The Red Hat RHCE (Red Hat
Certified Engineer) is a mid to
advanced level certification for
IT professionals who are able to:
install and configure Red Hat
Linux, understand limitations of
hardware, configure basic
networking and file systems for a
network, configure the X Window
System, perform essential Red Hat
Linux system administration,
configure basic security for a
network server, set up, and manage
common enterprise networking (IP)
services for the organization,
carry out serverdiagnostics and
troubleshooting.
The RHCE certification emerged
in January 1999 and has become the
premiere Linux certification. As
well, they dropped the multiple
choice portion of the exam and
expanded the length of one the
sections of the lab exam. There is
no specific prerequisite for the
RHCE, although a candidate can now
take the Red Hat Certified
Technician certification on the
way to the RHCE. As well, a
candidate should be ready from a
technical point of view for
professional responsibilities in
setting up, configuring, and
managing a Red Hat Linux server
running common enterprise
networking services and security.
Job roles of those pursuing
this certification typically
include: technician, system
administrator, network
administrator, system engineer,
web engineer, and developer.
Here is what Red Hat says about
how long a certification stays
valid: “The validity period for
all RHCEs and RHCTs is now
officially pegged to the release
of the Enterprise product
commercially available at the time
certification was earned, and
certification shall be current
until after one (1) major release
of the Enterprise product.
Certificates earned on Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 3 will be current
until the release of Red Hat
Enterprise 5. All RHCEs earned on
Red Hat Linux 7.3 or prior will be
considered current until the
release of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 4. All RHCEs and RHCTs
earned on Red Hat Linux 8.0 and 9
will remain current until the
release of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 5. Validity and current
status of an RHCE certificate will
continue to be verified at
Certification Central.”
