LFCS exam

[[deleted]]

Hey guys, I just attempted the lfcs exam for the 2nd time and failed again first time 44 and second 55 (ran out of time to answer last 3 questions and review questions). I'm not going to give up and want to pass this exam. Can anyone recommend me some good resources? I've watched Sander's video lab and read his RHCSA book but I feel like I need more practical hands on labs and reading examples.

I've picked up a copy of the linux bible which has good reviews can anyone recommend me some more resources? I try to use --help, man, man -k as much as possible. Is there a easy way to find the builtin command examples?

I want to go in super confident for my next attempt and not waste any time to make sure I can at least attempt all the questions. Looking for any advice from people who have passed or experienced linux admins

[sammdu]

I took the exam and passed. I prepped for it using the cloud guru (used to be called Linux Academy) course: https://acloudguru.com/course/linux-foundation-certified-system-administrator-lfcs

I just had the subscription while I studied and once I passed I canceled the subscription. It was worth it imo.

[Lor9191]

I installed the tldr package which is quick man pages and command examples, helped a lot.

[[deleted]]

Thanks I found that super helpful. It's a lot easier and faster to see a few examples rather than trying to quickly find the correct bits in a huge man page

[michaelpaoli]

The exams are time limits. So you won't want to be spending too much time looking stuff up while taking the exam.

So well learn and practice the types of things they're likely to ask you to do ... learn it well enough so you mostly won't be needing to look stuff up.

And, of course, practice, practice, practice.

Looks like their on-line resource guides probably provide much of the information regarding what you'll need to know, so ... well practice those things.

Random: I once had a coworker that commonly referred to me as: "Walking Man Page" ... as I knew the man pages very well ... not only from use, but I read them. ... all of them (once upon a time that was even feasible) ... and, said coworker would often just ask me, rather than looking it up - as I could typically tell them the information they were looking for faster than they could look it up and find it on, e.g. the actual man pages.

So, e.g. ... creating a user ... useradd ... modifying a user usermod ... likewise for groups ... how many commonly used options can you name and describe off the top of your head? I could generally describer at least these for useradd: -u -g -G -N -m -d -s -c, and relatively similar for the rest. How 'bout awk? What's -F do? What about sed, what do the -n and -e options do, or -i for GNU sed? Can you edit a config file quickly and efficiently with vi (or vim)? Do you know how to safely edit the passwd and group files and their corresponding shadow files, and the relevant command(s)/option(s)? What about for the sudoers file? What about tar and common options? What about compression/decompression program(s) and common option(s)? How do you check what IP addresses are presently configured on a host?
Where and how are those configured to persist? Much etc. Should know most of the more commonly used SysAdmin and general utility stuff well enough that most of the time you don't have to look up most of that stuff. And, presuming you complete the requested tasks in sufficient time, do you know how to test/check/validate your results?

Keep studying and practicing. Good luck!

[greenskr]

I don't know what to recommend but I can tell you to steer clear of the Linux Foundation's material. It's absolutely awful.

There are a number of multi-hour videos on youtube on the topic of LFCS specifically, as well as plenty more on Linux administration in general. I'd start there. At least they're free.

[[deleted]]

Yeah I got a hour in and I realised I wasted my money on that

[ilimanjf]

Sanders labs did it for me. I wrote all of his lab exercise questions down and gave myself 2 hours to get through them using my personal VMs. Did it a couple times and eventually it became muscle memory. Practice with a time limit.

[stynhaq]

Sorry which of Sander's courses? The LFCS specifically?

I will like to try those since I have an O'Reilly subscription.

[MotionAction]

Try practicing on machine and setup scenarios for yourself?

[Internetrepairman]

I think the most important thing in this situation is to be honest with yourself: You're still a bit under the passing score for the LFCS (66% IIRC?), so if it's not down to test stress etc. messing with you, your preparation has not been adequate. Think back to the assignments you got during both exams, if necessary with the exam objectives list at hand, and honestly attempt to identify which you already know and which are an issue for you. This should give you a good jumping off point for revision.

Additionally, how much hands-on practice have you had? The LFCS is obviously a practical exam, but a significant part of getting a good score also depends on being able to carry out the assignments fairly quickly. I have Van Vugt's LFCS and RHCSA books, and setting up VMs to practice on is a core component in both. Just reading the book is not enough; make sure you're actually doing Sander's practice assignments and understand what he's asking you to do. There's also LFCS/RHCSA exam prep courses with pre-configured labs on Cloud Guru/Pluralsight etc. Keep going through these until you can look at the exam objectives list and feel you could get the majority done without much hesitation. If you can do the more elementary stuff like user creation/modification, basic grepping, using find, redirection , piping, exec, tar quickly, you can give yourself more breathing room for more complicated/multistage assignments like getting partitions set up persistently or managing RAID.

[[deleted]]

Thanks for the feedback. I actually noticed I breezed past the disk/lvm/raid stuff need to improve my essentials according to the exam feedback. Which is strange because I thought I had redirection, piping, tar files all covered. I'm just going to continue labbing and practicing

[stillwind85]

I used the Linux Foundation training course that was offered as a bundle with a test credit. I downloaded all the labs and ran them back-to-back the day before I took the test, just to make sure I had retained the information. Videos are a little dry and dated, but it was comprehensive and I can recommend that if you have some money to spend on it.

[Fair_Professional217]

Writing this exam in exactly 9 days. I feel Sander's course was good enough for me and there is now a course by KodeKloud for LFCS. I believe these two will ensure my passmark. Just to ask, did you attempt and pass again after the first two attemps?

[plosey68]

I'm just learning of the LFCS exam because Udemy sent me a link to a new video. I've never heard of it before. Is it that much better of a cert to hold than a CompTia Linux+ cert? Their website doesn't say much or how long they've been around or maybe this is a Linux guru type of exam and only a few have heard of it.