Revision as of 07:15, 3 July 2013

1.0 Purpose

This document is meant to provide a higher level overview into what has changed with the objectives update for LPIC-2 and LPIC-3 exams.

As well, this document serves to describe the fundamental change in how a candidate obtains the LPIC-3 certification level.

The exams that are affect by this update are LPIC-2 (201 and 202) as well as the creation of a new LPIC-3 exam, 300, and the retirement of the 301 (Core) and 302 (Mixed Environment) exams.

1.1 Changes to the LPIC-2/LPIC-3 Programs

The major change to the LPIC-3 program with this release of the LPIC-2 objectives and the new 300 objectives is to allow for the certification of LPIC-3 candidates without the need for them to take the enterprise level 301 (Core) exam.

With the creation of the new 300 exam, also called Mixed Environment, any LPIC-3 level exam will grant the candidate an LPIC-3 certification specialty.

The only exception to this policy change is that the 302 exam will still require the 301 exam in order to obtain the LPIC-3 302 Mixed Environment certification. However, the 301 and 302 exams are to be retired making this a temporary situation.

1.2 Purpose for the Change to the LPIC-3 Program

Over the years since the LPIC-3 stream of exams has been released, it was envisioned that OpenLDAP (or LDAP server knowledge, in general) and Capacity Planning topics would be central knowledge required for all of the LPIC-3 level exams. This has proven not to be the case for the 303 (Security) and 304 (Virtualization and High Availability) exams.

In addition, the expectation that an LPIC-2 holder would have some knowledge of LDAP at the services level and some degree of capacity planning expertise has risen.

1.2 Benefits of the Change to the LPIC-3 Program

The main benefit to the holder of the LPIC-2 certification is that they will now be able to achieve LPIC-3 status by taking any one of the available LPIC-3 exams.

2.0 Major Universal Changes to LPIC-2 and LPIC-3

2.1 Versions of Objectives

The new version of the objectives for the LPIC-2 exams will be 4.0.

The version for the LPIC-3 300 exam will be 1.0 to reflect that this is a new exam and separate from the LPIC-3 301 (Code) and 302 (Mixed Environment) exams which are to be retired.

2.2 Weighting of Objectives

The weighting on the 300 exam has been normalised to 60. This means that each exam will be 60 questions long. This also means that a weighting of 3 on an objective indicates that there will be exactly 3 questions on the exam pertaining to that objective.

2.3 Objective Numbering

For the LPIC-2 exams, every attempt to maintain the objective number from the 3.5 version of the objectives has been taken.

For the LPIC-3 300 exam, the objective numbering starts at 390. Starting at 300 would have caused conflict with the 301 exam objective numbers which start at 300.

2.4 Troubleshooting Content

In previous releases of the objectives, troubleshooting was a large component of the exam and discrete from the subject matter. Sometimes, the troubleshooting is in an exam different that the one with the original subject matter.

In this release, an attempt has been made to remove the discrete troubleshooting objectives and to include them directly in the objective. This makes it easier to track what is being tested as well as to aid in courseware and book development.

2.5 Minimized Content Duplication

Since there is some basic Samba and OpenLDAP content in the 202 exam, an effort was made to avoid duplicating that material in the 300 exam. As such, a 300 exam candidate is expected to know the basics of OpenLDAP configuration.

3.0 Major Changes in LPIC-2

3.1 Re-focus/Consistent Focus

With this release of the LPIC-2 objectives, the 201 exam now focuses on the scaling, maintenance and troubleshooting of the server. The 202 exam now is primarily focused on core network services as well as system and some network security content.

3.2 New/Changed/Dropped Content

3.2.1 Capacity Planning

The main focus of the capacity planning objectives is measuring and troubleshooting resource use on a troubled system as well as monitoring and trending the resource usage in order to avoid such situations.

3.2.2 Focus on the Kernel

With the maturity and modularity of the Linux kernel, the need to compile and, in particular, patch the kernel has decreased while the run time management requirements of the kernel and its components, such as udev, has increased.

3.2.3 Alternate Bootloaders

The notable change is that LILO has lost status as a first class bootloader and has been grouped in with other alternate loaders such as ISOLINUX and PXELINUX.

3.2.4 Hardware Technologies

The iSCSI and SMART disk monitoring has been added.

3.2.5 OpenLDAP Server Basics

A number of objectives from the 301 exam on basic OpenLDAP server setup and use has been added to the 202 exam.

3.2.6 Web Services

The Apache coverage has been logically split between configuration of Apache, in general, and configuring HTTPS. With the explosive growth in popularity of Nginx as both a web server and a reverse proxy, it has been included in the 202 exam.

3.2.7 MTA Changes

Sendmail has been dropped to the awareness level in favour of Postfix. With the presence of Sendmail dropping to under 13% of publicly accessible mail servers, while Postfix accounts for approximately 23% of the publicly accessible mail servers, only Postfix configuration will be covered.

3.2.8 OpenVPN Changes

OpenVPN has been broken out of the 201 objective of Advanced Networking into its own objective under System Security in the 202 exam.

3.0 Major Changes in LPIC-3

3.1 Re-focus/Consistent Focus

With this release of the 300 Mixed Environment exam, the entire exam focuses on the essential services needed across a hetergenous network of MS and Linux system. It is heavily based on the existing 302 Mixed Environment exam with the inclusion of advanced OpenLDAP topics.

This exam covers all aspects of Samba, including the domain functionality and tools of both Samba 3.6 and Samba 4. With the way that Samba 4 has been developed and released, there is still a large need to understand Samba 3.6 configuration. The essential addition that Samba 4 gives is that it can be an Active Directory Domain Controller.

3.2 New/Changed/Dropped Content

3.2.1 Samba 4 Content

Samba 4 content has been added. In particular, in setting it up as a Active Directory Domain Controller as well as maintaining its naming service (aka DNS) and managing users and groups.

When a question on the exam is Samba 3 or 4 specific, it will be stated. Otherwise, the question would be valid for both versions of Samba.

3.2.2 OpenLDAP content

OpenLDAP content has been limited to the advanced topics from the 301 exam. This includes Replication, Security and Performance tuning.

As well, a lot of the integration of LDAP has been excluded in favour of PAM, NSS, AD and Kerberos integration. Integration with a myiad of Unix services and NIS to LDAP migration has been dropped.

201 Change Summary

 Note: DNS services have been moved to the 202 exam to fit with the change in focus.

Topic 200: Capacity Planning

200.1 Measure and Troubleshoot Resource Usage (weight: 6)

This is a combination of the 306.1 Measure Resource Usage and 306.2 Troubleshoot Resource Problems objectives in the 301 exam.

This is a new objective.

The original weight on the combined objectives was 8.

200.2 Predict Future Resource Needs (weight: 2)

This is partially based on the 306.4 Predict Future Resource Needs objective from the 301 exam with the focused changed more to monitoring and trending to predict needs. The more mathematically rigourous analysis of needs involving queueing theory from 306.3 hasn't been included.

This is a new objective.

The original weight on the objective was 1.

Topic 201: Linux Kernel

201.2 Compiling a Linux kernel (weight: 3)

This has become and amalgamation of the 201.2 Compiling a kernel a the 201.4 Customise, build and install a custom kernel and kernel modules objectives. The patching of kernels has been dropped.

The combined weight of the 3 original objectives was 5.

201.3 Kernel runtime management and troubleshooting (weight: 4)

 Renamed from 201.5 Manage/Query kernel and kernel modules at runtime.

This objective has also absorbed the 203.4 udev Device Management objective (weight: 1)

The combined weight of the two original objectives was 4.

Topic 202: System Startup

202.1 Customising SysV-init system startup (weight: 3)

 Renamed from 202.1 Customising system startup and boot processes

The renaming is meant to reflect its focus. With the advent of systemd, it was necessary to indicate.

The original weight was 4.

202.2 System recovery (weight: 4)

A lot more detail was included in this objective. Both GRUB2 and GRUB Legac are covered. Also, an awareness of UEFI is expected.

202.3 Alternate Bootloaders (weight: 2)

This is a combination of moving the LILO component of 213.1 Identifying boot stages and troubleshooting bootloaders to an objective to denote its lessening in importance in daily administrative tasks.

Additional bootloaders have also been included.

This is a new objective.

Topic 203: Filesystem and Devices

203.2 Maintaining a Linux filesystem (weight: 3)

The major change has been in dropping ReiserFS in favour of Btrfs and badblocks for SMART Disk monitoring.

Topic 204: Advanced Storage Device Administration

204.1 Configuring RAID (weight: 3)

The original weight was 2.

204.2 Adjusting Storage Device Access (weight: 2)

The inclusion of iSCSI has been made to this objective.

The original weight was 1.

Topic 205: Networking Configuration

205.2 Advanced Network Configuration (weight: 4)

OpenVPN was moved to its own objective in the 202 exam under System Security. wireshark was just removed.

205.3 Troubleshooting network issues (weight: 4)

The original weight was 5.

Topic 206: System Maintenance

206.1 Make and install programs from source (weight: 2)

Moved the use of patch to here from 201.3 Patching a kernel. Lesser emphasis on compiling software, in general.

The original weight was 4.

206.2 Backup operations (weight: 3)

cpio was removed from the list of backup tools.

206.3 Notify users on system-related issues (weight: 1)

The was renamed/renumbered from 205.4 Notify users on system-related issues for better organisation.

202 Change Summary

Topic 207: Domain Name Server

 This entire objective has been moved from the 201 exam to help with consistency in the theme of the two exams.

207.1 Basic DNS server configuration (weight: 3)

The original weight of this exam was 2.

207.2 Create and maintain DNS zones (weight: 3)

The original weight of this exam was 2.

207.3 Securing a DNS server (weight: 2)

Topic 208: Web Services

208.1 Basic Apache configuration (weight: 4)

Renamed from 208.1 Implementing a web server to be more explicit. Added vhost configuration and Redirect statements from 208.2.

208.2 Apache configuration for HTTPS (weight: 3)

Renamed from 208.2 Maintaining a web server to focus on its core content.

208.3 Implementing Squid as a caching proxy (weight: 2)

Renamed from 208.3 Implementing a proxy server. Updated to Squid v3.

The original weight was 1.

208.4 Implementing Nginx as a web server and a reverse proxy (weight: 2)

This is a new objective.

Topic 209: File Sharing

209.1 Samba Server Configuration (weight: 5)

The focus remains on Samba 3.6.

The original weight was 4.

209.2 NFS Server Configuration (weight: 3)

The focus remains on NFSv3. Awareness of NFSv4 has been added.

The original weight was 4.

Topic 210: Network Client Management

210.4 Configuring an OpenLDAP server (weight: 4)

A combination of Topic 301: Concepts, Architecture and Design, 303.2 Access Control Lists in LDAP, 303.6 OpenLDAP Daemon Configuration, and 304.3 Whitepages.

Awareness of System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) is also introduced.

This is a new objective.

The original combined objectives were 13.

Topic 211: E-Mail Services

211.1 Using e-mail servers (weight: 4)

Dropped Sendmail to awareness level.

The original weight was 3.

Topic 212: System Security

212.1 Configuring a router (weight: 3)

Added awareness of IPv6.

212.2 Managing FTP servers (weight: 2)

Renamed from 212.2 Securing FTP servers.

212.3 Secure shell (SSH) (weight: 4)

Much of the ssh client side was dropped to avoid duplication from LPIC-1.

212.4 Security tasks (weight: 3)

Dropped TCP Wrappers as they are covered in LPIC-1 Renumbered from 212.5 (due to loss of TCP Wrapper objective).

212.5 OpenVPN (weight: 2)

This is a new objective. Broken out from 205.2 Advanced Network Configuration and Troubleshooting

 NOTE: on the old 213 Troubleshooting Topic
       213.1 merged into 202.2
       init.d dropped/redundant with 213.3
       213.2 merged into 201.5
       strings dropped
       ltrace to be merged with 102.3 to avoid redundancy
       strace to be merged with 102.3 to avoid redundancy
       dropped as redundant various system and daemon log files
       dropped Kernel syslog entries in system logs (if entry is able to be gained)
       213.3 dropped/overlap with LPIC-1
       213.4 dropped/overlap with LPIC-1

       sysctl, /etc/sysctl.conf, /etc/sysctl.d/ moved to 201.3 Kernel runtime management and troubleshooting

300 Change Summary

 NOTE: Many of these changes occurred due to the merging of the 302 exam with parts of the 301 exam.
       306 (entire Topic) was merged into LPIC-2 201 exam (renumbered to 200)
       306.2 merged with 306.2; numbered 200.1
       306.3 dropped.
       306.4 added collectd and awareness of other monitoring solutions. renumbered to 200.2

 NOTE: Dropped from the 302 Samba objectives are:
       Topic 311: Compile and Install Samba
       312.5 SWAT Configuration
       315.2 Samba Security (overlaps with other objectives)
       315.3 Performance Tuning

The Samba portion of this exam was restructured into Basics, Shares, User/Group Management, Domain Integration, Name Services and Working with Linux/Windows Clients.

390.1 OpenLDAP Replication (weight: 3)

Renumbered from 303.3 LDAP Replication

The original weight was 5.

390.2 Securing the Directory (weight: 3)

Renumbered from 303.4 Securing the Directory

The original weight was 4.

390.3 OpenLDAP Server Performance Tuning (weight: 2)

Renumbered from 303.5 LDAP Server Performance Tuning

Topic 391: OpenLDAP as an Authentication Backend

391.1 LDAP Integration with PAM and NSS (weight: 2)

Renumbered from 305.1 LDAP Integration with PAM and NSS

391.2 Integrating LDAP with Active Directory and Kerberos (weight: 2)

Renamed/Renumbered from 305.5 Integrating LDAP with Active Directory

Topic 392: Samba Basics

392.1 Samba Concepts and Architecture (weight: 2)

This is a new objective based on component of 302 exam objectives. Parts come from 312.1 Configure Samba

392.2 Configure Samba (weight: 4)

Renumbered from 312.1 Configure Samba

The original weight was 6.

392.3 Regular Samba Maintenance (weight: 2)

This is a new objective.

392.4 Troubleshooting Samba (weight: 2)

Partially based on 310.3 Trivial Database Files and parts of 312.1 Configure Samba

This is a new objective.

392.5 Internationalization (weight: 1)

Renumbered from 312.6 Internationalization

Topic 393: Samba Share Configuration

393.1 File Services (weight: 4)

Based on 312.2 File Services

393.2 Linux File System and Share/Service Permissions (weight: 3)

Based on 315.1 Linux File System and Share/Service Permissions Added more details and VFS to store Windows ACLs

393.3 Print Services (weight: 2)

Renumbered from 312.3 Print Services

Topic 394: Samba User and Group Management

394.1 Managing User Accounts and Groups (weight: 4)

Renumbered from 313.1 Managing User Accounts and Groups

394.2 Authentication, Authorization and Winbind (weight: 5)

Renumbered from 313.2 Authentication and Authorization

Merged in 313.3 Winbind

The original weight combined weight was 10.

Topic 395: Samba Domain Integration

395.1 Samba as a PDC and BDC (weight: 3)

Renumbered from 312.4 Domain Controller

The original weight was 4

395.2 Samba4 as an AD compatible Domain Controller (weight: 3)

This is a new objective.

395.3 Configure Samba as a Domain Member Server (weight: 3)

This is a new objective.

Topic 396: Samba Name Services

396.1 NetBIOS and WINS (weight: 3)

Renumbered from 314.2 NetBIOS and WINS

Original weight was 7.

396.2 Active Directory Name Resolution (weight: 2)

This is a new objective.

Topic 397: Working with Linux and Windows Clients

397.1 CIFS Integration (weight: 3)

Renumbered from 314.1 CIFS Integration

397.2 Working with Windows Clients (weight: 2)

Renumbered from 314.4 Working with Windows Clients

The original weight was 4.