RHCSA prep
You work through every RHCSA objective on a real Red Hat compatible server: storage, networking, SELinux and container tasks.
Level 201 · 25 lessons · 21 practice labs
Lessons
Essential tools and running systems
- Essential tools: You will use comfortably the essential tools expected on the RHCSA exam: the command line, file handling, archiving and built-in help.
- Operating running systems: You will consolidate running a system from boot to shutdown, including services and processes, following the RHCSA objectives.
- Tuning system performance with tuned profiles: You will choose the tuned profile that fits a server’s job, enable it and check its effect.
- Persistent journal storage and reading log records: You will keep journal records across reboots and find a service’s error by narrowing the time range.
- Changing the default target and bootloader settings: You will pick the default boot target and change a kernel parameter permanently with grubby and GRUB.
- Time synchronisation (chrony) and hostname resolution: You will sync the clock with chrony and make machine names resolve correctly using hosts and hostnamectl.
- Short task: change the boot target, make logs persistent and verify after a reboot
Storage and software
- Local storage: You will learn to partition disks and turn partitions into manageable storage in the way the RHCSA exam expects.
- File systems: You will create, mount and make permanent file systems, following the RHCSA objectives.
- Swap space and persistent mounts by UUID: You will add swap and write fstab lines by UUID so disks mount even if device names change.
- Mounting an NFS share by hand and with autofs: You will mount a network share by hand, then make autofs mount it only when it is used.
- Deploying and maintaining software: You will install and update packages and manage repositories, as the basis for keeping software healthy.
- DNF repositories, AppStream modules and package integrity: You will define a repository, pick a module stream, and use rpm to check whether packages were modified.
- Short task: build a volume and swap on a new disk and install a package from an internal repo
Networking, users, security and containers
- Network configuration: You will configure and persist a system's IP, gateway and name resolution settings, following the RHCSA objectives.
- Users and groups: You will create users and groups and set password policies and administrator rights, following the RHCSA objectives.
- Password aging and account state with chage: You will set and verify when passwords expire and when an account locks, using chage.
- Delegating limited admin rights with sudoers.d: You will write a sudoers.d file with visudo that lets a user run only specific commands.
- Security: SELinux and firewalld: You will apply the basic steps to protect a system with SELinux and firewalld: modes, labels and firewall rules, at exam level.
- Key-based SSH login and sshd hardening tasks: You will set up key-based login and tighten sshd_config by turning off password and root logins.
- Finding images and running containers with Podman: You will find and inspect an image in a registry, then start and manage a container with Podman.
- Persistent storage in Podman and automatic start with systemd: You will attach a persistent directory to a container and have a systemd user service start it automatically.
- Short task: set up accounts, SELinux and a containerised service on a team server
Exam preparation
- Exam strategy and practice: You will pick up how the hands-on exam works, how to manage your time and the habit of verifying each task, through practice runs.
- Capstone: apply every exam objective on one server against the clock
Practice labs
- Find and switch the active tuned profile: On a Rocky Linux server you find the active and the recommended tuned profile and switch to the recommended one.
- Pick the right tuned profile for a database server: You move Demirkaya Lojistik's database server from a power-saving profile to a throughput profile and prove which kernel setting changed.
- Write your own tuned profile: You write a custom tuned profile that inherits an existing one and changes swappiness and disk read-ahead, and verify it stays active after a reboot.
- Make the journal survive a reboot: You switch the systemd journal to persistent storage and show that records from before a reboot are still readable.
- Move a server that boots to graphics to the text target: You change the default target of a server that needlessly boots into a graphical interface to multi-user text mode and verify by rebooting.
- Add a persistent kernel argument and cap the journal: You add a persistent boot argument to all kernels with grubby, cap the journal at 200 MB and prove both after a reboot.
- Set a server's hostname and time zone: You give a newly installed server a persistent hostname and time zone with hostnamectl and timedatectl.
- Point a server at the internal time source: You remove the public pool from the chrony configuration, define the internal time server and verify synchronisation with chronyc.
- Fix a server with a drifting clock that cannot resolve names: On a machine minutes behind and unable to resolve internal names you repair the broken chrony source, the /etc/hosts entry and the resolution order.
- Add swap from a new partition: You create a 512 MB partition on the second disk, make it swap and enable it persistently by UUID.
- Mount an XFS partition persistently by UUID with options: You put a data partition into fstab by UUID instead of device name, with noexec and nodev, and verify after a reboot.
- Order two swap areas by priority: You create a second swap area on a logical volume, set priorities in fstab so the fast disk is used first and prove it with swapon output.
- Define the internal repository and install a package: You define the BaseOS and AppStream repositories at a given address in a .repo file and install a package from them.
- Switch an AppStream module stream: You reset a runtime installed from the wrong stream, switch to the required module stream and verify the installed version.
- Find and restore a modified package file: With rpm verification you find a configuration file and a binary whose digests changed and restore the originals by reinstalling the package.
- Open a time-limited account for a contractor: You create a user account that expires in three months and must change its password at first login and verify it with chage.
- Give the backup team sudo for a single script: Under sudoers.d you let Çınaraltı Koleji's backup group run only one specific script without a password and show another command is refused.
- Set password aging defaults for new accounts: You set password lifetime and warning days for new accounts in login.defs, bring five existing accounts to the same policy and unlock a locked account.
- Find an image in the registry and run it: You search the lab registry for a web server image, pull it and run it with a published port.
- Mount a directory into a container with the right SELinux label: You mount a host data directory into a container with the :Z option and verify the data survives removing and recreating the container.
- Turn a rootless container into a user service: You define an unprivileged user's container as a systemd user unit, enable linger so it starts without a login and test with a reboot.
About this course
You work through every RHCSA objective on a real Red Hat compatible server: storage, networking, SELinux and container tasks.
What you will learn
- Essential tools and running systems
- Storage and software
- Networking, users, security and containers
- Exam preparation
Prerequisites
Finishing the level 101 courses of the same path, or knowing those topics, is enough.
Lab environment
Lessons run in your own Kali Linux terminal in the browser, connected to a private lab network. Nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this course right for my level?
- The course is at level 201; it assumes you know the topics of the lower-level courses.
- Is there anything to install?
- No. Every lesson runs in your own lab environment that opens in the browser.
- How do lessons work?
- Each lesson has 8 to 10 steps and a short quiz. Early steps show the command to type, later steps give less help; if two attempts fail, the solution opens.
- Can I try it for free?
- Yes. The first three lessons of every course are free.