RHCSA is a must have certification for anyone serious about getting a Linux system administration job. This RHCSA Exam Preparation Guide is currently under construction but is regularly updated with new topics. Please check back later.
If you are a beginner or somewhat new to GNU/Linux do not waste time by waiting but get started with a GNU/Linux command line basics before you do anything else. Understanding the GNU/Linux command line is an absolute must and will take you a long way on your RHCSA exam.
Understand and use essential tools
- Access a shell prompt and issue commands with correct syntax
- Use input-output redirection (>, >>, |, 2>, etc.)
- Use grep and regular expressions to analyze text
- Access remote systems using SSH
- Log in and switch users in multiuser targets
- Archive, compress, unpack, and uncompress files using tar, star, gzip, and bzip2
- Create and edit text files
- Create, delete, copy, and move files and directories
- Create hard and soft links
- List, set, and change standard ugo/rwx permissions
- Locate, read, and use system documentation including man, info, and files in /usr/share/doc
Operate running systems
- Boot, reboot, and shut down a system normally
- Boot systems into different targets manually
- Interrupt the boot process in order to gain access to a system
- Identify CPU/memory intensive processes and kill processes
- Adjust process scheduling
- Locate and interpret system log files and journals
- Preserve system journals
- Start, stop, and check the status of network services
- Securely transfer files between systems
Configure local storage
- List, create, delete partitions on MBR and GPT disks
- Create and remove physical volumes
- Assign physical volumes to volume groups
- Create and delete logical volumes
- Configure systems to mount file systems at boot by universally unique ID (UUID) or label
- Add new partitions and logical volumes, and swap to a system non-destructively
Create and configure file systems
- Create, mount, unmount, and use vfat, ext4, and xfs file systems
- Mount and unmount network file systems using NFS
- Extend existing logical volumes
- Create and configure set-GID directories for collaboration
- Configure disk compression
- Manage layered storage
- Diagnose and correct file permission problems
Deploy, configure, and maintain systems
- Schedule tasks using at and cron
- Start and stop services and configure services to start automatically at boot
- Configure systems to boot into a specific target automatically
- Configure time service clients
- Install and update software packages from Red Hat Network, a remote repository, or from the local file system
- Work with package module streams
- Modify the system bootloader
Manage basic networking
- Configure IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
- Configure hostname resolution
- Configure network services to start automatically at boot
- Restrict network access using firewall-cmd/firewall
Manage users and groups
- Create, delete, and modify local user accounts
- Change passwords and adjust password aging for local user accounts
- Create, delete, and modify local groups and group memberships
- Configure superuser access
Manage security
- Configure firewall settings using firewall-cmd/firewalld
- Configure key-based authentication for SSH
- Set enforcing and permissive modes for SELinux
- List and identify SELinux file and process context
- Restore default file contexts
- Use boolean settings to modify system SELinux settings
- Diagnose and address routine SELinux policy violations