Exam description

Prove your skills to analyze for common issues

The performance-based Red Hat Certified Specialist in Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting exam (EX342) 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.

By passing this exam, you become a Red Hat Certified Specialist, which also counts toward becoming a Red Hat® Certified Architect (RHCA®).

Audience for this exam:

The following audiences may be interested in becoming a Red Hat Certified Specialist in Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting:

System administrators who manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems

System administrators who wish to demonstrate problem solving and analysis skills

A Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) interested in becoming a Red Hat Certified Specialist in Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting or a Red Hat Certified Architect

Prerequisites for this exam:

Red Hat recommends that candidates for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting exam have:

Taken Red Hat Enterprise Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting (RH342) or have similar experience troubleshooting Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments.

Is a Red Hat Certified Engineer or have equivalent systems administration experience.

Exam Perspective:

Candidates for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting exam should be able to:

• 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
  • Configure systems to send log messages to a centralized host
• Diagnose and troubleshoot system start up 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
• 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
• Resolve package management issues
  • Resolve package management dependency issues
  • Recover a corrupted RPM database
  • Identify and restore changed files
• 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
• 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 authentication issues
  • Identify and fix pluggable authentication module (PAM) issues
  • Identify and fix LDAP and Kerberos identity management issues
• Gather information to aid third party investigation of issues
  • Create kernel crashdumps
  • Compile and execute SystemTap modules