LINUX Training
Linux System Administration (LPI)
Overview
This instructor led Linux System Administration (LPI) training course is designed to teach the key administration, security, networking and performance tasks required on a Linux Enterprise system.
Targeted to closely follow the official LPI curriculum (generic Linux), this course together with the Linux Introduction and the Linux Shell Programming course will enable the delegate to work towards achieving the LPIC-1 qualification.
Prerequisites
This Linux System Administration (LPI) assumes good knowledge of the Linux operating system in an Enterprise environment to the level covered in the Linux Introduction course.
Knowledge of Linux Shell Programming to the level covered on the Linux Shell Programming course would also be beneficial.
Objectives
On completion of this course the delegate will have technical knowledge of what is required to administer Linux within the Enterprise. They will have gained practical experience of configuring administrative, networking and security aspects of a Linux Enterprise system. The delegate will possess the essential knowledge required to work towards achieving the LPIC-1 qualification.
Outline
Course Introduction
- Administration and Course Materials
- Course Structure and Agenda
- Delegate and Trainer Introductions
Session 1: INSTALLING LINUX
- Information required
- Installation using virtual consoles
- Installation methods (local CD and networked)
- Installing via a remote system using VNC
- Using boot time options
- Partitioning and software selection
- Installation procedures
- Exercise
Session 2: DEVICES UNDER LINUX
- Device files
- Device file naming conventions
- Examining hardware under the /proc directory
- Using the hwinfo command
- Investigating bus/devices: - lspci, lsdev, lsusb commands etc.
- Detecting new/existing devices
- Monitoring the system with siga
- Exercise
Session 3: ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
- Files used in creating users and groups
- Adding, modifying and deleting users and groups
- Password administration
- The shells and the user environment - login files
- ulimit command
- setuid, setgid and sticky bit permissions
- User monitoring and communication
- The sudo command
- Exercise
Session 4: FILESYSTEM CONFIGURATION
- The Native Linux filesystems ext2, ext3, ext4, xfs, btrfs and resierfs
- Filesystem journals
- Disk partitioning: fdisk and parted
- Filesystem administration and Maintenance (mkfs, mount, umount and fsck etc)
- Creating ISO images
- Managing disk quotas
- Exercise
Session 5: SWAP
- Swap overview
- Creating and monitoring swap space (swapon, swapoff and mkswap)
- Exercise
Session 6: PACKAGE MANAGEMENT
- The Redhat Package Management (RPM) system
- The SUSE zypper package manager
- Installing, updating and removing software
- Querying and verifying packages
- Dependency problems and resolution
- System updating - manual and automatic
- Exercise
Session 7: SYSTEM STARTUP/SHUTDOWN
- System startup procedure
- The boot process and run-levels (init and /etc/inittab)
- Managing services (chkconfig and rc commands, systemd, systemctl)
- Modifying system settings in /etc/sysconfig
- Shutdown commands
- Exercise
Session 8: PRINTER MANAGEMENT
- The CUPS printing System - local and remote printing
- Administering CUPS using the web browser interface
- Administering CUPS using other graphical tools
- Print queue management
- Print commands
- Exercise
Session 9: PROCESS MONITORING AND SCHEDULING
- Monitoring system processes (strace, top, pstree and gnome monitor)
- Managing processes (pgrep, pkill)
- Scheduling jobs using 'at' and 'crontab'
- Controlling access to the 'at' and 'crontab' utilities
- anacron
- Exercise
Session 10: SYSTEM SECURITY
- The Secure shell: OpenSSH
- Encryption and Authentication Under SSH
- SSH and Port Tunnelling
- GPG
- GPG Tools
- Managing keys and encryption
- Managing digital signatures
- Exercise
Session 11: CONNECTING LINUX TO THE NETWORK
- Basic network configuration (i.p. addresses, classes, masks, MAC address)
- IPv4 and IPv6 addressing
- Network protocols
- Service port numbers
- Configuration files
- Managing network devices (ifup, ifdown, ifstatus)
- Managing the network with wicked
- Configuring network information (hostnames, i.p addressing, domains)
- Changing media speed (mii-tool, ethtool)
- Managing routing
- Exercise
Session 12: INTERNET SERVICES
- The extended internet daemon (xinetd)
- Handling network service requests with xinetd
- Enable and configuring access to a service
- Configuring TCP/IP wrappers for security
- Configuring the network time protocol daemon for a client
- Exercise
Session 13: BACKUP AND RESTORE
- Tape devices
- Controlling tapes (mt)
- Backing and restoring with the tar command
- Backing and restoring with the cpio command
- Using dump and restore commands to backup and restore file systems
- Backing up raw data with dd
- File compression and archiving (tar, gzip, bzip2, xz)
- Mirroring data between systems with rsync
- Backing up and restoring with yast
- Exercise
Session 14: TROUBLESHOOTING LINUX
- Troubleshooting process - check list
- Manual booting into single user mode
- Automatic booting into single user mode (fsck checking)
- Rescue environment utilities and operation
- Common boot problems and their resolution
- Exercise
Session 15:SYSTEM LOGGING
- rsyslog Configuration
- The /etc/rsyslog.conf Configuration File
- Editing the rsyslog.conf File
- Testing Using logger
- Managing Logs with logrotate
- Exercise
Addendum: Reference Materials (provided within the course handbook for additional reading)
APPENDIX A - ELECTRONIC MAIL
- Configuring Postfix Mail
APPENDIX B - CUSTOMISING AND USING X WINDOWS
- Configuring the X Windows GUI interface and desktops
APPENDIX C - ACCESSIBILITY
- Configuring the desktop for disabled users
APPENDIX D - LOCALISATION
- Geographical considerations and character sets
APPENDIX E - YUM AND APT
- Additional software package management tools
APPENDIX F - ADDITIONAL COMMANDS
- Miscellaneous Shell commands