If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve landed in the fascinating world of Red Hat Linux. As for most other technology-related jobs, the demand for Red Hat Linux System Administration professionals is increasing. 

Are you one of those job seekers looking to enter the big league? Then you got to get your Red Hat interview questions and answers right! 

In this post, we’ve made the task infinitely simpler for you. Below you’ll find a set of 20 commonly asked Redhat Interview questions divided into categories.

You also need the ideal answers to these interview questions of Red Hat to ace the interview, correct? We have that locked, too! 

Read on to find out. 

Fundamentals

1. What is Red Hat Linux?

Red Hat Linux is an open-source operating system (OS) provided by Linux. As we know, Linux is one of the world’s leading enterprises. Red Hat Linux can scale existing apps. Plus, it can help roll out new technologies, including cloud, containers, bare-metal, automation, microservices, and virtual environments.  

2. How are Red Hat and Linux different?

Linux is a widely used operating system based on Linux Kernel. As a term, Linux generally describes any collection of programs running Linux Kernel. On the other hand, Red Hat explicitly distributes those variations, backed by the company Red Hat.

3. What are some advantages of Red Hat Linux?

(This is one of the most commonly asked RHEL interview questions)

It’s an Open-Source software alongside being secure and fast. It’s also a Graphical User Interface (GUI)-based Operating System. And provides Open-Source Technical Support.   

Also Read: Top 20 Amazon AWS Interview Questions

4. What are the objectives of Red Hat Linux?

Users can effectively deploy Red Hat Linux to customize their operating environment. They can also accomplish desktop productivity roles as well as common command-line tasks. 

Concepts in-depth

As we move into concept-based Linux sysadmin interview questions, remember to keep your cool and answer clearly.

5. What’s Red Hat Network?

Red Hat Network is a system management platform. It helps users effectively manage the lifecycle of different operating systems and applications. Mainly, it helps install and provision new Linux systems, updating systems, monitoring performance, managing file configuration, redeploying satellite systems, and hosting deployment architectures.  

6. How does the Puppet Server function?

A puppet server is an enterprise application perfect for configuration management. It’s used in Unix-like operating systems and is entirely open-source and automated software. Using a puppet server, one can send the configuration to puppet agents with the help of codes. Thus, essential tasks like updating user accounts, verifying permissions of files, installing new software, among others, can be carried out using this application.  

7. Tell us about the Storage Cluster.

(Expect to be asked about this concept; it’s one of the most common Red Hat interview questions).

When two or more computers that work together to perform tasks are known as clusters. There are different clusters available – storage, load balancing, high availability, and high performance. 

In particular, a storage cluster provides a consistent and perfect view of file systems in the servers within the group. It helps servers simultaneously read and write to a shared file system. Furthermore, it improves storage administration by simplifying and limiting the installation plus packaging process of applications.  

8. Explain ulimit VS umask.

ulimit is a Linux built-in command that offers excellent control over available resources to shell or start processes. If needed, the user can choose to limit to a specific range by customizing the limits.conf file. They could also update system settings in the sysctl.conf file.  

Talking about umask, it refers to using a file creation mask. umask determines the permissions of a file or directory when the user creates one. 

9. What is SELinux?

(One of the Red Hat Linux interview questions that you’ll most likely be asked).

SELinux is Security-Enhanced Linux. As the name suggests, it’s a Linux program with enhanced security features. It protects the server from compromised daemons and misconfigurations. In addition, SELinux is used to access control implementation for the Linux kernel. 

It also sets limits and instructs server programs to access specific permitted files and security policies, defining the action to be taken. 

10. What’s RPM package?

RPM package or RPM was written by Erik Troan and Marc Ewing in 1997. The package was originally called Red Hat Package Manager and is based on pms, rpm, and pm experiences. It’s used for installation, uninstallation, and management of software packages in Linux. RPM was initially developed based on Linux Standard Base.   

11. Tell us about rgmanager and cman.

(This question is one of the most complicated and technical Red Hat interview questions. While answering it, be as clear as possible, so the interviewer understands your answer). 

cman means the Cluster Manager. It’s a distributed cluster manager that operates in a cluster node. One of its primary functions is keeping track of cluster quorum while monitoring the cluster nodes. cman helps with monitoring, heartbeat, quorum, voting, communication, and heartbeat between cluster nodes. 

A Resource Group manager is called rgmanager. As the name implies, it manages the collections of cluster resources. These resources could be services, trees, and groups. It helps administrators in configuring, defining, and monitoring the cluster services. If there’s a failure in any node, rgmanager tries to allocate the same clustered service to another node, which aids in minimal service disruption. 

Additional Read: Top Azure Interview Questions to Prepare For

12. What’s LVM?

LVM is Logical Volume Mangere. It’s a system of managing logical volumes or filesystems. Using LVM, Red Hat Linux administrators can split the space on a hard drive into PV or Physical Volumes. The next step is combining the PVs into VG or Volume Groups. Further, the VG is divided into LV or Logical Volumes.  

LVM is a more advanced system and a flexible solution of partitioning a disk and formatting the partitions into several segments. 

13. What can you tell us about DAS?

(This is another one of the standard but advanced Red Hat interview questions).

DAS is a block device from a disk that’s attached physically to the host machine. It needs a filesystem to run, and only a specific number of servers can access the device. Therefore, server storage and dedicated resources are essential for the functioning of DAS. 

DAS is easy to use and inexpensive. It also includes technologies such as SCSI, SATA, and IDE. 

14. What do you know about the Load Balancing Cluster?

A load balancing cluster is used to support the request load on cluster nodes. The load cluster sends network service requests to multiple cluster nodes to maintain balance. 

Scaling with this cluster is less expensive as multiple nodes can be configured using the consideration of load requirement. If any node isn’t working correctly, it checks the failure and sends the request to another available node. Thus, such node failures are not visible to the client outside the Load Balancing Cluster. 

15. What about SAN and NAS?

NAS runs the embedding OS on basic hardware like the monitor or keyboard. It verifies clients and helps share to other computers or users. A network with dedicated IP is required to make files accessible. Automatic and manual backups can be set up to copy files between NAS and other connected devices using a software program. It gives permissions, folder privileges, and restricted access to documents, among other functions. 

SAN is perfect for block-level storage. It’s mainly used for transferring high volumes of block-level data. Its capacity and performance are well scalable, too. As a storage solution, it gives users multiple access to streaming audio and video, cloud computing, and more. 

16. What are the total primary partitions you can have on one drive in Red Hat Linux?

You can have a total of four partitions, which aren’t extended partitions, on one drive in Red Hat Linux. If you do need more than four, there are three primary, one extended, and multiple logical partitions that can be made within the extended partition. 

ALSO Read: How to Pass Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) Exam?

Commands

17. How can you install RPM packages?

You can use the ‘yum’ and ‘rpm’ command lines to install the rpm packages in Red Hat and CentOS. 

18. What’s the command to check the IP address of a LAN card?

You can check the IP address of the LAN card using the ‘ifconfig’ and ‘ip address’ commands. 

19. How can you find the hostname of a Linux Box?

Using the hostname command on the terminal, you can find the hostname of a Linux Box. 

20. How can you check which Red Hat version is installed on the server?

To determine this, the user can open the Red Hat shell command line ‘cat/etc/redhat-release.’ The output will show the version installed on the server.

Now that you have your list of 20 Red Hat interview questions all set, go ahead and win over your interviewers! Good luck!

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