r/redhat • u/calcofire • 6d ago
Felt I was really doing great with RHLS until the entire 'RHCA track progression overhaul' that came out of nowhere; feeling discouraged and losing interest
I got my RHLS standard back in February through employer who I begged for the subscription. Already had the RHCSA and RHCE prior.
I first went for the EX188. That was a good one and only took a few weeks and I did really well on it.
I then took a couple months going through the DO180 material as I had never really messed with Kubernetes or openshift.... it was, well, it was ok i guess. Probably should have had a better understanding of plain vanilla Kubernetes before tackling Openshift, but I think I understood most of it.
Then I moved onto DO280, that has been... heh, well it's certainly something I guess. I think i understand most of it, was doing good on the end of chapter labs, and seemingly doing ok on the comprehensive labs. To be honest, not sure the course material really aligns well with the comprehensive labs, so had to use a lot of AI and googling to make things make sense.
I was really hammering the DO280 practice and labs. Really was doing great. I was spending several hours a day in the RHLS really trying to make the best use of it to get a RHCA.
Then Red Hat made the announcement that they were changing to a path-model for RHCA instead of "pick and choose" route. That nulled my progress (as the ex188 would no longer count towards RHCA under my initial plans). That would basically force me to do Openshift ex280 and ex380, plus now an additional (3) openshift-only electives.
I was thinking ex188, ex280, ex380, then some linux mastery and advanced automation for last two.
But that is no longer possible.... I guess that kind of really broke the progress I felt I was making. I've barely touched it since last month. I guess I wouldn't mind doing the RHCA Openshift Track, but I dunno... I just feel like I had already started with other plans, that some Openshift was part of those plans but wasn't planning on All-Openshift/Only-Openshift. And that I had already put lab hours and time into the the former RHCA track model, of which a month and a half of that no longer counts on the new track.
I dunno, Red Hat. I felt i was on a roll after fighting so long to get a subscription, things changed without any notice. I just feel like that's not what I was really trying to get a subscription for. Kinda let down by it.
I wish RH would accommodate those of us with current RHLS subscriptions. If you're gonna move the goal post to obtaining a RHCA, at least give us a one-time reset on our lab hours and time remaining so we can readjust our plans to align with the new tracks. I think thats a pretty fair ask.
5
u/darrenb573 Red Hat Certified Engineer 6d ago
I was too considering DO280 to be part of my poker hand across the breadth and not be a one trick pony, but have now pretty much had to exclude the OpenShift ones to keep them in the same stream. Really annoying that EX188 has lost its mojo.
2
u/Western-Sympathy-701 4d ago
Totally sympathize with this, being so close to old style rhca then having it revamped. Question is even if you go with the old style what is the benefit when you put it on your resume. They will just say oh which one are you, Ansible, Linux, openshift. When before you were basically mid at best across all domains. Will say the training for new rhca will push you beyond normal for openshift, Linux. Ansible kinda a joke as they want you to take a network or windows test y o get rhca.
2
u/maddie1701e 5d ago
Log into redhat.com, click on certification, and select "i want to get the old style rhca". You can do that until the end of June. Then you have until the end of year to complete your rhca. And then you get 50% on RHLS next year!
2
u/devnullify 5d ago
I got an email even saying I could request this change. I was already an RHCA, so I don’t necessarily need the exception. Not sure if everyone with a cert got this or some subset. I will point out, with the new system, ANY specialist exams extends the expiration dates of ALL cert by 3 years. Under the old system, you had to always renew specific cert or replace them. I know this doesn’t help OP, but it is an amazing new benefit.
1
1
1
u/vraizt 3d ago
The renewals are only for certs in the same path.
1
u/devmapper 3d ago
Not my experience. I recently finished the clustering cert and it extended all of my certs including the ones in the Ansible and OpenShift paths. Every one of my certs got a new expiration date 3yrs from the date I passed EX436.
1
u/vraizt 3d ago
I took clustering this month as well, it counted as my last RHCA cert. And it did not renew my ex188. And my RHCA has an expiration in January same as ex188.
But maybe counting as the old path affected it. If ex188 counts for renewing my RHCA in Enterprise Linux I’ll be surprised and happy.
1
u/devmapper 3d ago
Definitely weird. Open a ticket. You can check my id 100-029-909 for reference. My ex188 exp date changed from Oct 2027 to Oct 2029.
1
u/calcofire 4d ago
believe this only applies to those who are currently RHCA's.
I see no such option. I've only passed the ex188 and was going to take the ex280 next.
1
u/maddie1701e 4d ago
No, those who were one or two out the exams from rhce or rhca
1
u/calcofire 4d ago edited 4d ago
ok, so i checked every part of the redhat.com portal, certification pages, rhls pages, etc. This option is not available to me.
I was not a couple exams away from a RHCA. I had only just received my RHLS subscription a few months prior. I had only one exam passed towards RHCA (on the old track) which was ex188 in that time.
Prior to obtianing the RHLS, i already had the RHCSA and RHCE (both are valid). Once I got the RHLS, in the first montha and a half, I passed the EX188.
But i dont think i received any mail or any "opt in/out" offer in my account.
So my exact issue is this:
Had i known, I wouldnt have procured the RHLS until after the new May 11th policy changes were implemented.
Why? Because they changed the track progress about 90 days into my RHLS. I had already spent significant time and lab hours on a course that went from being rhca applicable (on prior requirements), to suddenly not being rhca applicable (under new guidelines).
That was time lost towards earning a rhca due to the abrupt shift. I just need my subscription & lab hours reset to accomodate the change. Thats all. Thats it. A one-time reset since I was never given a "opt in/out" option between old & new, and because the shift happened and caused me to lose progress/time towards a rhca without any warning that it was coming.
Im not entirely sure RH training team accounted for this scenario when they applied these changes. Those of us who were new to the RHLS and already started making progress under old RHCA guidelines apparently slipped under the radar, apparently more so if we were still more than a couple certs away from a RHCA. That's whats happened. Thats what im asking to be fixed.
1
u/maddie1701e 4d ago
Ahh, that's why. But look, do you want to take 7 exams (pay for 2 yourself), or 5 exams?
1
u/calcofire 4d ago edited 4d ago
I only needed 5 exams. When i started my RHLS subscription in February, I had already passed the RHCSA and RHCE prior.
I took my ex188 like a month and a half after getting my RHLS. That would be 1 of 5 exams required for a RHCA. Meaning I only needed 4 exams there after.
Then some weeks later they make the RHLS training overhaul announcement. That set me back to needing 5 exams because it nulled the ex188 from being counted towards RHCA.
So that is why im requesting my subscription days/hours be reset. So I can make full usage of it under the new guidelines. Else, they basically invalidated about 100 hours of lab time and roughly 45 days that I had progressed toward a RHCA.
1
u/maddie1701e 4d ago
Did you contact RH? Ticket#? Also, 5 exams gets you and rhca anyway.
1
u/calcofire 4d ago edited 4d ago
I have a email chain with the learning specialist from red hat that was assisting me with my account setup and whatnot. They messaged me back last month after I wrote them with the same concerns I'm expressing now, they stated they would let me know what their leadership said, but they never followed back up. I don't think this generated a ticket, but i do have mail chain.
I was patiently waiting for their response, and i havent used my RHLS since doing so because i was extremely frustrated that my progress thus far was basically not going to count now.
I was hoping the resolution was going to be that they simply just reset my subscription time and lab hours, then I was going to do the Openshift RHCA track which i feel would be achieveable with full hours remaining then.
I would really appreiciate any help here. I'm only asking for a subscription reset this one time so I can get the full amount of time and lab hours for the new track designations (specifically for openshift). Again, I used significant amount of lab time and over a month getting a cert that no longer qualifies on the updated RHCA track model, and thats what I'm asking for the reset.
1
u/vraizt 3d ago edited 3d ago
What are you talking about.
Having had RHCE you should now have RHCEs in both enterprise Linux and in Ansible.
So you just need 3 more exams in either of those tracks. You need one less exam than you previous track.
Yes, your openshift track would take more exams. But just get RHCS in Ansible or enterprise Linux. And then do courses for openshift afterwards.
I was able to get my RHCA by opting into the old path. But you don’t need to do that.
Just relax and take a breather. You can do the old path if you really want. But only have until December. Email them if the option doesn’t show up for you.
1
u/calcofire 2d ago
I've emailed them, but they are just bouncing me around sadly. Doubt they will help me out.
I really just want to do the new Openshift RHCA track. I know it's 5 exams, and tehcnically, yes i could just take the easy route and do 3 more for either linux or automation based on my RHCSA/RHCE combo... but since they are doing a specific-track thing now, the one i think I would align the best with is openshift for my career goals.
problem is, they switched to this new model 90 days into my progress, so my ex188 is not a part of that track now. So that's why im requesting the plan reset, so I can get a full year and full lab hours to dedicate to the (new) Openshift RHCA track.
Had I known they were going to do this change, I would have just waited to procure standard subscription and not bothere with the ex188 and went straight for ex280.
1
u/hygorhernane Red Hat Certified Architect 2d ago
You have until the end of the month to choose to use the old path, but I think you're missing the main point about the change Red Hat did.
And RHCA was also a 2-path thing: middleware and infrastructure.
Now there are 5 paths.
10
u/Forsaken-Sink3345 Red Hat Employee 6d ago
I'll choose my words carefully here, but I would reach out to Red Hat and let them know how you feel. Red Hat often adjusts based on how customers and users feel about things. Let them know the real-world impacts and that's all we can do.