Training for Exam

[bombsquadjag]

Good Morning Everyone,

I'm currently about a month out from my exam for EX280.  I have reviewed the training videos for DO 180 and DO 280.  Now I'm currently looking at doing the labs from both courses.  I have noticed slight differences in what is recommended in both courses of how to do certain tasks. I was wondering if anyone had recommendations. Trying to streamline my studying and being prepared as i can.

[Chetan_Tiwary_]

Hello @bombsquadjag !

Thanks for reaching out!

You should refer the EX280 objectives here for your exam preparation : https://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/red-hat-certified-openshift-administrator-exam?section=o... .

The primary source of EX280 is DO280 course and you should do the practice from DO280 labs ( based on the objectives). 

Could you please elaborate on the differences that you observed in the approach of certain tasks in both the courses - I am sure there must be a reasoning / explanation for those.

[Travis · Accepted solution]

@bombsquadjag -

As @Chetan_Tiwary_ mentioned the EX280 exam objectives is where you should start. I always map the course content to the exam objectives and make notes to myself on how I can do the items the quickest and most efficiently.

The goal of DO180 is to expose new administrators to OCP administration and allow them to realize that OCP is the Red Hat distribution of Kubernetes and therefore all the Kubernetes things still work, but the oc CLI utility extends what plain vanilla Kubernetes and the kubectl command can do. The other thing we focus on in the DO180 is more use of the GUI or WebUI utility which again is something that is part of the OCP Kubernetes distribution. 

As for how should you do the exam questions, that is only for you to decide. My recommendation is to pick which way is most comfortable for you. Try to find pieces in the documentation for the various exercises and what you can COPY/PASTE/TWEAK and EXECUTE to meet the criteria of the question. This can even sometimes be done with the oc explain and oc describe resources when you are wanting to get "starter" YAML files.

One thing I do is go back and forth between the WebUI and the CLI. I know some other people look at me like I'm crazy, but I find sometimes letting the WebUI do something for me is faster and more efficient. For example, creating Authentication resources. I will often create the HTPASSWD file with the CLI utility, but instead of going to the oc command to generate and create the YAML resources and accounts, I will point and click and do in the GUI. The bok doesn't show how to do that, but that is one thing I've demoed when teaching a course. You can go to the authentication section in OCP, create a provider and upload your YAML file. Then you can go create the RBAC/RoleBindings directly in the webUI. I find that to be easier and faster and don't need to worry about YAML syntax or exactly how to do things.

My suggest is to go through the labs and exercises again from both courses after you've mapped the exam objectives. Don't just do it the way the GE or lab solutions suggest ... instead, think ... (Is there another way to do this?) ... (How can I do it wrong and break it and what do the errors look like and what is the fix? - This is extremely important to relieve panic moments on a timed exam) ... (Which method can I find pointers and hints if I forget something?) ... (Which method is fastest and easiest for me to remember?).

After going through the items a few times, make up your own exercises or modify them slightly and see if you can still perform all the tasks easily and get the desired outcomes.

[Chetan_Tiwary_]

@Travis It could not be more clearer and helpful , many thanks for the inputs!