Questions about getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam?

[Deanna]

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• Remote Exams FAQ

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[JohnGJr]

Hello, I am scheduled to take the exam in a week and I plan to lock myself in my home office while I take the exam (away from the family).  I work from home, so I have a large L-shaped desk that has two separate desktop computers and a laptop computer on it.  The desk contains a total of 4 monitors on it (not including the laptop screen as a monitor).

Here is a breakdown of the setup:

- The laptop is my work computer and it has an external monitor attached to it

- One of the desktop PCs (my older one) has two monitors attached to it that I use for movie/music streaming and Google searching solutions for work problems

- The final desktop PC is my gaming computer and it only has one, large monitor attached to it (this is the one I planned on using to take the test)

I plan to have the laptop and the two monitor computer powered off while I take the exam.  Both of these computers sit on my left as I am facing my gaming computer that I plan to take the exam on and will be clearly viewable to the proctor through the webcam.  Will this be acceptable while taking the exam or will I need to remove the other two computers from my desk?  If required, I can remove before the exam, but would prefer not to tear all of them down and then put them back together on the desk after the exam.

Thanks,

John

[vishals]

Hi @JohnGJr ,

In an ideal scenario, your proctor would prefer to have a clean table (As in only the essentials connected), but you shouldb't have problems with this setup as long as the other PCs are disconnected and covered.
But do note that you might have a longer onboarding time as the proctor needs to ensure these are disconnected before launching the exam.

Regards,

[JohnGJr]

Hello @vishals,

Thank you for the reply.  Would it be more beneficial and ease the process along if I took a blanket and covered up those extra PC & monitors?  That would be easy to accomplish and take very little time, overall.

Thanks,

John

[Fran_Garcia]

Yes - convering monitors/screens with a blanket or large piece of cloth would be sufficient.

Good luck :·)

[PetrCihlar]

But unplug it first not to boil it, just in case. The proctor will like to see the cables unplugged during the room scan. The rule is to remove everything unnecessary first and unplug and cover what cannot be removed. Not only displays are the issue. Boards and libraries must be removed or covered too. The room does not need to be closed, but the candidate has to be there alone and it has to be silent so the pin dropped on the floor can be heard. Kidding

[rtlo]

I've followed the instructions, and ran the dd command (again, as instructed) to prepare a usb drive to boot the Live environment - but this just fails with an authentication error (it seems that the iso is encrypted - but there's nothing in the instructions that indicate that I would need a separate password to 'unlock' this...) - is this expected behavior (perhaps I'm too early with a 'compatibility' check at 2 months out?) - or have I done something wrong?

[rtlo]

OK, well it doesn't really look as though I've really done anything wrong - since this works/boots absolutely fine: https://static.redhat.com/downloads/training-certification/rhrexboot-2020-08.iso

Not great. And since ihis is like the 103rd reply in this thread - I'm not betting on any sort of rapid response.  I also wish that I hadn't burned roughly half a day trying to find a solution that's bound to suddenly not work the day of the exam (all my attempts at contacting support through the not very confidence inspiring 'chat' app have ended in disappointment as well).

Red Hat: Please either fix this - or properly respond to the emails I've been sending.

[vishals]

Hi @rtlo ,

I just tried to boot off the newest version and it works. Maybe post a picture of the error message or the command you ran?
The newest version of the ISO is encrypted and *will* prompt for a password when you try to mount it. Creating a bootable USB with it and booting into the image should not prompt for a password.

Regarding chat support(and email responses), you won't have luck reaching them now as it's only manned on weekdays.

Best Regards,

[PetrCihlar]

Hi, it is normal the system asks for a password to "unlock" encrypted usb drive. Once you put the ISO on it (please note the downloaded RE ISO gets downloaded successfully but is reported as corrupted whenever the OS tries to mount it) Windows does it, as the.iso filetype extension is recognised adn Windows attermpts to mount it by default I think, just after the download. This is because the content of the ISO and therefore the USB stick you put the ISO on are ancrypted. Reinserting such an USB drive results in a password prompt. It also happens when Fedora media writer finishes the USB writing and attempts to mount the newly created USB stick. Ignore it. All is fine. Just boot the USB stick once you created it. It will decrypt itself on the fly and expand into RAM, where it runs from. Another possibility is just removing all the partitions (whipe out the partition tables) of the USB stick. It will become completely blank (unformated, unpartitioned). For Windows, there is free tool AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, if you plan to avoid the CLI.

[PetrCihlar]

@rtloRegarding the RH instructional PDF manual you are probably reffering to. I looked at it. It seems to me the paragraph no. 5 of the page 14 when you are asked to reinsert the USB stick and run lsblk to verify is not updated since RH introduced the encrypted ISO. You may skip the chapter 5 for the current encrypted ISO. RH will update its manual soon