Exam Orientation + Essential Tools

Understand the EX200 exam format. Master vim, shell redirection, grep, regular expressions, SSH, archive tools, file management, permissions, and local documentation. Every skill in this module appears on the exam.

Labs in this module

The EX200 Exam Environment - Orient to the current performance-based EX200 on RHEL 10: real machines, graded on end state only, single total score, no internet. Drill th
vim Essentials - Drive vim to exam fluency: the three modes, i/a/o and Esc, :wq versus :q!, dd/yy/p/u, gg/G, search with /pattern and n, and the global subst
Shell Redirection - Steer a command's two output streams. stdout and stderr, and for stdout, 2 for stderr, and the EX200 move that folds both into one file: com
grep and Regular Expressions - Pull exact lines out of any file with grep. Plain matches, the -c, -n, -i, -v, -o, and -r flags, the -E extended form, and the regex metacha
SSH and Key-Based Auth - Reach another node with ssh, then remove the password for good with an ed25519 key pair and ssh-copy-id. Covers ssh user@host, remote comman
Login and User Switching - Read your identity with whoami and id, find the wheel group that grants sudo, and become root two ways: su - for a full login shell with the
Archives and Compression - Create and extract tar archives on RHEL 10 for the EX200 file tasks. Create, list, and extract with -c -t -x and -f, three compressors (-z g
File Management - Everyday file management for the EX200: cp with -r for directories and -p to preserve mode, owner, and time; mv to move and rename; rm and r
Hard and Soft Links - Create hard and soft links for EX200 task 3. A hard link is a second name on the same inode; a symlink is a small file that points at a path
ugo/rwx Permissions - Read the ls -l ten-character mode string and set it exactly with chmod. Three classes (user, group, other) times three bits (read, write, ex
umask and Default Permissions - Set the default permissions for new files and directories with umask (EX200 task 52). Files start at 666, directories at 777, and the umask
man, info, and /usr/share/doc - Offline documentation is the only help on the RHCSA exam. Confirm a page with whatis, open the right section with man and man 5, search by k
Mission Control: Operation Field Kit - The RHCSA essential-tools capstone mission on a real RHEL 10 machine. Archive, link, filter, capture, and lock down, graded on the end state