RHCSA on RHEL 8: From Novice to Pro

Install enterprise linux on physical, virtual, cloud, or container platforms, and assess resource needs for file, database, or container servers using a VMware Workstation Pro VM.

Demonstrate a basic install of enterprise linux 8 in a virtual machine, selecting workstation software, configuring time zone, network, and root and user accounts, then access the terminal.

Spin up a server in the cloud using a provider, explore options, and consider cost concerns, with Digital Ocean or Linode recommended.

Learn to create a custom partitioning scheme during installation, allocating /boot 500 MB, swap 4 GB, home 10 GB, and the rest to root, to protect system resilience.

Download the latest Red Hat or CentOS operating system from the official sites and install it using a standard user account.

Master essential Linux commands such as pwd, ls, w, ifconfig, ping, free, and cat to navigate, inspect users, check interfaces, test connectivity, monitor memory, and read files.

Explore useful bash features like tab completion for long commands and file names, and harness the bash history to view and reuse past commands by number or start of command.

Master redirection to send command output to files, choose between overwrite and append, and learn to silence errors with /dev/null while verifying results with cat or head.

Master the Linux manual by using the man command to read the IP command syntax, optional brackets, and practical examples like ip address and ip route, including exiting and searching.

Learn VI editor basics, including command mode and insert mode, for editing files. Use :%s with g for replacements, undo with U, and save with :w or :wq.

Navigate the file system using commands such as tree, pwd, and cd; distinguish absolute and relative paths and move between directories including /, home, and etsy.

Create a new user with useradd, set its password with passwd, then use redirection to create a countries file listing Nigeria, Bahamas, Brazil, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.

Explore practical Linux administration with a hands-on solution: use man pages, log in as root, set a user password with passwd, and create a countries file with redirection and cat.

Discover file management in RHEL 8, including locating files, working with links, archiving and compression, plus mkdir -p, cp, mv, and rm with recursive and verbose options.

Learn to locate files on the file system from root using the find command, with patterns, size and type filters, ownership, and exec for copying or actions.

Explore how Linux symbolic links, or shortcuts, point to files and folders across file systems, using the link command and inodes to track permissions and targets.

Bundle files with tar to create, list, and extract archives in Linux, using -c, -t, and -x, and learn naming conventions like .tar.

Learn how to bundle files into archives and apply compression using gzip, gunzip, bzip2, and zip; practice compressing files greater than 100MB, verifying sizes, and extracting with tar auto-compress options.

Find files in your home directory with X, Y, or Z, compress them with bzip2 into archive, create a hard link, and extract using that link into the temp directory.

Explore common text utilities for viewing and processing files, using cat, tac, less, head, tail, and line numbering, with cut, sort, and translate to uppercase.

Learn to use grep for case-insensitive searches with -i, view before or after matches using -B 5 and -A 5, and pipe grep with commands to filter and count results.

Learn to edit text efficiently with sed by printing specific lines, substituting names like John with one, and deleting lines, using in-place edits with the -i option.

Complete the section challenge by using tail to print the password file's seventh line. Extract the first field from /etc/group, sort, uppercase, and save to a file.

learn to delegate access with sudo by editing the sudoers file in vi, create host, user, and command aliases, grant root or limited commands, and verify access with sample commands.

Practice secure shell basics by logging into remote Linux servers via SSH, verify IPs with ifconfig, accept fingerprints, and connect from Windows using Putty or from Mac terminal.

Elevate a standard user to run a display command, resolve access denied by editing configuration file in insert mode, check the executable path, save changes, and verify the command works.

Learn how the primary group owns files and how to inspect primary and secondary groups with id and group commands, using the Etsy password and Etsy group files.

Manage password settings on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 using commands to change current accounts and enforce new passwords, and inspect the shadow file for minimum and maximum password ages.

Enforce a six-character minimum password, add a welcome file in the new account skeleton, assign WP user to the cms group, and disable interactive login, then test.

Learn basic permissions, including read, write, and execute, and how they differ for files and directories. Apply chmod with examples like 666, 740, and 705 to control access.

Set default permissions with umask to control file and directory defaults. Observe how 640 and 660 arise from temporary and sourced changes, and how 022 or 002 profiles apply system or user rules.

Learn how to apply the setgid bit to a shared HR directory so new files inherit the directory's group ownership, allowing all HR members to edit files regardless of creator.

Enable the sticky bit to protect files in a shared directory, preventing users from deleting others' files; learn numeric and symbolic notation for setting permissions.

Learn how access control lists extend file permissions beyond user and group by creating groups, setting default acls, and using recursive modifications, verified by getfacl.

Identify how an IP address and subnet mask split into network and host portions, and how a default gateway and DNS server convert host names to IP addresses.

Edit an existing Linux network connection to set IPv4 to manual, assign a static IP, subnet, gateway, and DNS, then activate and verify with ip route.

Power down the virtual machine, open its settings, and add a new network adapter to prepare the system for the next demonstration.

Delete the binding with nmcli, create a new connection profile using a static IP, and verify devices and profiles while skipping a default gateway and DNS for a private network.

Explains how to edit network interface configuration files for connection profiles, adjust boot protocol, IP address, subnet, gateway, and DNS; demonstrates removing DNS server and enabling autostart on reboot.

Change the public connection name and the server name. Verify the host name with the hostname command or a new shell, and display the connection name with MCI connection show.

Identify how to manage shell jobs by running long running commands as background or foreground processes, using ampersand to background, observing job IDs, and using Ctrl C to stop them.

Monitor cpu load with uptime and load averages, observe runnable processes, and use watch to refresh metrics, assessing healthy workload across two cpus and stopping processes with grep.

Learn to monitor system activity with top, interpret CPU and memory metrics, and customize the display with columns and sorts to identify disk wait bottlenecks and hardware interrupts.

Learn how to signal and terminate processes using kill, signal 15 for graceful shutdown, and signal 9 for forceful termination, with top and ps.

Learn to manage process priority on a Linux system with the nice and renice commands, using niceness values from -20 upward, noting only root can raise priority.

Tune server performance with tuned profiles matched to specific workloads and activate the desired profile. Check the current active profile and start tuned if needed, then optimize for desktop use.