RHCE Rapid Track Course and RHCE Exam

Course Description

The Red Hat Certified Engineer™ course is designed for UNIX- and Linux-experienced users, networking specialists, and system administrators. This 5-day course provides intensive hands-on training on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and includes the RHCE Certification Lab Exam on day 5. Those who are interested in taking the rapid track course, but who would prefer to defer taking the exam until the later date, or who are not interested in certification may wish to consider RH301.

Prerequisites:

• RH033 Red Hat Linux Essentials
• RH131 Red Hat Linux System Administration
• or RH133 Red Hat Linux System Administration (and RHCT Exam)
• RH253 Red Hat Linux Networking and Security Administration
• or equivalent experience with UNIX; LAN/WAN fundamentals Internetworking with TCP/IP, knowledge or experience setting up NFS, HTTP, DNS, FTP, NIS, DHCP, and other networking services, and security

Course Outline

The following is an outline of the skills and knowledge represented in the training elements (four days) and in the Certification Lab Exam (one day) of the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE™) course.

The RHCE training elements and Certification Lab Exam will also review and test on certain prerequisites for the course. The prerequisites for the RHCE course are outlined in a separate document, which should be carefully reviewed by anyone planning to attend an RHCE course.

The RHCE outline, together with the prerequisites outline, can serve as a study outline for those planning to attend the RHCE course and take the Certification Lab Exam. It is highly recommended that all prospective RHCE participants review these outlines in preparation for the course and exam.

Note: Technical content subject to change without notice. Significant changes in course content will generally be available in posted outlines at least two months prior to being implemented in scheduled courses, to allow enrolled students adequate prep time. Reload this page regularly to insure up-to-date information.

Unit 1: Essentials

• Essential initial topics in system administration, including editors, switching accounts, adding users, using cron, and managing network connections

Unit 2: Kernel Services

• The Linux kernel: variants and modules
• The /proc filesystem and the sysctl command
• Accessing devices using udev
• Exploring hardware

Unit 3: Filesystem Management

• Creating filesystems
• Making filesystem mounts persistent across reboots
• Managing swap space

Unit 4: User Administration

• Modifying and deleting user accounts
• Password aging
• Group administration
• Creating group directories
• Setting disk quotas

Unit 5: Local Security

• Setting up a host-based firewall
• Using access control lists
• The SELinux security layer
• Managing suid and sgid executables
• Controlling access to superuser authority using sudo

Unit 6: Advanced Partitioning

• Understanding and implementing Software RAID
• Understanding Logical Volume Management
• Creating and resizing logical volumes

Unit 7: Installation

• The interactive Anaconda installer
• Kickstart: a hands-free method of installation

Unit 8: System Initialization

• Understanding the boot procedure
• Configuring the GRUB boot loader
• The Initial RAM Disk
• Understanding run levels
• Controlling services

Unit 9: RPM, YUM, RHN

• RPM: The Red Hat Package Manager
• The YUM installer
• Using the Red Hat Network

Unit 10: System Administration Topics

• Configuring the X Server
• The CUPS printing system
• cron and the superuser: the system-wide crontab file
• cron and system reboots: the anacron system
• Authentication Configuration: Pluggable Authentication Modules

Unit 11: Network Configuration

• Understanding network addresses
• Using OpenSSH for network communications
• Using VNC for network communications
• Network Authentication

Unit 12: Network Security

• Protecting services using TCP Wrappers
• Protecting the system using a packet filtering host-based firewall

Unit 13: Network File Sharing Services

• Setting up an NFS server
• Setting up an FTP server
• The Samba Server: networking with Windows systems

Unit 14: Network Infrastructure

• Creating a private repository
• NTP: Coordinating time
• Configuring a DHCP server
• Configuring a DNS server

Unit 15: HTTP Service

• Configuring the Apache web server
• Configuring the Squid web proxy cache

Unit 16: Mail Service

• Understanding e-mail delivery
• Using sendmail and postfix
• Dovecot: an IMAP and POP server

Unit 17: Troubleshooting

• A method for fault analysis
• Things to check
• Understanding recovery run levels
• Using the rescue environment