On Mon, 8 Aug 2005, Dru wrote:
As an example, let's pretend for a moment that an exam targetted at
experienced admins requires 4 modules where the candidate chooses the modules
he wishes to "specialize" in. Let's pretend his choices are:
- configuring mail server to certain specs (e.g. SASL, TLS, IMAP, content
filtering) on BSD of choice using MTA of choice
- configuring web server to certain specs (e.g. SSL, Webdav) on BSD of
choice using tools of choice
- troubleshoot a network problem using tools of choice
- scan a network for vulnerabilities
- configure the firewall of choice according to scenario's requirements
- create x # of scripts to do specified tasks using language of choice
- install BSD of choice according to requirements of a scenario
- recommend a solution according to requirements of a scenario (written
module)
- contribute x to one of the BSD projects (e.g. 3 months of port cleaning,
x of of docs, provide mentorship)
In this pretend module environment, there could be a mix of handson, written,
and experience required. A person could prove proficiency in the parts of
sysadmin they are most interested in using in the real world or wish to prove
to prospective employers.
The problem I imagine is the BSD certification becomes too fine-tuned. An
employer may hire two admins with our certifications that can't easily do
each others' work. Maybe in the long run it may make our certifications
lose credibility because they don't target a wide range of skills.
This is an interesting concept though. What if I earned four or more
different modules -- what would my certification be called?
Reading your comment again, I see that this idea of "specialize"d
certification is an add-on to a regular BSD Certification (such as "BSD
Certification Group Certified Junior FreeBSD System Admin"). This extra
levels to prove competency does sound good. -- hopefully we will have the
resources to consider this.
On a related note, LPI is moving from separate exam forms for RPM and dpkg
package management to merge to a single exam. Before they had a choice,
but now "community consensus" decided that certification candidates must
know RPM and dpkg.
As for programming ... in every BSD admin class I teach [1], I ask the
students if they are programmers. I probably have less than 20 percent
that are programmers -- and in most cases they are Visual Basic
programmers. These students are experienced admins in either Unix or
Windows and they consider themselves to be FreeBSD admins also.
I do mention Unix programming functions like the getpwnam(3) and
gethostbyname(3) just so I can better explain concepts like /etc/pwd.db,
nwswitch, and DNS resolvers. But I don't teach actual programming skills
for the admin classes (except for some unrelated shell programming).
Jeremy C. Reed
[1] such as http://www.pugetsoundtechnology.com/training/freebsd/
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