LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

The Linux Professional Institute

The Linux Professional Institute (http://www.lpi.org) is a nonprofit organization formed with the single goal of providing a standard for vendor-neutral certification. This goal is being achieved by certifying Linux administrators through a modified open source development process. LPI seeks input from the public for its exam Objectives and questions, and anyone is welcome to participate. It has both paid and volunteer staff and receives funding from some major names in the computer industry. The result is a vendor-neutral, publicly developed program that is offered at a reasonable price.

LPI currently organizes its Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC) series in two levels: LPIC Levels 1 and 2. Each level consists of two exams that are priced at about U.S. $100 each (prices vary by continent). This book covers the LPIC Level 1 Exams 101 and 102 in Parts I and II, while LPIC Level 2 Exams, 201 and 202 are covered in Parts III and IV.

LPI is in the process of building a third level of exams, which will focus on specialty fields. It is also working with other organizations to start building certification modules based on the LPI standard.

Level 1 is aimed at junior to midlevel Linux administrators with about two years of practical system administration experience. The Level 1 candidate should be comfortable with Linux at the command line as well as capable of performing simple tasks, including system installation and troubleshooting. Level 1 certification is required prior to obtaining Level 2 certification status.

Level 2 is for senior Linux system administrators and team leaders. A Level 2 administrator is likely to have four or more years of practical administration experience. Beyond the ability to work effectively with native tools on standard Linux distributions, Level 2 covers customizing all aspects of your Linux systems, from the kernel to its filesystems, as well as implementing a number of network applications for Linux servers. At a glance, Level 2 Objectives may appear to overlap several areas of content with Level 1; however, the depth and expertise level required is much higher. Often, a Level 2 candidate is expected to be the individual that a Level 1 candidate would refer to for higher-level projects or problems within a production environment.

Level 2 certification will be required prior to obtaining the future Level 3 certification status.

All of LPI's exams are based on a published set of technical Objectives. These technical Objectives are posted on LPI's web site and for your convenience printed at the beginning of each chapter within this book. Each Objective set forth by LPI is assigned a numeric weight, which acts as an indicator of the importance of the Objective. Weights run between 1 and 8, with higher numbers indicating more importance. An Objective carrying a weight of 1 can be considered relatively unimportant and isn't likely to be covered in much depth on the exam. Objectives with larger weights are sure to be covered on the exam, so you should study these closely. The weights of the Objectives are provided at the beginning of each chapter.