305-300

The LPI 305-300 exam, part of the LPIC-3 Linux Enterprise Professional Certification, focuses on high-availability, clustering, and storage. The main points covered are quite extensive, but here's a breakdown of the key areas:

I. High Availability (HA):

• Concepts and Principles: Understanding the concepts of redundancy, failover, failback, and high availability solutions. This includes understanding uptime requirements, Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR).
• Clustering Technologies: Deep knowledge of clustering technologies and their implementations. This often includes specific examples like Pacemaker/Corosync and their configuration. Expect questions on resource management within a cluster environment.
• Monitoring and Management: Tools and techniques for monitoring the health and performance of a HA cluster. Knowing how to troubleshoot failures and maintain high availability is crucial.
• Different HA Approaches: Understanding various approaches to HA, such as active-passive, active-active, and shared-nothing architectures, and their trade-offs.
• Specific HA Solutions: Expect detailed knowledge of at least one specific HA solution, with practical configuration and troubleshooting skills.

II. Clustering:

• Cluster Architecture: Understanding different cluster architectures, their strengths, and weaknesses. This includes understanding the roles of nodes, shared storage, and network infrastructure.
• Cluster Software: In-depth knowledge of cluster management software. This usually focuses on open-source solutions but might touch upon commercial options.
• Storage in Clusters: How storage is handled in a clustered environment, including shared storage solutions and their implications for data consistency and availability. Understanding shared disk access mechanisms is vital.
• Networking in Clusters: The role of networking in cluster communication and failover. This likely covers high-availability networking technologies and configurations.
• Virtualization and Clustering: How virtualization technologies integrate with clustering solutions to improve resource utilization and flexibility.

III. Storage:

• Storage Technologies: A strong understanding of different storage technologies, including SAN (Storage Area Network), NAS (Network Attached Storage), iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and NVMe. The exam tests your knowledge beyond just the basic concepts.
• Storage Management: Knowledge of storage management tools and techniques, including partitioning, logical volume management (LVM), and RAID configurations. Expect specific commands and configurations.
• File Systems: In-depth knowledge of various file systems, their strengths and weaknesses, and their suitability for different applications. This often includes journaling file systems and their impact on data integrity.
• Backup and Recovery: Strategies for backing up and recovering data in a high-availability environment. Understanding different backup methods and their respective strengths and weaknesses is essential.
• Performance Tuning: Understanding how to optimize storage performance and troubleshoot storage bottlenecks.

IV. Security in HA and Clustered Environments:

• Security Considerations: Addressing security challenges specific to HA and cluster environments. This might involve securing cluster communication, managing access control, and protecting shared storage.

The exam is very hands-on. You will need practical experience configuring and troubleshooting these technologies. Simply knowing the theory is not sufficient to pass. Make sure to practice using the command line and configuring these systems in a lab environment. The specific technologies and distributions covered might vary slightly depending on the exam version, so check the official LPI exam objectives for the most up-to-date information.