I concur that the problem of "Paper MCSE's" damages the credibility of real
world experts that hold the same title. On the other hand, making the tests
impossible to pass without knowing everything there is to know about a
product is just as bad. I do think that NetApp needs to branch the test out
to offer specific tests with area of relivance as in database vs. straight
file serving. Any comments NetApp education people??
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Sphar [mailto:mikey@Remedy.COM]
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 2:32 PM
To: 'toasters@mathworks.com'
Subject: RE: NetAppCertTest
This just reflects a concern I have with certifications in general. A
certification that can be obtained with nothing but training and studying
and no real-world experience is of questionable value to me. Likewise, a
certification that a person with extensive real-world experience can't
obtain is also of questionable value.
I agree that perhaps there should be multiple different certifications. The
filers are just so adaptable that it's impractical to think someone should
be an expert on every possible thing they can do. I might administer a
hundred filers but never have a need to put a database on one. Likewise I
might never need to serve anything but CIFS. It might make the
certifications more meaningful to say that for example a given administrator
is certified for NFS, CIFS, Databases, HTTP, Security, Networking, etc. You
probably don't want the list to be too long, but the idea would be to try to
reflect the common real-world uses of the filer.
It could even still be just the one single test. Except that rather than
giving a single pass/fail certification, the applicant would be scored in
each category and granted certifications in each area for which they showed
expertise.
I honestly appreciate that Netapp's test are more complicated than simple
multiple-choice. It shows me that they're making some attempt to prevent
the "Paper MCSE" type of situation, which is good.
--
Mike Sphar - Sr Systems Administrator - Engineering Support Services -
Remedy Corporation
BOFH, GWP, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE, BFD
-----Original Message-----
From: Honeycutt, Michael [mailto:MichaelHoneycutt@NC.SLR.com]
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 11:14 AM
To: 'Mike Sphar'; 'toasters@mathworks.com'
Subject: RE: NetAppCertTest
Yes. There are questions on disk/volume concepts, clustering, how to
implement with Oracle/Sql, how to implement with Exchange, name resolution,
mixing disks in volumes (IE - disk size, zoning), and so on and so on. The
point is, NetApp needs to seriously reconsider the format of these tests.
They are very poorly designed. The first 10-15 questions are multiple
choice, the next 15-25 were open ended on clustering of all things, next
10-15 were multiple choice again, and then the rest of the test ended with
open ended questions. If NetApp is going to make the test so difficult that
only their own employees are going to pass, then they need to remove its
availability to its customers. If they are going to leave it public, they
need to make it so that normal admins have at least a small hope that they
can pass it without sitting on a horse shoe. Another problem is the lack of
direction given on what the contents of the test. If you want to pass this
test, you WILL have to memorize every possible function of the filer. If you
think about it, this test should be set up as a core that deals directly
with how the filer is set up and basic file serving functions and have
electives for the second part. Not everyone uses these filers as Oracle
database containers. But then again, thats just my opinion, I could be
wrong.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Sphar [mailto:mikey@Remedy.COM]
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 1:51 PM
To: 'toasters@mathworks.com'
Subject: RE: NetAppCertTest
What? Nothing on clustering? That's one of the reasons I haven't though
about taking the tests. I've been maintaining filers for about 4 years, but
I've never had any official training classes, and I'm very unlikely to get
budget for training because after all, I've been maintaining them for 4
years. I assumed that the Netapp tests would be sort of like the Sun
Solaris tests, where even if you'd been an administrator for 10+ years you
still wouldn't be able to answer the NIS+ questions unless you had worked in
one of those rare locations that used NIS+ or had taken all of Sun's
classes. My environment has never utilized clustering, so I figured I'd
fail simply on the basis of that.
So how likely is a person who already has several years of administration
experience to pass these certification tests without needing to attend
special training?
--
Mike Sphar - Sr Systems Administrator - Engineering Support Services -
Remedy Corporation
BOFH, GWP, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE, BFD
-----Original Message-----
From: Fairchild, Peter [mailto:Peter.Fairchild@netapp.com]
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 8:24 AM
To: 'Honeycutt, Michael'; 'toasters@mathworks.com'
Subject: RE: NetAppCertTest
There are three 1 hour tests
**The Hardware Test covers the 700 and 800 series filers, FC7-9 and DS14
storage shelves, the basics of racking and connecting them, and a bit on
back up technology.
**The General Knowledge Test looks at elements of Unix and NT, networking,
DOT 5.x & 6.x (Normal Commands only), and some break/fix scenarios.
**The Configuration Test examines just that: Can you configure a filer,
storage shelf, and basic back up system? Volumes, qtrees, quotas, security
styles, VIFs, snapshots, autosupport, OS upgrade, dump/restore, etc.
Nothing tricky in these tests. Just the fundamentals.
Tricky comes at the Professional level where troubleshooting and performance
tuning come into play.
How to prepare? Take the Hardware and ONTAP System Administration classes
and DO THE LABS. Keep up with the NOW site and toasters (you guys are a
great source of material ;->) and you should have no problem. Oh, and there
is a grid covering all of the above in greater detail on the NOW site.
Peter W. Fairchild
Technical Certification Program Manager
Educational Services
NetworkAppliance, Inc.
Desk (408) 822-3320
Cell (408) 877-1596
-----Original Message-----
From: Honeycutt, Michael [mailto:MichaelHoneycutt@NC.SLR.com]
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 5:23 AM
To: 'toasters@mathworks.com'
Subject: NetAppCertTest
Has anyone taken the NetApp Associate cert test since the move to Sylvan
Prometric? If so, can you give me a hint to what kind of questions are
asked. Thanks.
Michael Honeycutt
MCSE/A+
NT/Exchange Engineer
IBM Global Services
