CS AO study guide
CS AO · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Certified Specialist Administrator (CS AO) is a vendor-neutral, multiple-choice credential aimed at people who run and maintain server or platform systems day to day: junior-to-mid-level system administrators, infrastructure engineers broadening their scope, and support staff moving into an operations role. It validates that you can reason about a live estate rather than recite trivia - covering system administration fundamentals, installation and deployment, user and access management, storage and file systems, networking and connectivity, security and hardening, monitoring, backup and recovery, and structured troubleshooting. The CS AO study guide has 8 sections and about 2,434 words.
01System Administration Fundamentals
This domain tests whether you understand what an administrator actually controls: the boundary between kernel space and user space, the boot chain, service supervision, and the operational discipline that keeps changes reversible. Core rules Linux boot sequence: firmware (UEFI/BIOS) → bootloader (GRUB2) → initramfs → systemd as PID 1 → target units.
327 words, about 2 min02Installation, Configuration, and Deployment
This domain covers getting systems to a known, repeatable state: unattended installs, package sources, configuration management, and image lifecycle. Core rules Automate installs.
301 words, about 2 min03User and Access Management
This domain tests identity lifecycle and authorization: creating accounts, assigning rights, proving who did what, and removing access when roles change. Core rules Linux identity: /etc/passwd (UID, GID, shell), /etc/shadow (hash, aging), /etc/group .
283 words, about 1 min04Storage and File System Administration
This domain covers capacity planning, RAID trade-offs, logical volume management, filesystem choice, and proving that data is where it should be. Core rules RAID: 0 stripes (no redundancy), 1 mirrors, 5 stripes with one parity disk (survives one failure), 6 uses two parity (survives two), 10 mirrors then stripes.
339 words, about 2 min05Networking and Connectivity
This domain tests addressing, name resolution, routing, and the toolcraft to prove where packets stop. Core rules IPv4 addressing: an address plus prefix.
294 words, about 1 min06Security, Hardening, and Compliance
This domain tests reducing attack surface and proving it with evidence. Core rules Patch on a cadence and track exceptions.
306 words, about 2 min07Monitoring, Backup, and Recovery
This domain tests detecting problems before users do and restoring service within agreed targets. Core rules Four golden signals: latency, traffic, errors, saturation.
292 words, about 1 min08Troubleshooting and Operational Procedures
This domain tests method under pressure: structured diagnosis, safe change, and clean handover. Core rules Use a repeatable method: identify the problem, establish a theory (most likely cause first), test one variable, plan the fix with rollback, implement, verify, document.
292 words, about 1 min