I recently passed the LPI (Linux Professional Institute) DevOps Tools certification exam.
It wasn't actually my first time with the exam - I took it a few days after it was first released just to see what it is like. I didn't pass, but I came close, so I made a note to take it again when there is an actual course on at Linux Academy.
Lo and behold, Linux Academy did released a course on it during the middle of this year, so after I passed the Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation exam, I immediately went and started the training. After nearly two months of study, I took the test and passed.
Observations
The exam covers most of the things outlined in LPI objectives - and then some. For you to get through the exam, it would help to have a basic experience in at least the following:
- Linux
- Configuration management or automation language
- Containers (Docker), image builds (packer) and container orchestration
- SDLC (software development lifecycle) and CI/CD (Jenkins)
- Local development with git and related environment tooling (Vagrant)
- Deployments (such as blue/green and A/B)
- Monitoring and logging
- Software architecture (SOA, microservices, and monoliths)
- Web services (REST)
Personally, I think that it should at least be two exams, broken out into the following:
- Software Development - Software Engineering, Configuration Management, Container Management
- Software Deployments - Container Orchestration, Machine Deployment, Service Operations
Putting aside that, though, I think this is pretty fair coverage of the current DevOps tooling in the field. I personally have worked with or experimented every one of objectives - with the exception of Prometheus, but even that I am going to touch on with my OpenShift prep.
Conclusion
If you are systems administrator looking to get started on DevOps or a software developer who is looking to expand their tool set, this is an excellent test to study for and pass. As with all certifications, it will not make you an expert, but it will give you a good start in your DevOps activity. I look forward to future iterations of the exam.