jobs or moved to different jobs that paid higher wages because of them having the RHCE certification.


Very well done, comprehensive prep book.   August 1, 2007
James Rankin
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

I read Edition 5 of this book right before taking the RH300 prep course, and it helped a great deal. The book alone may or may not be enough to pass the exam, unless you already fully understand things like SELinux.
Jang provides many useful lab exercises in the book, so you should download VMware Server and CentOS 5!! Going through these labs is what makes the book a good learning tool.
But in conjunction with the RH300 class, this book is outstanding. Highly recommended.


Decent Review could use a little more depth   August 25, 2004
Fishman (Seattle)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I bought this book based mainly on the reviews on Amazon. For the most part I'm not dissapointed in my purchase. I would like MJ to edit the next edition by taking out a things like the unnecessary repetitive exam tips that keep stressing how command line tools are much faster than GUI tools.. The Prerequisite section Chapter one states that one must be an accomplished Linux Administrator to take the RHCE. As such you are well aware of this fact and don't need to be told over and over.

I wish MJ would have written this more for the accomplished Linux Administrator and not for somebody jumping from MS technology.. you will be hard pressed to pass if you aren't very UNIX and RedHat savvy. Add more complex labs with better answer details.

He has laid a good foundation here and I'm hoping to pass this test soon by self study and lots of practice (and several years of on the job redhat). Hopefully the next edition will be more focused and geared towards Linux Administrators.


Simply a great RHCE Exam prep book   October 1, 2004
J. Romero (South Carolina)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

I am an RHCE now because of this book. I read it from cover to cover and had a friend create the test conditions outlined in the practice tests that come with the book. These things readied me for the class (RH300) that I took. I believe that some of you could read this book, do the labs and practice tests and pass the RHCE exam without the RH300 class; I wanted to take it.

Jang outlines the material well and does a great job of teaching the more difficult points. The book directs you on where to obtain a copy of RHEL 3 (modified) or how to use RedHat Linux 9 as a substitute if you can't afford a real copy of RHEL 3.

There are a few minor errors but nothing that detracts from the subject matter.

Pay close attention to the troubleshooting chapter and practice, practice, practice. Do every lab, answer every question and try to make what you're learning work in other scenarios.

I give it a 4 because 5 would infer that you could study this book and pass the RHCE all in one shot; and since I took the test I can safely say the one thing this book, or any other, can't do is properly simulate the test environment. You would have to know this stuff cold so you could deal with the exam environment and the inevitable pressure that comes with it... nothing can prepare you for that except the exam itself. So, for prep I give it a 4. For content and teaching I give it a 5.