Red Hat Certified Architect

Red Hat's Enterprise Architect courses provide in-depth, hands-on training for senior Linux system administrators responsible for the deployment and management of many systems in large enterprise environments. Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) is a capstone certification to Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT), the most recognized, acclaimed, and mature certifications in the Linux space.

A Red Hat Certified Architect will have proven the skills required to design and manage a complete infrastructure for large complex environments. RHCA competencies span servers running operations, back-end databases and storage in the datacenter, corporate desktops, and beyond.

The full RHCA curriculum consists of four advanced 400-level Enterprise Architect courses and an upper-level security course. Only current RHCEs are eligible to be certified as a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA), while anyone can attend the courses in this track. Current RHCEs will obtain RHCA certification upon successfully passing all five Expertise Exams. The courses are not required as the tests can be taken separately but they are strongly recommended.

Words of Wisdom: Florian Brand
In September 2005, Florian Brand, a Red Hat instructor based in Stuttgart, Germany, was the first person to earn Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) certification.

Read more about his experience.

RHCA exams

Each course in the RHCA curriculum can be followed by a Certificate of expertise exam. Expertise exams may be taken immediately following the corresponding course, or at any time. The exams are performance-based and test skills of the job role competencies covered in the prior four days of hands-on training. Passing the expertise exam earns the candidate an Certificate of Expertise to his or her RHCE credential for that specific enterprise skillset. Currently exams can be taken only at specific locations.

For the RHCA certificate student must be current RHCE and pass all 5 exams.

Required exam Recommended course
EX333 RHS333
EX401 RH401
EX423 or EX318 RH423 or RH318
EX436 RH436
EX442 RH442