Do not use ifconfig anymore. It's been deprecated for over 20 years now. Ifconfig does not support secondary ip addresses for example.
ip ad
or nmcli
ip -4 route
ip -6 route
Legacy command to see route information.
netstat -rn
or route -n
arp -a
cat cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/default/gc_stale_time
You can use the "graphical" nmtui
tool to configure your network connection. If you use nmtui
, remember to set the subnet mask when you enter the ip address. Using nmtui
for the exam is better, it will save time.
Another way is to use the nmcli
tool. Remember to swap out the name for the correct name you see when you execute nmcli connection show
nmcli connection edit enp1s0
Now you are in the nmcli interface. Type print
to see detailed information for the connection named "enp1s0". To see the name of all your connection, nmcli connection show
and nmcli device show
Find the connection name, nmcli connection show
Make sure that the bash-completion package is installed when working with nmcli.
Assign the IP address to the correct connection name.
nmcli connection modify enp0s3 ipv4.addresses 192.168.1.21/24
ip is an excellent command for troubleshooting but using the ip command only changes runtime environment, it does not change anything in the configuration files.
Here are a few nmcli examples:
nmcli device status
nmcli connection show -active
If the connection is unmanaged or not connecting, try this command.
sudo nmcli connection mod <connection-name> connection.autoconnect yes
Activate Changes
nmcli connection reload
This only makes the NM aware of the changes.
You have to take the connection down and then up (nmcli con down NAME; nmcli con up NAME
) or most changes can be applied directly with nmcli dev reapply NAME
nmcli connection modify enp0s3 ipv4.gateway 192.168.1.254
nmcli connection modify enp0s3 ipv4.method static
ip link set ens33 down
ip link set ens33 up
nmcli con mod ensp92 802-3-ethernet.mtu 9000
On the exam it's better to restart services than to reload them.
The netfilter framework in the Linux kernel manages firewall operations, and it forwards specific operations to kernel modules.
- Packet filtering
- Network address translation
- Port forwarding
Firewalld is a good interface to create and manage a simple firewall but the framework behind it is the Netfilter (nftables) firewall.
To see config files for services, check out. "/usr/lib/firewalld/"
firewall-cmd --list-all
firewall-cmd --get-services
firewall-cmd --add-service squid --permanent
Remember to use the permanent switch, otherwise the rule is written only to the runtime and is lost if you restart firewalld or the server!
firewall-cmd --reload
Add IP address to the trusted zone.
firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --add-source=192.168.124.1 --permanent
List configuration for all zones.
firewall-cmd --list-all-zones
A zone is a default configuration to which network cards can be assigned to apply specific settings.
You only need to know the service part for the RHCSA exam!
Optional elements to allow access to specific ports.
Use ss
to show socket information. This will show all connections.
ss -tu
shows connected TCP and UDP sockets.
ss -tua
shows connected TCP and UDP sockets + sockets in a listening state.
ss -tulpn
Shows TCP and UDP sockets in a listening state, it also adds process names or PID to the output.
- Use
nm-connection-editor
if you have issues with certs for you network cards. - Make sure your subnet mask is correct.
- Ping your gateway to see if you can reach the router.
- DNS not working, check "/etc/resolv.conf" to make sure it's correct.