LINUX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION



Course Duration: 15-20 hrs

Course Overview: This course covers Linux basics, as well as system administration topics
on Linux. Students will learn how to attach and configure a workstation on an existing
network.

Prerequisites:
• Experience using a computer, i.e., Windows or a Mac.
• Programming experience would be helpful. (The specific programming language is
   not a big deal, as long as they understand how one thinks when writing a program.

Who Should Attend: People with little or no Linux experience, but who want to begin to learn
about system administration on Linux

Goal/Objectives: Students will learn the Unix/Linux command line, the basics of shell
programming, and the basics of Linux system administration

COURSE OUTLINE
                                                Basics
Introduction                                    • Logging in and out
• Class Logistics                               • Typing and correcting mistakes •
• Typographic conventions                       Changing your password
GNU/Linux                                       • An overview of the Gnome Desktop •
• Free software licenses                        An introduction to the Nautilus file
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar •                    manager
Summary                                         •    Command-line structure
                                                • Some simple commands
OS Installation                                 • Displaying the contents of a file in a
• Hardware requirements                             terminal
• Installer options                             • Lab
• Disk partitioning
                                                Finding the answer
• Network configuration
                                                • General hints
• Package selection
                                                • The help system
• Kickstart
                                                • The manual pages
• Lab
                                                • GNU Info
                                                • Summary
                                                • Lab
File manipulation                        Some useful tools, part I
• An Overview of the UNIX filesystem •   • grep
Directories                              • Regular expressions
• Listing files                          • diff
• Renaming and Copying Files             • sort
• Removing Files                         • uniq
• The file command                       • Lab
• Creating and removing directories •    Some useful tools, part II •
Links                                    cat
• chown and chgrp (optional)             • head and tail
• Lab                                    • wc
File and directory permissions           • tee
• Introduction                           • sleep
• Looking at File Permissions            • Lab
• Changing Permissions                   Some useful tools, part
• Lab                                    • cat
The vi editor                            • head and tail
• Introduction                           • Lab
• Getting in and out                     Some useful tools, part
• vi modes                               • wc
• Moving around                          • tee
• Adding text                            • sleep
• Deleting text                          • Lab
• More
• Lab                                    Basic bash programming, part I •
                                         Variables
The shell
                                         • Shell Scripts
• What is a shell                        • Quoting
• Metacharacters                         • Lab
• Redirecting I/O
• Pipes                                  Basic bash programming, part II •
• History and command line editing       Exit status and {tt $?
   (ksh and bash)                        • Expressions
• History and command line editing       • if
   (tcsh)                                • case
• Shell startup and customization        • Lab
   (bash)                                Basic bash programming, part III •
• Shell startup and customization        for
   (tcsh)                                • while
• Aliases (optional)                     • Debugging Shell Scripts •
• Shell startup and customization        Functions
   (ksh)
                                         • Function arguments
• Lab
                                         • Lab
Processes                              Useful tools
• Process information                  • lsof and fuser
• Job control                          • renice
• nohup                                • rsync
• nice                                 • cron
• Looking at processes                 • Log files and their rotation •
• Killing processes                    The /proc filesystem
• Lab                                  • sysctl
User Information                       • Summary
• Adding and deleting users            • Lab
• /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow          Performance monitoring
• Groups                               • Introduction
• Password aging                       • sar
• PAM                                  • free
• nsswitch.conf                        • vmstat
• LDAP authentication                  • iostat
• su and the root account              • netstat
• Troubleshooting hints                • top
• Summary                              • Graphical tools
• Lab                                  • Troubleshooting
Packages                               • Summary
• RPM overview                         • Lab
• Working with rpm                     Booting, part 1
• Staying up-to-date                   • The hardware boot process •
• RedHat GUI                           grub
• RPM alternatives                     • Booting single user •
• Summary                              Initial ramdisks
• Lab                                  • init and startup scripts •
File and filesystem tools              Boot floppies/CDs
• Special files and devices            • Shutting down the system •
• Partitions                           Troubleshooting
                                       • Summary
• Mounting filesystems
• Inodes                               • Lab
• The structure of a directory         Filesystems
• Tools                                • Journaling overview •
• File attributes                      Common filesystems •
• Adding a disk                        Software RAID
• Dealing with filesystem problems •   • Loop device
Summary                                • Summary
• Lab                                  • Lab
Backups                                    Networking, part 2
• Compression                              • Static network configuration •
• Incremental backups                      mii-tool and ethtool
• tar                                      • neat
• dump and restore                         • Virtual network interfaces •
• rsync                                    Network performance tuning •
• Summary                                  Summary
• Lab                                      • Lab
Networking, part 1
• Network configuration
• DNS lookups
• inetd
• xinetd
• NIS
• NIS+
• ssh
• NFS
• Automounter
• Network monitoring and testing tools •
Troubleshooting
• Summary
    Lab