Red Hat Security: Identity Management and Active Directory Integration (RH362) — Lesson 2: Users, Groups, Hosts, Sudo, HBAC, Automount, Certificates, and Policies

Learning Objectives

• Configure the main services, objects, and controls involved in users and groups, hosts, and sudo and HBAC.
• Apply automount and certificates and policies while preserving reviewable technical evidence.
• Recognize and correct the risk where a valid command creates the wrong outcome because variables, identity, or sequencing are incorrect.

Detailed Topics

• users and groups: apply the concept to an identity team integrating RHEL systems with a centralized identity service and Microsoft Active Directory, record the relevant settings or decisions, and explain the operational consequence.
• hosts: apply the concept to an identity team integrating RHEL systems with a centralized identity service and Microsoft Active Directory, record the relevant settings or decisions, and explain the operational consequence.
• sudo and HBAC: apply the concept to an identity team integrating RHEL systems with a centralized identity service and Microsoft Active Directory, record the relevant settings or decisions, and explain the operational consequence.
• automount: apply the concept to an identity team integrating RHEL systems with a centralized identity service and Microsoft Active Directory, record the relevant settings or decisions, and explain the operational consequence.
• certificates and policies: apply the concept to an identity team integrating RHEL systems with a centralized identity service and Microsoft Active Directory, record the relevant settings or decisions, and explain the operational consequence.

Instructor Demonstration

The instructor demonstrates users, groups, hosts, sudo, hbac, automount, certificates, and policies by tracing the relevant architecture, commands, configuration, messages, and evidence. The walkthrough highlights how a valid command creates the wrong outcome because variables, identity, or sequencing are incorrect and shows how to isolate the cause without masking dependent issues.

Hands-On Exercise

Implement the core workflow and compare expected versus observed behavior for Users, Groups, Hosts, Sudo, HBAC, Automount, Certificates, and Policies. Add verified outcomes to the IdM deployment design, trust configuration evidence, policy baseline, and identity support runbook.

1. Confirm the scope, versions, access, dependencies, and success criteria.
2. Perform the workflow while recording commands, settings, output, and platform events.
3. Test one expected case and one controlled exception specific to this lesson.
4. Retest the correction and document ownership, rollback, and follow-up actions.

Scenario Analysis

• Identify which dependency most strongly influences users and groups in the stated scenario.
• Compare two approaches for automount and explain the security, reliability, and support trade-offs.
• Decide what evidence must be retained in the IdM deployment design, trust configuration evidence, policy baseline, and identity support runbook before operational acceptance.

Troubleshooting Guidance

Begin with the first observable difference from the expected result. Check configuration, permissions, sequencing, and functional behavior separately, then correlate logs, events, commands, and configuration history. Do not accept the initial assumption that a valid command creates the wrong outcome because variables, identity, or sequencing are incorrect; confirm the cause with a reproducible retest.

Validation Checklist

• The required configuration, permissions, sequencing, and functional behavior were checked and recorded.
• The normal path and a course-specific exception were tested.
• The IdM deployment design, trust configuration evidence, policy baseline, and identity support runbook links conclusions to commands, configuration, logs, or other objective evidence.
• Corrective actions, rollback steps, ownership, and handover notes are complete.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can apply Users, Groups, Hosts, Sudo, HBAC, Automount, Certificates, and Policies, explain the observed Red Hat platform behavior, and support the result with a reviewable IdM deployment design, trust configuration evidence, policy baseline, and identity support runbook.