RHCSA/RHCE®
Red Hat® Linux® Certification
Study Guide, Seventh Edition
(Exams EX200 & EX300)
Michael Jang
Alessandro Orsaria
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RHCSA/RHCE® Red Hat® Linux® Certification Study Guide, Seventh Edition (Exams EX200 & EX300)
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Michael Jang (RHCE, LPIC-2, UCP, LCP, Linux+, MCP) is currently a Senior Technical
Writer for ForgeRock. His experience with computers goes back to the days of jumbled
punch cards. He has written other books on Linux certification, including LPIC-1 in
Depth, Mike Meyers’ Linux+ Certification Passport, and Sair GNU/Linux Installation and
Configuration Exam Cram. His other Linux books include Linux Annoyances for Geeks,
Linux Patch Management, and Mastering Fedora Core Linux 5. He has also written or
contributed to books on Microsoft operating systems, including MCSE Guide to Microsoft
Windows 98 and Mastering Windows XP Professional, Second Edition.
Alessandro Orsaria (RHCE, RHCA, CCIE x 2) is an IT professional with more than 15
years’ experience in the industry. He has authored articles for technical Linux magazines
and is currently employed by a global equity hedge fund as an IT Infrastructure Architect.
Alessandro is Red Hat RHCE and RHCA certified and has achieved two Cisco CCIE
certifications in Routing & Switching and Datacenter. He holds an MBA from Imperial
College of London and a degree in physics.
About the Technical Editor
Alex Davies works for a proprietary trading firm, where he is responsible for Linux systems
and manages a team of Linux engineers across Chicago, New York, London, and Singapore.
Alex is the author of MySQL Clustering and MySQL High Availability Cookbook. Earlier
in his career he was both RHCE and RHCA certified and received the RHCE of the Year
award in 2009 from Red Hat. Alex also holds a degree in economics from the University of
Durham.
CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
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Prepare for Red Hat Hands-on Certifications
Virtual Machines and Automated Installations
Fundamental Command-Line Skills
RHCSA-Level Security Options
The Boot Process
Linux Filesystem Administration
Package Management
User Administration
RHCSA-Level System Administration Tasks
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10 A Security Primer
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System Services and SELinux
12 RHCE Administrative Tasks
13 Network Services: DNS, SMTP, iSCSI, and NTP
14 The Apache Web Server
15 The Samba File Server
16 NFS Secured with Kerberos
17 The MariaDB Server
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Prepare a System for the Sample Exams
Sample Exam 1: RHCSA
Sample Exam 2: RHCSA
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Sample Exam 3: RHCE Sample Exam 1
Sample Exam 4: RHCE Sample Exam 2
About the DVD
Glossary
Index
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CONTENTS
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Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
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Hardware Compatibility
Architectures
RAM Requirements
Hard Drive Options
Networking
Virtual Machine Options
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The RHCSA and RHCE Exams
The Exam Experience
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The RHCSA Exam
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The RHCE Exam
If You’re Studying “Just” for the RHCSA Exam
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Evolving Requirements
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Basic Hardware Requirements
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You Won’t Start from Scratch
The Advantages of Network Installation
Red Hat and Virtual Machines
Virtual and Physical Systems
A Pre-installed Environment for Practice Labs
System Roles
Installation Options
Boot Media
CD/DVD or Boot USB Starts Installation
Basic Installation Steps
Installation Requirements
Get Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Purchase a Subscription
Get an Evaluation Copy
Third-party Rebuilds
Check the Download
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System Setup Options
Configure Default File Sharing Services
Initial Setup and Firstboot
Default Security Settings
Special Setup Options for Virtual Machines
The Installation Perspective on Partitions
Partition Creation Exercise
Exercise 1-1: Partitioning During Installation
Wow, Look at All That Software!
Baseline Packages
Package Groups
During the Installation
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Mount and Copy the Installation DVD
Set Up a Default Configuration Apache Server
Exercise 1-2: Configure Apache as an Installation Server
Share Copied Files via FTP Server
Certification Summary
Lab Questions
Self Test Answers
Lab Answers
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✓ Two-Minute Drill
Q&A Self Test
Configure KVM for Red Hat
Why Virtual Machines
If You Have to Install KVM
The Right KVM Modules
Configure the Virtual Machine Manager
Configuration by Hypervisor
Virtual Networks on a Hypervisor
Exercise 2-1: Create a Second Virtual Network
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Configure a Virtual Machine on KVM
Exercise 2-2: Add Virtual Hard Drives
KVM Configuration Files
Control Virtual Machines from the Command Line
Kickstart Concepts
Set Up Local Access to Kickstart
Set Up Network Access to Kickstart
Configure a Virtual Machine on KVM
Automated Installation Options