Table of Contents

  1. RHCSA 9 Practice Exams (EX200)
    1. Exam Instructions (Simulate the Real Exam)
  2. Practice Exam 1 – Core Administration
    1. Objective 1: Essential Tools
    2. Objective 2: File Systems & Storage
    3. Objective 3: Local User and Group Management
    4. Objective 4: Permissions & ACLs
    5. Objective 5: Networking
    6. Objective 6: Firewall Configuration
    7. Objective 7: Process and Service Management
    8. Objective 8: Software Management
    9. Objective 9: Task Scheduling
    10. Objective 10: Boot & System Management
  3. Practice Exam 2 – Troubleshooting Focus
    1. Objective 1: Essential Tools
    2. Objective 2: Storage & Swap
    3. Objective 3: Users & Authentication
    4. Objective 4: SELinux
    5. Objective 5: Networking
    6. Objective 6: Firewall & Services
    7. Objective 7: Logging & Troubleshooting
    8. Objective 8: Time & Scheduling
    9. Objective 9: Boot Recovery
  4. Practice Exam 3 – Mixed Difficulty (Exam‑Style)
    1. Objective Coverage: All (Excluding Containers)
    2. Scoring Recommendation
    3. Notes for Wiki Integration

RHCSA 9 Practice Exams (EX200)

Scope: These practice exams are designed to closely mimic the RHCSA 9 (EX200) hands‑on exam format.

Containers/Podman tasks are intentionally excluded.

Each exam covers all remaining official objectives and is suitable for 2.5–3 hour timed practice in a RHEL 9 lab.

Exam Instructions (Simulate the Real Exam)

  • You have 2.5 hours to complete each exam.
  • Internet access is not allowed.
  • You may use man, /usr/share/doc, and local system documentation.
  • All tasks must persist after reboot unless stated otherwise.
  • Hostname: rhcsa9.exam
  • Root password: redhat

Practice Exam 1 – Core Administration

Objective 1: Essential Tools

  1. Create a file /root/files.txt containing a recursive listing of /etc, sorted alphabetically, with all permission denied errors suppressed.
  2. Create a compressed archive /root/etc-backup.tar.gz containing all files under /etc that were modified in the last 7 days.
  3. Find all regular files larger than 50 MB under /var and write the output to /root/largefiles.txt.

Objective 2: File Systems & Storage

  1. Create a 1 GiB logical volume named lvdata in volume group vgdata.
  2. Format the logical volume with the XFS filesystem.
  3. Mount the filesystem persistently at /data.
  4. Configure the filesystem to mount automatically at boot.

Objective 3: Local User and Group Management

  1. Create a group named developers with GID 4000.
  2. Create a user linda with UID 2000 and primary group developers.
  3. Set the password for linda to expire after 90 days.
  4. Lock the user account linda.

Objective 4: Permissions & ACLs

  1. Create the directory /shared/dev.
  2. Configure the directory so that files created inside inherit the group ownership.
  3. Set an ACL so user anna has read and write access to /shared/dev.

Objective 5: Networking

  1. Configure a static IPv4 address using NetworkManager:
    • IP: 192.168.50.20/24
    • Gateway: 192.168.50.1
    • DNS: 192.168.50.1
  2. Verify connectivity persists after reboot.

Objective 6: Firewall Configuration

  1. Configure the firewall to allow incoming HTTP traffic permanently.
  2. Verify the firewall configuration.

Objective 7: Process and Service Management

  1. Configure the chronyd service to start at boot.
  2. Ensure the service is currently running.

Objective 8: Software Management

  1. Configure a YUM repository using the URL: http://content.example.com/rhel9/BaseOS
  2. Ensure the repository is enabled and functional.

Objective 9: Task Scheduling

  1. Schedule a cron job for user linda that runs /usr/bin/logger "RHCSA exam" every day at 14:30.

Objective 10: Boot & System Management

  1. Configure the system to boot into multi-user (non-graphical) mode by default.

Practice Exam 2 – Troubleshooting Focus

Objective 1: Essential Tools

  1. Redirect all lines containing the word error (case insensitive) from /var/log/messages into /root/errors.txt.
  2. Display the top 5 processes by memory usage and save the output to /root/memtop.txt.

Objective 2: Storage & Swap

  1. Create a 512 MiB swap file at /swapfile.
  2. Activate the swap file persistently.
  3. Verify swap usage.

Objective 3: Users & Authentication

  1. Create a user anna with a non-interactive shell.
  2. Configure the system so failed login attempts are logged.

Objective 4: SELinux

  1. Ensure SELinux is in enforcing mode.
  2. Configure SELinux to allow HTTP service to read files from /webcontent.
  3. Restore correct SELinux contexts on /webcontent.

Objective 5: Networking

  1. Disable IPv6 on the primary network interface persistently.
  2. Verify the configuration after reboot.

Objective 6: Firewall & Services

  1. Install and configure the Apache HTTP server.
  2. Configure it to listen on port 80.
  3. Allow access through the firewall.

Objective 7: Logging & Troubleshooting

  1. Configure journald to persist logs across reboots.
  2. Verify logs are retained after reboot.

Objective 8: Time & Scheduling

  1. Configure the system to synchronize time using time.example.com.

Objective 9: Boot Recovery

  1. Reset the root password using the bootloader.
  2. Verify successful login.

Practice Exam 3 – Mixed Difficulty (Exam‑Style)

Objective Coverage: All (Excluding Containers)

  1. Create a tar archive of /home excluding all .cache directories.
  2. Configure user bob with passwordless sudo for /usr/bin/systemctl status.
  3. Create an autofs map to mount /exports/home/& at /home/users/&.
  4. Ensure the mount occurs on demand.
  5. Configure a persistent static route to network 10.10.10.0/24 via 192.168.50.254.
  6. Configure rsyslog to log all cron messages to /var/log/cron-custom.log.
  7. Set SELinux boolean to allow FTP home directories.
  8. Configure a systemd service that runs /usr/bin/logger "Service started" at boot.
  9. Verify the service status.
  10. Reboot and validate all configurations persist.

Scoring Recommendation

  • 0–69%: Needs improvement
  • 70–79%: Borderline pass
  • 80–100%: Exam‑ready

Notes for Wiki Integration

  • This file is compatible with Just‑the‑Docs, GitHub Pages, and MediaWiki (Markdown extension).
  • You may split each exam into separate pages if desired.
  • Add answer keys in a separate, restricted page to avoid accidental review.

End of RHCSA 9 Practice Exams