FastTrack to Red Hat Linux 7 System Administrator

This course is targeted to closely follow the official Red Hat curriculum and will enable the student to work towards the RHCSA qualifications. This class will have a high, practical content and a fast pace. Delegates should have a strong command line experience of UNIX/LINUX including cp, grep, mkdir, ssh, tar, useradd, cups, be capable of using man pages and DHCP, to name just a few.

This course can also be used as a practical refresher course prior to taking the RHCSA examination.

Skills Gained

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

• Use the command line to manage files and directories
• Manage users and groups on a local system
• Control access to files and directories with Linux file system permissions
• Monitor and Manage Processes and System logs
• Install and Manage software using rpm, yum and RHN
• Control and monitor system processes using systemd
• Configure IPV4 and test Network Interfaces
• Configure Partitions, File systems and Swap space
• Secure systems using SELinux, basic Firewalls (firewalld) and Access Control Lists (ACL's)
• Schedule repetitive tasks using cron and systemd timer units
• Install the Operating System using kickstart
• Mounting CIFS/Samba and NFS File shares
• Configure System Logging (rsyslog)
• Install and Manage KVM virtual machines
• Troubleshoot Systems

Who will the Course Benefit?

The FastTrack to Red Hat Linux 7 System Administrator course is suitable for experienced LINUX/UNIX System Administrators who need to acquire knowledge of the key administrative tasks required to administer a LINUX system. This course will teach the necessary skills to enable the student to work towards the RHCSA certification.

This course assumes a strong prior knowledge of the LINUX/UNIX operating system. The content of the Administering Red Hat Linux 7 - Part 1 course is the minimum level of knowledge required for attendance on this course.

Course Objectives

On completion of the FastTrack to Red Hat Linux 7 System Administrator course, the delegate will have a greater technical awareness of the system and will have acquired practical experience of the key administration duties on a Red Hat Linux system. They will possess the essential knowledge required to study towards the official Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) qualification.

Examinations

This course is targeted to closely follow the official Red Hat curriculum and covers some of the major topics for the exam, and thus will enable the student to work towards the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) qualifications.

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

Exams are not included as part of the course.

Requirements

Experienced Linux/UNIX Administrators.

Course Contents - DAY 1

Course Introduction

• Administration and Course Materials
• Course Structure and Agenda
• Delegate and Trainer Introductions

Session 1: ACCESSING THE SYSTEM

• Logging in and command line access
• Getting Help - man pages, info, /usr/share/doc
• Sources of information available on the WEB
• Remote Desktop Access

Session 2: BASIC CLIENT NETWORKING

• Configuring Network Interfaces
• Controlling Network Devices: ifup/ifdown
• Configuring IPV4 dynamic and static networking
• Network Tools ifconfig, ethtool etc
• Configuring basic NTP
• Connecting NIS and LDAP clients to corresponding servers
• Linking to a system using ssh and rsync
• Exercise

Session 3: USER AND FILE ADMINISTRATION

• Authentication policies and User Private Groups
• Password management using passwd, chage etc
• Managing user profile files
• Extended file permissions including suid,sgid
• Access Control List (ACL's)
• Switching to another user
• Connecting to a centralised administration server
• Exercise

Session 4: SYSTEM MONITORING

• Monitor CPU and memory usage
• Check disk utilisation
• System Log Files
• Monitor system logs
• rsyslogd
• Analysing and rotating logfiles
• Exercise

Course Contents - DAY 2

Session 5: SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT

• The Red Hat Package Management system
• Installing removing software manually using rpm
• RPM queries and verifying packages
• Dependency problems and resolution
• Updating the Kernel from RPM's
• Other RPM features
• Exercise

Session 6: MANAGING SOFTWARE WITH YUM

• The YUM management tool
• Software repositories
• Accessing repositories from a client
• Updating your system with Red Hat Network

Session 7: DATA SECURITY

• SELinux
• Management of SELinux
• Easy configuration and customisation of SELinux
• Configuring and using ssh and scp
• Basic Firewall management
• Exercise

Session 8: DISK PARTITIONING

• Understand and configure disk partitioning
• LUKS encrypted partitions
• Exercise

Course Contents - DAY 3

Session 9: LVM VOLUMES

• Basic LVM design and configuration
• The Logical Volume Manager (LVM)
• Creating LVM file systems
• Resizing LVM file systems
• LVM Snapshots
• Exercise

Session 10: MAINTAINING THE KERNEL

• Kernel Design
• Dynamic Modules
• Loading and removing modules
• Using kernel arguments
• Changing Tuneable Parameters
• Exercise

Session 11: INSTALLING RED HAT LINUX USING KICKSTART

• How Kickstart works
• Sections within a Kickstart configuration file
• Pre and Post Kickstart processing
• Creating a Kickstart file
• Creating the Linux Install Server
• Differing ways of starting a Kickstart installation
• Exercise

Session 12: USING SYSTEMD AND CONTROLLING SERVICES

• The systemd deamon
• Control Services using systemctl etc.
• System Shutdown and Reboot management

Course Contents - DAY 4

Session 13: MANAGING VIRTUAL SYSTEMS

• Virtualisation concepts
• Install a KVM virtual system
• Checking for supported hardware
• Start and shutdown a virtual system
• Exercise

Session 14: ACCESSING DATA ON REMOTE SYSTEMS

• Configuring client access to an Network Filesystem Server (NFS)
• Providing CIFS access
• Configuring autofs
• Exercise

Session 15: TROUBLESHOORTING

• Understanding the boot process
• The Rescue Environment
• Overriding Boot Levels from grub
• Common boot problems and their resolution
• Exercise