Test / Eksamen: Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Enterprise Linux (EX342) (EX342)

Prove your skills in analyzing common problems with Red Hat Enterprise Linux

The performance-based Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Enterprise Linux exam tests your ability to analyze Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® systems for common issues that may cause degradation or loss of performance and either correct the issues or gather forensic information that can be passed along to a third party for support as appropriate.

By passing this exam, you become a Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Enterprise Linux that also counts towards earning a Red Hat Certified Architect in Enterprise Linux.

This exam is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8.4.

Update July 2026

Audience for this exam:

The following audiences may be interested in earning the Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Enterprise Linux:

System administrators who manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems

System administrators who wish to demonstrate problem solving and analysis skills

A Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) interested in earning a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) credential

In preparation :

In preparation for this exam Red Hat recommends that candidates earn Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA), however this is not a requirement for taking the exam.  Candidates should also have experience working with and troubleshooting Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems.

Be sure to review the  Red Hat Certification Program Guide to ensure you are familiar with all official policies and exam procedures before booking your session.

This exam is a performance-based evaluation of candidates ability to diagnose and fix or otherwise troubleshoot common problems and issues encountered when working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  Candidates will be required to analyze and in some cases resolve issues with one or more systems and the applications running on them.

Performance-based testing means that candidates must perform tasks similar to what they perform on the job.

This exam consists of one section lasting four hours.

Candidates should be able to:

• Understand and employ general methods for troubleshooting
• Diagnose and troubleshoot system startup issues
• Diagnose and troubleshoot file system issues
• Resolve package management issues
• Troubleshoot and fix network connectivity issues
• Diagnose application issues
• Identify and fix authentication issues
• Gather information to aid third party investigation of issues

1- Understand and employ general methods for troubleshooting

• Collect system information to aid in troubleshooting
• Consult documentation resources to aid in troubleshooting
• Monitor systems for vital characteristics
• Monitor systems with the RHEL Web console
• Configure systems using Ansible
• Configure systems to send log messages to a centralized host

2- Diagnose and troubleshoot system startup issues

• Identify and resolve service failures affecting boot
• Regain root control of a system
• Troubleshoot boot issues
• Identify hardware and hardware problems
• Manage kernel modules and their parameters

3- Diagnose and troubleshoot file system issues

• Recover corrupted file systems
• Recover mis-configured or broken LVM configurations
• Recover data from encrypted file systems
• Identify and fix iSCSI issues

4- Resolve package management issues

• Resolve package management dependency issues
• Recover a corrupted RPM database.
• Identify and restore changed files

5- Troubleshoot and fix network connectivity issues

• Use standard tools to verify network connectivity
• Identify and fix network connectivity issues
• Inspect network traffic to aid troubleshooting

6- Diagnose application issues

• Identify library dependencies for third-party software
• Identify if an application suffers from memory leaks
• Use standard tools to debug an application
• Identify and fix issues related to SELinux
• Identify and fix issues related to containerized applications

7- Identify and fix authentication issues

• Identify and fix pluggable authentication module (PAM) issues
• Identify and fix identity management issues

8- Gather information to aid third party investigation of issues

• Create kernel crashdumps
• Compile and execute SystemTap modules

As with all Red Hat performance-based exams, configurations must persist after reboot without intervention.

Red Hat recommends that candidates for Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Enterprise Linux have: 

• Taken Red Hat Enterprise Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting (RH342) or have similar experience troubleshooting Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments.
• Earned Red Hat Certified System Administrator or have equivalent systems administration experience.