- Domain 1 Overview: Why Red Hat Groups Tasks This Way
- Essential Tools
- Operate Running Systems
- Configure Local Storage
- Create and Configure File Systems
- Deploy, Configure, and Maintain Systems
- Manage Users and Groups
- Manage Security
- Manage Containers
- How These Categories Show Up on the EX200
- A Domain-Driven Study Sequence
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Domain 1 covers eight competency categories, from essential tools to managing containers, with no official weighting.
- The EX200 is a 150-minute, hands-on performance exam - no multiple-choice questions, ever.
- Passing requires 210 of 300 points, and every configuration must survive a reboot to count.
- Storage and file system tasks (LVM, mounts, swap) overlap heavily with the deploy and maintain category.
Domain 1 Overview: Why Red Hat Groups Tasks This Way
Unlike most IT certifications, Red Hat does not publish weighted domains with percentage breakdowns for the EX200. Instead, the entire syllabus lives inside a single structure often referred to as Domain 1: a set of competency categories that describe real administrative work rather than exam trivia. These categories - essential tools, operating running systems, configuring local storage, creating and configuring file systems, deploying and maintaining systems, managing users and groups, managing security, and managing containers - are the literal skills tested when you sit down at a live RHEL 10 terminal.
If you're building a broader study strategy, this article pairs well with the RHCSA Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 1 Content Areas, which explains how Red Hat structures the single domain overall. Here, we break each competency category into concrete, testable tasks.
Essential Tools
This category is the foundation everything else depends on. You're expected to navigate the shell fluently, manage files, and use core utilities without hesitation - because the exam is timed and performance-based, not a quiz you can guess through.
What You Must Master
Command-line efficiency directly affects how much time you have left for storage, security, and container tasks later in the exam.
- Redirecting output, using pipes, and archiving with tar, gzip, and bzip2
- Creating, deleting, copying, moving, and linking files and directories (hard vs. symbolic links)
- Using grep and regular expressions to extract text from files
- Accessing remote systems with ssh and transferring files with scp
- Locating, reading, and searching documentation shipped with RHEL, since the exam is closed-book with no internet access
Operate Running Systems
This category tests whether you can keep a live system healthy: boot it correctly, manage services, and diagnose problems under time pressure.
- Booting into different targets and troubleshooting boot issues, including single-user and rescue modes
- Managing systemd units - starting, stopping, enabling, and identifying services set to start automatically
- Analyzing and viewing logs with journalctl and understanding persistent journaling
- Scheduling tasks with at and cron
- Tuning system performance and identifying CPU/memory-intensive processes
- Locating and interpreting system documentation and kernel messages
Key Takeaway
Every service, mount, and scheduled task you configure must survive a reboot. Get in the habit of rebooting your practice VM after every task block, not just at the end of a study session.
Configure Local Storage
Storage tasks are consistently among the most technically demanding on the EX200, and they interlock tightly with file system configuration below.
Local Storage Competency
You need to move fluidly between partitioning tools and volume management without breaking existing data.
- Listing, creating, and deleting partitions using parted or fdisk on MBR and GPT disks
- Creating and removing physical volumes, volume groups, and logical volumes with LVM
- Extending existing logical volumes non-destructively
- Configuring systems to mount file systems at boot using UUID or label references
- Configuring swap space correctly and persistently
Create and Configure File Systems
Once storage is carved up, you must format and mount it correctly - and make those mounts persistent, which is where many candidates lose points.
- Creating, mounting, and using vfat, ext4, and xfs file systems
- Mounting and unmounting network file systems using NFS
- Configuring autofs for on-demand mounting
- Extending existing logical volumes and resizing the file systems on top of them
- Creating and configuring set-GID directories for collaboration
- Diagnosing and correcting file permission problems
Deploy, Configure, and Maintain Systems
This is the broadest competency category, covering package management, networking, and system-wide configuration - the day-to-day work of a Linux administrator.
Deployment and Maintenance Skills
Expect tasks that combine multiple sub-skills, such as installing a package and then configuring the service it provides.
- Installing and updating software packages from Red Hat repositories using dnf
- Modifying the system boot process, including kernel parameters
- Configuring network interfaces, hostnames, and name resolution
- Configuring time synchronization with chronyd
- Managing kernel modules and system-wide environment settings
- Working with system-wide configuration files and log rotation
Manage Users and Groups
User and group administration is heavily tested because it underpins nearly every other category, including security and storage permissions.
- Creating, deleting, and modifying local user and group accounts
- Changing passwords and managing password aging policies
- Creating users with specific UIDs, home directories, and shells
- Configuring a system to use an existing authentication service for user information (such as LDAP)
- Configuring sudo access for specific users and groups
Manage Security
Security tasks require both conceptual understanding and hands-on configuration - this category trips up candidates who study SELinux and firewalld only in theory.
Security Competency
Because the exam runs on a live, closed-book system, you must know how to check documentation for SELinux booleans and contexts without external search engines.
- Configuring firewalld to restrict or allow access to specific services
- Setting enforcing and permissive SELinux modes and troubleshooting SELinux-related denials
- Listing and identifying SELinux file and process contexts
- Restoring default file contexts and setting persistent SELinux booleans
- Configuring key-based authentication for SSH
- Managing default file permissions using umask and configuring special permissions (setuid, setgid, sticky bit)
Manage Containers
Container management is one of the newer competency categories, reflecting how much RHEL administration has shifted toward Podman-based workflows.
- Finding and retrieving container images from remote registries
- Inspecting container images and containers, and listing running or stopped containers
- Starting, stopping, and running containers from images
- Running containers as a systemd service so they start automatically at boot
- Configuring a container to start automatically as a systemd service that persists after reboot
- Setting resource limits and attaching persistent storage volumes to containers
Key Takeaway
Treat container tasks as seriously as storage or security tasks. Because Red Hat lists them as their own competency category, skipping Podman practice leaves an entire scoring area uncovered.
How These Categories Show Up on the EX200
Understanding the format matters as much as memorizing commands. Here's what candidates actually experience:
| Exam Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | Performance-based, hands-on tasks on a live RHEL 10 system - no multiple-choice questions |
| Duration | Single section, approximately 2.5 hours (150 minutes) |
| Passing Score | 210 out of 300 points |
| Delivery | Red Hat testing center or remote proctored (not Pearson VUE or PSI) |
| Fee | USD 500 standard global price, no included free retake; regional parity pricing applies elsewhere |
| Resources Allowed | Closed-book; only product documentation shipped with RHEL is accessible, no internet |
| Validity | 3 years, renewed by retaking EX200 or earning RHCE (EX294) |
Because there's no fixed question count and no multiple-choice format, you can't "recognize" a correct answer - you have to produce a working configuration under time pressure. This is a major reason people ask How Hard Is the RHCSA Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026, and the honest answer is that difficulty comes from breadth and time management across all eight categories, not from any single trick topic.
For a full breakdown of what the fee actually includes (and doesn't), see RHCSA Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. If you're weighing whether the investment pays off in your market, Is the RHCSA Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 covers that in more depth, and RHCSA Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis looks at how the credential is used by hiring teams.
A Domain-Driven Study Sequence
Rather than a generic weekly template, sequence your study around dependencies between these categories. Storage and file systems feed directly into deployment tasks; users and groups feed into security tasks; containers can be studied independently but benefit from solid systemd knowledge first.
Essential Tools + Operate Running Systems
- Drill shell navigation, archiving, and grep until they're automatic
- Practice systemd unit management and journalctl log analysis daily
Local Storage + File Systems
- Build and destroy LVM configurations repeatedly on a disposable VM
- Practice persistent mounts with fstab and verify each with a reboot
Deploy/Maintain + Users and Groups
- Configure networking, package installs, and sudo access together
- Simulate multi-step tasks that combine account creation with permission fixes
Security + Containers
- Work through SELinux troubleshooting scenarios and firewalld rules
- Practice Podman image retrieval and systemd-managed container services
For a more detailed week-by-week framework tied to your specific timeline and background, see the RHCSA Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. Once you feel confident across all eight categories, running timed drills on our RHCSA practice test platform is the closest simulation you'll get to the actual performance-based format before exam day.
If you want exam-day logistics and last-minute strategy rather than domain content, check RHCSA Exam Day Tips: 15 Strategies to Maximize Your Score. And once you've earned the credential, note that it stays current for three years - RHCSA Recertification 2026: Requirements, Costs & Timeline explains how renewal via EX200 or EX294 works. Many candidates also use practice exams on this site periodically after certification to keep skills sharp for recertification.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Red Hat does not publish a weighted breakdown for these categories. All are considered fair game, and candidates should prepare for each one rather than prioritizing based on assumed weight.
No. The EX200 is entirely performance-based. You complete real configuration tasks on a live RHEL 10 system, and there is no fixed question count since tasks are practical rather than multiple-choice.
Container workflows with Podman have become a standard part of RHEL administration, so Red Hat included managing containers as its own competency category rather than treating it as optional or advanced-only content.
It will not earn credit. Persistence after reboot is an explicit requirement across storage, file system, networking, and container tasks, so always test configurations by rebooting before considering a task complete.
There are no formal prerequisites, though Red Hat recommends RH124 and RH134, RH199, or comparable RHEL system administration experience before attempting to master these competency categories independently.