Jamf Class Conversions

[Yebubbleman]

Please forgive me if I've posted in the wrong forums or if this topic has been posted elsewhere in an obvious place.

I remember hearing that with the transition from Casper Suite 9 to JAMF Pro 10, the following JAMF certification courses would make the following transitions:

CCT ---> JAMF 200
CCA ---> JAMF 300
CJA ---> JAMF 350
CCE ---> JAMF 400

Does anyone have any idea when this will take place? Will the certifications themselves remain the same? How about their titles? I took and passed the CCT for Casper Suite 9 a while back and am thinking of taking JAMF 200 just so I can start over with JAMF Pro 10, but I'm curious as to the timing of these changes and the certifications the classes will then reward. I have a training pass through the beginning of May, so I can't really wait forever. Any insight would be seriously helpful! Thanks!

[dustydorey]

Hello @Yebubbleman,
You are correct on your summation of the course name changes.   With the rebrand of our products from the Casper Suite to Jamf Pro it was prudent for us to also change our course names as well.   While undergoing that process we decided to create differentiation between the courses and certifications.  We also hoped to reduce the alphabet soup of course and certification names.   

The result of this change is the courses are rebranded to the following: 
Jamf 200 Course (formerly CCT)
Jamf 300 Course (formerly CCA)
Jamf 400 Course (formerly CCE)

Jamf 350 Course (formerly CJA)


The certifications also required updating to reflect the rebrand.
Jamf Certified Tech (formerly Certified Casper Technician - CCT)
Jamf Certified Admin (formerly Certified Casper Administrator - CCA)
Jamf Certified Expert (formerly Certified Casper Expert - CCE)

Jamf Certified Server Admin (formerly Certified JSS Administrator - CJA)

The timing for these changes coincided with the release of Jamf Pro 10. I’m happy to report that we began teaching globally on both the updated course material and Jamf Pro version 10 Monday October 23rd. This was the week before public availability and coincided with the Jamf Nation User Conference. So if you’re looking to get certified on Jamf Pro version 10 there is no wait.

The Jamf website has been updated to reflect the new course names and we’ll see Jamf Nation updated to reflect the changes soon. For the time being you'll need to use the former course names for Jamf Nation enrollments until that can be updated in the near future but all classes will be taught with the updated course material and on Jamf Pro 10.

Regards,
Dusty Dorey
Director, Education Services
Jamf

[emmayche]

Will there be any formal "upgrade" path for certifications? Having gotten CCT and CCA - excuse me, JCT and JCA - on 9.96, it seems like a bit of overkill to have to re-take both classes for JAMF 10.

(I also want new polo shirts. :) )

[boberito]

@emmayche if I remember right, you're good for 2 full versions of JamfPro...so 9.96 would get to you Jamf Pro 11.

[Chris_Hafner]

Sweet! Great info. Now on to booking my 400 course!

[RobbieReichard]

I just took the 400 course and it WAS A JOKE. The challenges that you take had just about had nothing to do with with anything thing they are training you on. You learned how to do everything by scripting. If you are not good at scripting do not, and I repeat, DO NOT take this course. Spending $2500 and travel is not worth it if you end up failing. They make it sound like you did awesome on all of your challenges and then SURPRISE, you got a 53%, you failed. I have never, ever failed any exam that I was trained on. I have earned many Certs and this class is a joke. I am sure its awesome if you have a lot of scripting under your belt and if you do you will most likely pass. The trainers are cool and down to earth but its a total slap in the face when they give you your actual score. Why do the course if the challenges have nothing at all to do with what they are training you on. I assumed that the challenges would be what you learned in class. Not a chance. It sucks because my company wants me to be a CCE. Now I have to spend a year learning everything from heredocs to advanced for loops and scripting the server installations.

[donmontalvo]

I wouldn’t take it that way. A good number of people fail the tougher courses on the first time.

If your company gives a crap about you they will invest in you. Your boss should appreciate the time and effort spent was an investment in your training.

You’ll pass it next time.

[RobbieReichard]

The only real issue I had with this training class is they were not training you to take the challenges. Every class that I have ever taken that was getting you ready to take for certification were training you on what you were going to take during the exam or in this case the challenges. The class was labeled as peer review, the only review done was by the trainers who have been teaching this class for at least a year. The challenges were not based on any training they provided. It was based on how well you could search the internet within 90 minutes. The other issue that I had is how lucky you were. They have 10 challenges to chose from. Your number is randomly selected and if you were not lucky enough you ended up with the hardest challenges. I didn't want them to just hand out the certs as then they won't mean anything. I just expected them to train you better and have time to answer any questions you may have.

I am sure the company will want to invest in me as they have many times and this was the first that I have ever come back empty handed. It's a bit of a sting to fail but this rant is in hopes others will be prepared before taking this class or that they change the manner in which the class is taught. I hope someone from Jamf actually reads this and acts on this. I did learn a few things but unfortunately very few of them will help me.

[Chris_Hafner]

@RobbieReichard If you don't mind me asking, what sort of challenges were they? I would not want you to compromise the test, but a general idea of what they may have been? I've always loved JAMF training (CCA and CJA for myself without issues) and was planning the 400 course in another few months. I'm a pretty sharp guy but am no @donmontalvo or @mm2270 .

[RobbieReichard]

My best offer is to access the educational resources and learn all of that before you take the class. They have it online. Its public but I am still not sure if its something I can provide. I am sure you can find it as that would be an example of a challenge. Search the internet on how to access data on a local machine or in the JSS and then use that with a configuration profile or policies. I wish you luck. The trainers are great people. I think the more you know about what you are getting into the better.

[sdagley]

@RobbieReichard While the subtitle for the CCE/Jamf 400 could be "How to use Jamf Nation or Rich Trouton's blog to find the solution to your problem", I would argue that you definitely leave that course with a greatly expanded Jamf Pro skillset because of the challenge approach. It's actually a course I'd take multiple times because the path through varies due to the challenges. Granted that's not really practical if you're paying per course.

Scripting knowledge is a prerequisite for that course because most advanced applications of Jamf Pro are going to require scripting to apply. Granted that prerequisite could better be listed as "Students should be comfortable with scripting concepts including conditionals, variables, and data flow" rather than "Scripting knowledge including conditionals, variables, and data flow". I'd suggest looking through the many posts on Jamf Nation that include scripts (searching for #!/bin/bash, #!/bin/sh, or #!/usr/bin/python is a quick way to find some). Even if they're not 100% applicable to your use of Jamf Pro you can learn a lot by figuring out what the script is doing.

[RobbieReichard]

@sdagley I do not disagree by any means that I left with a lot of knowledge but I didn't, however, leave with the knowledge of passing the challenges. They should recommend that taking the Jamf 350 prior to taking the 400. From what I understood from one of the trainers is that they went over a lot of the server installations and scripting in the 350 course. I understand scripts and how to follow them and understand what they are doing but the only issue I had with the class is that it did not train you on passing the challenges. I would recommend this course 1000 times over but users should know what they are getting into before they take the class. It's a huge investment. The trainers should be more helpful. The trainers are great people, Paul, and the other one I forget this name. He was wearing glasses that were non-prescription and loved Ramen. Jordan was good as well. I don't think they designed the course and were just following what they were given.

So I do recommend scripting, learning scripting, and living scripting before you take the course. Learn the API, how to create and use heredocs. Learn how to create and use Plist files. Learn extension attributes and how to successfully script the installation of the JSS. I would say go over what you learned in CCA and CCT but that truly has little to do with the challenges.

[sdagley]

@RobbieReichard Unless the Jamf 350 course has changed significantly from the previous generation CJA, you would not likely find it to be a huge benefit to passing the 400 course. In the CJA/350 you're focusing on the JSS server architecture/infrastructure/setup, which does have some scripting aspects, but nothing of the level that was used in the CCE for managing client machines with the JSS.

[RobbieReichard]

@sdagley You are probably going to be my new best source of information. The trainer said they used a lot of scripting and when we first started he asked the class if any of us took that course. I guess he was referring to scripting the server installation which would have helped in the first section of Jamf 400.

[sdagley]

@RobbieReichard It's been over a year since I took the CJA, and I know there have been several changes for the 350 version, so scripting may be getting more coverage, but there are much better ways to get scripting experience than that course. If you really want to look at scripting JSS installations however, take a look at the JSS-In-A-Box tool/script (No, you can not use it in the 350 course)

[gachowski]

I'll second sdagley, the old CCE didn't really have anything to do with CJA... and the order of the classes shouldn't matter... CCE expert at Jamf Pro, CJA expert at setting up a Jamf Pro server environment.

C

[kboghdady]

I made a class notes as html if you would like to use it during exam. very simple to work with during exam https://github.com/kboghdady/JAM200-Exam-Notes