Exam 050-693: Novell Certified Linux Engineer 9 Practicum Vendor Novell Status Live. Available at select Novell testing centers worldwide. Reviewer's Rating Moderately difficult Test Information Approx. 150 minutes. A number of tasks must be fully and successfully completed. Cost: not set Who Should Take This Exam? Any NetWare administrator wanting to become Linux certified at the engineer level. Test Objectives Click here

Starting a program with a high-end certification isn’t unheard of (Red Hat did the same), and Novell took their time and created another certification CLP (which I reviewed previously) before coming back and revisiting this one. When they did come back, they turned CLE into CLE 9, indicating the move to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 (SLES 9) as the base and refocused the test on the operating system instead of the Novell product suite. The old exam was retired and those already certified are expected to update their certifications.

That’s all well and good, and makes perfect sense. What has me puzzled, however, is that to date there are only 41 testing centers available in the whole United States. Yes, the exam is practicum-based (a set of lab exercises instead of multiple choice), but the whole thing is run as an emulator and should easily be available through all Prometric/VUE testing sites. This is an issue that Novell was going to address with the first version of the exam a year ago, but the situation has not improved.

Despite all that, the exam/certification is a worthy one. Like the Professional exam, it’s a single performance-based test where you’re given a task to do and can use any method you know in order to successfully complete the task. In addition to the knowledge required of the prerequisite CLP certification exam, you should study the material covered by the two courses (though these courses are not required): 3058, SUSE Linux Network Services: SUSE Linux Enterprise 9 and 3057, SUSE Linux Security. Though you’re expected to be able to do every activity that those two courses address, you won’t know which ones you’ll get in the subset presented to you on the exam. Furthermore, each task is an all-or-nothing proposition: You have to get the whole thing right; there’s no partial credit for getting one or two steps right.

Exam Tip: The following is my top 10 list of things to know before registering for the exam:

1. How to configure services like DNS, DHCP and e-mail.
2. How to implement good security (host, network, firewalls, etc.).
3. How to know when security has been violated by being able to detect intruders and figuring out what was affected.
4. How to use all the modules within YaST.
5. How to work with printers.
6. How to configure and use Samba.
7. How to install SLES 9.
8. How to work with VPNs.
9. How to monitor the network.
10. How to configure SQUID.

As with my previous discussion of the CLP, the following are two sample labs excerpted from the “Novell Linux Certification Practicum Lab Manual” (ISBN: 0-672-32840-2). Instead of just saying, “I know how to do that,” run through the steps of actually doing each on a spare/lab machine. At the end of the article are solutions should you get stuck (only one solution is offered, but there’s always more than one way in Linux to complete the task).

Exercise 1: Alabama Cement
You are an administrator for a company that owns a number of independent concerns. One of those entities, Alabama Cement, has purchased an SLES 9 server and you been assigned to go to the site and install the operating system.

Someone will be following after you to install the proprietary software the site needs in order to do their specialized tasks. Your assignment is merely to perform a normal installation of the operating system.

Exam Tip: Practice installing SLES 9 over and over again until you know every single step and dialog box that appears.

Exercise 2: North Carolina Swimmers
NCS has summoned you to their headquarters. They have been using the KDE interface on their SLES server since it was installed. A new administrator has been hired to replace the old one, however, and he is only familiar with GNOME.

You are to install the GNOME desktop on the server and make it available for the administrator when he logs in to the server.

Closing Thoughts
If you have experience with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and can easily complete the two exercises given in this article, you should have no difficulty passing this exam. This is the highest-level certification that Novell offers and requires a mastery of the operating system in order to pass.

Exercise Solutions

Exercise 1: Alabama Cement
To begin an installation of SLES 9, insert the first CD into the computer and reboot the system. On most computers, the system will boot from the CD and you are ready to begin the installation. If this does not happen, you may need to reconfigure the BIOS and change the boot drive order to check for media in the CD/DVD drive first.

The first menu to appear offers a number of choices:

• Boot the Hard Disk - This stops the installation and boots the operating system already on the hard disk. Because this is the safest choice, it is the default.
• Installation - This is the option to select to begin the normal installation.
• Installation-ACPI Disabled - Choose this option if you need the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface to not interfere with the installation process.
• Installation-Safe Settings - Choose this option if DMA mode is needed to get around normal installation. Use this choice if the installation keeps failing with one of the other selections.
• Rescue System - This allows you to boot the system from the CD in the event that the hard drive boot files are damaged.
• Memory Test - This checks RAM only.

At the bottom of the screen, a number of function keys are identified:

• F1 - Help
• F2 - Toggle through screen display settings
• F3 - Toggle through installation location choices
• F4 - Toggle through languages
• F5 - Choose a debugging output level
• F6 - Include a driver update CD in the installation

To perform a normal installation, choose Installation from the menu, and press Enter. You must then walk through the interfaces presented in YaST2, the installation and system administration program. Although there can be deviations, based on your exact configuration, the following are the major screens -- in order -- that you must walk through:

1. Choose a language - You can click Accept to move on or Abort to cancel the installation.
2. Choose the installation mode - You can choose to perform a new installation (the default), update an existing system, repair an installed system, boot an installed system, or abort. For a normal installation, choose New Installation.
3. At this point, the system will probe for devices and show you a list of what it has identified. It will identify the system, keyboard, mouse, and so on as well as show you the recommended installation settings based on the chosen mode. Recommendations and settings fall within these categories:

• System
• Mode
• Keyboard layout
• Mouse
• Partitioning
• Software
• Booting
• Time Zone
• Language
• Default Runlevel

4. Three command buttons are available: Change - to alter any of the settings, Abort - to cancel, and Accept - to continue on. Choose Accept, then click Continue and a warning message appears stating that YaST2 has obtained all the information required to install SUSE Linux. The installation will be carried out according to the settings made in the previous dialogs. To commit the installation and choices made, click the "Yes, install" button, not "No".
5. The hard disk is then prepared/partitioned. This will take a few minutes and you may need to make other changes manually later if you are implementing RAID or LVM devices. At a minimum, two partitions are created: root and swap.
6. Packages are installed next, and you will need to insert various CDs as prompted. Your goal is usually to complete the installation as quickly as possible, so you can always go back and add any packages at a later point in time.
7. You are prompted to give a password for the root user (and enter it twice for verification). The password can consist of digits, spaces, letters, and the standard punctuation characters. It is recommended that it contain at least five characters and - at a minimum - the case is mixed between upper and lower. If you enter more than eight characters, you will be prompted to truncate or change it.
8. Network configuration occurs next and a scan is automatically done to detect network cards, DSL connections, ISDN adapters, and modems. A summary screen shows you the values found as well as the current settings for Proxy (default is disabled) and VNC Remote Administration (default is disabled). You can change any of these values, go back, abort, or put the network settings shown to you into effect by clicking Next.
9. After the network configuration is written/saved, the Internet connection is tested. This operation is purely optional and you can choose to skip the test if you like. A successful test, however, gives you the option to run the YaST Online Update (YOU) and check for the latest release notes and updates. If updates are available, you can choose to download and install them, or skip the update (which can be done at any later time from within YaST2).
10. Service configuration comes next, allowing you to configure such items as Certificate Management and OpenLDAP Server.
11. The user authentication method must be chosen. Three choices are available:

• NIS - To use if you are using an NIS server
• LDAP - To use if you are using an LDAP server for user data
• Local (/etc/passwd) - The choice to pick if you are storing passwords in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow

12. You can add new local users at this point. The same password rules for creating the root user apply to creating passwords for the local users as well.
13. SUSEconfig now starts and writes the system configuration. The amount of time this takes will vary greatly from system to system based on the parameters that you've entered.
14. Release notes are displayed covering the following areas:

• General - Information that everybody should read
• Update - Covers changes not appearing in the Admin Guide
• Installation - More information about the installation
• Updates and Features - Covers technical changes and enhancements
• Providing Feedback - Tells how to contact SUSE, and so on.

15. Hardware configuration of the graphics card, printers, and sound cards follows, and then the installation is complete. You must click the command button labeled Finish and then you can log in to the system.

Upon successful completion of these steps, a login screen will appear prompting for a username and password. After you give those entries, a Welcome menu thanks you for installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and provides a list of URLs relating to this and other Novell products.

If there are problems with the installation, you should trace down the first occurrence where trouble appeared and look for a solution to it before continuing on. The best tool to use for any problem within this category is commonsense.

For example, if the system will not read the media, verify that the CD set you have is good by checking to see if another system can read it. If the installation hangs, verify that your system meets the minimum system requirements and that power saving features are not affecting your ability to do the installation.

Remember that the first menu to appear offers a plethora of choices besides Installation. Choosing one of the other choices can help you continue on with the installation and repair any system files.

Exercise 2: North Carolina Swimmers
To install GNOME and make it available for the administrator when he logs in to the server, follow these steps:

1. Start YaST as the root user.
2. Choose Software and then Install and Remove Software.
3. Type “gnome” in the Search field and click Search.
4. Check the gnome2-SUSE, gnome-applets, gnome-common, gnome-desktop, gnome-libs, gnome-panel, gnome-print, gnome-session, gnome-terminal, and gnome-utils packages and click Accept. Click Continue to accept any automatic changes and insert any SLES 9 CDs needed if prompted.
5. Logout and end the session for root. At the login prompt, the root user can now click Menu, followed by Session Type and GNOME. This will bring up that desktop (and make it default for subsequent logins).

More articles by Emmett Dulaney:

• Security+, Now with Performance-Based Questions
  
• CompTIA Continuing-Ed Deadline Nears
  
• Year-End Study Guide Roundup
  
• Microsoft To Retire Plethora of Exams in July