August 30, 2016 | Phil Watts
Powerful Automation That Transforms Complex Infrastructure Into Code
At REAN Cloud, we are big users of and partners with Chef to automate the configuration management of our EC2 instances for our customers on Amazon Web Services. We were excited to learn about the announcement of the Chef Certification Program at the Chef Conference held in July 2016 and would like to review the initial offering of this certification program.
A Review of the Chef Certification Program
- Administered online
- Various formats for the tests
- Badge-based certification
- Work-in-progress, more to come
Why Get Certified?
Chef is a powerful automation platform that transforms complex infrastructure into code, bringing servers and services to life. Whether operating in the cloud, on-premises, or a hybrid, Chef automates how applications are configured, deployed, and managed across the network, no matter its size. With many companies and enterprises using Chef there is a high demand for skilled Chef practitioners.
Sharing your Chef badges and certification on your resume, CV or LinkedIn profile is a great way to share your expertise.
Chef Certifications are completed online and come in various formats, from multiple choice to working on a lab project. The Certifications are badge based, which means that in order to obtain the Chef Development certification, you need to earn three different badges each with their own different test.
Chef Certifications Tracks
Each certification has its own track, where you have to earn all of the badges in order to get the certification. For example, the Chef Certified Developer certification consists of three specific badges; Chef Fluency, Cookbook Development, and Extending Chef. The Extending Chef Badge is not available as of this time, but will be coming out soon.
The other two certifications are for developing Chef on Windows and for Architecting on Chef.
Chef Certification Pricing
Chef is offering discounted prices for the first year of the program.
Chef Fluency is $75
The advanced badges are priced at $175.
Chef Certification Formats
Separate tests are required for each badge.
Fluency exam consists of multiple choice questions and you have 45 minutes to complete the exam
The Cookbook Development exam is 90 minutes which includes both a multiple choice section and a lab
The basic Chef Fluency badge is a 45-minute multiple choice test. The Cookbook Development badge has a multiple choice test and is followed by a performance assessment lab. You would be working on a given problem that is non-automated and needs you to show your expertise in using Chef to provide an automated approach. According to Chef, in order to pass this section, you will be composing a recipe, packaging it in a cookbook, testing it, and verifying intent. You must pass both sections of the test in order to pass the exam, but you also must pass the multiple choice section before you even get to try out the performance assessment, so make sure you study!
In subsequent blogs, we will review the preparation for exams of the available Chef proficiency badges. If you require assistance with getting Chef running in your environment, or optimizing your present Chef implementation, please reach out to REĀN Cloud for an support.
To learn more about Chef Certifications, visit Chef’s training site at: https://training.chef.io/certification
Post by Phil Watts