The Linux Professional Institute is preparing the latest version of its certification test for January, with some help from Novell, which of course, has a long history of its own in certification and education efforts with the venerable Certified Novell Engineer program.
LPI plans to offer the LPI Certification Level 3 (LPIC-3) in January 2007, which will be the highest level of Linux certification offered by the group. LPIC-3 is being touted as an enterprise-level Linux certification, and will require test-takers to have completed the LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 certifications to qualify. LPIC-1 is considered a Junior Level Administrator certification, and requires working knowledge of the Linux command line, basic Linux workstation and server maintenance (backup, restore, shutdown and reboot tasks) and LAN skills. LPIC-2 , called Intermediate Level, requires knowledge of FTP and Web servers, firewalls and Internet gateways, and mixed-environment (Windows, Unix and Linux) management.
LPI says Novell helped shape the LPIC-3 as a senior-level certification, which will deal with larger enterprise technologies and issues such as LDAP, Samba and NSF, as well as enterprise capacity planning, and core network services planning and troubleshooting.
LIPC-3 was given a beta run in October at a LinuxWorld event in the Netherlands, and will debut worldwide next month, with training and educational classes, which lead to the exam. The first North American LPIC-3 exam will take place at Novell's BrainShare conference in March 2007.
While Novell had its hand in advising on LPIC-3, the LPI says its programs are distro-neutral, and offer a general certification of Linux skills and knowledge which apply to all flavors of the operating system. The LPI says it has certified over 35,000 Linux professionals. And the LPIC is no rubber stamp either, as the test has a 35/65 pass-fail, ratio, according to the organization.