CMIT 388 at the University of Maryland Global Campus builds the foundational skills of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) system administrator.
UMGC designed the course to help prepare for the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) exam. Its stated focus is advanced command-line work and enterprise tools for essential administration: installation, network connectivity, physical storage, automation and security administration.
The prerequisite is CMIT 291 or CMIT 391, so you already know basic commands. The jump in CMIT 388 is from knowing commands to running a system: changes must survive a reboot, services must start in the right order, and a misconfigured disk can leave a machine unbootable.
Course at a Glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| University | University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) |
| Course code | CMIT 388 (3 credits) |
| Level | Undergraduate, upper level |
| Prerequisite | CMIT 291 or CMIT 391 |
| Certification alignment | Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) |
| Typical work | Hands-on labs on RHEL, configuration tasks, documented lab reports |
What CMIT 388 Covers
| Area (from UMGC's description) | What it involves in practice |
|---|---|
| Installation | Installing RHEL, choosing partitions and software, first-boot setup |
| Networking connectivity | Configuring interfaces, hostnames and name resolution with NetworkManager tools |
| Physical storage | Partitions, file systems, logical volumes and persistent mounts |
| Automation and programmability | Shell scripts and scheduled jobs that remove repetitive manual work |
| Security administration | Users, groups, permissions, firewall rules and SELinux |
Key Concepts Explained
Persistence
Much of RHEL administration is about making changes permanent. A command that works now but disappears after a reboot is a common reason for a failed task.
Example: Mounting a new file system with mount works until the next restart. Adding the entry to /etc/fstab (using the UUID) and testing it with mount -a makes it persistent and checks the line before you reboot.
Logical Volume Management
LVM pools disks into volume groups and carves out logical volumes that can be resized later. The chain is physical volume, volume group, logical volume, file system.
Example: A data volume runs short of space. You add a disk as a physical volume, extend the volume group, then grow the logical volume and its file system, without taking the data offline.
SELinux
SELinux adds mandatory access control on top of normal permissions. Students often disable it to make a service work; the administrator's answer is to fix the file context or boolean instead.
Typical Assignments and How to Approach Them
| Assignment type | What it tests | How to approach it |
|---|---|---|
| Configuration labs | Completing admin tasks correctly | Show the command, the output and a check that proves it worked |
| Lab reports | Explaining what you did and why | One short paragraph per step, not just screenshots |
| Troubleshooting tasks | Diagnosing a broken service | Read logs with journalctl before changing anything |
| Scripting tasks | Basic automation | Comment the script and test it on sample input |
Course Work Versus the RHCSA Exam
The RHCSA is a performance-based exam: you complete real tasks on live systems rather than answering multiple-choice questions. CMIT 388 labs build the same habits, which is why doing each task from memory matters more than reading about it.
Course assignments add something the exam does not ask for: explanation. A lab report must show what you did, why that approach was right, and how you verified the result. Treat each report as a short runbook a colleague could follow to repeat your work.
Passing the course does not award the certification. If you plan to sit the exam, book it separately through Red Hat and check its current objectives against your course notes.
Where Students Get Stuck
- Changes lost on reboot. Always ask how a setting persists: a config file, an enabled service or a permanent firewall rule.
- Turning SELinux off. It may get a lab working but it teaches the wrong habit; check contexts first.
- Screenshot-only reports. Markers want to see that you understand what each command did.
- Breaking a VM. Take a snapshot before storage or boot changes.
Study Tips for CMIT 388
- Practice every task twice: once following the guide, once from memory, as the RHCSA is a practical exam.
- Learn to find answers on the system with
man,--helpand/usr/share/doc. - Reboot after each lab to test persistence.
- Keep a personal command sheet grouped by task: users, storage, networking, services, security.
How We Help with CMIT 388
Send the lab instructions, your terminal output or screenshots, and the rubric. A writer with Linux experience can explain why a step failed, review your lab report for clarity, or prepare a model write-up that shows how to document commands and results. For the general structure of a technical write-up, see our lab report guide.
GradeEssays is independent of the University of Maryland Global Campus. We do not log in to your lab environment or classroom; our work is a reference aid to use within UMGC's academic integrity policy. Orders are written from scratch, with free revisions within the scope of your original request.
Get Your CMIT 388 Lab Write-Ups in Order
Share the lab instructions and your screenshots. A Linux writer shows you how to explain each command and result clearly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
UMGC lists CMIT 291 or CMIT 391 as the prerequisite.
UMGC designed it to help prepare for the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) exam, which is taken separately through Red Hat.
UMGC's description includes automation and programmability, so expect basic shell scripting. You do not need to be a programmer, but you should be comfortable with variables, loops and running scripts.
The course is about Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so commands and tools follow the RHEL way of doing things.
Many commands change the running system only. Make them persistent through configuration files, enabled services or permanent firewall rules.
No. We do not access your lab. We explain the tasks, check your write-ups and provide model documentation to learn from.