Questions about getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam?

[Deanna]

This thread is dedicated to connect you with Red Hat subject matter experts who can help answer your questions regarding Red Hat remote exams. Please see the following resources for Red Hat Remote Exams below:

• Remote Exams Announcement
• Technical Documentation for "Getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam"
• Remote Exams FAQ

For questions on scheduling or redeeming your exams,  please use the Red Hat Certification team comment form here. 

**Our subject matters experts in the Red Hat Learning Community will not be assisting with tasks related to scheduling exams. 

[Tiemco]

After downloading the rhrexboot.iso, the md5sum does not match the documented 0dd72ac558fc1afbf0c0e1fa4b366f10. I tried the download several times.

Using dd to write it to an 32 GB USB stick, does not give a bootable device with Secure Boot enabled.
Should I disable Secure Boot?

[PetrCihlar]

The checksum in the PDF is not valid. The correct one is:
478157b7675223468d83253a241a1fd5
Yes, Secure boot has to be disabled in order to boot this ISO

[nikky]

We are not permitted to have external disk on our work laptops  - please advise if we can just use an allocated folder in the c drive for this requirement? 

• USB: One USB Drive (2.0 or higher) with at least 8 GB capacity.
  NOTE: The entire disk will be overwritten, so make sure you have saved any contents you may have on the disk before following the procedure for creating the live exam environment.
• USB Hub: One wired USB hub is allowed if a hub is needed to accommodate permitted peripheral devices as described below.
• Hard Drive: A hard drive with free storage capacity of at least 4 GB (for Live USB creation only).

[AnithaRaaji]

Hi,

work laptops have restrictions and you may not be abe to boot to Exam environment successfully. It is advisable to use your personal laptop for Exam. It is mandatory to have  an external USB drive (2.0 or higher  with at least 8 GB capacity) to select as boot option and load to Exam environment. 

[nikky]

Hi Anitha I have a Chromebook - will that suffice? I notice there is no O/S requirement just hardware requirements for the exam. 

• Computer: You will need a computer with a single active monitor. Red Hat supports many Intel compatible X86_64-bit architecture computers.
• USB: One USB Drive (2.0 or higher) with at least 8 GB capacity.
  NOTE: The entire disk will be overwritten, so make sure you have saved any contents you may have on the disk before following the procedure for creating the live exam environment.
• USB Hub: One wired USB hub is allowed if a hub is needed to accommodate permitted peripheral devices as described below.
• Hard Drive: A hard drive with free storage capacity of at least 4 GB (for Live USB creation only).
• Mouse: A wired mouse is optional but recommended. A wireless mouse is not allowed. A wired mouse is required if you use a laptop in a closed and docked mode as described below.
• Keyboard: Only one keyboard is allowed for the exam. If you wish to use an external, wired keyboard with your laptop, you will have to use the laptop closed and docked. This will require the use of an external monitor and wired mouse as well. Wireless keyboards are not permitted.
• Webcam: One external webcam with at least a 1m cable _and_minimum_720p_resolution_.
• Monitors: Only one physical display will be allowed for the exam.
• Connecting an external monitor to a laptop: You are only allowed to use one monitor, one keyboard and one external mouse. If you chose to connect an external monitor to your laptop, the laptop lid must be closed throughout the duration of the exam session. You will be required to use a wired keyboard and a wired mouse.
• Sound and Microphone: A working microphone is required. Verify that the audio and microphone are not set on mute prior to the exam.
• Operating System: N/A.
• Firewalls: Firewalls that allow normal web activities will typically work. More restrictive firewalls that limit outgoing access and that require additional authentication may cause problems. Most firewall issues will show up when you run the compatibility test.
• RAM: Minimum 4GB of RAM are required.
• Internet Connection Speed: Download speed requirements are 768Kbps and upload speed requirements are 512Kbps.
• Network Connection: Unless it is physically not possible, a wired network connection should be used, not wireless, to ensure the most reliable delivery of your exam.
• Laptop Battery: If using a laptop, please ensure that the built-in battery is fully charged just in case there is an interruption of power. Do not rely on the battery as the principal power source.
• Power: We recommend the use of an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) for your computer, external monitor (if used) and networking equipment to maintain internet connectivity during power outages.

All desktop or tower computers used for remote exams must sit either on top of the desk being used or in a place that allows a full 360 degree scan of the computer.

[PetrCihlar]

Hi Nikky
Some Chromebooks may comply with the RH Remote exam requirements. Some do not.
ARM CPU is not supported. Forcing the Chromebook to boot from the USB thumb drive is not so easy. If I am not mistaken, it requires you to access developer mode and make some changes in the command line, maybe change the firmware. Also, you need to cope with the Secure Boot challenge, depending on the Chromebook model you have. Without the proper knowledge and skill, your Chromebook may be turned into a useless brick. Thank you for an interesting question, I am looking forward to reading more about your experience with Chromebooks. To sum my answer up, I do not recommend you use a Chromebook to take the RH Remote Exam but the decision and the risk are up to you. 

[nikky]

Thanks for the response, i feel to do this exam , I need to invest i many things just to do it remotley, red hat should have a virtual environment that can be accessed to do the exam.

[PetrCihlar]

Actually, it is a virtual environment you are accessing while taking the exam. You start your computer using Fedora Live USB drive, open Firefox and it takes you to the remote Virtual environment. But is see your point. Using a Chromebook or any kind of Zero or Thin client to access the exam is not currently possible. We may suggest it to the developers.

[AnithaRaaji]

Hi,

I would suggest you to follow the instructions to download and boot using the ISO and you can contact Remote Exam Pre readiness Team using the Live chat URL given below for assistance. 

 https://red.ht/remote-exam-chat 

[dankruse]

I am getting a 'Selected boot image did not authenticate' error when I try to boot from the USB image. Any idea how to get around this?

Nevermind, I was able to get past it by disabling secure boot in the BIOS. So if anyone else runs into this, it is one possible solution