Reddit mentions of Red Hat RHCSA/RHCE 7 Cert Guide: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (EX200 and EX300) (Certification Guide)

The best way to learn is to use it as your primary system, and you'll learn as you have to solve problems. If you're looking to learn its recommended you use something that isn't going to abstract everything like Ubuntu or Linux Mint does, and use something such as Debian etc. (or if you're adventurous and really want to accelerate your learning, Gentoo or others) where you're a bit more involved with less hand holding.

Since you're also wanting to peruse it for purposes of future career options, depending upon your location (NA or Europe) you'll see quite a bit of value from Red Hat certs if you're located in North America. For this there's a lot of reading you can do, but generally the recommendations come down to Jang or Sander books. The current RHEL OS is release 7, and the certification follows that so you'll have to make sure you're using up to date information for reasons of release specific changes (systemd as an example).

Additionally you'll want to make use of Administration guides and the official documentation. This will help you learn to use and administrate systems, but if you're looking to understand things on a lower level there are wonderful books such as How Linux Works to really understand what's going on underneath and help tie things together a bit.

At some point after you're familiar with Linux and you've been using it for a while comfortably you'll want to start learning BASH. Having a good handle on the command line with help with picking up BASH as you use the same commands strung together along with logic structures, error checking, and whatnot to accomplish the tasks you're trying to do. At least some BASH is recommended due to the power of it, and how all distros have a version of the bash shell so provided your script is built portable enough you'll be able to script tasks across systems.

This wiki links to a lot of valuable material, you'll want to go through it in conjunction with a guide such as this. As usual solving problems is a great way to learn, so if you give yourself a project to script and figure it out along the way is great.

Best of luck, this'll keep you busy for a while

I recently got my RHCSA back in February and I used the video series by Sander Van Vugt. He also has a book

I haven't used the book, but almost exclusively used Sander's videos (which are available on some....seedy websites? I think they're also available through Pearson). Also, Linux Academy has a similar video series that you can try for 7 days free.

Another useful free video source is the RHCSA Tip of the Week series on Youtube.

In terms of recommendation for studying, you NEED to be running CentOS VMs. You can use actual RHEL servers and signup for a free license as a dev, but CentOS is identical for the purposes of the RHCSA. Everything on the RHCSA Objective Page has a chance of being on the exam. You need to basically be able to step through each of the objectives by memory. This also isn't a written test, but performance based. So they wouldn't ask you how to do something, they would tell you do perform the action in a VM.

Also, learn the man, apropos, grep and find commands intimately and your life will be infinitely easier on the exam. The better you are at bash, the more time you can shave off tasks.

RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Linux Certification Study Guide, Seventh Edition (Exams EX200 & EX300) (Certification & Career - OMG) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071841962/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.qoQzbMPYYEZT

Red Hat RHCSA/RHCE 7 Cert Guide: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (EX200 and EX300) (Certification Guide) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789754053/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VsoQzbCCZTJ17

And lots of practice

Depends how familiar you are with Linux in general, the content isn't too bad if you have familiarity with any flavor of Linux and can use vi/vim. If you're able to use some work time to study or you dedicate a lot of your free time to studying it can definitely be done in 2 months.

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Did you check out the objectives to see what you think you might have down and what you need to study? I haven't used Red Hat's training but Sander Van Vugt's book (granted this is for RHEL 7, most exams are for 8 at this point and his book on 8 isn't out yet) has some good pre-chapter Do I Know This Already quizzes and post-chapter review and labs, plus practice exams.

If you plan to take the RHCSA exam (which is hands-on), aside from the courses at Linux Academy,
there are three popular resources to prepare for it:

(1) This book by Sander Van Vugt
(2) Video courses by Sander Van Vugt
(3) This book by Michael Jang

If you like to learn by reading books and doing their practice exercises, I recommend first reading the Vugt book and doing its easier exercises, and then going through the Jang book with its more challenging exercises.

The Vugt book has some typos, but I liked that it has many short easy chapters to learn the concepts.

Near the start of Michael Jang's book, he writes that he expects a reader to have an LPIC-1 level of knowledge/experience before going through his book. So I suggest you go through the LPIC-1 course at Linux Academy to get yourself up to that level (even if you don't take the LPIC-1 exam) before attempting the RHCSA-level material.

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P.S. If you do want to get an LPIC-1 certification, one approach is to pass the current pair of multiple-choice exams needed for a CompTIA Linux+ certification, called "Linux+ powered by LPI". Once you attain the Linux+ certification, you simply have CompTIA send your information to LPI, and LPI will grant you the LPIC-1 as well. It doesn't work the other way (getting a LPIC-1 will not get you a Linux+). This arrangement between CompTIA and LPI is in effect until September or October. Visit r/CompTIA to find posts by people who've taken those exams.

As /u/Lisenet said, practice with a home lab environment is incredibly important. I personally found linuxacademy.com to be great for learning purposes. For my RHCSA, I used a combination of linuxacademy, small homelab, and 1 book (https://www.amazon.com/RHCSA-RHCE-Cert-Guide-Certification/dp/0789754053).

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I am now using those same resources to prepare for my RHCE exam.

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Once you get a basic handle on everything, repetition of the exercises is the biggest help. Best of luck!

I highly recommend using Sander Van Vugt's RHCSA/RHCE 7 book. I passed both exams from start of reading page 1 to passing 2mo on each. His book is comprehensive and covers the whole gambit of both exams. But, it doesn't hurt to seek more sources of information.

https://www.amazon.com/RHCSA-RHCE-Cert-Guide-Certification/dp/0789754053/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sander+van+vugt+rhcsa&tag=hotogobr-20&qid=1561254657&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Set yourself up on VirtualBox ( https://www.virtualbox.org/ ). Create a bridged network to make networking easy. Make sure you sign up for a RH developer account and get the free 1 yr subscription (can renew each year) for a copy of RHEL. While CentOS is binary-compatible, I've run into some oddities with configurations and such while studying for the exams. Practice practice practice. Break things (it's only a lab VM!).

You're probably going to want to setup multiple VMs (at least 2) to toy around with things like SSH, pubkeys, SCP, Samba, NFS, and other network services. If you plan to go on to RHCE, you'll definitely want to setup a FreeIPA VM for LDAP and Kerberos-related stuff. Even the RHCSA touches on connecting a client to an LDAP authentication service.

Please take a look at these resources. They have been outstanding so far!
http://www.rhatcertification.com/

He has a complete video course (~$150 with discount)

Sander also has a partially completed book (pdf) for RHCSA/RHCE costing only $16 and will provide updates.

His book IS going to be published and can be pre-ordered (~$40) on amazon.com =
http://www.amazon.com/RHCE-RHCSA-Cert-Guide-Certification/dp/0789754053/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420367281&sr=1-1

The video tutorial is great! I signed up for the lab environment and contact hours. I'll be starting that in a day or two after registration is completed.

Okay then. I'm glad that you have a can-do attitude and sound hungry. First let's get something settled. You're nearly as high up in the certifications chain as you can be with Microsoft and you're noticing it's not getting you the places you need to go. This is a supply and demand problem. Employers can get people like you on the cheap from contracting agencies, and often they needn't even be in the united states. You need to increase your value. Here's what you do, you're going to dive in head first. There are two distributions of Linux that are widely known to have some level of enterprise support, which means enterprises (the companies that will pay you lots of money) will be attracted to them. These distrubutions are Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Ubuntu Server Edition. I recommend that you start with Red Hat, but not necessarily because it's a better distro but because they have a well-designed certification program.

• Subscribe to /r/linuxadmin
  
  
• You're currently using Windows. This is going to be extremely uncomfortable for you at first but you will need to start using Linux on the desktop, and this shouldn't be your side project, this should be your daily laptop you rely upon for everything. There are two distributions that match RHEL exactly in every way but remove the redhat enterprise stuff so you don't have to pay for a license. These distros are Scientific Linux and CentOS. They're both fine to use for the desktop, i'd recommend going Scientific just a matter of personal preference.
  
  
• I typed the previous because of some encounters I've had with Windows admins who have been forced to learn the bare minumum of linux and hated it. They installed it on some ancient piece of crap computer or just on a virtual machine on Windows. They didn't have to rely upon it and therefore learned basically nothing. Linux isn't a toy for you to play with on the side, it's your primary computer now. I cannot stress enough how important this is if you are going to be successful. Sometimes things aren't going to work and you're going to have to figure it out.
  
  
• Go to IRC on Freenode when you have questions and can't find the answers from googling, there are general ##linux channels but there are also ones more specific to your distro like #centos or what you are trying to accomplish like #bash or #nginx
  
  
• From your linux laptop set up VM's there for your research. you can use virtualbox for a straight VM or it would be much more career relevant to learn how to use docker. You can also get a small number of free AWS machines in their free teir program.
  
  
• Your goal is to obtain an RHCE. Red Hat Certified Engineer. As a prerequisite, you will need an RHCSA, a Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator.
  
  
• It seems that now even every linux bash command has a video for it on youtube. There's a ton of resources on youtube now for linux training. Utilize them.
  
  Books
  
  
  • Red Hat RHCSA/RHCE 7 Cert Guide: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (EX200 and EX300)
    
    
  • How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know
    
    
  • Classic Bash Scripting
    
    Start drilling yourself. There's another less impressive certification called the LPIC which has three tests, there's sample tests all over the web for free, i recommend taking them often and when you don't get a question correct go into your VM and use what you were asked
    
    
• With linux you have the ability to, for free, set up any number of web servers, databases, authentication services, filesystems and security features. The only way you are going to learn is by doing, check out this post which is basically an outline of setting up every major system for an enterprise environment running 100% on linux. You could build up an entire company's infrasructure by learning how to do this, with no software licensing costs whatsoever.
  
  Pick a language, I recommend first getting really good at BASH then Python.
  
  Don't stay at jobs. We get raises by moving to new companies. Your median stay should be about 18 months if it seems like you've topped out. Don't be afraid to GTFO of Florida. I stayed close to home for too long and wasted a lot of time limiting myself in the Midwest. If you are able to relocate and have an RHCE i guarantee your salary will double in 3 years. DOUBLE. And it will keep increasing. And you'll be working on way more interesting stuff.

The more popular book around for learning Linux is going to be the UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook found here: https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0134277554/ref=dp_ob_title_bk. If you are specifically looking to learn about everything CentOS or RHEL, my personal preference is to get this book here: https://www.amazon.com/RHCSA-RHCE-Cert-Guide-Certification/dp/0789754053 which includes modules that you can complete as you read the guide (and it prepares you for the certification if you want to get it). The author of the book uses CentOS since they are basically the same OS (and it's free). My $0.02 on the matter.

Corrrect. It is December.

I am waiting for this book to be released, personally.

Red Hat RHCSA/RHCE 7 Cert Guide: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (EX200 and EX300) (Certification Guide) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789754053/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_iKXFAbWY8CJKH

Sander Van Vugt has a great book that covers rhcsa and RHCE. I used them both to get my RHCE. Not really for beginners. You'll have to do a lot of researching to figure things out not covered in the book. Also plural sight is great video site with some Linux trainings. Linux academy is a great resource too but I think it's a bit pricey after the trial ends.