Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) (EX200) Cert Prep

9h 7mIntermediate2026-08-11

Authors

LearnKartS

Course details

Ready to master Linux and earn your Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) credential? This course guides you through the core skills needed to manage and secure enterprise Linux systems. Get started with the essentials of installation and lab setup, then build your navigation and command-line skills. Explore user and group administration, privilege management, disk management, and task automation. Learn how to configure key Linux services, including networking, time management, and service creation, and practice file management, text processing, and system troubleshooting to resolve real-world challenges. Whether you're an experienced administrator, a student, or a DevOps professional, this course prepares you to confidently tackle the RHCSA exam.

Learning objectives
Install and configure a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system and lab environment.
Navigate the Linux terminal and run essential command-line operations.
Administer users, groups, and privileges to maintain system security.
Manage disks, automate tasks, and configure core Linux services such as networking and time management.
Troubleshoot system issues using file management and text processing techniques.

Concepts

Introduction

Course introduction
What is Linux
Popular distributions - RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian, Kali (use cases)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Installation and Lab Setup

Learning objectives
Demo - Installing RHEL in VirtualBox and VMware
Linux OS basics (kernel, distributions, CLI vs. GUI)
Demo - ISO selection
Demo - Compare automatic and manual partitioning
Demo - RHEL complete setup and user activation
Demo - Taking snapshots for rollback

Accessing Linux Systems and Terminal Basics

Learning objectives
Why Linux is used (DevOps, cybersecurity, and servers)
Demo - Switching users using su and sudo
Demo - Terminal shortcuts (tab, history, and clear)
Demo - Linux help commands
Demo - Identify system (hostnamectl, uname, and os-release)
Work with virtual consoles and teletypewriters (TTYs)

File System Navigation and File Operations

Learning objectives
Absolute vs. relative paths
Demo - Linux file system structure ( , home, etc, var, usr, and so on)
Demo - Basic navigation commands (pwd, cd, and ls)
Demo - Create and remove files and folders (touch, mkdir, rm, and rmdir)
Demo - Copy and move files (cp and mv)
Demo - View file content quickly (cat, less, head, and tail)
Demo - Find files using the find command

File Viewing, Searching, and Text Processing

Learning objectives
Demo - Output redirection ( and )
Demo - Input redirection ( )
Demo - Pipes ( ) and chaining
Demo - Search text (grep and egrep)
Demo - Filters (sort, uniq, and wc)
Demo - Log filtering practice

Process Management and Shell Basics

Learning objectives
Linux process basics (what a process is and PID concept)
Demo - Process viewing and monitoring (ps aux top for live CPU and RAM)
Demo - Stopping and managing processes (kill, kill -9, and when to use)
Shell environment and variables (printenv, echo $VAR, and PATH concept)
Demo - Persistent shell setup and customization (.bashrc, .bash profile, alias, and function)

File Permissions and Ownership Control

Learning objectives
Understanding file and folder permissions
Demo - Check file permissions
Demo - Change permissions using chmod (numeric and symbolic)
Demo - Changing ownership (chown and chgrp)
Demo - Default permissions and umask
Securing a project folder in Linux

Special Permissions

Learning objectives
Demo - SUID permissions
Demo - SGID permissions
Demo - Sticky bit permissions
Demo - Create shared group project folder
Demo - Test access with multiple users
Troubleshoot access denied errors

Linux Foundations Conclusion

Linux foundations completion

Linux Administration Essentials Introduction

Linux administration essentials introduction
Demo - Create users (useradd and passwd)
Demo - User info commands (id, whoami, and groups)

Linux User and Group Administration

Learning objectives
Demo - Modify and delete users
Demo - Group operations (groupadd and gpasswd)
Expiry and password aging (chage)
Onboarding new employee scenario

Privilege Management Using Sudo and Admin Controls

Learning objectives
Demo - Set up sudo access
Demo - Edit sudo config using visudo
Demo - Sudo with no password vs. with a password
Demo - Allow a user to run specific commands only
Demo - Checking sudo logs
Common mistakes and rollback

Disk Management and File System Mounting

Learning objectives
Demo - View disks (lsblk and blkid)
Demo - Partitioning disk with fdisk and parted
Create Filesystem (mkfs.xfs and mkfs.ext4)
Demo - Temporary mount (mount and umount)
Demo - Permanent mount ( etc fstab)
Troubleshoot fstab boot issues

Swap Management and Storage Optimization

Learning objectives
Demo - Check memory and swap (free and swapon)
Demo - Create swap partition and file
Demo - Enable swap permanently via fstab
Demo - Mount using device name instead of UUID
Demo - Auto-mount using systemd method

Software Management with DNF

Learning objectives
Package basics (DNF and repos introduction)
Demo - Search packages and getting package information (dnf search and dnf info)
Demo - Install and remove packages (dnf install, dnf remove, and deps)
Demo - Perform system updates (check-update, update, and specific pkg)
Demo - Cleanup unused packages (autoremove and dnf history)
Demo - Repo control and verification (repolist, enable, disable, rpm -q, and rpm -V)

Access Control Lists Administration

Learning objectives
What is an access control list (ACL)
Demo - Check ACL permissions using getfacl
Demo - Set ACL permissions using setfacl
Demo - Set default ACL permissions on directories
Demo - Test ACL permissions with multiple users
Fix unwanted access in an ACL

Archives, Compression, and Backup Handling

Learning objectives
Why backups matter (real examples)
Demo - Create tar archive (tar -cvf)
Demo - Extract tar archive (tar -xvf)
Demo - Compress archive (gzip, bzip2, and XZ)
Demo - Backup important paths like etc and home
Demo - Restore, validate, and preserve permissions (tar metadata and rsync -a)

Linux Administration Essentials Conclusion

Linux administration essentials completion

Linux Networking, Services, and Automation Introduction

Linux networking, services, and automation introduction
View connections (nmcli con show)
Set static IP using nmcli

Linux Network Configuration and Connectivity

Learning objectives
Configure using nmtui
Demo - Restart network services and verify connectivity
Demo - Update DNS settings
Demo - End-to-end connectivity test

Network Diagnostic Tools and Connectivity Testing

Learning objectives
Understand ping and packet loss
Demo - Using ip a and ip r to check IP and routing
Demo - Testing DNS using dig, host, and nslookup
Demo - Checking open ports using the ss command
Demo - Connectivity test using curl
Real scenario troubleshooting

Manage Services

Learning objectives
Demo - Checking service status using systemctl
Demo - Starting, stopping, and restarting services using systemctl
Demo - Enabling and disabling services at boot
Demo - Listing and managing failed services using systemctl
Demo - Viewing service logs
Troubleshoot service failures

Create Your Own Service

Learning objectives
Demo - Creating a basic .service file
Demo - Running a script as a service
Reload systemd daemon
Demo - Enabling a custom service to start at boot
Demo - Debug service failures
Demo - Validating service log output

System Time Management and Clock Synchronization

Learning objectives
Why correct system time matters
Demo - Checking system time status using timedatectl
Demo - Setting the system timezone using timedatectl
Demo - Understanding NTP and time synchronization
Chronyd service control (systemctl start and enable chronyd)
Demo - Verifying time synchronization and troubleshooting with chrony

Task Scheduling Using Cron and At

Learning objectives
Demo - Enable cron service
Demo - Create cron jobs using crontab -e
Demo - List cron jobs using crontab -l
Demo - Use at for one-time tasks
Demo - Test scheduled jobs
Fix common cron errors

Automation Using Systemd Timers

Learning objectives
Demo - Create .timer unit file
Demo - Create linked .service unit file
Demo - Enable and test timer execution
Demo - View timer schedules
Demo - Check timer logs using journalctl
Timer-based automation

Linux Networking, Services, and Automation Conclusion

Linux networking, services, and automation completion

Linux Security and System Troubleshooting Introduction

Linux security and system troubleshooting introduction
Demo - Check SELinux status (getenforce)
Demo - Change mode (Enforcing or Permissive)

Managing Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) Contexts and Policies

Learning objectives
View SELinux contexts
Fix common SELinux access issues
Restore contexts (restorecon)

Firewall Configuration

Learning objectives
Demo - Check firewall status
Demo - Allow services (--add-service)
Demo - Allow ports (--add-port)
Demo - Permanent vs. runtime rules
Reload firewall rules
Verify using SS and connectivity test

Log Monitoring and System Auditing

Learning objectives
Demo - Common logs ( var log messages secure)
Demo - Read logs using tail -f
Demo - Journalctl filtering by time
Filter logs by unit or service
Demo - Search patterns using grep
Demo - Export logs for reporting

Boot Troubleshooting and Recovery Methods

Learning objectives
Overview of boot process
Demo - Use rescue mode from GRUB
Demo - Reset root password
Demo - Fix broken etc fstab boot error
System recovery checklist

Conclusion

Course completion