Book Review: Mastering the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) Exam

Luca Berton is a known personality in the community for his work on Ansible . He has written many best-selling books, such as Ansible for VMware by Examples, Ansible for Kubernetes by Examples, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, and Hands-on Ansible Automation. His experience in automation and Red Hat technologies is well reflected in this book.

The book introduces the reader to the value of RHCE, exam methods, and curriculum, thus encouraging individuals to work more sincerely in the IT world. Although I always refer them to the official Red Hat training for their Red Hat certification exams, reading this book will definitely boost their confidence for the RHCE exam. Luca, in addition, gives a clear outline of different types of certifications with Red Hat and career tracks, which is useful for anyone thinking of pursuing a Red Hat learning path.

It covers some of the essential basics of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), taking concepts from the core and then gradually building toward system administration, which was enjoyable. Chapters regarding logging and storage are really nicely structured and written.

The actual RHCE material starts with automation. Luca does a great job introducing Ansible, covering all the basic concepts along with practical guides. The book proceeds with writing Ansible playbooks and small automation tasks for Linux as well as Windows environments. The sections on Ansible continue with managing networks, storage, files, services, security, and more, all for automation-related tasks.

One of the best chapters of the book is the troubleshooting and performance optimization. These are important topics for any RHCE candidate, and Luca explains them in a way that is easy to understand and apply.

A key component of RHCE is its hands-on, performance-based testing. This book includes lab exercises that should not be skipped. Completing the labs based on the guides provided many times will significantly enhance the chances of success in the exam.

Big thanks to Luca Berton for creating such an excellent resource for the learning community. Thanks to Tushar and BPB Publications for this book copy.

Highly recommended for anyone preparing for RHCE!

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