Linux System Administration (LPI & CompTIA)

This instructor led Linux System Administration (LPI & CompTIA) training course is designed to teach the key administration, security, networking and performance tasks required on a Linux Enterprise system.

Similarly, the course is targeted to closely follow the official Linux Professional Institute (LPI) and CompTIA Linux+ certification curriculums.

Exercises and examples are used throughout the course to give practical hands-on experience with the techniques covered.

The delegate will learn and acquire skills as follows:

• Performing administrative tasks via supplied tools (YaST) and the command line
• Comparison and management of Linux file systems
• Configuring labels and UUIDs
• Understanding Logical Volume Management
• Listing, creating and removing swap space
• Managing users and groups
• Configuring the environment and user limits
• Extended permissions and sudo
• Managing software packages and updating Linux
• Understanding GRUB and the startup process
• Creating and managing Systemd units and services
• Changing run levels and system shutdown
• Configuring local and remote printers
• Managing processes and job scheduling
• Configuring SSH and encrypting data
• IPv4 and IPv6 networking
• Understanding and configuring network services
• Configuring firewalld
• Utilising terminal multiplexers
• Configuring local and network time
• Remote system administration
• Creating backups and compressing data
• Modifying language and time zone settings
• Configuring virtualisation and understanding containers
• Understanding hardware, device files, ACPI and D-Bus
• Configuring system logging and rotating logs

The Linux System Administration (LPI & CompTIA) training course is suitable for novice Linux System Administrators, Programmers and other technical IT staff who need to acquire administration knowledge of the key administrative, networking, performance and security tasks required on a Linux operating system within the Enterprise.

An ideal course for delegates who 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.

Delegates who wish to work towards achieving the Linux Administrator LPIC-1 or CompTIA Linux+ certifications will find this course a good basis for LPIC-1: 101-500 and 102-500 exams or CompTIA Linux+: LX0-103, LX0-104 and XKO-004 exams.

The appendixes also include other related topics that would be useful reading for delegates preparing for certification.

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.

On completion of this course the delegate will have the required technical knowledge to administer a Linux server within the Enterprise. They will have gained practical experience of configuring administrative, networking, performance and security aspects of a Linux Enterprise system.

The delegate will possess the essential knowledge required to study towards the Linux Administrator LPIC-1 and CompTIA Linux+ certifications.

This course together with the Linux Introduction and Linux Shell Programming or the combined Linux Fundamentals course will aid the delegate in their preparation for the following exams:

• Linux Administrator LPIC-1: 101-500 and LPI 102-500
• CompTIA Linux+: LX0-103, LX0-104 and XK0-004

Attending this course will help the delegate gain many of the skills and product knowledge requirements as outlined in the exam objectives. Studying this course and its associated reference materials can form part of the preparation to achieve certification. Experience, practice, self-study and aptitude are also key requirements for exam success.

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

Exams are not included as part of the course.

This Linux System Administration (LPI & CompTIA) course assumes good knowledge of the Linux operating system in an Enterprise environment to the level covered in the Linux Introduction course. Alternatively, relevant experience of UNIX or Linux servers is required, preferably within an enterprise environment.

Knowledge of Linux Shell Programming to the level covered on the Linux Shell Programming course would also be beneficial.

• Linux Introduction

• Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI)
• Linux Automation with Ansible
• Linux Advanced Shell Programming Tools
• Linux System Security
• Apache Web Server
• Perl Programming
• Oracle SQL

• Course technical content is subject to change without notice.
• Course content is structured as sessions, this does not strictly map to course timings. Concepts, content and practicals often span sessions.

Course Contents - DAY 1

Course Introduction

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

Session 1: FILE SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

• File system types
• Partitioning a disk
• Creating filesystems
• Displaying disk usage
• Mounting and unmounting file systems
• Configuring labels and UUIDs
• Locating files in use
• Exercise

Session 2: ADVANCED FILE SYSTEM OPERATIONS

• Logical Volume Management
• Checking and repairing the file system
• Growing file systems
• Filesystem maintenance
• Disk quotas
• Listing swap areas
• Creating and removing swap areas
• Exercise

Course Contents - DAY 2

Session 3: USER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

• User Private Group scheme
• Files used in creating a user
• Adding users via the command line and YaST
• Groups
• Password administration
• Bash Shell environment
• The Z-Shell
• Configuring user limits
• Extended permissions
• sudo command
• User monitoring and communication
• Exercise

Session 4: PACKAGE MANAGEMENT

• The Red Hat Package Manager (rpm)
• Verifying Software
• Querying installed packages
• Installing and removing packages
• Upgrade mechanism
• Converting rpm packages to cpio format
• Extended package management
• Exercise

Session 5: SYSTEM STARTUP AND SHUTDOWN

• System startup process
• Startup script framework
• Managing services using YaST
• Starting and stopping services dynamically
• Creating Systemd services, timers and mounts
• suseconfig and /etc/sysconfig
• shutdown and rc
• Exercise

Session 6: CONFIGURING PRINTERS

• The Common Unix Printing Service CUPS
• Printer devices and configuration
• Installing printers
• Configuring the CUPS server
• Printer options
• Print commands
• Managing print queues
• Exercise

Course Contents - DAY 3

Session 7: PROCESS MONITORING AND SCHEDULING

• Monitoring processes
• Utilising terminal multiplexers
• Monitoring with watch
• Shared libraries
• Scheduling processes with at
• Scheduling processes with cron
• crontab command options
• Managing anacron
• Exercise

Session 8: SYSTEM SECURITY AND ENCRYPTION

• Secure shell OpenSSH
• Public/private key authentication
• X11 forwarding
• Encryption with GNU Privacy Guard GPG
• Managing firewalld
• Exercise

Session 9: CONNECTING LINUX TO THE NETWORK

• Basic network configuration
• IPv4 addressing
• IPv6 addressing
• Network protocols
• Network services and port numbers
• Managing network devices
• Hostnames and DNS
• Searching domains
• Routing under Linux
• Exercise

Course Contents - DAY 4

Session 10: INTERNET SERVICES

• Network services
• Managing services with systemd sockets
• Checking network service ports
• Analysing network packets
• Configuring network time
• Interacting with the hardware clock
• Remote administration
• Exercise

Session 11: BACKUP AND RESTORE

• Archiving with tar
• Archiving with cpio
• Using the dd command
• Archiving and compression
• Archiving RAR files
• unar and other backup tools
• Exercise

Session 12: LOCALISATION

• Localisation overview
• Locale variables
• Converting character sets and encoding
• Setting the locale
• Time zone
• Exercise

Session 13: VIRTUALISATION, CLOUD SERVICES AND CONTAINERS

• Configuring KVM virtualisation
• Understanding Linux Containers
• Configuring Docker
• Application Containers
• Iaas cloud
• Exercise

Course Contents - DAY 5

Session 14: DEVICES UNDER LINUX

• Device services
• Device file naming conventions
• /sys directory
• Examining hardware
• Hardware and software configuration messages
• ACPI service and Desktop Bus
• Managing disk parameters
• Detecting new hardware
• System overview: siga
• Exercise

Session 15: SYSTEM LOGGING

• rsyslog configuration
• Configuring remote logging
• Testing using logger
• Managing logs with logrotate
• systemd journal: journalctl
• Exercise

Session 16: TROUBLESHOOTING

• Troubleshooting process
• Booting into maintenance mode
• Booting the rescue system
• Exercise

Addendum: Reference Materials (provided within the course handbook for additional reading)

APPENDIX A - INSTALLING LINUX

• Installing Linux

APPENDIX B - ELECTRONIC MAIL

• Configuring Postfix and Sendmail
• Mail commands3

APPENDIX C - X WINDOWS AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Configuring the X Windows GUI interface and desktops
• Installing alternative desktops
• Configuring the desktop for disabled users

APPENDIX D - PACKAGE MANAGEMENT

• Additional software package management tools

APPENDIX E - DEPRECATED SERVICES

• The xinetd Daemon
• TCP Wrappers

APPENDIX F - ADDITIONAL COMMANDS

• Miscellaneous Shell commands