Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 — Beginner to RHCA

Note: This guide does not promise exam coverage. It teaches the real-world skills that those certifications measure.

Welcome. This guide takes you from your very first login on a RHEL 10 system all the way through the skills expected of a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) on the RHEL infrastructure track — with hands-on labs every step of the way.

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Table of contents

• Who this guide is for
• How the guide is structured
• Full table of contents
  • Preface
  • Getting Started (Onramp)
  • Linux Foundations (Onramp)
  • RHEL Administration (RHCSA Track)
  • Automation (RHCE Track)
  • Advanced Infrastructure (RHCA Track)
  • Lab Environments
  • Reference
• Lab environment
• Conventions at a glance
• License

Who this guide is for

You are …	Start here
Completely new to Linux	Install a RHEL 10 Lab VM
Comfortable with Linux basics, learning RHEL admin	Packages and Repos
Preparing for RHCE or wanting automation skills	Automation Mindset
Going deep on RHEL infrastructure / RHCA	Troubleshooting Playbook

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How the guide is structured

The guide is split into four progressive tracks:

Onramp  →  RHCSA  →  RHCE  →  RHCA

You can read start-to-finish or jump directly to any chapter. Each chapter is self-contained and lists its prerequisites up front.

Track	Covers
Onramp	Terminal, files, permissions, editors, help system
RHCSA	Storage, users, systemd, networking, firewall, SSH, SELinux
RHCE	Bash, Ansible, roles, patching workflows
RHCA	SELinux deep dive, advanced systemd, networking, Podman ops, performance

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Full table of contents

Preface

• About This Guide
• Lab Workflow (Snapshots, Safety)
• Conventions (Prompts, Paths, Editors)

Getting Started (Onramp)

• Install a RHEL 10 Lab VM
• First Boot Checklist
• Accounts, sudo, and Updates
• Getting Help (man, --help, apropos)

Linux Foundations (Onramp)

• Shell Basics (pwd, ls, cd)
• Files and Text (cp, mv, rm, less)
• Pipes and Redirection
• Editing Files (nano + vim intro)
• Users, Groups, Permissions
• ACLs (When and How)
• Lab — Shared Team Directory

RHEL Administration (RHCSA Track)

• Packages and Repos (dnf)
• Storage Overview (lsblk, blkid, mounts)
• Filesystems and fstab (XFS)
• LVM (Create, Extend, Reduce Safely)
• systemd Essentials
• Logs and journalctl
• Scheduling (timers + cron)
• Networking Basics (ip, ss)
• NetworkManager (nmcli)
• DNS and Name Resolution
• Firewalling (firewalld)
• SSH (Keys, Server Basics)
• SELinux Fundamentals (Contexts, Booleans)
• SELinux Troubleshooting (AVCs)
• Lab — Static IP + DNS Validation
• Lab — Create a systemd Service
• Lab — LVM + XFS Grow
• Lab — Fix a SELinux Label Issue

Automation (RHCE Track)

• Automation Mindset (Idempotence)
• Bash Scripting Fundamentals
• Ansible Setup and Inventory
• Ansible Playbooks (Tasks, Handlers)
• Variables, Templates, and Files
• Roles and Collections
• Deploy a Service with Ansible (Firewall + SELinux)
• Patch Workflow + Reporting
• Lab — Write Your First Playbook
• Lab — Role-Based Web Service Deploy

Advanced Infrastructure (RHCA Track)

• Troubleshooting Playbook (First 10 Minutes)
• Advanced systemd (Dependencies, Drop-ins)
• systemd Hardening (Service Sandboxing)
• Journald Retention and Forwarding

SELinux Deep Dive

• Fix Taxonomy (Label vs Boolean vs Port vs Policy)
• semanage (fcontext, port, boolean)
• Audit Workflow (ausearch, audit2why cautions)
• Lab — Non-Default Port (Correct SELinux Fix)

Networking Deep Dive

• nmcli Profiles at Scale
• Routing + Troubleshooting Method
• tcpdump Guided Debugging
• VLAN, Bridge, Bond Concepts
• Lab — Debug DNS vs Routing vs Firewall

Containers with Podman

• Container Fundamentals (RHEL view)
• Rootless Podman (Storage, Networking)
• Volumes and Persistent Data
• Podman Secrets (Create, Use, Rotate)
• systemd-Managed Containers (Quadlet)
• Container SELinux Gotchas (Volumes, Labels)
• Lab — Run Rootless Web App + Persistent Data
• Lab — Inject + Rotate a Podman Secret

Performance and Resilience

• Resource Triage (CPU, Mem, Disk, IO)
• tuned Basics
• Recovery Patterns

Lab Environments

• Lab Environments Overview
• Single-VM Labs
• Multi-VM Labs (Optional)

Reference

• Exam Objective Map
• Glossary
• Command Cheatsheets
• Further Reading (Official Docs)

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Lab environment

All labs target a single fresh RHEL 10 VM unless explicitly marked (Multi-VM). Every lab tells you exactly:

• what packages to install first
• the step-by-step commands with expected results
• how to verify success
• how to clean up and reset

Read the Lab Workflow page before starting your first lab.

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Conventions at a glance

• $ — command runs as a regular user
• # — command runs as root (prefer sudo unless told otherwise)
• sudo command — escalate a single command (safe default)

⚠️ Do NOT do this A pattern you should avoid, with a short explanation and the correct alternative.

💡 Pro tip Useful shortcut or context that helps you understand the "why".

Full details in Conventions.

License

This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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