Intermediate Linux

Revision: TE1407_20080114

Course Length:

5 Days

Course Description:

This course focuses on some of the intermediate level features of the Linux Operating System. Topics include an overview of Linux, system administration, job control, shell programming, software tools, system processes, system startup and shutdown, software package administration, kernels, networking, the Network File System, and naming services. The course is supplemented with many hands-on exercises that reinforce the lectures.

Who Should Attend:

This course is intended for programmers and/or end users and all those who wish to become Linux System Administrators.

Benefits of Attendance:

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the responsibilities and the tools of the system administrator
• Use awk and sed to solve system administration tasks
• Backup and restore all or parts of the system
• Perform system administration tasks including adding and deleting users, adding devices, partitioning the disk, and other administrative functions
• Use job control features of the shell
• Write simple shell scripts
• Effectively use the software tools
• Perform various Linux system processes
• Carry out startup and shutdown procedures
• Understand the RedHat Package Manager (RPM)
• Configure, install, and build the Linux kernel
• Perform networking tasks
• Use the Network File System (NFS)
• Use the Domain Name System (DNS)

Prerequisites:

Students are expected to have completed the Introduction to Linux course or have equivalent experience.

Course Outline:

• Chapter 1: Introduction to Linux
  1. History of Unix
  2. Contemporary Products
  3. Advantages of Linux
  4. Components of the Linux Environment
  5. Important Parts of the Kernel
  6. Shells with Red Hat Linux
  7. Major Linux Services
  8. Organization of the Red Hat Filesystem
  9. Responsibilities of a System Administrator
  10. Getting Help
• Chapter 2: What You Should Already Know
  1. Beginning Linux Topics
  2. Shell Variables
  3. The PATH Variable
  4. Exporting Variables
  5. The Command Line
  6. The PS2 Variable
  7. Command History
  8. Command Substitution
  9. cut, paste
  10. expand, fmt, unexpand
  11. head, tail, nl, od
  12. wc, split
  13. pr, tac, tr
  14. xargs, join
  15. sed
  16. Directory Manipulation Commands
  17. File Manipulation Commands - cp
  18. File Manipulation Commands - mv
  19. File Manipulation Commands - rm, touch
  20. Using Filename Expansion Characters
  21. Special I/O Files
  22. Standard I/O Files
  23. Pipes
  24. Process Management
  25. ps, pstree
  26. top
  27. Signals
  28. Job Control
  29. nice, renice
  30. Regular Expressions
  31. Shells
  32. Shell Variables
  33. Shell Aliases
  34. Functions
  35. Startup Files
  36. Key Mappings
  37. Writing Shell Scripts
  38. Executing Your Script
  39. A Script’s Environment
  40. Exit Status
  41. Programming the Shell
• Chapter 3: System Administration
  1. Duties of the System Administrator
  2. Bringing up the System
  3. Multi-User Mode
  4. Shutting Down the System
  5. Adding Users
  6. The /dev Directory
  7. The awk Language
  8. awk Scripts
  9. awk Odds and Ends
  10. The sed Command
  11. Special sed Characters
  12. The find Command
  13. Backing up Files
  14. cpio
  15. tar
  16. File System Commands
  17. The at Command
  18. The crontab Command
• Chapter 4: Job Control
  1. Processes
  2. Parent and Child Processes
  3. System Startup
  4. Shell Initialization
  5. Foreground vs. Background
  6. ps Command
  7. The kill Command
  8. Suspending Jobs
  9. jobs Command
  10. fg and bg Commands
• Chapter 5: Shell Programming
  1. Shells
  2. Scripting Rationale
  3. Creating a bash Script
  4. bash Startup Files
  5. A Script’s Environment
  6. Exporting Variables
  7. Exit Status
  8. Programming the Shell
  9. Parameter Passing
  10. Operators
  11. if
  12. Arithmetic
  13. Looping Constructs
  14. Input and Output
  15. Interrupts
• Chapter 6: Software Tools
  1. C Language and Linux
  2. A Little History of the Linux C Compiler
  3. Creating Programs in C
  4. Creating a Library
  5. Using the Library
  6. Static vs. Shared Libraries
  7. make
  8. Revision Control
  9. Concurrent Versioning System (CVS)
  10. Other Languages
• Chapter 7: Linux System Processes
  1. Linux Process Components
  2. Linux Process Creation
  3. The ps (Process Status) Command
  4. The top (Top Jobs) Command
  5. The kill Command
  6. The at Command
  7. How to Execute the at Command
  8. Scheduling Tasks Using cron
  9. The crontab File Format
  10. Creating a cron Entry
• Chapter 8: System Startup and Shutdown
  1. Introduction to the Boot Process
  2. Stages of the Boot Process
  3. Linux System Runlevels
  4. Linux System Initialization Scripts (/etc/init.d)
  5. Red Hat Linux ntsysv and serviceconf Tools
  6. The chkconfig Command
  7. xinetd
  8. X Windows
  9. Shutting Down the System
• Chapter 9: Software Package Administration
  1. The RedHat Package Manager (RPM)
  2. Standard Commands and Options
  3. Installing Packages
  4. Naming Conventions for RPM Packages
  5. Installing a Package
  6. Upgrading Packages
  7. Uninstalling Packages
  8. Querying Packages
  9. Verifying Packages
  10. Installing Packages with Package Manager
• Chapter 10: Kernel Configuration
  1. Overview of the Linux Kernel
  2. Configuring the Linux Kernel
  3. Configuration Options
  4. Building and Installing the Kernel
  5. Building the Kernel
  6. Installing a New Kernel
  7. Configuring your Boot Manager
  8. Troubleshooting the New Kernel
  9. Troubleshooting and Recovery
• Chapter 11: Network Basics
  1. Network Terminology
  2. LAN Characteristics
  3. LAN Topology
  4. Network Transmission Media
  5. Network Access Methods
  6. Network Hardware
  7. Standards and Protocols
  8. Packets
  9. The ISO/OSI Model
  10. TCP/IP Network Model
  11. IPv6
  12. IPSec Security Example
  13. Why Move to IPv6?
  14. Transitioning to IPv6
  15. Mixing IPv4 and IPv6
  16. Using a Secure Tunnel
  17. Network Configuration
  18. IPv6 Addresses
  19. Example IPv6 Commands
  20. Special IPv6 Addresses
• Chapter 12: Unix Network Applications
  1. The Extended Internet Services Daemon
  2. ftp
  3. vsFTP
  4. The telnet Command
  5. Simple telnet Session
  6. The r* Commands
  7. Trusted Hosts
  8. sendmail
  9. Filesystems
  10. Network File System
  11. /etc/exports
  12. NIS
• Chapter 13: The Network File System (NFS)
  1. Introduction to NFS
  2. The NFS Server
  3. TCP Wrappers
  4. The NFS Client
  5. Configuring the NFS Environment
• Chapter 14: Naming Services
  1. Naming Services Overview
  2. The Domain Name Service (DNS)
  3. Installing a DNS Server with Red Hat
  4. Configuring a DNS Server Using bind-config
  5. The NIS+ Environment
  6. The NIS Environment
  7. NIS Servers and Clients
  8. NIS Components
  9. Installing the Software
  10. Configuring a NIS Master Server
  11. Configuring an NIS Client
  12. Configuring an NIS Slave Server
  13. Name Service Switch Configuration File