Preparing for EX280 exam

[Calavera]

Hi everyone!

After my CKA certification, I decided to train for Openshift EX280 exam.
Unfortunately I cannot afford official Red Hat training and my company doesn't pay for the course so I have to do all on my own

The first thing I want to do is to setup a small lab to train with Openshift, I saw that there is available CodeReady Containers but it is very heavy and I cannot run it on my laptop
Do you have an alternative idea on how to setup a small Openshift cluster without spending too much?

Also do you have some tips for passing the exam?

[flozano]

Experience with vanilla Kubernetes does help a lot with EX280 but the exam also expects that you know about OpenShift add-ons such as the oc CLI tool, Deployment Configuration resources, and Source-to-Image (that is not a comprehensive list!).

I would advise you to spend time reading the OpenShift product documentation, and if you cannot install neither a CRC single-node cluster nor a multi-node cluster, you can use the OpenShift playground, that gives you access to a time-limited cluster in the cloud:

Scroll down to the bottom of https://www.openshift.com/try and also check https://developers.redhat.com/courses/openshift/playground-openshift

Product docs are available for free at https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.5/welcome/index.html

When you feel prepated to take the exam, check the OpenShift release it uses so you can review product docs for that release, especially the release nodes that lists differences compared to previous releases. Very little in the changes from OpenShift 4.y to OpenShift 4.y+d affect the exam but you may be surprized by cosmetic changes in command output and look and feel of the web console.

[Calavera]

Openshift playground is an interesting option, I will have a look at it thanks

What do you think to deploy a small Openshift on public cloud? Very expensive?

[flozano]

It is more expensive than you'd expect. I don't remember actual numbers but you need 5 VMs (plus a temporary VM during installation) that are not minimal instances. These instances are very "chatty", taking 20%+ CPU when "iddle" (no apps running on your cluster), and shutting then all down and later booting them has a few challenges with managing node certificates.

Anyway I think a cloud-based cluster is good investment for learning. Maybe you can find better prices for one of the managed OpenShift services from IBM Cloud, AWS, and Azure. They would not give you full admin on control plane nodes but might be sufficient cluster admin powers for EX280.

[nadhir58]

do u mean that openshift crc provides a suitable envirement to prepare ex280 labs ?

[flozano]

I don't think CRC, that is OpenShift Local, would be sufficient by itself. It would help, yes, but I'm not sure if enough to ensure a passing score. CRC/OpenShift Local are meant to provide a local environment for developers to test applications, and it does not support generic cluster administration tasks. Some of them, such as updating OpenShift, are not possible on OpenShift Local.

Nowadays, you can install Single Node OpenShift (SNO), which offers all administration-related features (unlike OpenShift Local) and you could also pay for cloud services editions of OpenShift, such as ROSA (on AWS) and ARO (on Azure) and any of them would be sufficient to practice all tasks required for EX280.

You can also buy an Red Hat Learning Subscription (RHLS) and use it to access the lab environment of DO280, self-paced, to practice using the OpenShift cluster in that environment. You don't need to attend a DO280 course with an instructor to take advantage of it's classroom if you have RHLS.

If costs are an issue (either cost of an RHLS or of cloud resources) the free Red Hat Developer Program subscription enables you to download installation media for OpenShift, RHEL, and some other products and then you can install yourself on your own hardware or as a VMs. You could check the use of the Assisted Installer to install SNO on a VM, if you have a computer with enough capacity because this would not be a small VM.

[dmis]

I think the best way for prepare for EX280 Exam is attend for Red Hat DO280V45 course.

If you are good in doing all guided execises and labs quickly, without mistakes and you are understand what you are doing, than your chance to pass exam is high.

Another hint is to know product documentation.

Red Hat gives you access to official docs of Openshift in pdf and html format at exam time.

You can not remember some things but you know where to find hint in docs?

You can easily remember it with official docs.

dmis.

[Calavera]

Yeah it would be great to attend to DO280V45 course but as already I said it's not a viable option

[dmis]

This site may help you to prepare.

It contains many links on articles and other resources about Openshift in one place.

https://redhatspain.com/ocp4/