RHCSA 6.0

Ok folks, if you're here then you have just hit jackpot because I am fresh from sitting my RHCSA exam last Friday and I passed!

Alot of blogs and sites out there provide information but its for older exams (RHCSA 5 and beyond that) so whatever I gleaned from there after going thru RHCSA classes I was told that they had made the exams easier this time around because of the high failure rate and low retake rate. I took my package that included a FREE retake (and mind you, this is really a good bargain) at about RM 4300. I had 4 days of intense classes and exam afterwards.

Unlike older exams, they don't ask you to setup an entire system from scratch but provide a VM to you on a Linux desktop. Now of course you don't get the root password of your desktop, whatever work you do its done on your VM. Your reboot, your reset, whatever changes you need to do its all done here. Don't bother with your desktop, please.

Some tips on the network configuration. Now, by default the system has NetworkManager turned on, but because you will need static IP configured it's going to clash with Network Manager so you got to turn it off and it stay that way persistently.

Hint: Commands to use

#service NetworkManager stop

#chkconfig NetworkManager off

#vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

(input static IP config parameters here)

Once you are satisfied with changes, then give network a good old restart

#service network restart

FYI, RHEL changes their questions formatting 3-4 times a year so if you are in luck you get whatever formatting I got

These questions are going to be lightly tested or not tested at all:

Selinux booleans and contexts
FS encryption

But that doesn't mean it isn't covered, just know how it works

The following are the usual topics covered

File System Management
1. Extend existing FS
2. Resize existing FS
3. Create a new FS from scratch
4. Create swapspace 
Folks becareful with resizing FS because usually a lot of guys don't follow the syntax order and ended up corrupting their VM. This means whatever changes you had done prior to resizing was also LOST!

I'll be kind enough to put up the correct syntax to resizing a FS

Unmount your FS

#umount /test

Run fsck on the unmounted FS

#fsck -f /dev/mapper/vgtest-test

Resize the LV

#resize2fs -p /dev/mapper/vgtest-test 1024M

#lvreduce -L 1024M /dev/mapper/vgtest-test

Mount back the FS

#mount -a 

or

#mount /dev/mapper/vgtest-test /test

Hint: Group your FS questions together and do THAT first in the exam, so if you crash your VM  you don't wipe out all your other changes

Command line
1. Find command, sort command, STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR

This is basically one liner bonus questions IMHO

Cronjob
Hint: Know how to set cronjob for non root user

LDAP
This question is heavily tested in RHCSA and you really have to read the questions carefully
1. Setup autofs
2. LDAP autofs with LDAP authentication

Basically, they're going to ask you to setup autoFS with LDAP authentication to allow a user from the instructor's share drive to be able to access to your VM and cd into his home directory with certain permissions. LDAP configuration information is given, you just have to utilize your auto.master and auto.blah to make it work.

And remember, to RELOAD autofs not RESTART because on 6.0 there is a bug that hangs the system if you run service autofs restart

#service autofs reload
or

#service autofs stop

#service autofs start

Hint: Commands to use

#showmount -e instructor.example.com

#getent passwd ldapuserXX

#vi /etc/auto.master

#vi /etc/auto.blah

#system-config-authentication

Yum
1.configure yum repo
2. software update/install with yum

Ok this is really important because if you got this wrong then for the rest of the exam you won't be able to update or install any additional RPMs that you will need to complete some of your questions

#vi /etc/yum.repos.d

#vi blah.repo

FTP & Webserver
1. FTP with anonymous user with RW permissions
Hint: vsftpd
2. Configure a web server

Hint : httpd and wget

Firewall tips

This is not RHSCA 5, if you disable firewall you only lose 5 marks or so, NO! I was told that you lose more than that if you disable your firewall so if I were you I would leave the firewall turned on as it is and only allow communications with the ports that I need. I was lazy so I just enabled all the ports I saw in scroll down list LOL so all my services were working

 User & Group Management
1. SUID, GUID, sticky bit
2. ACLs

Hints: No hints, this is like bonus question

And finally, reboot reboot and reboot to make sure your changes are persistent
I finished my paper and I had 20 mins to spare!

I was browsing thru the names for the exam and came across a familiar name of someone from my old company and fancy that I never saw him at the exam. Most likely he missed it because he was a late riser! LOL!

Good luck to you all and I hope you fail pass