Introduction

Welcome to the Red Hat RHCSA 8 Cert Guide. The Red Hat exams are some of the toughest in the business, and this guide will be an essential tool in helping you prepare to take the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) exam.

As an instructor with more than 20 years of experience teaching Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I have taken the RHCSA exam (and the RHCE exam) numerous times so that I can keep current on the progression of the exam, what is new, and what is different. I share my knowledge with you in this comprehensive Cert Guide so that you get the guidance you need to pass the RHCSA exam.

The RHCSA exam was recently updated for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. This book contains all you need to know to pass the RHCSA exam. As you will see, this Cert Guide covers every objective in the exam and comprises 27 chapters, more than 80 exercises, 4 practice exams, an extensive glossary, and hours of video training. This Cert Guide is the best resource you can get to prepare for and pass the RHCSA exam.

Goals and Methods

To learn the topics described in this book, it is recommended that you create your own testing environment. You cannot become an RHCSA without practicing a lot. Within the exercises included in every chapter of the book, you will find all the examples you need to understand what is on the exam and thoroughly learn the material needed to pass it. The exercises in the chapters provide step-by-step procedures that you can follow to find working solutions so that you can get real experience before taking the exam.

Each chapter also includes one or more end-of-chapter labs. These labs ask questions that are similar to the questions that you might encounter on the exam. Solutions are not provided for these labs, and that is on purpose, because you need to train yourself to verify your work before you take the exam. On the exam, you also have to be able to verify for yourself whether the solution is working as expected. Please be sure to also go to this book’s companion website, which provides additional practice exams, appendixes, and video training—all key components to studying for and passing the exam.

To make working with the assignments in this book as easy as possible, the complete lab environment is Bring Your Own. In Chapter 1 you’ll learn how to install CentOS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 in a virtual machine, and that is all that is required to go through the labs. You don’t need to import any virtual machines; just install your own virtual machine and you’ll be ready to go!

This book contains everything you need to pass the exam, but if you want more guidance and practice, I have a number of video training titles available to help you study, including the following:

• Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) Complete Video Course, 3rd Edition

• Upgrading to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 LiveLessons

Apart from these products, you might also appreciate my website, http://rhatcert.com. Through this website, I provide updates on anything that is useful to exam candidates. I recommend that you register on the website so that I can send you messages about important updates that I’ve made available. Also, you’ll find occasional video updates on my YouTube channel, rhatcert. I hope that all these resources provide you with everything you need to pass the Red Hat Certified System Administrator exam in an affordable way. Good luck!

Who Should Read This Book?

This book is written as an RHCSA exam preparation guide. That means that you should read it if you want to increase your chances of passing the RHCSA exam. A secondary use of this book is as a reference guide for Red Hat system administrators. As an administrator, you’ll like the explanations and procedures that describe how to get things done on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

So, why should you consider passing the RHCSA exam? That question is simple to answer: Linux has become a very important operating system, and qualified professionals are in demand all over the world. If you want to work as a Linux professional and prove your skills, the RHCSA certificate really helps and is one of the most sought-after certificates in IT. Having this certificate dramatically increases your chances of becoming hired as a Linux professional.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized as a reference guide to help you prepare for the RHCSA exam. If you’re new to the topics, you can just read it cover to cover. You can also read the individual chapters that you need to fine-tune your skills in this book. Every chapter starts with a “Do I Know This Already?” quiz that asks questions about ten topics that are covered in that chapter and provides a simple tool to check whether you’re already familiar with the topics covered in the chapter.

The book also provides four RHCSA practice exams; these are an essential part of readying yourself for the real exam experience. You may be able to provide the right answer to the multiple-choice chapter questions, but that doesn’t mean that you can create the configurations when you take the exam. The companion files include two extra practice exams, two hours of video from the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) Complete Video Course, 3rd Edition, and additional appendixes. The following outline describes the topics that are covered in the chapters:

Part I: Performing Basic System Management Tasks

• Chapter 1: Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux: In this chapter, you learn how to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (RHEL). It also shows how to set up an environment that can be used for working on the labs and exercises in this book.

• Chapter 2: Using Essential Tools: This chapter covers some of the Linux basics, including working with the shell and Linux commands. This chapter is particularly important if you’re new to working with Linux.

• Chapter 3: Essential File Management Tools: In this chapter, you learn how to work with tools to manage the Linux file system. This is an important skill because everything on Linux is very file system oriented.

• Chapter 4: Working with Text Files: In this chapter, you learn how to work with text files. The chapter teaches you how to create text files, but also how to look for specific content in the different text files.

• Chapter 5: Connecting to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8: This chapter describes the different methods that can be used to connect to RHEL 8. It explains both local login and remote login and the different terminal types used for this purpose.

• Chapter 6: User and Group Management: On Linux, users are entities that can be used by people or processes that need access to specific resources. This chapter explains how to create users and make user management easier by working with groups.

• Chapter 7: Permissions Management: In this chapter, you learn how to manage Linux permissions through the basic read, write, and execute permissions, but also through the special permissions and access control lists.

• Chapter 8: Configuring Networking: A server is useless if it isn’t connected to a network. In this chapter, you learn the essential skills required for managing network connections.

Part II: Operating Running Systems

• Chapter 9: Managing Software: Red Hat offers an advanced system for managing software packages. This chapter teaches you how it works.

• Chapter 10: Managing Processes: As an administrator, you need to know how to work with the different tasks that can be running on Linux. This chapter shows how to do this, by sending signals to processes and by changing process priority.

• Chapter 11: Working with Systemd: Systemd is the standard manager of services and more in RHEL 8. In this chapter you learn how to manage services using Systemd.

• Chapter 12: Scheduling Tasks: In this chapter, you learn how to schedule a task for execution on a moment that fits you best.

• Chapter 13: Configuring Logging: As an administrator, you need to know what’s happening on your server. The rsyslogd and journald services are used for this purpose. This chapter explains how to work with them.

• Chapter 14: Managing Storage: Storage management is an important skill to master as a Linux administrator. This chapter explains how hard disks can be organized in partitions and how these partitions can be mounted in the file system.

• Chapter 15: Managing Advanced Storage: Dividing disks in partitions isn’t very flexible. If you need optimal flexibility, you need LVM logical volumes, which are used by default while you’re installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This chapter shows how to create and manage those logical volumes. You’ll also learn how to work with the new Stratis and VDO storage techniques.

Part III: Performing Advanced System Administration Tasks

• Chapter 16: Basic Kernel Management: The kernel is the part of the operating system that takes care of handling hardware. This chapter explains how that works and what an administrator can do to analyze the current configuration and manage hardware devices in case the automated procedure doesn’t work well.

• Chapter 17: Managing and Understanding the Boot Procedure: Many things are happening when a Linux server boots. This chapter describes the boot procedure in detail and zooms in on vital aspects of the boot procedure, including the GRUB 2 boot loader and the Systemd service manager.

• Chapter 18: Essential Troubleshooting Skills: Sometimes a misconfiguration can cause your server to no longer boot properly. This chapter teaches you some of the techniques that can be applied when normal server startup is no longer possible.

• Chapter 19: An Introduction to Bash Shell Scripting: Some tasks are complex and need to be performed repeatedly. Such tasks are ideal candidates for optimization through shell scripts. In this chapter, you learn how to use conditional structures in shell scripts to automate tasks efficiently.

Part IV: Managing Network Services

• Chapter 20: Configuring SSH: Secure Shell (SSH) is one of the fundamental services that is enabled on RHEL 8 by default. Using SSH allows you to connect to a server remotely. In this chapter you learn how to set up an SSH server.

• Chapter 21: Managing Apache HTTP Services: Apache is the most commonly used service on Linux. This chapter shows how to set up Apache web services, including the configuration of Apache virtual hosts.

• Chapter 22: Managing SELinux: Many Linux administrators only know how to switch it off, because SELinux is hard to manage and is often why services cannot be accessed. In this chapter, you learn how SELinux works and what to do to configure it so that your services are still working and will be much better protected against possible abuse.

• Chapter 23: Configuring a Firewall: Apart from SELinux, RHEL 8 comes with a firewall as one of the main security measures, which is implemented by the firewalld service. In this chapter, you learn how this service is organized and what you can do to block or enable access to specific services.

• Chapter 24: Accessing Network Storage: While working in a server environment, managing remote mounts is an important skill. A remote mount allows a client computer to access a file system offered through a remote server. These remote mounts can be made through a persistent mount in /etc/fstab, or by using the automount service. This chapter teaches how to set up either of them and shows how to configure an FTP server.

• Chapter 25: Configuring Time Services: For many services, such as databases and Kerberos, it is essential to have the right time. That’s why as an administrator you need to be able to manage time on Linux. This chapter teaches you how.

• Chapter 26: Final Preparation: In this chapter, you get some final exam preparation tasks. It contains many tips that help you maximize your chances of passing the RHCSA exam.

• Chapter 27: Theoretical Pre-Assessment Exam: This chapter provides an RHCSA theoretical pre-assessment exam to help you assess your skills and determine the best route forward for studying for the exam.

Part V: RHCSA RHEL 8 Practice Exams

This part supplies two RHCSA practice exams so that you can test your knowledge and skills further before taking the exams. Two additional exams are on the companion website.

How to Use This Book

To help you customize your study time using this book, the core chapters have several features that help you make the best use of your time:

• “Do I Know This Already?” Quizzes: Each chapter begins with a quiz that helps you determine the amount of time you need to spend studying that chapter and the specific topics that you need to focus on.

• Foundation Topics: These are the core sections of each chapter. They explain the protocols, concepts, and configuration for the topics in that chapter.

• Exam Preparation Tasks: Following the “Foundation Topics” section of each chapter, the “Exam Preparation Tasks” section lists a series of study activities that you should complete. Each chapter includes the activities that make the most sense for studying the topics in that chapter. The activities include the following:

  • Review All Key Topics: The Key Topic icon is shown next to the most important items in the “Foundation Topics” section of the chapter. The Review All Key Topics activity lists the key topics from the chapter and their corresponding page numbers. Although the contents of the entire chapter could be on the exam, you should definitely know the information listed in each key topic.

  • Complete Tables and Lists from Memory: To help you exercise your memory and memorize some facts, many of the more important lists and tables from the chapter are included in a document on the companion website. This document offers only partial information, allowing you to complete the table or list.

  • Define Key Terms: This section lists the most important terms from the chapter, asking you to write a short definition and compare your answer to the glossary at the end of this book.

• Review Questions: These questions at the end of each chapter measure insight into the topics that were discussed in the chapter.

• End-of-Chapter Labs: Real labs give you the right impression of what an exam assignment looks like. The end of chapter labs are your first step in finding out what the exam tasks really look like.

Other Features

In addition to the features in each of the core chapters, this book, as a whole, has additional study resources on the companion website, including the following:

• Four practice exams: Red Hat RHCSA 8 Cert Guide comes with four practice exams. You will find two in the book and two additional exams on the companion website; these are provided as PDFs so you can get extra practice testing your skills before taking the exam in the testing facility.

• More than two hours of video training: The companion website contains more than two hours of instruction from the best-selling Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) Complete Video Course, 3rd Edition.

Exam Objective to Chapter Mapping

Table 1 details where every objective in the RHCSA exam is covered in this book so that you can more easily create a successful plan for passing the exam.

Where Are the Companion Content Files?

Register this print version of Red Hat RHCSA 8 Cert Guide to access the bonus content online.

This print version of this title comes with a website of companion content. You have online access to these files by following these steps:

1. Go to www.pearsonITcertification.com/register and log in or create a new account.

2. Enter the ISBN: 9780135938133.

3. Answer the challenge question as proof of purchase.

4. Click the Access Bonus Content link in the Registered Products section of your account page to be taken to the page where your downloadable content is available.

Please note that many of the companion content files can be very large, especially image and video files.

If you are unable to locate the files for this title by following the steps, please visit www.pearsonITcertification.com/contact and select the Site Problems/Comments option. A customer service representative will assist you.

This book also includes an exclusive offer for 70% off the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) Complete Video Course, 3rd Edition.