RHCSA Study Guide 2025: Complete 90-Day Preparation Plan to Pass EX200

The Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) certification validates your skills in managing Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. Unlike theory-based exams, the RHCSA EX200 is a 100% hands-on, performance-based test where you solve real-world tasks on actual systems.

This comprehensive study guide provides a structured 90-day preparation plan, covering all exam objectives, essential commands, practice strategies, and resources you need to pass on your first attempt.

Understanding the RHCSA EX200 Exam

Exam Format and Details

Before diving into study strategies, let’s understand the exam structure and what makes it different from other certifications:

• Exam Code: EX200
• Duration: 3 hours (180 minutes)
• Format: Performance-based (hands-on tasks)
• Passing Score: 210/300 (70%)
• Cost: $450 USD (exam only)
• Validity: 3 years from certification date
• Prerequisites: None (but Linux experience recommended)

What Makes RHCSA Different

Unlike certification exams from CompTIA, Microsoft, or Cisco that use multiple choice questions, the RHCSA exam gives you actual Linux systems and tasks to complete. Here’s what makes it unique:

• No guessing: You either complete the task correctly or you don’t
• Real skills: Tests what you can actually do, not what you can memorize
• Industry recognition: Employers know RHCSA holders can perform actual work
• Automated grading: Systems are tested automatically after exam completion

Complete RHCSA Exam Objectives (EX200)

The exam tests your ability to perform the following tasks on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. Understanding these objectives is critical for effective study planning.

1. Understand and Use Essential Tools

Foundation skills every Linux admin must master:

• Access a shell prompt and issue commands with correct syntax
• Use input-output redirection (>, >>, |, 2>, etc.)
• Use grep and regular expressions to analyze text
• Access remote systems using SSH
• Log in and switch users in multiuser targets
• Archive, compress, unpack, and uncompress files using tar, gzip, and bzip2
• Create and edit text files
• Create, delete, copy, and move files and directories
• Create hard and soft links
• List, set, and change standard ugo/rwx permissions
• Locate, read, and use system documentation including man, info, and files in /usr/share/doc

2. Create Simple Shell Scripts

• Conditionally execute code (use of: if, test, [], etc.)
• Use Looping constructs (for, etc.) to process file, command line input
• Process script inputs ($1, $2, etc.)
• Processing output of shell commands within a script

3. Operate Running Systems

• Boot, reboot, and shut down a system normally
• Boot systems into different targets manually
• Interrupt the boot process in order to gain access to a system
• Identify CPU/memory intensive processes and kill processes
• Adjust process scheduling
• Manage tuning profiles
• Locate and interpret system log files and journals
• Preserve system journals
• Start, stop, and check the status of network services
• Securely transfer files between systems

4. Configure Local Storage

• List, create, delete partitions on MBR and GPT disks
• Create and remove physical volumes
• Assign physical volumes to volume groups
• Create and delete logical volumes
• Configure systems to mount file systems at boot by universally unique ID (UUID) or label
• Add new partitions and logical volumes, and swap to a system non-destructively

5. Create and Configure File Systems

• Create, mount, unmount, and use vfat, ext4, and xfs file systems
• Mount and unmount network file systems using NFS
• Configure autofs
• Extend existing logical volumes
• Create and configure set-GID directories for collaboration
• Diagnose and correct file permission problems

6. Deploy, Configure, and Maintain Systems

• Schedule tasks using at and cron
• Start and stop services and configure services to start automatically at boot
• Configure systems to boot into a specific target automatically
• Configure time service clients
• Install and update software packages from Red Hat Network, a remote repository, or from the local file system
• Modify the system bootloader

7. Manage Basic Networking

• Configure IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
• Configure hostname resolution
• Configure network services to start automatically at boot
• Restrict network access using firewall-cmd/firewalld

8. Manage Users and Groups

• Create, delete, and modify local user accounts
• Change passwords and adjust password aging for local user accounts
• Create, delete, and modify local groups and group memberships
• Configure superuser access

9. Manage Security

• Configure firewall settings using firewall-cmd/firewalld
• Manage default file permissions
• Configure key-based authentication for SSH
• Set enforcing and permissive modes for SELinux
• List and identify SELinux file and process context
• Restore default file contexts
• Manage SELinux port labels
• Use boolean settings to modify system SELinux settings
• Diagnose and address routine SELinux policy violations

10. Manage Containers

• Find and retrieve container images from a remote registry
• Inspect container images
• Perform container management using commands such as podman and skopeo
• Build a container from a Containerfile
• Perform basic container management such as running, starting, stopping, and listing running containers
• Run a service inside a container
• Configure a container to start automatically as a systemd service
• Attach persistent storage to a container

90-Day RHCSA Study Plan

This structured plan assumes you have 2-3 hours daily for study and practice. Adjust the timeline based on your available time and experience level. Consistency matters more than marathon sessions.

Phase 1: Foundations (Days 1-30)

Week 1-2: Essential Tools and File Management

Study Topics to Master:

• Linux file system hierarchy (/etc, /var, /home, /usr, etc.)
• Basic commands: ls, cd, pwd, cp, mv, rm, mkdir, touch
• File permissions: chmod, chown, chgrp, umask
• Text manipulation: cat, head, tail, less, more, grep, sed, awk
• File archiving: tar, gzip, bzip2, xz
• Links: ln (hard vs soft links)
• Documentation: man, info, /usr/share/doc

Daily Hands-On Practice:

# Create directory structure for practice
mkdir -p ~/rhcsa-practice/{week1,week2}

# Practice file permissions
touch file1.txt
chmod 644 file1.txt
chmod u+x,g-w,o-r file1.txt
ls -l file1.txt

# Practice archiving
tar -czf backup.tar.gz /etc/hosts /etc/hostname
tar -tzf backup.tar.gz
tar -xzf backup.tar.gz

# Practice text manipulation
grep -i "error" /var/log/messages
grep -r "root" /etc/ 2>/dev/null

# Practice I/O redirection
ls -l /etc > output.txt
cat file1 file2 | grep pattern | sort | uniq > result.txt

Week 3-4: Users, Groups, and Basic Shell Scripting

Key Topics: User and group management, sudo configuration, basic shell scripting, SSH authentication

# User and group management
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash john
sudo passwd john
sudo usermod -aG wheel john
sudo chage -l john

# Configure sudo
sudo visudo

# Create collaborative directory with setgid
sudo mkdir /opt/shared
sudo groupadd developers
sudo chown :developers /opt/shared
sudo chmod 2775 /opt/shared

# SSH key-based authentication
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
ssh-copy-id user@remote-host

Phase 2: System Administration (Days 31-60)

Week 5-6: Storage Management

Critical LVM Skills Needed:

• Disk partitioning: fdisk, parted, gdisk
• LVM operations: pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate
• File systems: mkfs.xfs, mkfs.ext4
• Mounting and persistence with /etc/fstab
• Extending logical volumes

Hands-On Practice (assume /dev/sdb is available):

# Create LVM structure
sudo pvcreate /dev/sdb1
sudo vgcreate vg_data /dev/sdb1
sudo lvcreate -n lv_data -L 5G vg_data

# Create and mount file system
sudo mkfs.xfs /dev/vg_data/lv_data
sudo mkdir /mnt/data
sudo mount /dev/vg_data/lv_data /mnt/data

# Add to /etc/fstab for persistent mount
sudo blkid /dev/vg_data/lv_data
echo "UUID=xxx-xxx /mnt/data xfs defaults 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

# Extend logical volume
sudo lvextend -L +2G /dev/vg_data/lv_data
sudo xfs_growfs /mnt/data

Week 7-8: System Services and Networking

Topics: systemd, boot targets, cron/at scheduling, network configuration, firewall rules, time sync

# Service management essentials
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd
sudo systemctl status httpd
systemctl list-units --type=service

# Network configuration with nmcli
nmcli connection show
nmcli con add con-name eth0 ifname eth0 type ethernet ip4 192.168.1.100/24 gw4 192.168.1.1

# Firewall configuration
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all
sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=8080/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Phase 3: Advanced Topics (Days 61-90)

Week 9-10: SELinux and Package Management

SELinux is critical and difficult – allocate extra time here.

• Understanding SELinux modes: enforcing, permissive, disabled
• File and process contexts
• SELinux booleans and port management
• Troubleshooting SELinux denials
• Package management with dnf

# SELinux basics
getenforce
sudo setenforce 0  # Permissive
sudo setenforce 1  # Enforcing

# Check and restore contexts
ls -Z /var/www/html
sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www/html

# SELinux booleans
getsebool -a | grep httpd
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

# Troubleshoot denials
sudo ausearch -m avc -ts recent
sudo audit2why < /var/log/audit/audit.log

Week 11-12: Containers and AutoFS

Container Skills:

# Podman operations
podman pull docker.io/library/nginx
podman run -d --name web -p 8080:80 nginx
podman ps
podman stop web

# Create and run Containerfile
cat > Containerfile << 'EOF'
FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi
RUN dnf -y install httpd && dnf clean all
EXPOSE 80
CMD ["/usr/sbin/httpd", "-DFOREGROUND"]
EOF
podman build -t mywebserver .

# Configure container as systemd service
podman generate systemd --new --files --name myweb
systemctl --user daemon-reload

Week 13: Full Practice Exams

Final Week Focus:

• Take full timed practice exams (3 hours each)
• Simulate exam environment (no internet, only man pages)
• Review mistakes and weak areas
• Practice root password recovery procedures
• Speed drills on common commands

Essential Commands Quick Reference

File Permissions

# Symbolic notation
chmod u+rwx,g+rx,o+r file
chmod 755 file  # rwxr-xr-x
chmod 644 file  # rw-r--r--
chmod 600 file  # rw-------

# Special permissions
chmod 4755 file  # SUID
chmod 2755 dir   # SGID
chmod 1777 dir   # Sticky bit

Storage Management

# LVM commands
pvcreate /dev/sdb1
vgcreate vg_name /dev/sdb1
lvcreate -n lv_name -L 5G vg_name
lvextend -L +2G /dev/vg_name/lv_name

# File systems
mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/point
umount /mnt/point

Service Management

# systemctl essentials
systemctl start service
systemctl enable service
systemctl status service
systemctl restart service
systemctl reload service
systemctl mask service

Networking

# nmcli essentials
nmcli connection show
nmcli con up eth0
nmcli con down eth0
nmcli con mod eth0 ipv4.addresses 192.168.1.100/24
nmcli con mod eth0 ipv4.gateway 192.168.1.1
nmcli con mod eth0 ipv4.dns "8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4"

Firewall

# firewall-cmd essentials
firewall-cmd --list-all
firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-port=8080/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --remove-service=http --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Critical Exam Day Strategies

Before Starting Tasks

1. Read ALL tasks first – Some tasks may depend on others
2. Identify quick wins – Complete easy tasks first to build confidence
3. Check prerequisites – Ensure packages are installed before configuring
4. Note reboot requirements – Plan when to reboot if needed

During the Exam

1. Test everything twice – Verify your changes work as expected
2. Make persistent – Ensure changes survive reboots
3. Use man pages – When in doubt, check documentation
4. Don’t waste time – If stuck for 10+ minutes, move to next task
5. Watch the clock – Allocate ~5 minutes per task (25-30 tasks typically)

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Not Making Changes Persistent

Problem: Configuration works now but fails after reboot.

Solution:

• Services: Always use systemctl enable
• File systems: Add entries to /etc/fstab
• Firewall: Always add --permanent flag
• SELinux: Use setsebool -P for persistent booleans

2. Incorrect File Permissions

Problem: Services fail because config files have wrong permissions.

Solution:

• Config files: Usually 644 (rw-r–r–)
• Private keys: Should be 600 (rw——-)
• Executables: Should be 755 (rwxr-xr-x)

3. SELinux Denials

Problem: Service configured correctly but won’t work due to SELinux.

Solution:

• Never disable SELinux (you’ll lose points)
• Check contexts: ls -Z /path/to/file
• Restore contexts: restorecon -Rv /path
• Check audit log: ausearch -m avc -ts recent

4. Not Testing After Reboot

Problem: You think task is complete but it fails after reboot.

Solution:

• Budget time for at least one reboot during exam
• Verify critical services start automatically
• Check /etc/fstab doesn’t have syntax errors

Root Password Recovery Practice

You WILL be asked to recover root access during the exam. Practice this procedure until you can do it in under 5 minutes.

Step-by-Step Recovery Process

1. Reboot the system and press ‘e’ at GRUB menu
2. Find line starting with ‘linux’ and go to end of line
3. Add: rd.break
4. Press Ctrl+X to boot
5. Remount root filesystem:

   mount -o remount,rw /sysroot
   chroot /sysroot
   

6. Change root password: passwd root
7. Create autorelabel flag: touch /.autorelabel
8. Exit and reboot: exit

Practice this procedure on a VM until it’s muscle memory!

Time Management Strategy

Typical RHCSA exam has 25-30 tasks in 180 minutes (3 hours):

Task Priority System

Priority 1 (Do First): Quick wins (user creation, permissions, simple configs) – ~5 min each

Priority 2 (Do Second): Medium tasks (storage, networking, services) – ~10-15 min each

Priority 3 (Do Last): Complex tasks (SELinux troubleshooting, boot issues) – ~15-20 min each

If stuck for more than 15 minutes on a task, flag it and move on. Return if time permits.

Best Free Study Resources

Official Red Hat Resources

1. RHCSA Exam Objectives – Official exam outline (must-read)
2. Red Hat Developer Subscription – Free RHEL license for practice
3. RHEL 9 Documentation – Official product documentation

Practice Lab Options

1. KVM/VirtualBox: Create local RHEL 9 VMs for hands-on practice
2. AlmaLinux/Rocky Linux: Free RHEL clones perfect for practice
3. Cloud Labs: Use AWS/Azure/GCP free tiers for temporary practice systems

Recommended Books

1. “Red Hat RHCSA 9 Cert Guide” by Sander van Vugt
2. “RHCSA Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9” by Asghar Ghori
3. YouTube channels: LearnLinuxTV, TechWorld with Nana, KodeKloud

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pass RHCSA with no Linux experience?

While there are no formal prerequisites, Red Hat recommends 1-2 years of Linux system administration experience. Complete beginners should expect 6-12 months of study rather than 90 days. Start with basic Linux courses first.

What happens if I fail the exam?

You can retake within 7 days for $450. You’ll receive a score report showing which objectives you passed/failed. Use it to focus additional study on weak areas.

How long is RHCSA certification valid?

RHCSA certification is valid for 3 years from certification date. After 3 years, you must retake the exam or pass a higher-level Red Hat exam.

Can I use CentOS or AlmaLinux to practice?

Yes! CentOS Stream, AlmaLinux, and Rocky Linux are excellent free alternatives. They’re binary-compatible with RHEL and contain the same packages and commands.

Final Advice: You’ve Got This!

The RHCSA certification validates real skills that employers value. With 90 days of consistent study and hands-on practice, you can absolutely pass this exam.

Key takeaways:

• Study consistently (2-3 hours daily)
• Practice labs matter MORE than reading
• Understand concepts, don’t just memorize commands
• Test everything on a real Linux system
• Review exam objectives regularly
• Master SELinux and storage topics (highest failure rates)
• Practice root password recovery procedures
• Manage time effectively during the exam

Start your study plan today, stay disciplined, and you’ll earn your RHCSA certification!