Red Hat Certified Specialist in Configuration Management exam

Preparation

Red Hat encourages all candidates for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in Configuration Management exam (EX405) to consider taking the Configuration Management with Puppet (DO405) course.Attendance in the course is not required, so one can choose to take just the exam.

While attending Red Hat courses can be an important part of one’s preparation to take this exam, attending courses does not guarantee success on the exam. Previous experience, practice, and native aptitude are also important determinants of success.

Many books and other resources on using Red Hat’s products are available. Red Hat does not officially endorse any as preparation guides for its exam. Nevertheless, you may find additional reading deepens understanding and can prove helpful.

Exam format

This exam is a performance-based evaluation of system administration skills and knowledge with a focus on Puppet and Red Hat Satellite 6. Candidates will be required to perform a number of routine system administration tasks utilizing Puppet and will be evaluated on whether they have met specific objective criteria.

Performance-based testing means that candidates must perform tasks similar to what they perform on the job.

The Red Hat Certified Specialist in Configuration Management exam is a hands-on exam that lasts 3 hours.

Scores and reporting

Official scores for exams come exclusively from Red Hat Certification Central. Red Hat does not authorize examiners or training partners to report results to candidates directly. Scores on the exam are usually reported within 3 U.S. business days.

Exam results are reported as total scores. Red Hat does not report performance on individual items, nor will it provide additional information upon request.

Study points for the exam

To help you prepare, the exam objectives highlight the task areas you can expect to see covered in the exam. Red Hat reserves the right to add, modify, and remove exam objectives. Such changes will be made public in advance.

Candidates should be able to perform these tasks:

• Install and configure Puppet.
  • Install Puppet servers.
  • Install Puppet nodes.
  • Register Puppet nodes to a Puppet server.
• Create and maintain Puppet manifests.
  • Create new Puppet manifests.
  • Debug existing Puppet manifests.
• Create Puppet modules.
  • Create reusable modules.
  • Create modules with classes, name spaces, variables, and conditionals.
  • Create modules that install software on target nodes and deploy configuration files.
• Use facter to obtain system information.
  • Create custom facts.
  • Use facts to change Puppet behavior.
• Create Git repositories.
  • Create and perform simple management of a Git repository.
  • Add files to a Git repository.
  • Apply changes and commit changed files to a Git repository.
• Implement Puppet in a Red Hat Satellite 6 environment.
  • Create a Puppet repository on Red Hat Satellite.
  • Install, configure, and deploy Puppet modules using Red Hat Satellite.
  • Register Puppet clients to a Red Hat Satellite server.

As with all Red Hat performance-based exams, configurations must persist after restart without intervention.