Passed my OpenVMS System Administration Exam today

[Phillip Thayer]

I decided to take the exam for HP OpenVMS CSA and passed it today. That makes two exams passed in two days. Yesterday I passed the HP-UX CSA exam. Not bad for an old guy like me. Although my background for the last 25 years has been exclusively OpenVMS (which means passing this exam is not really a big deal) I am converting to HP-UX and learning fun new stuff. YTou never appreciate how easy it is to remember commands on VMS until you go to Unix. Wow, nothing is just plain english.

Anyway, Onward and upward from here.

Phil

[Peter Zeiszler]

Congrats on passing both tests. I also support both sides and also SAN. Since you have HP-UX you should also touch on Solaris and linux just to get an idea of those flavors. Its a real challenge to type the correct command in the correct window.

[Robert Gezelter]

Phillip,

Congratulations on passing the tests!

- Bob Gezelter, CSA, CSE, http://www.rlgsc.com

[Karl Rohwedder]

At the annual DECUS symposium here in Germany this year we had the opportunity to try the exams for free. So I took my chance (together with a lot of poeple from HP) and made three in a row. 20 years of VMS practice is suffice to pass, but it was a nice experience, which reminded me of my school days...

regards Kalle

[Andy Bustamante]

Congratulations on stepping up to the exams. I tested for the ASE when Compaq came in and audited our reseller status, they gave us six months to fill certification requirements.

If you've been working for 25 years you're in good shape to keep testing.

Andy Bustamante
Alpha/OpenVMS ASE

[Travis Craig]

Congratulations, Phil. As I've always said, UNIX is VMS with the command language encrypted. (More so since the introduction of PIPE, I suppose.)

--Travis

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Congratulations. Finally certified.

I remember a Unix sysadmin in '90 that said that Unix is very simple. He wanted to prove it by constructing a compound statement of at least 5 pipes that would do the same a certain VMS command (I don't remember which one). 30 minutes later it was still not working ...

Wim

[Ian Miller.]

Did you notice any differences in the style or type of questions asked between the VMS and the HPUX exam? I don't know if the same people hp construct both exams.

[Steven Clementi]

Excellent work Philip. Keep up the pace and go all the way!!!


Steven

[Stanley F Quayle]

I took the certfication exams when they first came out (back in the Compaq days). They seemed pretty easy.

At the recent Bootcamp, I took the v7 to V8.2 upgrade exam. It was tough! If you're not up on the new features in DCL and some Integrity sysadmin stuff, you won't pass. Fortunately, I did.

Congratulations. We need more VMS certified people. No matter how old they are...

[Phillip Thayer]

Ian,

I think Admin questions are Admin questions. I don't think I am supposed to say anything about what was on the tests or not. All I can say is it was not as easy as I thought it would be on either test. There were questions that were written in a way to make a person really think about the answer. But, from what I have seen of the answers you have posted here you should have no problem passing the VMS test.

Phil

[Phillip Thayer]

Thanks for all the congratulations. I'm going to keep pushing onward with the tests and crtifications.

(Ian, It was tounge-in-cheek about you passing the test. I know you've already passed all the VMS tests. :) )

Phil