The Red Hat Certified Specialist in High Availability Clustering exam (EX436) is a performance-based test used to assess the skills and knowledge needed to implement high-availability services on Red Hat Enterprise Linux using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability Add-on.

By passing this exam, you become a Red Hat Certified Specialist and can apply your credential toward earning a certification as a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA®).

This exam is based on the Pacemaker component of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High-Availability Add-On, Version 4.2.

Audience for this exam

• Experienced Linux® system administrators responsible for the planning, deployment, and management of multiple physical or virtualized servers.
• Linux system administrators who want to demonstrate competency in configuring and managing highly available failover clusters.
• A Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) interested in earning a Red Hat Certified Specialist or an RHCA credential.

Prerequisites for this exam

Exam candidates must:

• Red Hat recommends that candidates become a Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) or a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) before attempting this exam but neither is required.
• Have Red Hat High Availability Clustering (RH436) or equivalent experience.
• Understand that real-world system administration experience is also an important aspect of preparation for the exam.
• Review exam objectives for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in High Availability Clustering exam.

Preparation

Red Hat encourages all candidates for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in High Availability Clustering exam (EX436) to consider taking the Red Hat High Availability Clustering (RH436) training course. Attendance in this class is not required, so one can choose to take just the exam. Many successful candidates who have come to class already possessing substantial skills and knowledge have reported that the class made a positive difference for them.

While attending Red Hat courses can be an important part of one's preparation to take exams, 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 system administration for 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. Candidates perform a number of routine system administration tasks and are 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.

This exam consists of one section lasting 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 section scores. Red Hat does not report performance on individual items, nor will it provide additional information upon request.

Recommended next exam or course

• Red Hat Enterprise High Availability Clustering (RH436)
• Red Hat Performance Tuning: Linux in Physical, Virtual, and Cloud (RH442)

Study points for the exam

To help you prepare, review the exam objectives which highlights 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 the tasks listed below:

• Configure a high-availability cluster
  • Install high availability clustering
  • Install and configure a high availability cluster either manually or using Ansible
  • Configure cluster quorum options
• Configure cluster fencing
  • Configure standard fence mechanisms such as fence_ipmilan
  • Test fencing configurations using standard tools
  • Configure fencing so that any cluster member can fence any other cluster member
• Configure cluster logging and monitoring
  • Configure cluster logging so that each node system activity is logged to a separate file
  • Configure cluster logging so that logging messages will be forwarded to journald
• Configure cluster monitoring
  • Create and configure a cluster monitoring resource
  • Log cluster events and send notification emails to a specific address
  • Configure cluster alerts
• Configure a clustered fail-over service
  • Create and configure a cluster highly available service
  • Configure a specific resource group
  • Configure services to use shared storage
  • Configure services to use a specific IP
• Configure cluster service behavior
  • Restrict where services run
  • Configure service failover behavior
• Configure storage
  • Configure an iSCSI initiator
  • Create and configure shared storage using provided iSCSI volumes
  • Configure multipath access to shared storage
  • Configure shared LVM devices
  • Configure highly available LVM devices
• Configure GFS2 filesystems
  • Create GFS2 filesystems on logical volumes
  • Configure GFS filesystems to be shared between multiple nodes simultaneously
  • Manage GFS2 filesystems
  • Add journals to existing GFS2 filesystems
• Grow a GFS2 filesystem

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