This exam and the exam objectives provided here are based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 version of the exam.
The performance-based RHCSA exam (EX200) tests your knowledge and skill in areas of system administration common across a wide range of environments and deployment scenarios. You must be an RHCSA to earn a Red Hat Certified Engineer certification. The skills tested in this exam are the foundation for system administration across all Red Hat products.
An RHCSA certification is earned when an IT professional demonstrates the core system-administration skills required in Red Hat Enterprise Linux environments.
Study points for the exam
RHCE exam candidates should consult the RHCSA exam objectives and be capable of RHCSA-level tasks, as some of these skills may be required in order to meet RHCE exam objectives. Red Hat reserves the right to add, modify, and remove objectives. Such changes will be made public in advance through revisions to this document.
RHCE exam candidates should be able to accomplish the following without assistance. These have been grouped into several categories.
System configuration and management
- Use network teaming or bonding to configure aggregated network links between two Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems
- Configure IPv6 addresses and perform basic IPv6 troubleshooting
- Route IP traffic and create static routes
- Use firewalld and associated mechanisms such as rich rules, zones and custom rules, to implement packet filtering and configure network address translation (NAT)
- Use /proc/sys and sysctl to modify and set kernel runtime parameters
- Configure a system to authenticate using Kerberos
- Configure a system as either an iSCSI target or initiator that persistently mounts an iSCSI target
- Produce and deliver reports on system utilization (processor, memory, disk, and network)
- Use shell scripting to automate system maintenance tasks
Network services
Network services are an important subset of the exam objectives. RHCE candidates should be capable of meeting the following objectives for each of the network services listed below:
- Install the packages needed to provide the service
- Configure SELinux to support the service
- Use SELinux port labeling to allow services to use non-standard ports
- Configure the service to start when the system is booted
- Configure the service for basic operation
- Configure host-based and user-based security for the service
HTTP/HTTPS
- Configure a virtual host
- Configure private directories
- Deploy a basic CGI application
- Configure group-managed content
- Configure TLS security
DNS
- Configure a caching-only name server
- Troubleshoot DNS client issues
NFS
- Provide network shares to specific clients
- Provide network shares suitable for group collaboration
- Use Kerberos to control access to NFS network shares
SMB
- Provide network shares to specific clients
- Provide network shares suitable for group collaboration
- Use Kerberos to authenticate access to shared directories
SMTP
- Configure a system to forward all email to a central mail server
SSH
- Configure key-based authentication
- Configure additional options described in documentation
NTP
- Synchronize time using other NTP peers
Database services
- Install and configure MariaDB
- Backup and restore a database
- Create a simple database schema
- Perform simple SQL queries against a database
