Linux Administration and Support

London (NW1)

20/04/10

£

1,825

London (NW1)

31/08/10

£

1,825

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Course Overview

Open source software and operating systems continue to increase in popularity, allowing organisations to maintain complex systems more cost-effectively. The need for administrators who can leverage the benefits of these systems is growing at a rapid rate. In this course, you gain the knowledge and skills required to build, manage and tune a Linux server to meet your organisation's critical administrative needs.

Audience

Those responsible for the design, support and maintenance of new and existing Linux systems benefit from this course. Knowledge of Linux or UNIX at the level of Course 143, "Linux Comprehensive Introduction", or Course 428, "UNIX Comprehensive Introduction", is required.

Skills Gained

You will learn to

• Install, configure and support Linux servers for reliability, functionality and performance
• Control and troubleshoot the boot process
• Create and extend volume management and mount external media
• Deploy software components from source and packaged distributions
• Deliver file, print and network services for both UNIX and Windows clients
• Build, install and tune a customised Linux kernel for improved functionality

Course Outline

Installing Linux

Administering open source systems

• The roles of an administrator
• Open source licensing
• Acquiring your Linux distribution

The installation process

• Structuring the file system
• Selecting software packages
• Performing the installation

Workstation configuration

• Supporting audio and X
• Video card, monitor, keyboard, mouse

Booting Linux

Managing the boot process

• Choosing the boot loader
• Specifying the target run level
• Following the boot scripts sequence
• Assigning services with chkconfig
• The /etc configuration hierarchy

Rescuing an unbootable system

• Troubleshooting a boot loader
• Recovering with rescue media

Developing an Administrative Framework

Users and groups

• Defining users in passwdand shadow
• Assigning users to groups
• Establishing and modifying accounts

Process control and logging

• ps
• pstree
• top
• vmstat
• Examining the /procfile system
• Signalling processes with killand pkill
• Capturing important events with syslog

Managing File Systems

Device and volume management

• Installing new disks
• Establishing and extending logical volumes

Mounting file systems

• Creating and tuning journalled file systems
• Attaching to network file servers

Ensuring availability

• Backing up and restoring data
• Repairing file systems with fsck

Adding and Updating Software

Employing package management schemes

• Manipulating portable tararchives
• Installing and updating software with Red Hat Package Manager (RPM)
• Listing and checking system software
• Alternative packaging schemes

Building software from source

• The installation 3-step dance
• Working with SRPMs
• Resolving dependency issues
• Packaging binary RPMs

Configuring Networks

Connecting to an IP network

• Specifying interface device drivers
• Setting IP addresses and netmasks

Controlling network services

• Configuring stand-alone network services
• Running services through xinetd

Supporting Print and File Services

Service for UNIX clients

• Offering local and network print services
• Updating printer drivers
• Sharing files with NFS

Service for Windows clients

• Emulating Windows services with Samba
• Authenticating users

The Linux Kernel

Kernel configuration and tuning

• Probing the PCI bus with lspci
• Discovering new hardware with udev
• Manipulating kernel data structures

Running high-performance clusters

• Balancing network load with Linux Virtual Server (LVS)
• Ensuring high availability

Building an improved kernel

• Deciding when to upgrade
• Inserting new device drivers
• Determining required functionality