January 29, 2012, in category Certification comments No comments

Judy Katz, the Communcations Manager over at Prometric released a document named “The Top 10 IT Certification Myths. Addressing the top 10 Myths About IT Certification: A Counterpoint Position to Misinterpretation” (read here).  In case you aren’t aware, Prometric handles the IBM certifications and many other certifications for big name IT leaders. Let’s take a quick look at what she talks about here.

Myths:

Certifications are Vendor-centric

• While this is true, the negative outlook on this truth is unwarranted.  Most technologies are developed by specific vendors, and certain vendors are the best to oversee certification over the technology...

January 24, 2012, in category Certification comments No comments

Many of you may be curious on the formatting of the certifications.  I know I was.  The certification tests are offered throughout the world, many of them at small business colleges.  Based on my experience, this is what you can expect:

• Multiple choice
• Video recording
• Computer based
• Timed
• Given a scrap of paper for notes
• Cannot bring cell phone’s into room

If you go to the IBM website you will see that most tests are broken down into categories.  These breakdowns are very accurate as you also get a print out at the end of how you did in each category. If you aren’t strong in a subject, LEARN IT.  It won’t be like in highschool where the teacher says something might be on the exam and it isn’t.  Each category listed is in fact on the exam, with weighting how it is outlined.

January 17, 2012, in category Certification comments One comment

System Availability (10%)

1. Identify resources used by Cluster Aware AIX
2. Configure dump devices and analyze output
3. Determine elements necessary to reduce single points of failure
4. Understand geographical logical volume manager (GLVM)
5. Maintain hardware (CEC/Blade Hardware), deferred or concurrent firmware, AMM firmware (for Power Blades), whether an adapter replacement or new installation.

Storage Management (21%)

1. Create and manage filesystems
2. Create and manage logical volumes
3. Create and manage volume groups
4. Manage physical and virtual devices
5. Manage storage devices (traditional disk, Solid State Drives, and tape) including redundancy

System and Network Security (4%)

1. Configure Role Based Access Control
2. Configure and Manage remote access

Partition Management (11%)

1. Configure and manage Lo...

January 11, 2012, in category Certification comments No comments

This is an in-depth explanation for use with the AIX Basics Certification Guide. (Continued from here)

1. Shutdown and reboot the system → shutdown -h, shutdown -r
2. Start or stop logical partitions → HMC
3. Recognize system or partition hangs and crashes

To shutdown or reboot the lpar from the lpar itself:

shutdown -> Shuts down the lpar

shutdown -r -> Reboots the lpar

Start or stop logical partitions

This process is performed from the HMC (stopping an lpar is the same as shutdown).

Select Systems, Specified System, Check the LPAR -> Operations

**If you would like to start a new profile, or initiate changes made to a profile, you will need to shutdown and start up the lpar

When shutting down the LPAR it will ask you if you are replacing the battery...

January 11, 2012, in category Certification comments One comment

This is an in-depth explanation for use with the AIX Basics Certification Guide. (Continued from here)

1. Describe the function and use of smit → system management interface tool for menu driven admin tools
2. Use ‘man’ pages → man [cmd], man -k “keyword”
3. View system logs and errors (errrpt, syslog, alog)
4. Create, read, delete and forward mail → mail, mail -s “Subject” [destination] < input file, mail [usr]
5. Use commands to find devices and determine their status (lsdev, lscfg) → cfgmgr, lsdev,
6. Understand and run different types of backups → mksysb
7. Understand environment variables (e.g. TERM, EDITOR)

Describe the function and use of smit

System Management Interface Tool for menu driven admin tools

Smit is a menu driven tool that has all of the functions an admin would need...

January 11, 2012, in category Certification comments 2 comments

This is an in-depth explanation for use with the AIX Basics Certification Guide. (Continued from here)

1. Determine which processes are currently running on the system → ps -ef
2. Stop a process, or running or pending job. → kill -9 [pid], kill %[job number]
3. Use at and cron to manage scheduled tasks → crontab -l, crontab -e (minute hour dom month weekday cmd), at [now + 2 days, 5 pm), at -l
4. View pending jobs → jobs
5. Understand and use topas

Determine which processes are currently running on the system

ps -ef -> This command will show you all of the currently running processes.  If necessary, pipe it to grep (ps -ef | grep keyword) to filter, or to more (ps -ef | more) to display it one page at a time

Stop a process, or running or pending job

In order to communicate with a process, y...

January 10, 2012, in category Certification comments One comment

This is an in-depth explanation for use with the AIX Basics Certification Guide. (Continued from here)

User management (8%)

1. Reset passwords → passwd [user]
2. Show which groups a user belongs to → lsgroup ALL, lsuser ALL
3. View and understand user permissions
4. Control logged-in users → who, finger, fuser -u (-k -x -c) [file, dir], kill users shell
5. Understand the login process (what happens during login) → getty → /etc/passwd → /etc/security/passwd → .profile

Reset passwords

passwd -> this command will change the current users password

passwd username -> if you are root, you can use this to change another user’s password (doing this will force the user to reset his/her password on login)

You can also use smitty to change passwords:

smit -> Security and Users -> Passwords -> Cha...

January 10, 2012, in category Certification comments 3 comments

This is an in-depth explanation for use with the AIX Basics Certification Guide. (Continued from here)

Using vi (9%)

1. Create or open a file using vi → vi [filename]
2. Close a file using vi, both with and without saving changes → :wq, :q!, :w newfile
3. Add, delete and change text using vi → i,a,o,O,x,dw,d$,dd,r,R
4. Find/replace using basic substitution, and search for text strings using vi → s/find/replace/g
5. Copy and/or move text using vi → yy,dd, p, P
6. Navigating within vi (changing cursor position, etc.) → arrows, hjkl, ctrl-d, ctrl-u, ctrl-b, ctrl-f

Create or open a file using vi

To initialize vi, simply call it in the command line using the “vi” command

vi existing_file -> you can edit a file in vi by issuing this command

vi new_file -> you can create a new file and begin edi...

January 10, 2012, in category Certification comments No comments

If you are interested in any IBM certifications, I suggest you make your first stop here.  This is where you can find each certification exam, and dive into the specific categories that will be on the exam.  Some exams have preparation material, redbooks and even practice tests you can take (for a fee)  to ensure you know what you’re talking about before shelling out the full fee.

If you are looking for exam locations or to book an exam, use this link.  Here you can search through the exams, enter your location and book the exam itself.  Depending on location you would be looking at a ballpark of $200 USD.

The most important thing to remember with IBM certifications is that a certain level of real world knowledge is needed.  It is not purely a textbook exam...

January 9, 2012, in category Certification comments 2 comments

This is an in-depth explanation for use with the AIX Basics Certification Guide. (Continued from here)

1. Start terminal session on the HMC
2. Telnet or SSH to a system
3. Transfer a file between systems (ftp / scp / sftp) → ftp: mput, put, mget, get. scp: scp source hostname:/path/to/copy/to. sftp (secure ftp access if installed)
4. Determine IP address and hostname assigned to a system → ifconfig -a, hostname
5. Determine system connectivity (ping) → ping [ip, hostname]

Start terminal session on the HMC

To start a terminal session on the HMC, logon as “hscroot” or your own username.

Select Systems Management -> Servers -> Specified Server 

Place check mark beside the lpar you wish to connect to

• From the “Tasks” button at the top, select “Console Window” -> “Open Terminal Window”
• OR
• From t...