First Look at RHCE for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

With the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, the RHCSA and RHCE certification exams have been changed and updated for the new version of the operating system.  There are some new testing elements that are included in the new exam.

The new exam objectives are available on Red Hat’s web site and one of the first things I’ve noticed is that the exam is now 4 hours whereas the RHCE 6 exam was 2 hours long.

Some of the new items I noticed are:

System configuration and management

• Use network teaming or bonding to configure aggregated network links between two Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems.
• Configure IPv6 addresses and perform basic IPv6 troubleshooting.
• Use FirewallD, including Rich Rules, Zones and custom rules, to implement packet filtering and configure network address translation (NAT).

Network Services

• Configure SELinux to support the service.
• Use SELinux port labelling to allow services to use non-standard ports.
• Configure the service to start when the system is booted.
• Configure the service for basic operation.
• Configure host-based and user-based security for the service.

HTTP/HTTPS

• Configure TLS security

Database Services

• Install and configure MariaDB.
• Backup and restore a database.
• Create a simple database schema.
• Perform simple SQL queries against a database.

I like many of you are in need of passing this exam to keep my RHCE certification and plan on creating a comprehensive guide to cover these new topics and there others necessary to pass.  As always I would love to hear from you regarding any of these new topics and you you use them.  I will work to make regular updates until I have covered all of the RHCE 7 topics.