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r/redhat•
ConnectImage

I passed RHCSA 8, WOOO! Also some tips for your exam

I passed the exam and it was super awesome!

I took the individual exam; unlike some of the posters here, I had no issues with the given machine. The proctor was lit af and was very helpful with my questions.

Some tips for your exam:

  • Use RHEL 8 with the official free developer's license for your own practice environment. Have a look here

  • Use man -K a lot. Not lowercase k, UPPERCASE. That searches through the body of every manpage. This saved my skin on the exam.

  • Go to the Slack server by u/rdbreak here for practice exams and general help. I wouldn't've passed without the help of the members there.

  • I used Sander van Vugt's 3rd edition video course. I did notice some small issues in his videos (I've informed van Vugt, updates are coming), so I started to read through the official RHEL documentation for help. Try every single thing he does in your personal environment, test the configurations and see if what he shows matches the RHEL documentation. The 3rd edition video course is based on the RHEL 8 beta, so some changes have been made.

  • If it is not in the objectives, it is NOT on the exam. Van Vugt has a lot of extra things, like LUKS encryption, in his video series which you don't need to know. For me personally, I'm unauthorized to use LUKS at work and since it's not on the exam there really was no point in learning that. If you have limited time, I suggest you to familiarize yourself with the objectives and only learn the things necessary. I was very short on study time and hence had to cram like hell.

  • If possible, don't be me and don't cram. I swear I must've lost some weight over my study period.

  • Get to the exam center early and know where to park. You need at least 15 minutes to check in, though I recommend 30 minutes in case there are technical difficulties.

If you have questions, HMU. Super happy to be an RHCSA!

EDIT: There were some things listed in the emails you get after you schedule the exam. Not sure if it's NDA'ed and I'd rather not risk it, but my advice is--read it carefully and be sure to follow all directions. Have everything ready in accordance to the email when you arrive at the testing center.

Posted Aug 22, 2019, 11:28 PM UTC · edited

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rdbreakRed Hat Certified Engineer•

Congratulations once again! Thanks for the shout out, and glad the group and resources were helpful in you passing. Good luck on your next certification journey!

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Of course, thank you!

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Hey_you87•

Hey congrats! :D I'm preparing for RHCSA 7, do you think just the Sander van vugt videos are enough? I have 5+ years administering debian and others distro but first contact with RHEL are happening now.

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Fiatjustitiaruatcael•

I second OP's recommendation, with an important reinforcement : Follow along with the videos and do what he is doing in the lesson videos, not just in the Lab. The first time I took (and failed the RHCSA by 10 points) the exam I only watched the videos and did the labs - but understanding what was going on really wasn't forced into my head. It was following along with the lesson and DOING the same things that helped work the knowledge into my brain to make it "muscle" memory.

For me the videos were enough to pass. Good luck!

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

That 5+ years of experience in Linux will definitely help. I had only 2 years of on/off experience, and it was mostly in Kali Linux doing pen testing exercises.

If you can do everything Sander van Vugt shows you in the videos, you should be good to go. Just in case, though, go through the RHCSA 7 objectives, map them to the official RHEL documentation and read through the docs. I did this last minute and it definitely helped.

Also, Sander van Vugt has an RHCSA/RHCE 7 book available, it may help you out if you don't gain a good understanding through the videos.

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Hey_you87•

Thank you! ya I'll download that book too! I watched some videos and I'm very familiar, so I think i'll use just sander :D thanks and congratulations again.

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Thank you, good luck with the exam!

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fiat124•

Congrats! Is the official free developers license included in the ISO on the link you posted?

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Yep! You just have to make a Red Hat account (which you need for your cert anyway)

I'm telling everyone to use RHEL 8 because CentOS 8 isn't out yet. I've also been told there's some minor syntax differences between CentOS and RHEL hence I'd rather everyone stick with the real thing. Plus it's free! Just don't run it in production and you won't violate any license agreements.

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MrKeishii•

Hey ConnectImage, so I went ahead and downloaded the developer's edition from the link you posted above. After installing RHEL8 on my VMware Workstation how do I activate it as a developer subscription? Do you get a subscription license for developer use? Thanks!

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Sorry for the late response! There should've been a link to register--my memory's a bit hazy, it's been awhile, but try this link.

From here you should be able to make an account. Then, when you use the subscription manager tool in RHEL 8 you should be able to tie your installation with your account—this lets you install programs and updates.

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mastaRed Hat Employee•

Congratulations! 👍😎

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Thank you! It was an awesome experience!

I can now start every sentence with, "As a Red Hat Certified System Administrator..." /s

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HyTriN1•

First of all, congratulations!

I used Sander van Vugt's 3rd edition video course. I did notice some small issues in his videos (I've informed van Vugt, updates are coming)

Could you tell what mistakes you noticed? I'm a beginner in Linux and I'm also watching and learning from Sanders videos, but I've decided to start watching the second edition on the CentOS 7 and then I'll watch and learn the 3rd edition.

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

I've decided to start watching the second edition on the CentOS 7 and then I'll watch and learn the 3rd edition.

If you're trying to get the RHCSA 8 cert, I wouldn't recommend this. Here is an example: In RHEL 7, when you mount VDO, you must use a persistent device name. If you do this in RHEL 8, which isn't the method shown in the RHEL 8 documentation, you will occasionally get the "Bad magic number!" error and the volume won't mount. This will not occur 100% of the time, either. Now try Googling, "VDO bad magic number." You won't find a thing.

Unless the entities you want to work for or are working for now use RHEL 7 and are not upgrading to RHEL 8, I wouldn't recommend studying for both. You don't want a small mistake like above put your score too low to pass.

Issues I noticed in van Vugt's 3rd edition training:

You have to do both of these commands when doing ACL on directories--he just used one in the lab solution, which isn't a good thing. You MUST do both.

setfacl -m d:g:groupname:rwx /directory
setfacl -R -m g:groupname:rwx /directory

Additionally, this mounting option is now required for Stratis. This change probably occurred after RHEL 8 came out of beta, so I would say it's not a mistake on van Vugt's part.

x-systemd.requires=stratisd.service
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HyTriN1•

Oh wow, these commands are unknown to me, I'm only at the Permissions section(which is 7 I think). I'm long way from understanding this..

Do you have any more general tips which I could use?

Thanks!

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

You'll get there. I believe ACL is under permissions, last few videos before the lab.

I would recommend joining that Slack channel I linked in the OP. Honestly, I would not have passed without the people there.

Otherwise, practice practice practice! You should keep repeating everything in your own environment, multiple times, until it becomes second nature. I typed those commands from memory, for instance. That's how familiar you should be come exam time. The test is 2.5 hours, you won't have long to look things up.

Feel free to break your VMs and spin up new ones! Get familiar with your virtualization tech and figure out how to do snapshots. If you're on the free version of VMware, you don't get to have snapshots, so you'll have to rely on good old copy paste, though VirtualBox should have snapshots. You shouldn't be afraid of breaking your RHEL VMs while you're practicing—if you don't break anything, you won't learn the limits of your tech and you may make mistakes during the exam.

Feel free to message me here, I'm also The Red Memer in Slack so HMU!

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HyTriN1•

Amazing, will do that ASAP. Thank you!!

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warhammerx01•

setfacl -m d:g:groupname:rwx /directory
setfacl -R -m g:groupname:rwx /directory

Just want to help my co-RHCSA-certified aspirants :)

The two commands above are important for setting ACLs and for setting them as the "default" setting.

The "setfacl -m d:g:groupname:rwx /directory" command sets the default setting (see that "d" in front? thats what it makes it the default setting. :))

The 2nd command basically applies the ACL to ALL the subdirectories under the target directory (/directory part).

​

And yes, you also NEED to understand how stuff works so before you plunge your hands on the keyboard typing commands as fast as you can, READ THE FUNDAMENTALS/OVERVIEW within every chapter. You'll be surprised that 80% of your errors or technical problems can be solved because you knew the workflow/syntax of the operations you are trying to do. :)

​

I'm so excited to take the exam (partly because I somehow understood 70% of what was discussed in both the RH124 and RH135 courses) as well as anxious because I know I need more practice.

​

Anyways, God bless all of us!

​

And to you OP, CONGRATULATIONS! :D

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Yep, that's right! The tutorial video just showed the default setting.

And thank you! Good luck to you, I hope you do well.

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warhammerx01•

Thanks! :)

I passed this January 31. 😁

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naveedmf2•

Congrats Yo!

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Thank you!

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PutinsThirdNipple•

Thanks! I have set a personal goal to sit this exam before the end of the year. So your post was super relevant. Congrats on passing.

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

So, how's it going?

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Nice! I think overall that's a much better decision. Good luck with your bachelor's degree!

I did my RHCSA in my free time over the summer between the two semesters, so you could just do that if you'd like, or maybe during the winter break if you're staying home.

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polkaron•

Congratulations! I failed my first time because of mishandling the LDAP authconfig. But I gladly paid that $400 cost to retake it and got close to acing it. It's one of the happiest days of my life.

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Wow, very nice! My score was so so, but I'm glad you were able to nearly ace it. Congrats!

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CommentReaders•

Congratulations !!!!! I think this is best tips but I study in Jang&orsaria RHEL 7 book. Are you seriously recommend Sander van Vugt book and video series? What do you think about this?

[EDIT]

I'm using 5 years Linux Systems but I have job experience less than. Is it important for exam?

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Yes, I do recommend van Vugt. RHCSA is moving onto RHEL 8. There will be differences between requirements from RHEL 7 and RHEL 8, so you should study for the new exam using Sander van Vugt's videos. I don't believe his book has been released yet.

I'd say as long as you do everything van Vugt does, read the Red Hat official documentation for it, too, and try everything a few dozen times, you'll be fine for the exam. I had very little Linux experience before and passed it on my first try.

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CommentReaders•

I will buy van vugt book. I guess, that good for lab study. I have seen rhel 8 release notes and I thought good enough for rhcsa but that has hard when I studied exam. Also, I have a question about the exam. You know end years for ipv4. Was there any question about the ipv6 rule in the exam? because I didn't see any comment this.

​

Was there affect the rhcsa exam in your life or salary? My friend said, "The certifications aren't important to find jobs. That has just give extra money and title." Are you agree with this thought?

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

I can't comment what was on the exam for me, however you do need to know both IPv4 and IPv6. The exam objectives are here: https://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/ex200-red-hat-certified-system-administrator-rhcsa-exam

The RHCSA helped me learn Linux. I was a noob when I started and this had a rigorous standard by which I studied. Any kind of experience is good to find a job, especially if it is verified by a third-party (Red Hat in this case) with a practical, not multiple-choice, exam. Saying you know Linux in a resume bullet point won't hold nearly as much weight as an RHCSA.

I'm currently working and my salary has been increasing every year. While it's not just because I got the cert, it did play a part in it, as the computer science career path requires continuous learning.

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CommentReaders•

Thank you so much. You helped understand to me of exam.

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DuxBellorum-II•

Congratulations ! What you advise me to use as a main Source to study rhcsa 8 i have no linux experience

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Hey Dux! When I first started out, I also had very little Linux experience. I would recommend starting with some basics first. Do you have a LinkedIn Learning or Lynda.com subscription? Your college or workplace may provide it for free.

If yes, please have a look at Scott Thompson's "Learning Linux command line" series. Try do everything he shows you on your own. Then, feel free to hop into Sander van Vugt's video series. Van Vugt states that prior experience is necessary for his videos, but I beg to differ. You will notice a lot of similarities between Scott Thompson's video series and the first few modules from Sander van Vugt. You should be able to get very good info from both of those.

When you are shown something in those videos, try it in your own Linux environment. Repeat until you memorize it!

I personally used VMware Workstation to do my virtualization, though there is the free version called VMware Player which works just as well.

I also recommend that Slack channel linked in the OP.

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DuxBellorum-II•

And do you think scott and van vugt videos are sufficient or i need to go through rhel documentation and i use Debian 10 with virtual box and Maybe later i will use kvm

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

I'd say you should read every RHCSA objective, then go through the official RHEL documentation for each objective. Both video courses are helpful but I recommend knowing the official documentation. Updates sometimes happen and can change procedures.

For the RHCSA, don't use Debian 10, use RHEL 8. Get it here: https://developers.redhat.com/rhel8/

Virtualbox should be fine, you're not expected to spin up virtual machines in KVM as it's not an exam objective.

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DuxBellorum-II•

I use debian 10 as my desktop distro and rhel 8 to do the labs thank you for your time

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McFerry•

First of all , Grats! on your certification!

I would like to ask for your personal advice , experience and what you think its the best way to train for the cert. Which one is the RHEL environment is the best for training (Minimal and build as much as you can from schratch? Gui/Server) or focusing the build up the environment is less important than managing it? i'm kinda interested in the feed back from someone who recently took the examn in that aspect.

I'm sutdying it myself but i'm still reading and gathering information I will jump to the lab part when i return from holidays in september.

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Building the OS is not in the objectives, so feel free to ignore that. The exam focuses on the system administrator portion, and hence managing the OS is the important part. Make sure you read all of the objectives and understand what those encompass.

You should be able to do everything from the command line, so get comfortable—you simply won't have the time to use the GUI. The exam objectives also state this:

Log in and switch users in multiuser targets
Boot systems into different targets manually

This means you should be comfortable with most targets available in RHEL 8, whether it's rescue.target, multi-user.target or graphical.target.

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[deleted]•

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Rdditman20188•

Congratulations on passing!

I have just booked RH124 and RH134 with the intention to take the EX200 exam early next year. I am hoping that both 124 and 134 and I this video course i just started, https://learning.oreilly.com/videos/red-hat-certified/9780135656495 via SafariBooks will help give me enough prep for the exam.

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

Good luck! Let me know if you have questions.

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[deleted]•

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ConnectImageOPRed Hat Certified System Administrator•

I've never taken those classes, but you should be fine. That video course from van Vugt is what I used. As long as you try everything in the video course on your own machine, test that it works and make it persistent (meaning what you made will survive a reboot) then you should be good to go.

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Rdditman20188•

Awesome, yeah I have been working through it. Trying out the commands and enjoying seeing what they do ha! I just need to memorize them for future use.

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