Linux System Administration - LNX200

Overview of System Administration

• A Brief History of UNIX
• Linux
• Linux Distributions
• Online Documentation - The man Pages
• Online Documentation - The info Pages

User Administration

• What is a user in Linux?
• The /etc/passwd File
• Passwords
• The /etc/shadow File
• Groups
• The /etc/group File
• Adding Users
• Deleting Users
• Modifying User Attributes
• The Login Process
• /etc/profile and .profile
• The su Command

File Systems and Files

• Files and Inodes
• Files
• Directories
• Symbolic Links
• Named Pipes and Sockets
• Device Files
• Character and Block Devices
• A File System Tour
• The find Command

Advanced File System Concepts

• File System Concepts
• Traditional UNIX File Systems
• UNIX File System Advances
• The Virtual File System
• ext2 File System Design
• The Superblock
• Extended File Attributes
• Recovery and Journaling
• Third-Generation File Systems
• The df Command
• The du Command

Disk Management

• Partitions and File Systems
• Making a File System
• The fdisk Command
• The mkfs Command
• The mount Command
• The fstab File
• The fsck Command

Archiving Files

• Backup Strategies
• Archiving Tools
• The tar Command
• The cpio Command
• The dump Command
• The zip Utility
• The dd Utility
• Compressing Files
• Backup Strategies

Linux Processes

• Overview of Processes
• Process Space
• The fork/exec Mechanism
• Process Table
• The ps Command
• The /proc File System
• Background Processes
• The kill Command

Job Scheduling

• Scheduling Jobs
• The crond and atd Daemons
• The at Command
• The crontab Command
• Format of cron Files
• System crontab Files

System Startup and Shutdown

• Overview of the Bootup Sequence
• LILO
• GRUB
• Kernel Startup
• The init Daemon
• /etc/inittab
• The init Command
• The rc Scripts
• The chkconfig Command
• Single-User Mode
• The shutdown Command
• Communicating with Users: The wall Command

Performance Monitoring and Tuning

• Swapping and Paging
• Managing Swap Space
• Managing Kernel Resources
• The vmstat Command
• The top Command
• The strace Command

Networking Fundamentals

• IP Addresses and Netmasks
• Name Resolution
• The /etc/hosts File
• DNS Configuration
• DNS Tools
• Default Route

Configuring TCP/IP

• Network Interfaces
• The ifconfig Command
• Network Scripts
• The route Command
• The netstat Command
• The traceroute Command
• Ping
• Using Telnet

Network Services

• TCP/IP and Ports
• The /etc/services File
• The xinetd Daemon
• The /etc/xinetd.conf File
• Host-Based Access Control

Server Configuration and Management

• The Apache Web Server
• Traditional Linux Printing
• CUPS - The Common UNIX Printing System
• webmin - Remote System Administration
• Managing FTP
• Internet Mail Service
• Managing Domain Name Service

Sharing Filesystems

• File and Print Sharing
• Sharing Filesystems with NFS
• NFS Mounts
• Samba Server Overview
• The smb.conf File
• The smbclient Utility
• Mounting smb Shares

Linux System Security

• Security Overview
• Security Basics
• PAM - Pluggable Authentication Modules
• Configuring PAM
• The Linux Firewall
• Configuring the Firewall with iptables
• Secure networking with ssh
• System Logs
• Security Resources

Package Management

• Software Installation and Management
• The rpm Command
• Installing and Upgrading Software with rpm
• Removing Packages
• The rpm Database
• Building Software from Source

Appendix A - Linux Installation

Appendix B - The lpd Printing System

• Printing Overview
• Adding a Printer
• The lpd Daemon
• The /etc/printcap File
• The lpr, lpq, and lprm Commands
• The lpc Command
• Network Printers
• Interfaces and Filters