(RHCSA) partition objective

lumbercis

Hi all,

I have question on one of the RHCSA exam objectives from here:
https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhcsa/objectives/

"List, create, delete and set partition type for primary, extended, and logical partitions"

Are they basically talking about using the "Disk Utility" since there isn't a real partition manager (like gparted) included in RHEL?

The RH Installation guide has details for doing this during install, but the title of the section is "Configure Local Storage" which doesn't sound like they are talking about during install. Or am I wrong and they are talking about configuring during install?

For context, these are all of the objectives for this section:

• List, create, delete and set partition type for primary, extended, and logical partitions
• Create and remove physical volumes, assign physical volumes to volume groups, create and delete logical volumes
• Create and configure LUKS-encrypted partitions and logical volumes to prompt for password and mount a decrypted file system at boot
• Configure systems to mount file systems at boot by Universally Unique ID (UUID) or label
• Add new partitions, logical volumes and swap to a system non-destructively

Do you think they intend that you do it using command line tools? I don't get that impression since the installation and deployment guides don't shy away from command line instructions when it is the best/easiest way, but they don't talk about the command line at all when talking about partitioning.

Thanks for your insight!

J.

UnixGuy

I think they mean the 'fdisk' utility..or maybe the 'parted'..and 'Disk Druid'

you should know how to partition a disk, mount it...and don't forget volume management using LVM, and raid configuration.

You should also know how to do it during installation & after installation as well.

They don't restrict you to any specific way. The exam is results oriented. The exam will ask you to configure the disk, but will not specify whether you should do it using command line or GUI. Choose your preferred way

Bodanel

My advice is to learn all you can on the matter. It will be usefull someday, maybe when you take RHCSA, RHCE or someday at the job.
This is the way I learn. I think will make both RHCSA and RHCE easier

/pub/beer/

UnixGuy wrote: »

They don't restrict you to any specific way. The exam is results oriented. The exam will ask you to configure the disk, but will not specify whether you should do it using command line or GUI. Choose your preferred way

+1 ... if the proper results are achieved in the allotted time it's marked as correct regardless of the method you took to get those results (except the obvious: cheating, etc).

Chris:/*

Yes agreed it is about using FDISK and LVMs.

NightShade03

While you guys are all correct...the *official* Red Hat documentation now says that parted is the preferred utility for RHEL6. Either way...as already mentioned you could use any utility you'd like as long as you achieve the desired results.

lumbercis

Gotcha. I was just more confused as to whether they meant during install or after the system is up. It seems like in the RHCSA that a lot of emphasis is taken off of install tasks compared to previous RHCT.

In any case, you guys would say that parted is the utility to concentrate on for command line and ??? for GUI? Or just ignore the GUI and concentrate on parted?

Can parted handle all the "Configure local storage" objectives like physical volumes, encrypted partitions, LVMs, etc?

Thanks,
J.

Chris:/*

It is a timed test and you may need every second or you may finish early. For most things I found the cmd line faster than any GUI. This is a generalization of course and there are times when the GUI tools may be faster depending on what you are doing.

Forsaken_GA

NightShade03 wrote: »

While you guys are all correct...the *official* Red Hat documentation now says that parted is the preferred utility for RHEL6. Either way...as already mentioned you could use any utility you'd like as long as you achieve the desired results.

Not surprising, since fdisk has issues with volume sizes larger than 2TB, and storage is dirt cheap these days. Everyone should learn how to use parted and the difference between ms-dos labels and gpt labels

NightShade03

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Not surprising, since fdisk has issues with volume sizes larger than 2TB, and storage is dirt cheap these days. Everyone should learn how to use parted and the difference between ms-dos labels and gpt labels

ms-dos labels are also now obsolete in RHEL6. If you create a partition label with ms-dos (which it tends to do by default)...the parted and fdisk utilities will no yell at you that they are obsolete.