Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) Exam Survival Guide

Window: Global | Hands-on Linux sysadmin exam

Must-do topics

• User & group mgmt; permissions; sudoers
• Networking: IP, routing, firewalld, SELinux basics
• Storage: LVM, partitions, mount points, file systems
• Services: Apache, MariaDB, NFS, Samba, SSH
• Automation: Bash, Ansible playbooks
• Troubleshooting boot issues, logs

Top traps (avoid)

• Forgetting SELinux contexts (cause hidden fails)
• Skipping service enablement at boot (systemctl enable)
• Misconfiguring permissions; using chmod blindly
• Not practicing Ansible syntax; YAML spacing kills configs

Time split

• 3.5 hrs, hands-on tasks
• Tackle familiar services first; don’t get stuck

Last-48h checklist

• Practice 5–10 Ansible playbooks
• Review LVM setup (pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate, mount)
• Restart service checklist (systemctl status/start/enable)
• SELinux troubleshooting drill (ls -Z, restorecon)

Quick facts

• chown user:group file
• firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent; firewall-cmd --reload
• Ansible: hosts file + YAML tasks + modules (copy, service, package)

Speed tactics

• Document configs as you go; test after each step
• If stuck, rollback & retry from base config
• In doubt: check logs (/var/log/messages, /var/log/httpd)

Day-of mini-plan

• 20-min warm-up lab: users, Apache, firewall
• Pace: 30–40 min per section; save Ansible for last if weak