Coverage Map¶
Certification objectives mapped to the topic file that covers them. The map proves the folder's completeness and doubles as a study index for RHCSA, LFCS, LPIC-1 and Linux+. Objectives are paraphrased; rows are added as each module is written.
Foundations¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| LPIC-1 101.1 | Determine and configure hardware settings (lspci, lsusb, /proc, /sys) | System Information, Architecture |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Linux fundamentals: distributions, kernel and userland, licensing | What Is Linux, Kernel vs OS vs Distro, Distributions |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Gather hardware and system information | System Information |
| Interview sources | Kernel space vs user space, system calls, why servers run Linux | Architecture, Linux vs Windows |
Shell and CLI¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Access a shell prompt and issue commands with correct syntax | Shell Basics, Command Resolution |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Use input-output redirection | Streams and Redirection |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create and edit text files | Text Editors |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Locate, read and use system documentation (man, info, /usr/share/doc) | Getting Help |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create simple shell scripts: conditionals, loops, script arguments, command output | Scripting Essentials, Exit Codes and Chaining |
| LFCS | Use input and output redirection; write scripts to automate tasks | Streams and Redirection, Scripting Essentials |
| LPIC-1 103.1 | Work on the command line (quoting, history, environment, type, which) | Shell Basics, Quoting and Expansion, Command Resolution |
| LPIC-1 103.4 | Use streams, pipes and redirects (tee, xargs) | Streams and Redirection |
| LPIC-1 103.8 | Basic file editing (vi, EDITOR) | Text Editors |
| LPIC-1 105.1 | Customize and use the shell environment (profiles, env, export, aliases, functions) | Variables and Environment, Command Resolution |
| LPIC-1 105.2 | Customize or write simple scripts (test, loops, exit status) | Scripting Essentials, Exit Codes and Chaining |
| LPIC-1 107.3 | Localisation and internationalisation (locale, LANG, LC_ALL, iconv) | Locale and Encoding |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Shell scripting basics and environment variables | Scripting Essentials, Variables and Environment |
Files and Filesystem¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Archive, compress, unpack and uncompress files using tar, gzip and bzip2 | Archiving and Compression |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create, delete, copy and move files and directories | File Operations |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create hard and soft links | Inodes and Links |
| LFCS | Create, delete, copy and move files; manage links; archive and compress; search for files | File Operations, Inodes and Links, Archiving and Compression, Finding Files |
| LPIC-1 103.3 | Perform basic file management (cp, mv, rm, find, tar, cpio, dd, globbing) | File Operations, Finding Files, Archiving and Compression |
| LPIC-1 104.6 | Create and change hard and symbolic links | Inodes and Links |
| LPIC-1 104.7 | Find system files and place files in the correct location (FHS, find, locate, whereis, type) | Filesystem Hierarchy, Finding Files |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Filesystem hierarchy, file types, links, compression and archiving | Filesystem Hierarchy, File Types, Inodes and Links, Archiving and Compression |
| Interview sources | File descriptors, deleted-but-open files, inode exhaustion | File Descriptors, Inodes and Links |
Text Processing¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Use grep and regular expressions to analyze text | grep and Regex |
| LFCS | Search and manipulate text with filters and regular expressions | grep and Regex, sed, awk |
| LPIC-1 103.2 | Process text streams using filters (cut, sort, uniq, tr, paste, join, sed, head, tail, wc, checksums) | Cut, Sort, Uniq and Tr, Viewing and Comparing, sed |
| LPIC-1 103.4 | Use streams, pipes and redirects (xargs, tee) | xargs and tee |
| LPIC-1 103.7 | Search text files using regular expressions | grep and Regex |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Text manipulation and structured data (awk, sed, jq, YAML) | awk, JSON and YAML on the CLI |
| Interview sources | Log parsing one-liners: top IPs, status counts, time windows | awk, Cut, Sort, Uniq and Tr |
Users and Access¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create, delete and modify local user accounts | Users |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Change passwords and adjust password aging for local accounts | Passwords and Aging |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create, delete and modify local groups and memberships | Groups |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure privileged access | Sudo and Su |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Log in and switch users in multi-user targets | Sudo and Su |
| LFCS | Create and manage local user and group accounts | Users, Groups |
| LFCS | Manage user accounts in LDAP | Centralized Identity |
| LPIC-1 107.1 | Manage user and group accounts and related system files | Users, Groups, Passwords and Aging |
| LPIC-1 110.1 | Security administration: sudo, su, chage, who, w, last | Sudo and Su, Login Sessions |
| Linux+ XK0-006 2.2 | Manage local accounts: useradd, usermod, chage, /etc/skel, UID and GID, service accounts | Users, Passwords and Aging |
| Linux+ XK0-006 3.1 | Authentication, authorization and accounting: PAM, SSSD, LDAP, Kerberos, polkit | PAM, Centralized Identity, Sudo and Su |
| Linux+ XK0-006 3.4 | Account hardening: password quality, history, lockout, nologin | PAM, Passwords and Aging |
Permissions¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | List, set and change standard ugo/rwx permissions | Basic Permissions |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create and configure set-GID directories for collaboration | Special Permissions |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Diagnose and correct file permission problems | Basic Permissions, ACL, File Attributes |
| LFCS | Manage file permissions, ownership and ACLs | Basic Permissions, ACL |
| LPIC-1 104.5 | Manage file permissions and ownership (SUID, SGID, sticky, umask) | Basic Permissions, Special Permissions, umask |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | File permissions, special bits, ACLs and attributes | Special Permissions, ACL, File Attributes |
Package Management¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Install and update software packages from repositories and local files | rpm and dnf |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure access to RPM repositories | Repositories |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Install and update software using Flatpak | Flatpak and Snap |
| LFCS | Manage software packages and repositories | rpm and dnf, dpkg and apt, Repositories |
| LPIC-1 102.3 | Manage shared libraries | Shared Libraries |
| LPIC-1 102.4 | Use Debian package management | dpkg and apt |
| LPIC-1 102.5 | Use RPM and YUM package management | rpm and dnf, Packaging Concepts |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Package management, repositories, sandboxed applications and building from source | Packaging Concepts, Flatpak and Snap, Other Install Methods |
Processes¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Identify CPU and memory intensive processes and kill processes | Viewing Processes, Signals |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Adjust process scheduling | Priority and Nice |
| LFCS | Monitor, tune and troubleshoot processes | Viewing Processes, Process States, System Calls and Tracing |
| LPIC-1 103.5 | Create, monitor and kill processes (ps, top, jobs, bg, fg, nohup, kill, pkill, screen, tmux) | Viewing Processes, Signals, Job Control |
| LPIC-1 103.6 | Modify process execution priorities (nice, renice) | Priority and Nice |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Process management: states, signals, priorities, job control | Process States, Signals, Job Control |
| Interview sources | fork/exec/wait, zombies and orphans, system calls, strace | Process Lifecycle, Process Fundamentals, System Calls and Tracing |
Systemd and Services¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Boot, reboot and shut down a system normally | Init and Targets |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Boot systems into different targets manually | Init and Targets |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Start, stop and check the status of network services | systemctl |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Start and stop services and configure services to start automatically at boot | systemctl |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure systems to boot into a specific target automatically | Init and Targets |
| LFCS | Manage and configure systemd services and targets | systemctl, Unit Files, Writing a Service |
| LPIC-1 101.3 | Change runlevels / boot targets and shut down or reboot the system | Init and Targets |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Service management with systemd: units, targets, overrides, troubleshooting | systemctl, Unit Files, Systemd Toolbox |
Logging¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Locate and interpret system log files and journals | Log Locations, journalctl |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Preserve system journals | journalctl |
| LFCS | Configure and manage system logging; analyze logs | journalctl, rsyslog, Log Parsing Recipes |
| LPIC-1 108.2 | System logging: rsyslog, logrotate, journald, logger, systemd-cat | rsyslog, logrotate, journalctl |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Logging and log analysis | Log Locations, Log Parsing Recipes |
| Interview sources | Parse access and authentication logs with awk, sort, uniq | Log Parsing Recipes |
Scheduling¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Schedule tasks using at and cron | cron and at |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Schedule tasks with systemd timer units | Systemd Timers |
| LFCS | Schedule tasks to run at a set date and time | cron and at, Systemd Timers |
| LPIC-1 107.2 | Automate system administration tasks by scheduling jobs (cron, at, anacron, timers, access files) | cron and at, Systemd Timers |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Job scheduling | cron and at |
Kernel and Hardware¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| LFCS | Update and manage kernel parameters (sysctl); load and remove kernel modules | sysctl, Kernel Modules |
| LPIC-1 101.1 | Determine and configure hardware: sysfs, udev, procfs, /dev, modprobe, lsmod, lspci, lsusb | proc and sys, Kernel Modules, Devices and udev |
| LPIC-1 101.2 | Kernel ring buffer and boot messages (dmesg, journalctl -k) | dmesg and Kernel Messages |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Kernel modules, parameters and hardware devices | Kernel Modules, sysctl, Devices and udev |
| Interview sources | OOM killer, segfaults, hung tasks, /proc without tools | dmesg and Kernel Messages, proc and sys |
Storage¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | List, create and delete partitions on MBR and GPT disks | Partitioning |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create and remove physical volumes, assign them to volume groups, create and delete logical volumes | LVM |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure systems to mount file systems at boot by UUID or label | Mounting and fstab |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Add new partitions, logical volumes and swap to a system non-destructively | Partitioning, LVM, Swap |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Create, mount, unmount and use vfat, ext4 and xfs file systems | Filesystems, Mounting and fstab |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Extend existing logical volumes | LVM, Resizing and Cloud Disks |
| LFCS | Configure and manage LVM storage; create, manage and troubleshoot filesystems | LVM, Filesystems |
| LFCS | Configure and manage swap space | Swap |
| LPIC-1 102.1 | Design hard disk layout (partitions, swap, LVM basics) | Partitioning, LVM |
| LPIC-1 104.1 | Create partitions and filesystems (fdisk, gdisk, parted, mkfs, mkswap) | Partitioning, Filesystems, Swap |
| LPIC-1 104.2 | Maintain the integrity of filesystems (df, du, fsck, e2fsck, tune2fs, xfs_repair) | Filesystems, Disk Usage |
| LPIC-1 104.3 | Control mounting and unmounting (/etc/fstab, blkid, lsblk, systemd mount units) | Mounting and fstab, Disks and Devices |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Storage: partitions, filesystems, LVM, RAID, quotas and encryption | LVM, RAID and Encryption, Quotas |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Backup and restore methods | Backup and Restore |
| Interview sources | Disk full, df versus du, inodes, deleted open files, extending a cloud volume | Disk Usage, Resizing and Cloud Disks |
Networking¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure IPv4 and IPv6 addresses | Network Configuration, Interfaces and Addresses |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure hostname resolution | DNS Resolution, Network Configuration |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure network services to start automatically at boot | Network Configuration |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure time service clients | Time and Timezones |
| LFCS | Configure IPv4 and IPv6 networking and hostname resolution | Network Configuration, DNS Resolution |
| LFCS | Set and synchronize system time using time servers | Time and Timezones |
| LFCS | Monitor and troubleshoot networking | Connectivity Testing, Packet Capture, Troubleshooting Ladder |
| LFCS | Configure bridge and bonding devices | Bridges, Bonds and VLANs |
| LFCS | Implement reverse proxies and load balancers | Reverse Proxy and Load Balancing |
| LFCS | Configure and verify network routes | Routing |
| LPIC-1 108.1 | Maintain system time (date, hwclock, timedatectl, chrony) | Time and Timezones |
| LPIC-1 109.1 | Fundamentals of internet protocols (ports, TCP and UDP, IPv6) | Ports and Sockets, Interfaces and Addresses |
| LPIC-1 109.2 | Persistent network configuration (NetworkManager, hostnamectl, /etc/hosts, nsswitch.conf) | Network Configuration, DNS Resolution |
| LPIC-1 109.3 | Basic network troubleshooting (ip, ss, ping, traceroute, tracepath, nc) | Connectivity Testing, Routing, Ports and Sockets |
| LPIC-1 109.4 | Configure client side DNS (resolv.conf, getent, dig, host) | DNS Resolution |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Network configuration, tools and troubleshooting | Network Configuration, Connectivity Testing, Packet Capture, Troubleshooting Ladder |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Tunnels and VPNs | VPN (WireGuard) |
| Interview sources | ss and netstat, TCP states, DNS lookup order, 502 versus 504, a layered troubleshooting answer | Ports and Sockets, Sockets and TCP States, DNS Resolution, Reverse Proxy and Load Balancing, Troubleshooting Ladder |
SSH and Remote Access¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Access remote systems using SSH | SSH Client, SSH Troubleshooting |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure key-based authentication for SSH | SSH Client, sshd Server |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Securely transfer files between systems | File Transfer |
| LFCS | Configure SSH servers and clients | ssh Client, sshd Server |
| LPIC-1 105 / 110.3 | Securing data with SSH, tunnels and known hosts | SSH Client, SSH Tunnels |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Remote access (SSH keys, config, tunnels, SFTP) | SSH Client, SSH Tunnels, File Transfer |
| Interview sources | Permission denied (publickey) ladder, slow login, bastions, rsync trailing slash | SSH Troubleshooting, SSH Client, File Transfer |
Security¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure firewall settings using firewall-cmd | firewalld and ufw |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Set enforcing and permissive modes for SELinux | SELinux |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | List and identify SELinux file and process context | SELinux |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Restore default file contexts; use booleans | SELinux |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Diagnose and address routine SELinux policy violations | SELinux, Hardening Checklist |
| LFCS | Configure firewalld / packet filtering | firewalld and ufw, nftables and iptables |
| LFCS | Configure and manage SELinux / AppArmor | SELinux, AppArmor |
| LFCS | Manage software and configure GPG-signed repositories | GPG |
| LFCS | Configure and use auditing | auditd |
| LPIC-1 110.1 | Perform security administration tasks (setuid, find, ports, fail2ban) | Hardening Checklist, Capabilities |
| LPIC-1 110.2 | Set up host security (services, TCP wrappers, updates) | Hardening Checklist, Compliance and Integrity |
| LPIC-1 110 / GPG | Encrypt and sign with GnuPG; manage keys | GPG |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Firewalls, SELinux/AppArmor, capabilities, hardening | firewalld and ufw, SELinux, Capabilities, Hardening Checklist |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Certificates, PKI and the system trust store | OpenSSL and Trust Store |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | NAT, port forwarding and packet filtering | nftables and iptables |
| Interview sources | SELinux denials with correct modes, capabilities vs setuid, reject vs drop, backported CVEs, TLS trust | SELinux, Capabilities, firewalld and ufw, Compliance and Integrity, OpenSSL and Trust Store |
Boot and Recovery¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Boot systems into different targets manually | Boot Process |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Interrupt the boot process to gain access to a system | Recovery, GRUB2 |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Reset a lost root password | Recovery |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Modify the system bootloader | GRUB2 |
| LFCS | Configure GRUB2 boot loader and boot targets | GRUB2, Boot Process |
| LFCS | Diagnose and manage the boot process and initramfs | Boot Process, Kernel Updates |
| LPIC-1 101.2 / 102.2 | Boot the system; install and configure the bootloader | Boot Process, GRUB2 |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Boot process, GRUB, recovery and kernel panics | Boot Process, Recovery, Kernel Panic |
| Interview sources | Boot stages, rescue vs emergency, root password reset, cannot mount root | Boot Process, Recovery, Kernel Panic |
Performance and Troubleshooting¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Identify CPU and memory intensive processes | CPU and Load, Memory |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Adjust process scheduling; tune the system with tuned | CPU and Load, Tuning |
| LFCS | Monitor and troubleshoot system performance | Methodology, Disk I/O |
| LFCS | Configure user resource limits | Limits and File Descriptors |
| LPIC-1 / Linux+ | Process monitoring, memory and I/O tools | CPU and Load, Memory, Disk I/O |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Analyze and troubleshoot performance; monitoring and SLOs | Methodology, Monitoring and Capacity |
| Interview sources | USE method, 60-second checklist, load vs iowait, OOM and exit 137, fd limits, virtual memory, strace vs perf vs eBPF | Methodology, CPU and Load, Memory, Virtual Memory, Limits and File Descriptors, Profiling and Tracing |
Network Storage¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Mount and unmount network file systems using NFS | NFS, Autofs |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure autofs for automounting | Autofs |
| LFCS | Configure and manage NFS server and client | NFS |
| LFCS | Configure and manage the SMB/CIFS server and client | Samba and CIFS |
| LFCS | Configure iSCSI target and initiator | iSCSI and NBD |
| LPIC-2 209 | NFS and Samba file sharing | NFS, Samba and CIFS |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Network file systems and block storage over the network | NFS, iSCSI and NBD |
| Interview sources | Hard vs soft mounts, the D-state NFS hang, block vs file sharing | NFS, iSCSI and NBD |
Containers¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Find and run container images with Podman | Podman and Quadlet |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Perform basic container management; run as systemd services | Podman and Quadlet |
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Attach persistent storage to a container | Podman and Quadlet, Overlayfs and Chroot |
| LFCS | Understand container fundamentals: namespaces and cgroups | Namespaces, Cgroups |
| Linux+ XK0-006 | Container concepts, images and runtimes | Containers vs VMs, Overlayfs and Chroot |
| Interview sources | A container is a process; namespaces, cgroups, overlay layers, exit 137, rootless mapping | Namespaces, Cgroups, Containers vs VMs, Podman and Quadlet |
Virtualization and Provisioning¶
| Curriculum | Objective | Covered in |
|---|---|---|
| RHCSA EX200 (RHEL 10) | Configure a system to use cloud-init or install with Kickstart | Cloud-init and Kickstart |
| LFCS | Create and manage virtual machines with KVM/libvirt | KVM and libvirt |
| LFCS | Manage VM disk images and templates | VM Images and Cloning |
| LPIC-2 / Linux+ | Virtualization concepts, KVM, and cloud provisioning | KVM and libvirt, Cloud-init and Kickstart |
| Interview sources | Container vs VM boundary, qcow2 vs raw, resetting machine-id and host keys on clones | KVM and libvirt, VM Images and Cloning |