Linux System Administration (LPI)

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.

Skills Gained

The delegate will have knowledge in all, and practise in some, of the following:

• Performing administrative tasks with supplied tools such as YaST.
• Installing and updating Linux.
• Listing device information.
• Managing user and group account information.
• Managing the Linux file systems.
• Listing, creating and removing swap space.
• Managing software packages.
• System startup/shutdown management.
• Managing system services.
• Configuring local and remote printers.
• Process monitoring and job scheduling.
• Manage system security with encryption
• Connecting the server to the network.
• Managing basic network services (ftp, telnet, ssh etc).
• Performing local and remote backups.
• Troubleshooting and responding to boot problems.
• Manage system logging

Who will the Course Benefit?

The Linux System Administration (LPI) training course is suitable for novice Linux System Administrators who need to acquire administration knowledge of the key administrative, networking, performance and security tasks required on Linux within the Enterprise. The typical delegate will be working in an environment using several different Linux distributions and therefore knowledge of skills common to all the different Linux distributions is required. For the purpose of practical exercises, SUSE Linux will be used.

Note: Should the delegate only require knowledge of Red Hat Linux then they should instead consider attending our range of Red Hat Linux Administration courses.

Course 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.

Examinations

The Linux System Administration (LPI) training course will teach some of the necessary skills to enable the delegate to work towards achieving the Linux Server Professional LPIC-1, exams LPI 101 and LPI 102 certification. Completing the LPIC-1 certification also fulfils the requirements for the SUSE Certified Linux Administrator (CLA) and the CompTIA Linux+ Powered by LPI.

This course together with the Linux Introduction and the Linux Shell Programming course or the 5 days Linux Fundamentals course covers the major topics required for the LPI 101 & LPI 102 examinations.

Before taking any exam, ensure you have the recommended experience. The LPI website lists all exam requirements and these are updated regularly.

Exams are not included as part of the course.

Requirements

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.

Course Contents - DAY 1

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

Course Contents - DAY 2

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

Course Contents - DAY 3

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

Course Contents - DAY 4

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

Course Contents - DAY 5

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