EX342

Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Enterprise Linux exam

Overview

Tagline

Prove your skills in analyzing common problems with Red Hat Enterprise Linux

The performance-based Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Enterprise Linux exam tests your ability to analyze Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® systems for common issues that may cause degradation or loss of performance and either correct the issues or gather forensic information that can be passed along to a third party for support as appropriate.

By passing this exam, you become a Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Enterprise Linux that also counts towards earning a Red Hat Certified Architect in Enterprise Linux.

This exam is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8.4. 

Audience for this exam

The following audiences may be interested in earning the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Red Hat Enterprise Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting:

  • System administrators who manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems
  • System administrators who wish to demonstrate problem solving and analysis skills
  • A Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) interested in earning a Red Hat Certificate of Expertise or RHCA credential

Prerequisites for this exam

Red Hat recommends that candidates for the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Red Hat Enterprise Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting have: 

  • Taken Red Hat Enterprise Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting (RH342) or have similar experience troubleshooting Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments.
  • Earned Red Hat Certified Engineer or have equivalent systems administration experience.
  • Take our free assessment to find the course that best supports your preparation for this exam.
 Objectives

In preparation 

In preparation for this exam Red Hat recommends that candidates earn Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) however this is not a requirement for taking the exam.  Candidates should also have experience working with and troubleshooting Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems.

Study points for the exam

To help you prepare, the exam objectives highlight the task areas you can expect to see covered in the exam. Red Hat reserves the right to add, modify, and remove exam objectives. Such changes will be made public in advance.

Candidates for the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting should be able to:

  • Understand and employ general methods for troubleshooting
    • Collect system information to aid in troubleshooting
    • Consult documentation resources to aid in troubleshooting
    • Monitor systems for vital characteristics
    • Monitor systems with the RHEL Web console
    • Configure systems using Ansible
    • Configure systems to send log messages to a centralized host
  • Diagnose and troubleshoot system startup issues
    • Identify and resolve service failures affecting boot
    • Regain root control of a system
    • Troubleshoot boot issues
    • Identify hardware and hardware problems
    • Manage kernel modules and their parameters
  • Diagnose and troubleshoot file system issues
    • Recover corrupted file systems
    • Recover mis-configured or broken LVM configurations
    • Recover data from encrypted file systems
    • Identify and fix iSCSI issues
  • Resolve package management issues
    • Resolve package management dependency issues
    • Recover a corrupted RPM database.
    • Identify and restore changed files
  • Troubleshoot and fix network connectivity issues
    • Use standard tools to verify network connectivity
    • Identify and fix network connectivity issues
    • Inspect network traffic to aid troubleshooting
  • Diagnose application issues
    • Identify library dependencies for third-party software
    • Identify if an application suffers from memory leaks
    • Use standard tools to debug an application
    • Identify and fix issues related to SELinux
    • Identify and fix issues related to containerized applications
  • Identify and fix authentication issues
    • Identify and fix pluggable authentication module (PAM) issues
    • Identify and fix identity management issues
  • Gather information to aid third party investigation of issues
    • Create kernel crashdumps
    • Compile and execute SystemTap modules

As with all Red Hat performance-based exams, configurations must persist after reboot without intervention.

 What you need to know

Preparation

Red Hat encourages you to consider taking Red Hat Enterprise Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting (RH342) to help prepare.

Exam format

Be sure to review the Red Hat Certification Program Guide to ensure you are familiar with all official policies and exam procedures before booking your session.

This exam is a performance-based evaluation of candidates ability to diagnose and fix or otherwise troubleshoot common problems and issues encountered when working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  Candidates will be required to analyze and in some cases resolve issues with one or more systems and the applications running on them.

Performance-based testing means that candidates must perform tasks similar to what they perform on the job.

This exam consists of one section lasting four hours.

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