Starting the RHCSA: Day 1 Insights into Networking and User Management

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Hey Hashnode fam! 👋

Welcome to Day 1 of my RHCSA (Red Hat Certified System Administrator) journey! 🎯
I’ve started diving into real exam-style questions and wanted to document my learning here — both for my own accountability and to help anyone else preparing too.

Today, I tackled two core topics:

• 🧠 Network configuration using nmcli & nmtui

• 👥 User, group, and shell management

Here’s what I practiced 👇

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⚙️ Task 1: Configure TCP/IP and Hostname

📝 The Requirements:

IP ADDRESS: 172.24.250.10
NETMASK: 255.255.255.0
GATEWAY: 172.24.250.254
DNS: 172.24.250.254
HOSTNAME: node1.lab.example.com

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🛠️ Steps I Followed

1. Assign static IP using nmcli:

nmcli con mod ens33 ipv4.addresses 172.24.250.10/24
nmcli con mod ens33 ipv4.gateway 172.24.250.254
nmcli con mod ens33 ipv4.dns 172.24.250.254
nmcli con mod ens33 ipv4.method manual
nmcli con up ens33

Or similarly use the nmtui for the UI way to save time if you don’t want to remember the command.

Verify Everything.

ip a

hostnamectl

👤 Task 2: Create Users, Groups & Manage Shell Access

🎯 The Goal:

• Create a group named sysadm

• Create users: harry, natasha, and sarah

  • harry & natasha: members of sysadm (secondary group)

  • sarah: no interactive shell, not a part of sysadm

• All users must have password: ablerate

Create the group

groupadd sysadm

Create users with secondary group 'sysadm'

useradd -G sysadm harry useradd -G sysadm natasha

Create user with no interactive shell

useradd -s /sbin/nologin sarah

Set password for all users

echo "ablerate" | passwd --stdin harry echo "ablerate" | passwd --stdin natasha echo "ablerate" | passwd --stdin sarah

Verification

id harry

id natasha

id sarah

💡 Key Takeaways from Day 1

• nmcli is a powerful tool — especially for RHCSA exam scenarios.

• Always double-check group assignments with id.

• Setting shells like /sbin/nologin is useful when you need restricted users.

💬 Let's Talk!

Are you prepping for RHCSA too?
Or maybe you're brushing up on your sysadmin skills?

💭 Drop your thoughts in the comments:

• What’s one Linux command you think every sysadmin should master?

• Ever messed up a nmcli config and lost SSH? 😅 (I almost did!)

Let’s connect, support each other, and crush this certification 💪

Thank you for reading! 🚀 If you found this guide helpful or have any suggestions, tips, or questions about Linux Permissions, please feel free to leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you and learn together!

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