Course Overview
The Red Hat Certified Specialist in High Availability Clustering exam (EX436) is a performance-based test used to assess the skills and knowledge needed to implement high-availability services on Red Hat Enterprise Linux using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability Add-on.
By passing this exam, you become a Red Hat Certified Specialist and can apply your credential toward earning a certification as a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA®).
Objectives listed for this exam are based on the most recent Red Hat product version available.
Note on the exam:
The subscription duration of 365 days starts upon order submission. Cancelation of individual exam sessions is not allowed Exam session fees are nonrefundable. Non-Cancelable components: No part of any Bundles that includes both non-cancelable and cancelable components may be canceled.
Who should attend
- Experienced Linux® system administrators responsible for the planning, deployment, and management of multiple physical or virtualized servers.
- Linux system administrators who want to demonstrate competency in configuring and managing highly available failover clusters.
- A Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) interested in earning a Red Hat Certified Specialist or an RHCA credential.
Prerequisites
Exam candidates must:
- Red Hat recommends that candidates become a Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) or a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) before attempting this exam but neither is required.
- Have Red Hat High Availability Clustering (RH436) or equivalent experience.
- Understand that real-world system administration experience is also an important aspect of preparation for the exam.
- Review exam objectives for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in High Availability Clustering exam.
Preparation
Red Hat encourages all candidates for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in High Availability Clustering exam (EX436) to consider taking the Red Hat High Availability Clustering (RH436) training course. Attendance in this class is not required, so one can choose to take just the exam. Many successful candidates who have come to class already possessing substantial skills and knowledge have reported that the class made a positive difference for them.
While attending Red Hat courses can be an important part of one's preparation to take exams, attending courses does not guarantee success on the exam. Previous experience, practice, and native aptitude are also important determinants of success.
Many books and other resources on system administration for Red Hat's products are available. Red Hat does not officially endorse any as preparation guides for its exam. Nevertheless, you may find additional reading deepens understanding and can prove helpful.
Course Objectives
You should be able to perform the following tasks:
Configure a high-availability cluster, using either physical or virtual systems, that:
- Provides a service fail-over between the nodes
- Provides a preferred node for the service
- Selectively fails over based on node characteristics
Manage logical volumes in a clustered environment such as:
- Create volumes and volume groups that are available to all members of a highly-available cluster
- Create snapshots of logical volumes
Configure a GFS file system to:
- Meet specified size, layout, and performance objectives
- Support file system quotas
Configure iSCSI targets and initiators
Manage device configuration using udev
Create and manage Red Hat Storage based clusters including:
- Creating distributed clusters
- Creating replicated clusters
- Implementing and utilizing appropriate file systems
Course Content
To help you prepare, review the exam objectives which highlights the task areas you can expect to see covered in the exam. Red Hat reserves the right to add, modify, and remove exam objectives. Such changes will be made public in advance.
Candidates should be able to perform the tasks listed below:
Configure a high-availability cluster
- Install high availability clustering
- Install and configure a high availability cluster either manually or using Ansible
- Configure cluster quorum options
Configure cluster fencing
- Configure standard fence mechanisms such as fence_ipmilan
- Test fencing configurations using standard tools
- Configure fencing so that any cluster member can fence any other cluster member
Configure cluster logging and monitoring
- Configure cluster logging so that each node system activity is logged to a separate file
- Configure cluster logging so that logging messages will be forwarded to journald
Configure cluster monitoring
- Create and configure a cluster monitoring resource
- Log cluster events and send notification emails to a specific address
- Configure cluster alerts
Configure a clustered fail-over service
- Create and configure a cluster highly available service
- Configure a specific resource group
- Configure services to use shared storage
- Configure services to use a specific IP
Configure cluster service behavior
- Restrict where services run
- Configure service failover behavior
Configure storage
- Configure an iSCSI initiator
- Create and configure shared storage using provided iSCSI volumes
- Configure multipath access to shared storage
- Configure shared LVM devices
- Configure highly available LVM devices
Configure GFS2 filesystems
- Create GFS2 filesystems on logical volumes
- Configure GFS filesystems to be shared between multiple nodes simultaneously
- Manage GFS2 filesystems
- Add journals to existing GFS2 filesystems
Grow a GFS2 filesystem
As with all Red Hat performance-based exams, configurations must persist after reboot without intervention.
Exam format
This exam is a performance-based evaluation of system administration skills and knowledge. Candidates perform a number of routine system administration tasks and are evaluated on whether they have met specific objective criteria. Performance-based testing means that candidates must perform tasks similar to what they perform on the job.
This exam consists of one section lasting 3 hours.
Scores and reporting
Official scores for exams come exclusively from Red Hat Certification Central. Red Hat does not authorize examiners or training partners to report results to candidates directly. Scores on the exam are usually reported within 3 U.S. business days.
Exam results are reported as total scores. Red Hat does not report performance on individual items, nor will it provide additional information upon request.
You are eligible for one exam retake if you are unsuccessful on your first attempt.