8/11/2010 -- Another elective exam has been added to the LPIC-3 certification from LPI (Linux Professional Institute). The Virtualization and High Availability exam (LPI-304) joins the Mixed Environments (LPI-302) and Security (LPI-303) exam as options that can be combined with the core exam (LPI-301) to gain the LPIC-3 certification.

Available through both Prometric and VUE testing sites, the Virtualization and High Availability exam focuses on the following objectives and weighting (each weight is equivalent to slightly less than 2 percent):

More information on the exam, and a complete list of the files, terms and utilities covered beneath each objective, can be found here.

Diatribe #1207
It seems as if the e-mails I receive goes in cycles: One question will become extremely popular for a while, and then fade out to be replaced by another. Currently, there are a large number of entries asking something similar to this: After receiving XYZ certification, I've discovered that it isn't as popular with employers as I thought it would be -- how do I convince the employers that it is more meaningful?

The answer, as tough as it may sound, is that the problem probably lays more with the person holding the certification than the employer(s). While a certification is a wonderful resume builder, it can't compete with experience. In most cases, becoming XYZ certified means that on that particular day you did well enough at answering enough of the multiple-choice questions selected from the pool on that day to be able to reach the minimum passing level. Would you do equally well on a different day with a different set of questions? Even if the answer is yes, what does a passing scale of 67 percent say about your knowledge -- other than one-third of the time you couldn't pick the right multiple choice answer when it was one of four possibilities given to you?

As mean as it may sound, it is imperative that certifications be kept in perspective. They are indeed a valuable tool in the IT world, but they can't replace experience and to think otherwise is foolhardy. Add that XYZ certification to your resume alongside the bullet points talking about your experience supporting it in a production environment and you've got a combination worth arguing with the employer over.

Certification Book of the Week: CISSP Practice Exams
One of the best ways to study for a multiple choice exam is to practice answering as many questions as you can that are similar in nature to the actual questions. You want questions that mimic those on the real exam in every way, shape and form -- similar tone, similar length, similar choices and so on. Excelling in that for the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) exam is CISSP Practice Exams by Shon Harris.

This book contains 250 questions, evenly distributed between ten chapters; each chapter contains the questions, an answer key and then elaborate explanations for each of the answers. The chapters correspond to the exam's domains:

• Information Security and Risk Management
• Access Control
• Security Architecture and Design
• Physical and Environmental Security
• Telecommunications and Networking Security
• Cryptography
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
• Legal Regulations, Compliance, and Investigations
• Application Security
• Operations Security

With an exam notorious for being tough and a cost of almost $600, this book will be the best $39.99 investment you can make in your study program.

Tech Book of the Week: Hacking Exposed Wireless, 2E
One of the best security series currently in print is the Hacking Exposed series from McGraw-Hill. The entry for Wireless (Wireless Security Secrets & Solutions) has been updated by Johnny Cache, Joshua Wright and Vincent Liu. The twelve chapters are divided into three parts:

• Hacking 802.11 Wireless Technology
• Hacking 802.11 Clients
• Hacking Additional Wireless Technologies – this part intrigued me the most of the three with information on Bluetooth, ZigBee and DECT.

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I also found the appendix (Scoping and Information Gathering) to be worthwhile and capable of standing on its own. It starts with scoping, then discusses things to bring to a wireless assessment, conducting scoping interview and finally how to gather information via satellite imagery.