Essentials of Linux Administration

The course is aimed at existing IT professionals with little or no UNIX/Linux experience, who require a quick start in a Linux environment, enabling them to control a Linux system swiftly, efficiently and with full understanding of the underlying principles.
Typical candidates would be current users of Windows, Mac OS, or other professionals (such as software developers, system or network administrators) who need to gain a solid understanding of the environment of LInux, and facilities provided by it.

Delegates will learn how to

Work with Linux main shell:BASH
Navigate the filesystem and manage files and directories
Understand the client/server nature of X Window System and X applications
Edit files using vi and GUI editors
Manipulate data with a selection of filter tools
Use redirection and piping techniques
Perform basic administrative tasks, controlling processes, filesystems, job scheduling, and simple networking and backups
Reading and writing simple BASH scripts

Many institutions have been adding Linux machines to their existing infrastructure: perhaps to give developers a platform of their choice, to provide an alternative to a network server, or perhaps to introduce an additional piece to the security jigsaw.

Linux systems are also being introduced as part of virtualisation environments (for example, with the use of VMware or XEN, KVM or VPC), allowing access to a mixture of operating systems from a single workstation or server. This course will give the delegates the skill set preparing them for a successful future with Linux technology, by discussing a hybrid of topics that span user and administrator tasks and activities.

Exam Notice
Please notice that LPI exams are not included in the course. Before attempting the LPI examination, the delegates are encouraged to follow this course with the advanced administration training and then consolidate their knowledge in a real life working environment.

Typical Course Outline

1. "Just For Fun"

Linux? Why?
Hardware, software, operating system...
UNIX Market and place for Linux within it
OSS (Open Source Software) principles
GNU GPL, Linux philosophy and distributors
Linux for networking and developers
LPI – Linux Professional Institute
LPIC certification
Introduction to objectives and coverage

2. Linux Session

Gaining access to the system
Ordinary users vs. the superuser
Login process, shells and line interpreters
Command line structure, control and examples
Simple system interrogation utilities
Simple file reading utilities
File system layout and navigation
System and user directories
Using filenames with absolute and relative pathnames
Getting help

3. Using Files and Directories

File system – the user's perspective
Directory structure
FSH standard
File and directory manipulation commands
Copy, move, remove, etc
File system – the system's perspective
I-nodes and file attributes
Hard links and symbolic links

4. Editing Text

Operational modes of vi
Command mode vs. Insert mode
"Colon", or "ex" mode
Useful vi commands
Navigation and editing command
Search and substitute
Extended vi commands and vim configuration
Alternative editors
GUI and text choices

5. BASH – Your Interpreter

Shell as Interpreter and command line scan
Generating filenames with wildcards (globbing)
Quoting (protecting special characters from the shell)
Variable and command substitutions
Protecting special characters for the shell
Bash Command History
Bash Command Line Editing

6. BASH Environment

Shell definitions
Creating, recalling and sharing shell variables
Shell aliases and functions
Character sets and localisation
Bash variables to control these
Controlling shell behaviour with set -o and shopt
Interactive Start-up Files
Start-up files for login and non-login shells

7. Who is the Boss

The su command
su interactive session
Running one-off commands
Checking who you are
Understanding id and who am i tools
The sudo tool
Typical sudo session
sudo configuration file

8. Processes

What is a Process?
How a process starts
How a process ends
The kill command and signals
Command exit status
Identifying Processes
ps, top and GUI process monitors

9. Job Control

Background jobs
One-off deferral with at
Daemon and job manipulation
User access configuration files
Spool directory
Scheduling repeated tasks with crontab
The cron daemon and configuration tables
User access configuration files

10. Data Streams

Standard data streams
Standard output stream (stdout)
Standard error stream (stderr)
Standard input (stdin)
Redirecting streams
Redirecting standard output, error and input
Synchronising (merging) streams
Other methods of handling data streams
Collecting data with sub-shells
Using command substitution

11. Pipes and Filters

Sending stdout to a process
Pipes
Multistage Pipes
Simple Filters
Why Use Filters?
Problem Solving Approach
The cut, sort, uniq, grep and tr commands
Filter Examples

12. Basic Regular Expressions (and SED)

Regular expressions
What is sed
Specifying simple instructions
Understanding sed addressing
Using a sed command file
More sed editing commands

13. File Management Tools

Using PATH to identify command origins
The which and type commands
Locating files
The locate command and mlocate database
Identifying filenames with find
Specifying search criteria and requesting actions
Backups with cpio, and dd and tar
Compression tools

14. Filesystem Access

Files, directories and filesystems
File and directory access
Read/write/execute permissions
User types
Additional permission bits
Set user/group ID bits and sticky bit
Using chmod, chown and chgrp to manipulate access attributes

15. Working in a Network Environment

Basic network card configuration
Using ifconfig tool
GUI configuration programs exist
Basic routing configuration
Using route commands
Network diagnostics
With ping, traceroute and netstat
Using ssh for remote shell logins

16. X Window System

X Window System as Linux GUI Interface
Origins and implementation
X Window System Architecture
Client-server communication
Setting display access rights
Selecting destination display
Window managers / desktop systems
Gnome, KDE and more…
X Window resources
Fonts, colours, geometry

17. Writing Shell Scripts

Simple scripts
Positional parameters
Command exit status
Selection commands
Looping commands
Interactive input